The Clockwork Mansion

Hello, everyone. I started developing this story a long time ago, but only on February 5th, 2003 I decided it could be worth writing and sharing with others. I started posting it on another forum, but my hectic schedule caused the updates to be too irregular and I lost all my readers there. This time it will be different, I hope, as I already have a buffer of 29 chapters so I'll be able to handle weekly updates for a while.

The theme is not too original; it's probably another examlpe of the most classic RPG-ish plot, with a whole lot of magic babbling and very delayed action (the first 6 chapters will be introductory, with just a little action starting on chapter 3), but I hope the characters will eventually earn a place in someone's heart.

The names of the characters are arbitrary. They're the names that came to my mind when I first thought of them, and I've grown used to them. I've thought of changing them more than once, but they wouldn't feel like the same characters anymore. So please bear with a world where elves don't have Scandinavian names.

The title of the fic won't make sense for a while... but it will, eventually.

The last warning is the following: there will be a corny song on chapter 10. It is a reflection of the thoughts, feelings and limited experience of its in-story author and as such I do not intend to make it any less corny. Feel free to skip it if it hurts you.

With this, I present you with Chapter 1.


Centuries ago, the world was populated by countless kinds of beings who shared many characteristics with humans, yet kept little or no contact with the human race. Which world? It doesn't really matter; all beings who develop a spoken language tend to give their world the name of the element that holds them anyway. How many centuries? Say two, if it's so important; if, like Eric Eatan, you're always asking a lot of questions in order to understand the world around you. And I guess the next question would be... who was Eric Eatan? He was an elf; still is, probably. A merial, to be more precise. The world he was born into was inhabited by different races of elves, faeries, sprites, sylphs and other creatures; each with their own particular traits that made them different from all the others. There were also millions of animals like the ones you must be used to seeing. And yes, there were humans too. Though, by the time when this story begins, Eric had only heard a few vague rumors about them. No humans lived in the wide southern area of the lush forest of Lumms. The region where Eric lived was home to large populations of neinis and dassels (two races of small plant faeries), lurians (even smaller light faeries), the occasional nirwas (water sprites), a few kraggletups (small non-elemental sprites who were rarely seen), and two races of elves: the merials and the elvins.

Merials and elvins had many things in common when compared to other species; especially their strong presence and their unlimited lifespan made them stand out from all other creatures in that region. However, the differences between them -the physical ones, but especially the cultural ones- kept their interaction at a minimum most of the time. Elvins were generally tall, and had the strongest presence. They had a natural talent for magic, and in many cases devoted their lives to deepening their knowledge of magic and the world in general. Their leaders would engage in endless discussions which were often more philosophical than practical. The merials would accuse them of being vain and having no grip on reality. Merials, on the other hand, were noticeably smaller in size and, while magic wasn't so easy for them to master, they were much faster and more agile than elvins. They moved graciously and adapted quickly to their surroundings, making a good use of whatever they had at hand. Exploration and fighting skills were commonly developed among merials, who took pride in conquering any threat that came to them. The elvins would often consider them inferior creatures, with little capacity for reasoning and an overly impulsive nature. Of course, in most cases those accusations were as false as the ones the merials made to the elvins. But there was so little contact between them, that few had ever thought of proving them wrong.

Eric Eatan was different. He knew that from the beginning, since he was a little child. His mother was an explorer and his father was the town's most renowned blacksmith. They had both been born over 2000 years before him, and often considered that a good enough reason not to take Eric's thoughts and opinions into account. They encouraged him to think for himself, but whenever he had a thought that contradicted the normal state of things, he would be dismissed for being too young. "You'll learn as you grow up," was the answer he kept receiving. But that didn't discourage him. On the contrary, he kept reminding himself of all his thoughts and ideas so that when he was old enough they would be taken into account, and he would prove everyone that things didn't have to be the way they'd always expected them to be. And that a young child could be right. And when he became older, he would make sure that everyone in the town had a voice, even the younger ones. That was one of his greatest dreams. The other was becoming a warrior. He had often seen warriors come in and out of his house wielding strong and shiny weapons, and had watched them part to defend recently established settlements from any aggressors. And he had also read about them, and heard countless stories about the brave warriors who, many thousands of years ago, had fought against all elements to earn the merials their current place in the world. He'd also read and heard about evil warriors who had caused pain and suffering to everyone who crossed their paths, and despised them deeply. If such heartless beings were still leaving their marks on the world, he wanted to help vanish them from existence. He wanted to be a strong and noble warrior, because warriors had the power to change the world. Fortunately for him, that was a call his parents did respond to, and as soon as Eric turned 10, his father began to supervise his training.


The town where Eric lived stood out for being the closest to the elvin city of Ayrus. There, life went on quietly and smoothly most of the time. At least when viewed from the outside. The council were always dealing with internal conflicts, which left its members with little time to tend to their families - those who had families anyway. That was the case of the Shimmer couple (their last name was actually a deformation of Shim-el, which meant blessed star in an ancient language which had long since become out of use among the peripheral elvin settlements who were in permanent contact with other races). The Shimmers were the youngest married council members; they had been married for barely over 100 years and their jobs didn't live them much time to spend with their 11-year-old daughter Mariel. Being left alone didn't upset Mariel as much as being left out of most of her parents' lives. When they came back home, they'd rarely mention any of the subjects they'd been discussing. They did ask Mariel how her learning was going, and did their best to prove her that they cared for her. But she felt like she barely knew who they were. The main thing she had learnt from them was to be independent. She would often go out and do research on her own, and she would do her best to make friends. That was not an easy task, though. She was the second youngest elvin in the city, the youngest being her 7-year-old friend Jasmine. Jasmine was nice and loved having fun, and she liked Mariel a lot; but there were too many things Mariel couldn't share with her. She tried to explain some of her deepest thoughts to Jasmine a few times, but her friend wouldn't understand her and would always suggest playing another game. Mariel needed someone with whom she could share her views of the world and discuss her ideas to make things better, but just like Eric she was always told that those things were too big for a child her age, and that she would have plenty of time to discuss them when she was older and more experienced. The only one who sometimes listened to her was her neighbor Primrose.

Primrose was 288 years old and had recently moved out of the house she used to share with her parents and her 2 younger brothers. That was probably the reason why she often got engaged in discussions about independence with the young Mariel. Primrose also liked Mariel for her determination -which she secretly admired-, for her great intuition and perceptiveness, and for her ability to understand and use magic. Primrose was a sorceress; not nearly the most skilled or experienced in the city, but a sorceress nonetheless. And Mariel really looked up on her and loved learning the secrets of magic by her side. Mariel was determined to become a sorceress herself. So Primrose introduced her into a realm of silent voices and eternal energies which could be wielded only by those who managed to understand their true nature. She taught Mariel about the different domains of magic and the tangled web they formed, web which held the balance of reality and for that reason should never be broken. She taught her how, for example, life magic was divided into 2 domains: the physical and the ethereal. And how a protection spell could only be cast by someone who had studied the ethereal domain, and physical enhancements could only be achieved by using physical magic; but both domains held the key to casting healing spells. She also taught her about more specific domains that derived from life, like the domain of plants and the domain of connection, and Mariel became especially interested in the latter. So Primrose went on to explain how the connection domain could help her feel someone else's presence within a range that would grow as she became stronger, how it could also help her understand the nature of things around her, and even other sentient beings if she was good enough, and how protection spells could also be cast from the domain of connection by first establishing a strong connection with the being she wanted to protect. Mariel studied all the lessons avidly, and Primrose was proud to have such an enthusiastic apprentice. So she also taught Mariel to recognize different types of herbs and prepare simple potions, and finally introduced her into the 6 elements of magic.

"As you know, magic can take many forms, and those forms compose a wide and tangled web," she unnecessarily reminded Mariel. "Sorcerers have divided the knowledge of those forms in order to understand them better. So far you've began to explore some domains of the widest element: the element of life. But there's much more to elemental magic, and it is important for every magic user to know and understand all 6 elements. These elements are Life, Air, Water, Earth, Fire and Light."
"Just like the types of elemental beings?," Mariel asked. She had learned about elemental beings from the books her parents regularly gave them, from stories she had managed to gather and a little from direct experience during her exploration trips into the forest.
"Exactly," Primrose responded, surprised at Mariel's knowledge. "Sometimes I wonder if my teachings are useful at all, or if you already know everything I'm saying."
"Oh, yes, they are useful!," Mariel assured. "I have learnt a lot being with you. Things I couldn't have found out on my own. And I'd like to know more. I want to be a good sorceress just like you."
Primrose was flattered. She moved her long and wavy black hair to cover her blushing cheeks. Her appearance contrasted with Mariel's straight, bright golden hair and her sky blue eyes. Primrose was also taller and thinner; at least now that Mariel was still growing, but she'd probably always be thinner than her young friend. Her skin, however, was as white as Mariel's when she wasn't blushing like now.
"Will you teach me to wield all 6 elements?," Mariel asked.
"I will teach you some, and some you will have to learn on your own," Primrose told her. "Be patient. You have plenty of time, and mastering the elements will take you many years; even centuries. you're a fast learner, but you'll have to give yourself time. If you're disciplined and constant, one day you will find your base element."
"My base element?"
Now Mariel was intrigued.

"As you must already know, all elemental creatures have a base element; an element which they can easily control, allowing them to use simple spells with no effort, and master more complex spells with relative ease. In the case of Dassels, for example, that element is life. Dassels are plant-related beings and can control plants at their will. Lurians have control over the light element and can create bright lights and manipulate them effortlessly. Elves are non-elemental beings, but we elvins have a natural gift for magic and those who dedicate them selves to magic can master an element. That then becomes their base element, and they gain the ability to wield it for the rest of their lives."
"Does that mean I can only learn to use one element?," Mariel inquired, confused.
"No; you can learn more than one element. You can even get to wield all elements with enough time and effort. But once you've found your base element, it will be easier for you to use and understand its magic. It will be natural to you."
"And how will I know what my element is?," Mariel asked Primrose.
"You'll know when the time comes. Be patient. You're still too young," Primrose told her.
"I hate it when they say that to me," Mariel complained.
"But it's the truth. For now, you listen and learn. Then one day you'll become a powerful sorceress."
Mariel wasn't wholly satisfied with that answer, but she realized that arguing would be useless. It had always been so.
"What's your element?," she finally asked Primrose.
"I... haven't found it yet," Primrose admitted.
Mariel was appalled. She didn't expect that answer, not from her mentor.
"I guess there are some things for which I'm still too young too; it will be long until I get recognized as a true sorceress by anyone who has reached their adult height," Primrose sighed.
"Doesn't that bother you?," Mariel queried.
"I've learned to live with it. The future comes if you wait long enough. It's the way things are."
"They don't have to be that way," Mariel insisted. "We're already here; we're alive and thinking and feeling. There must be something we can do instead of just wait."
"Yes, we can learn and prepare ourselves for the future," Primrose pointed out.
"And what about the present?," Mariel inquired.
"You're precocious for many things and that makes you too eager. You'll have to learn to be patient."
"I'm not impatient. I just think some things should be different. Don't you?"
"Things have been the same way for many thousands of years."
"Then maybe it's time for some of them to change," Mariel insisted.
"Be patient. You'll learn when you grow up," Primrose assured.
"I hope not. That is the one thing I don't want to learn."
"Change the world, then," Primrose joked.
"I don't think I can change it on my own," Mariel answered. "But I really want to do something good. I want to make at least one thing better."
"You don't sound like the little girl you are," Primrose pointed out.

Mariel sighed, frustrated. Primrose would never understand. Unless not until she could do something to prove her point. Until she proved she could be useful for the world without having to wait at least 500 years to be considered a fully grown adult. For now, she was alone in this. But some day, somehow, she'd find a way.

Wooo. Definitely one to watch. :-)

Thanks, llearch. For the comment and the corrections. I've fixed the typos now.

"Will you teach me how to use element magic?," Mariel asked Primrose one day, after weeks of going through the theory. "I know it's important to know the basics before using them, but don't you think I already know enough to cast a little spell? I can talk about magic and how it works for ages, but in the practice I can only use a little connection magic and make a few healing potions. I'm sure there must be something else I can do."

"Always so eager to learn, are you, Mariel?," Primrose chuckled. "Alright, we'll start getting a little more practice. Which element would you like to explore first?"
"Huh?"
The question had caught the young elvin by surprise.
"You can only learn to use elemental magic if you focus on one element at a time," Primrose explained. "So what will it be? Life? Light? Earth? Water? Air? Fire?"
Mariel thought for a moment and finally answered: "Light."
"Alright, that's a nice one. And fortunately one I've had training with. Had you chosen Earth I would be lost."
Primrose had reached a point where she considered Mariel a friend in spite of her young age and was not ashamed to admit her flaws to her.
"You can use light magic to guide you through dark places, and even to defend yourself if you get in trouble, which I hope you don't. You can also use it to create light signals and, with enough knowledge and experience, you can even enhance your sight just like with..."
"Physical magic," Mariel ended the sentence before Primrose could finish it.
"Oh, you already know that," Primrose laughed. "I sometimes forget what a good memory you have."
"I remember what's important to me. And magic is," Mariel responded. "Will you teach me how to use Light magic?"
"I will. We'll have a little experience to start. In order to use light magic, or any kind of elemental magic, you'll have to establish a connection with the element first. Feel it. So sit down and close your eyes. Focus on your own body, breathe deeply and try to feel a small light inside your heart. You probably won't be able to visualize it the first time, but don't worry. Feeling it is a good start. Feel that light grow and become more intense. Feel it extend itself all over your body and illuminate it. Let the light fill you and remember how it makes you feel."
Mariel made an almost imperceptible nod; the expression on her face showed deep concentration.
"Alright, now we'll try something else. Don't worry if you can't do it this time. You will soon if you practise regularly. Try to make the light break through the limits of your body. Let it out and let it illuminate everything around you. Let the whole room be filled with the bright light from your heart."
Primrose saw a wide smile form on Mariel's face, and left her like that for about 30 seconds.
"Alright then; always remember how you've felt today. You can slowly come back to the real world and, when you feel like it, open your eyes."
Mariel's expression  as she opened her eyes was priceless.
"One day you'll be able to visualize everything, even the light coming out of your body and filling the whole room. And if you work hard enough, one day that light will become visible for others as well," Primrose assured.
"But I did see it!," Mariel declared. "All the time; in my heart, and all over my body, and then everywhere. Well, I almost lost it once, but then I concentrated and it became brighter and stronger. It was strange; when I opened my eyes, I couldn't believe how dark the room was."
"Wow!," Primrose exclaimed. "That was amazing! Never forget it, then. And repeat it everyday. You may or may not feel and see the same things each time, and that's alright, but keep track of all the sensations you will discover, and always let them in. They will help you conquer light magic. Now, we'll go for a bigger challenge," Primrose suggested enthusiastically. She wanted to see how far her student could go.
Mariel nodded firmly.
"We'll start with a basic spell: the sphere of light. Put your hands together facing up like a spoon. Yes, close them a little more. Try to form the shape of a spoon with your two hands."
Mariel quickly complied and Primrose helped her form the perfect shape.
"Now feel the energy between your hands," She continued. "The energy that comes from within you. Feel it and let it grow until it turns into light. Once it is visible, hold it and make it as bright as you can."
Mariel did her best effort and managed to feel the energy within her hands, but no light came out. Not even a spark.
"It's ok," Primrose comforted her. "I would have been astonished if it had worked on your first try. I'm already amazed at what you have done so far. Get some rest, we'll continue tomorrow."

Mariel was not frustrated for her failed attempt to cast her first light spell. The things she had felt had encouraged her to work harder. She kept practising at home as well as at Primrose's house, and even her parents ended up noticing her progress and admiring it. They were proud to have a little sorceress at home; though that was not enough to let her take part in adult conversations yet. So Mariel retreated to her own world, where the magical forces and nature itself would never cast her aside. She soon managed to create spheres of light and, by doing some research, found a book on recovery magic which instantly caught her interest. She was amazed to find new ways of healing and restoring things which Primrose had never mentioned and were much easier than using life magic. There were even fixing and reversion spells that could only be achieved through pure recovery magic. Some of the spells were too complex for Mariel to cast them, but she did her best to remember as much of them as she could, in order to try them when she became powerful enough. All of that, added to her regular studies and her work on potions didn't leave her any time to get bored. But she did still feel lonely every now and then. She really wished she had someone with whom she could share everything. Someone who knew who she truly was and accepted her.

One day, Primrose trusted Mariel with a mission, which was also, in a way, a test. Mariel would have to go into the forest and bring all the ingredients for a poison antidote. All the herbs she needed could be found in that part of the forest, but some of them were very rare. And some could be easily confused with other herbs, so Mariel would have to prove that she could locate them and recognize them. It was a challenge she was happy to take, not only to prove herself but also for the opportunity of spending the whole day in the forest. She loved being among the plants and animals, feeling the forces of nature at work all around her and enjoying the occasional company of a neini or even a kraggletup. And the perspective was so much better than spending another day playing "2 and 2" with Jasmine! (That was a new game Jasmine had invented, which consisted in taking turns for rolling two dice until they both fell on the same side, and in that case rolling again; the winner was the first one who could make both dice fall on the same side twice in a row, which took hours and got Mariel extremely bored). So there she went, embracing the adventure. She walked into the depth of the forest stopping to catch every sight, smell and sound, and everything else she could feel. It was easy for her to find the herbs. The last two flowers took her some time, but she'd already got hold of them by noon. So she decided to use the rest of the day to enjoy herself. After having a snack she'd brought along, she walked deeper into the vegetation, marking a path she had never walked before. She wondered how many had ever been there, apart from the bees and butterflies that were flying all over the place. She was dazed by the beauty of the forest. And then, when she thought she had already seen everything, she spotted a light shining on the west. Curious, she decided to check what that was.

As Mariel got closer, she saw a large wall of rocks ahead of her. The light came from somewhere up the wall. She wasn't an expert mountain climber, but she managed to find enough rocks to stand on and fissures to place her hands in, and slowly climbed up to the top. Once she was up there, she saw a cave a few meters in front of her. That was where the light was coming from. Proud to have reached it, Mariel walked into the cave and what she saw there made her more impressed than anything ever had. The sun rays that filtered through the entrance of the cave were being reflected by thousands of colorful crystals which completely covered the cave walls, creating a festival of light and colors unrivalled by anything Mariel had seen before. Every crystal had a different color, different shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and everything in between.
Mariel released a small sphere of light to see what happened, and it began to bounce from crystal to crystal, picking up new colors each time it touched a wall. It was amazing. Mariel could hardly believe that such beauty lay there, in the middle of the forest, all around her now, and she had never heard of it before. Was she the first one to ever find that cave? Or had no one paid attention to its beauty? And what would it look like during the sunrise or sunset, when the sun itself provided light of different colors? Could it get even more beautiful?

Mariel gave in to the pleasure of observing the wonders around her, and let the light surround her and fill her. Soon, she could see nothing but a pleasant, soothing light. A light that invited her to play with it, to be part of it. For invaluable minutes, Mariel and the light were one, and everything was calm and perfect. She felt like she could stay like that forever, but there came a moment when she knew she had to go back. It was as if someone wanted her to return to the real world, and she calmly acceded. She knew it was for the best. She slowly let the lights fade away and as she did, she saw a shadow form in front of her. The silhouette was that of a young elf. She didn't understand it until her consciousness went back to its normal state and her brain interpreted the form of the one who was standing in front of her. It was, indeed, a young male elf, about her age or maybe a little younger. He had fair reddish brown hair and bright green eyes, was wearing strange clothes and had something on his left side that looked like a sheathed sword.

"Are you real?," he asked her when he noticed she had seen him.
"How long have you been here?," she asked back.
"I haven't been counting, but a few minutes, I think," he replied. "Who are you?"
"My name is Mariel," she said. "What's yours?"
"Eric," he replied. And then he inquired: "...How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
Mariel had just gone through a unique experience but she hadn't felt like she had done anything herself, let alone anything surprising.
"The light that was all around you," he clarified.
"You mean it was real?! I was actually surrounded by light?!"
"Yes," he confirmed. "First it was filling the whole cave. Then it formed a circle around you and started shrinking until you absorbed it. Don't tell me you didn't see it!"
"I did, but I didn't think it was real. I thought I was just... meditating or something."
"You meditate?"
"Meditation is an important part of being a sorceress. You have to be in deep contact with yourself and the world around you for magic to work," she explained.
"You're a sorceress?! Wow!," Eric exclaimed. "I'd never seen such a young sorceress before!"
"Well, I'm still in training," she confessed. "And being so young has given me a lot of problems, believe me."
"You too?," he asked, surprised. It was the first time Eric had found someone he could identify with.
"No matter how hard I try, no one ever takes me seriously," she told him. "They never trust me to help them; they never think my ideas are worth a thought, and I can never take part in their conversations. If it were for my parents, I'd spend my whole life babysitting little kids who can't think of anything but playing. Don't take me wrong, I like playing. But my life needs more than just that."
"Wow, it sounds as if I was hearing myself talk!," Eric remarked. "I have the same problems, you know. No one in my town thinks my opinion counts because I'm too young. I wonder if that happened to them when they were my age."
"I think so, but they must have forgotten. Either that or they didn't let themselves think when they were young."
They both laughed.
"Where do you live?," Mariel asked Eric.
"In Harland, 2 hours to the east of here."
"Harland? That's a merial town!," she realized.
"Yes, what did you expect?," Eric asked her. "Wait a minute, where do you live?"
"In Ayrus," she replied. "It must be 2 hours to the east at my pace, I took longer getting here because I was gathering herbs. I know it would take me longer than that to get to Harland."
"So you're... an elvin?"
Both Eric and Mariel were shocked. They had heard about each other's race, but they'd never seen them in person, even though they didn't live far from each other.
"I thought elvins were taller. Like 2 meters or something," Eric stated.
"Only the tallest ones. And I'm still young, I'm not fully grown yet. Besides, I'm female, so I won't be getting that tall," Mariel informed her. "But aren't you a bit tall for a merial? You can't be older than me and you're about my height. How tall will you be when you grow up?"
"I won't be growing up for a lot longer," he told her. "Maybe 2 years, 3 at most. I'll be 11 soon. My mother is rather tall, so if I take after her family I could make it past 1.5."
"Well, then it's true that you're shorter than us, but not that much. I wonder how many other rumors were exaggerated."
"Well, I know of one more: the rumor that says that elvins never come out of their towns. You're here after all."
"Did anyone actually say that? I'm surprised! I know some elvins from Ayrus who have even been to Harland and other merial cities."
"I've never seen them. But there are places in Harland where I've never been. I should get to know the whole town. The first thing a warrior should know is the place where he lives."
"So you're a warrior?," Mariel asked, intrigued. "I'd never talked to a warrior before. Not that the warriors from Ayrus would listen to me."
"There are warriors in Ayrus?! I thought all elvins were sorcerers or philosophers."
"What?!," Mariel burst into laughter. "I love magic and a good discussion, but not even a small village could be built by ONLY sorcerers and philosophers."
"I guess you're right," Eric laughed. "But it seems they can be built by liars. Anyway, I'm not a warrior yet, but I'm training hard to become one. I almost beat my father the last time we trained. And he's good with the sword. He tests all the weapons he makes."
"Is that a sword you have with you?," Mariel asked him, pointing at his sheath.
"More like a very long knife," he said. "It can't cut anything harder than tree branches. One day I want to have a reinforced steel sword like the ones my dad makes. Those which never break and can penetrate through anything."
"And what would you do with it?," Mariel inquired.
"Whatever I need to," he said. "A good warrior must have a good sword."
"You know... it's very interesting to talk to you," Mariel said. "Your life is so different from mine... and so similar at the same time!"
"Yes, who would have thought so?," Eric agreed. "Do you think we can keep seeing each other? Here? We can talk and give each other ideas. Maybe we can even show Elvins and Merials that we're not that different."
"I'd wait for the last part," Mariel warned her. "I feel like it would be hard to do that. They're too full of themselves. But we can be friends. We can meet here, or somewhere between our homes, that would be easier. And we can think of ways to make our lives better and have fun too."
"Yes, I'd like to know what games elvins play. Is it true that you can't climb trees?"
"I've never tried, but I think I could if I tried to. I climbed up to this cave today; a tree shouldn't be that different."
"I didn't have to climb much to get here," Eric said. "Just a few hops. But you have two arms and two legs, so you should be able to climb."
"Yes, I think I should," Mariel agreed.
"Well, I'll teach you to climb a tree next time we meet. I come to this part of the forest once a week. Will you be here next week?"
"I will," Mariel promised.
And so it began.

Hmm.  Yes, as Llearch says - definitely one to watch.

Wow, praise from both llearch and JP! Thanks, guys!

Here's the next chapter.

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Eric and Mariel met again the following week. And the week after that one. And many more. They became great friends, and within a few weeks they felt like they'd always been together. Eric did teach Mariel how to climb trees, and while she wasn't nearly as agile as her friend and her long dress didn't help things, in the end she succeeded in the task. Mariel, in turn, told Eric the basics of magic, and convinced him that he'd be a better warrior if he had a few magical resources at hand. After all, most legendary warriors had used magic as one of their weapons.

Eric went on with his training and, on his eleventh birthday, he managed to disarm his father. At first he thought his father had let him win as a birthday gift, but the blacksmith assured that he had done his best, and that Eric was improving his skills at an incredible rate. He decided that Eric was ready for a more formal kind of training, and signed him up at a school for warriors and explorers. Eric couldn't believe it when he heard the news.

"That's great! I'll be a true warrior!," he cheered blissfully. "I didn't know there was a school like that in Harland."
"Not in Harland," his father corrected him, "but on the lurian village of Urthum."
"A lurian village?," Eric queried, puzzled. "But lurians are little spots of light. How can they have a training school?"
"It's actually outside the village. lurians don't fight by themselves, obviously, but they are excellent teachers, guides and trainers. The village of Urthum is famous for all the warriors and explorers who came out of their school."
"And why hadn't I ever heard of it?," Eric inquired.
"Maybe because epic stories are the only kind of books that don't burn your hands," his father joked. He had never been an avid reader himself. It was Eric's mother who always insisted that their son should read more.
"Ok, it's strange, but I'm not missing it for anything," Eric declared. "I'd really like to see how lurians can train an elf."
"You'll see," his father assured.

The village of Urthum was so well hidden in the forest that anyone who passed by would take it for a group of rocks if they didn't look carefully. At least when the lurians were inside their homes. When they got out, it was impossible not to notice them. They were spots of bright colorful light that floated in the air, sometimes calmly, sometimes moving swiftly from one side to another.
"They move so fast!," Eric commented when the lurians started spinning around him.
"Lurians are the fastest creatures in the world," his father informed him.
"And what are they doing now?," he asked.
"I think they're inspecting you," was the answer.
Soon, a spot of turquoise light came out from behind the stones and all the others stopped moving.
"I'm sorry they bothered you," it apologized with a female voice. "They're young and excited. They're the new students of our teaching school and they had never seen a young merial like you before."
"Teaching school? You teach them how to teach?," Eric asked her.
"Yes, basically," the lurian replied.
"But I thought many merials had trained here. Why hadn't they seen one before?," Eric inquired.
"We've trained many, that's true, but it has been long since someone as young as you has entered our school. None of these students has turned 30 yet."
"That means I'm strange," Eric concluded.
"It means you're talented," she responded. "Oh, by the way, my name is Auna. What's yours?"
"Eric," he replied.
"Good. Let's see how much you already know, Eric. Follow me, please."
Eric looked back at his father.
"I'll wait for you at home," he said.

Eric was nervous, but he tried not to show it. He followed Auna to a wide clearing.
"Have you ever seen a sphere of light?," Auna asked him.
"Yes," Eric answered. He had seen Mariel cast that spell many times.
"Can you defend yourself from them?," Auna continued.
That question caught Eric by surprise.
"Defend myself? What do you mean?"
"Spheres of light can hurt you if they're intense and pass through your body at a high speed. You must learn to deflect them."
"I can block attacks," Eric affirmed. "I've been training with my father for a year."
"Then we'll see how you fare against this kind of attack. Don't be afraid, the light won't hurt you. It won't be that strong. But you'll have to do your best to deflect it and stop it from touching you."
"Ok," Eric said, still unsure of what he was about to go through. It looked like a test.
"Take out your sword," Auna advised him.
No sooner did Eric comply than he was surrounded by lurians of many different colors.
"Ready?," Auna shouted out. "Go! Shurin!"

A ball of green light came straight from the green lurian in front of him. Eric barely got the time to react and stop the sphere with his sword, making it bounce away.
"Taulen!," Auna called out, and a bordeaux light spot on Eric's left side released another sphere, forcing Eric to turn around in order to deflect it.
"Yolker!," another order came. Eric didn't see anyone attack, so he instinctively turned around, just in time to stop the blue light ball that was heading to his backside.
"Very good!," Auna commended him. "Let's try something else. Nayra! Pura!"
Two lurians attacked Eric, both ahead of him, a red one from the front-left and a light purple one from the front-right. Eric stretched out his right arm and brushed the air from right to left with his sword, making both light spheres bounce away.
"Einy!," Auna shouted while Eric was still holding up his sword.
This time Eric felt something hit his back before he could turn.
"Alright, stop!," Auna commanded.
Eric let his arms fall. He was breathing fast. The test hadn't lasted long but everything had been so fast that he was now agitated. Had he passed?
"That was impressive," Auna said as he floated to his side. "You'll have to learn not to get so agitated, that way you'll fight better and endure more; but no one had ever performed like you in their first training session. You handled the combined attack so well, and even the first shot from behind! We will be proud to have you in our school!"

Eric had never been more excited. Of course, as soon as he got the chance to see Mariel he told her everything about the lurians' training school. She was impressed. She was also very interested when he told her that the lurians used the spheres of light as an attack. She decided to try that out for herself, and getting a good shot out took her about... 2 seconds.
"How could you do that so fast?!," Eric asked her.
"I think I've found my element," Mariel replied.
After that, Mariel had to explain everything about the 6 elements and how an elvin sorcerer could get to master one of them.
"Wow, that's amazing!," Eric exclaimed. "It's decided. I'll learn some magic too. Earth magic would be great. I could control the ground under my feet and make my opponents fall."
"Unless they're flying," Mariel pointed out. "I don't think Earth magic would help you much against the lurians."
"Nothing would help me against the lurians. They're just light. But I still think using Earth magic would be great."
"Then you should find someone who can help you learn it," Mariel said. "I would, but I don't know how to use that kind of magic. Only light, connection and recovery."
"Then I'll have to learn on my own," Eric sighed.
"But I can help you train with my spheres of light if you want," Mariel suggested.
Eric accepted, and from then on training together became one of their regular activities, along with talking, playing and exploring the forest. While they were not together, they went on with their normal lives, only that it seemed much more exciting than it had been the year before. And they both worked hard to fulfill their dreams. There came a moment when Mariel's achievements were too big to go unnoticed (more precisely, her parents found her reading a magic book at Midnight with a magical light floating over the book), and decided that she needed the guidance of someone with more experience than Primrose. However, none of the sorcerers of Ayrus were willing to take an apprentice at that moment, let alone one who was only 12 years old. So Mariel had to content herself with studying with Primrose and doing research on her own; deal which suited Primrose just fine, as it made her feel important. Eric continued training with the lurians and his progress was also notorious. He even caught the attention of a lurian sorcerer named Aren, and had him teach him a little Earth magic. For Eric, everything was going his way.

One day, after his class, Eric decided to walk the other way for a change. He had been told many times that a warrior should know the territory he was on, and he'd finally decided to do something about it. As he walked, he ended up in another clearing, only this one was smaller and darker than the one he normally trained in. He heard noises just before walking into the clearing, as if something was being hit again and again. He then heard something like a bag of seeds hitting the ground, and an adult female voice shouting "dammit!" When he walked past the trees that were blocking his sight, he looked around to find the source of the sounds and found a faerie tying a thread to a branch of a tree on the other side of the clearing. Something was hanging from the thread. It looked like a small bag made of cloth and filled with something (probably seeds judging by the sound it had made before). The faerie didn't look like any creature Eric had seen before. She was about 8 times smaller than him, like a neini or just a little bigger, but her wings were transparent, not green. And for some reason they didn't look fragile. The wings of neinis could be easily shaken by a soft breeze. This faerie's wings stood firm as if nothing could move them but their owner's will. And their points were rounded, once more unlike a neini's wings. Her body didn't resemble a flower, like the body of a dassel which was always covered in leaves and petals. She almost looked like an elf, only much smaller and winged. She wore a tight golden dress which left most of her legs uncovered, and golden shoes to match. Her shoulder-length orange-ish golden hair was barely wavy, and the muscles of her legs looked firm and strong. And if she had been the one who had recently spoken, she didn't have the thin voice most faeries had. Nor did she look as delicate as them. Eric wondered what species she belonged to, but he couldn't even make out what her element was, if she was an elemental being at all. She was definitely unlike anything he had ever seen. Soon his thoughts were interrupted by the faerie's strong voice.

"You don't have to stand still in there. I've already heard you, so you can move now."
"Are you talking to me?," Eric asked, surprised.
"Who else?," the faerie retorted.
She finished tying the thread, turned around and hovered to Eric's eye level. She floated in the air like there was nothing to it, only her wings doing the job of keeping her in the same place. Her brown eyes had a look that Eric couldn't decipher, but they were intense. More so than any eyes he had ever seen. Now Eric was really intrigued.
"Who are you?," he asked her.
"Someone who's training here, as you must have realized," she said. "And you?"
"I'm Eric Eatan from Harland," he replied. "I'm a merial."
"Yes, I can see that," she remarked. "And I can't say I haven't heard your name before."
"Really? How?," Eric asked, even more intrigued.
"The lurians keep talking about you. The lurians from Urthum talked to the ones from Isthum and the rumors were spread. They're so excited about you! I must say I'm pleased to finally meet you."
"I don't know what rumors you've heard, but I'm not sure if they're true. Many rumors are not."
"You don't have to tell me," she laughed. "I've been around much longer than you have. I know a few things about life."
"How old are you?," Eric asked.
"Never ask that to a woman," was the puzzling reply.
"What's your name?," he tried.
"Erin," she answered.
"Really? It sounds almost like mine!"
"Yes, except for the ending. Nothing to make a big fuzz about."
"What are you?"
"A faerie," she responded.
"Yes, that's obvious. But what kind of faerie?"
"The kind that won't say no to a good challenge. The bag over there has already taken enough of a beating. How about we have a little training session together? That way I can see if the rumors are true or not."
"Hmm... sure, but you didn't answer my question."
"What question?"
"What's your race?," Eric rephrased it.
"No need for you to know."
"Why?!"
"Because if you can't find out on your own, then why should I tell you?"
"I've never seen anyone like you before."
"I'm not from around," she told him.
"Where are you from?," he inquired.
"The lurians from Isthum found me years ago on the eastern side of their city. I live with them now."
"You live with the lurians? What is that like?"
"Not bad," she answered. "They're nice beings once you get to know them. They keep my secrets and I keep theirs."
"The lurians' secrets? What secrets can they have?"
"Telling you wouldn't be a good way of paying them for their hospitality, don't you think?"
"Right," he accepted. "But why are you so secretive anyway?"
"I have my reasons," yet another puzzling response came.
"Will you at least tell me what your element is?"
"You love asking questions, don't you? What makes you think I even have an element?"
"Then you're not elemental?," he deduced.
"I didn't say that," she told him. "Would you like a battle or not?"

Eric agreed to have a battle with the mysterious Erin, even when he couldn't imagine how someone her size could take on someone like him. But his experiences with the lurians had shown him that appearances could be deceitful. Maybe she had some special attack like the lurians' light balls. Maybe he'd see what her element was if he confronted her.
"Take out your sword," she instructed him. "I must warn you, I won't hurt you but I won't give you a break either."
"Good for me. Same here," Eric replied.
He held up his thin sword and waited to see Erin's first move. What he saw caught him completely by surprise. She lifted her hand and a sword much thicker than his and just as long appeared from nowhere. She held it as if it had no weight and charged against Eric. Eric barely managed to react in time and block her attack, not without having to step back due to the force of the impact.
"A good warrior is always prepared for the unexpected," Erin told him while flying around him. "And keeps their feet on the ground while fighting."
While she was saying this, she landed and picked up Eric's right foot, making him lose balance. He used his left hand to stop his fall and resorted to the little earth magic he knew to send a shockwave through the ground to the spot where Erin was standing.
"Unless, like me, they can fly," she finished taking off into the air, unaffected.
She prepared to charge again, but Eric used his brush move, this time from left to right, to push her aside. Once on Eric's right side, Erin described a hook with her sword trying to get Eric's sword out of his hand.
"I won't fall for that. My father has done that too many times," Eric said, pulling back his sword.
"But he mustn't have done this," she concluded, using her chance to reach Eric's body when it was uncovered. Eric reacted fast and, closing his left fist, pushed Erin's sword up before it could touch him.
"Yes, he has," he told her.
"That was only the first part," she informed him letting the inertia take him right above Eric's hands, lifting her own hands to have her sword disappear into thin air and quickly plunging down to get a grip on Eric's sword and pulling it out of his hands.
"I win," she declared, pointing at Eric with his own sword.
"Had my sword been sharper, your hands would be in pieces now," Eric told her. He'd noticed she'd touched the edges of his sword in order to lift it up.
"I'm a warrior. I act according to the circumstances, which include the kind of weapon my opponent is using," she pointed out. "And I won't cry over a few scratches," she added, leaving Eric's sword on the ground and blowing on her palms.
"You got hurt!," Eric exclaimed. "This was just training! You didn't have to hurt yourself!"
"That was my decision, and I consider that a way of training too. If you're not willing to take some risks in a training session, how will you be ready for them in a real fight?"
"You're strange," Eric commented.
"I know," she replied.
"Why are you so strong?," he asked her.
"Some kinds of faeries have the strength to lift up to 500 times their own weight. A few other beings too. Plus I've been training hard for years. So be happy; you've found out something more about me."
"Wow! And how did you do the sword thing?"
"What sword thing?," she queried, once more testing Eric's ability for precision.
"You know, the way you made it appear and disappear."
"Molecular dispersion. A nice treat that comes with this kind of sword."
"What does that mean?"
"Let's say I just formed a bag of air and stored my sword inside," she explained.
"That's amazing. You're full of surprises!"
Erin grinned.
"I must admit you're something too. It's hard to find an opponent who reacts so well to surprises. And I could see you're quite well trained for your age. It was nice to kick some stress out with you. You definitely make a much better training partner than the punching bag."
"Can we do it again someday?"
"Sure. I'll be here whenever you want a match."
They both smiled.
"Will your hands be ok?," Eric asked her.
"I'll live," Erin joked. "Actually, they'll probably be fine by tomorrow. Come back when you can. I'll make sure not to take you lightly next time."
"Me neither," Eric assured.
As Eric parted, thoughts of the recent events wouldn't leave his mind. Erin was the most puzzling creature he'd met in his life, yet she'd turned out to be nice in the end. And there was surely a lot more to her than she showed. He had so many questions! She was weird, and overly mysterious, but he had the feeling he'd enjoy getting to know her.

No replies? Ok, at least I got an ACK from llearch... let's try another chapter.


"When am I going to get a reinforced sword?," Eric asked his father one day.
He had already turned twelve and his old training sword was proving to be less than enough for the constant use he gave it. It had broken for the umpteenth time and, as usual, Eric had had to ask his father to fix it.
"You'll get a reinforced sword when you learn to make one," was the reply Eric got.
"But I'm a warrior, not a blacksmith!," Eric complained.
"It is essential for a warrior to be able to take care of his own weapons, just as a blacksmith can only make good swords if he knows how to use them. And experience has taught me that the sword you can wield the best is the one you have made with your own hands. So if you want a sword for a true warrior, you'll have to make it for yourself."
"Can you teach me, then?," Eric asked.
"Watch me and you'll learn," his father proposed.
That's how watching his father at work became a part of Eric's semi-formal education. Fortunately for Eric, his father did answer all his questions in detail, happy to see his son interested. He couldn't say the same about Erin, who became friendlier and closer to him as time went by but wouldn't let out a single word about her identity or her past. Her first name was all she was willing to reveal, and she considered that to be enough for everyday life. Eric thought that if she hadn't had the need to talk to others and have them call her some way, she wouldn't have even let them know that. Mariel was completely different. Eric felt he could trust her completely; like she would always be there for him and would always understand him, even at the moments when no one else did. It was always comforting to be by her side.

Mariel was growing at an incredible rate; not so much in height -or at least not as much as Eric had initially expected-, but in power and knowledge, and even in wisdom. At 13, she already seemed more mature than her 290-year-old teacher Primrose, and had already surpassed her abilities for light and connection magic. She no longer had to arrange meetings with Eric. She could feel him at the moment he set a foot out of his house to see her, and meet him before he arrived. It is true that she couldn't sense everyone as well as Eric, but she was very good nonetheless and those who knew her couldn't help but call her a prodigy. Some were even considering taking her as an apprentice. That would have gone to the head of many elvins she knew, but not her. She kept her angelic smile and her idealistic innocence; only that she was now more balanced and patient that she had once been. She was one of those who had started out well and gained a lot more from growing up.

It was Mariel's connection magic what once made her cut her morning meditation abruptly and run out of her house, and out of her city, without stopping to say a word to anyone. She ran to the east as fast as she could, wishing she could run faster; wishing she had Eric's speed, or at least that Eric had her magic. She got to Harland in about 20 minutes that seemed eternal and entered the city in such a rushed race that no one dared to stop her. Just like no one understood who she was, nor what was going on with her. No one but Eric. She knocked the door of Eric's house desperately; she'd never been there before, but she knew she was at the right place. No one responded. She took some time to catch her breath and then shouted out: "Eric, please open! It's me, Mariel!"

Only a few seconds later, the door in front of Mariel opened to reveal a pale-looking and scared Eric.
"Mariel!," he exclaimed, out of any other words.
"I felt it," she said. "I don't know what it is yet, but I felt it. Please tell me what's going on."
"You ran all this way for me?," Eric asked.
Mariel nodded. She was still agitated from the long run.
"Come with me," Eric asked her. "And please don't get scared. I can't handle the two of us being scared."

Mariel nodded again and Eric guided her to the backyard of his house. Mariel couldn't help but scream when she saw the brown-haired merial, about 1.40 m. tall, lying on the ground covered in blood.
"Please don't. He needs your help," Eric said, stopping Mariel's screaming with his right hand. Mariel understood, and nodded quietly.
"What happened?," she asked, kneeling down at the lying merial's side and inspecting him.
"He was fixing a sword on that anvil, and all of a sudden the sword launched itself to his stomach! I managed to pull the sword out straight, but he fell unconscious. The two sorcerers are out of town; my mum is on an exploration trip. I didn't know what to do."
"When did this happen?," Mariel asked.
"I don't know. I was so scared that I feel like It's been forever, but it was already morning."
"It must have been at the same moment I felt it. He hasn't lost too much blood yet. I think I can stop the bleeding. Maybe seal his wounds. But he'll need time to recover."
"Do what you can, please. I'm counting on you," Eric begged.
Mariel placed her hand on the wound and, from Eric's point of view, she stayed motionless. But he knew her well enough to know that she was using her magic. After five minutes, Mariel let out a long sigh.
"Will he be fine?," Eric asked her.
"Yes," she said, exhausted. "We must let him rest now."
"I still don't understand what happened," Eric wailed.
"I can try to find out," Mariel offered. She examined the blood-stained sword, and then walked to the anvil Eric had pointed to.
"Magic," she concluded after staring at it for a few seconds. "Someone cast a spell on this anvil."
"Can you reverse it?," Eric asked.
"Reversing spells is hard when they were caste by others," Mariel explained. "You have to know the spell very well, or at least have a good control of a domain that allows you to cast it. A spell like this would take either a good control over the earth domain, which I know little or nothing of, or a superb control of the connection domain, which I have experience with but not that much."
"I know some earth magic," Eric stated. "Can you... like channel it or something?"
"I've began to learn how to channel magic, but for now I can only channel magic from domains I'm familiar with. Besides, your ability for earth magic isn't strong enough for this yet. It would take a lot to neutralize the spell. I think it would be best to just stay away from that anvil."
At that moment, Eric's father woke up.
"Who is she?," he asked with a thin thread of voice.
"She's Mariel. She's a friend," Eric replied. "And she's a sorceress too. She has healed you."
"She's... an elvin," his father noticed.
"She's the best friend I've ever had. I've known her for 2 years now, but she never came here before because we were afraid you wouldn't like her. Just like I have never entered her city. Everyone says so many things about elvins, but they're not true. Mariel is the kindest being in the world."
"I... can't argue when... she saved my life."
"Please rest now," Mariel urged him. "You're not fully healed yet."
The blacksmith took a deep breath and closed his eyes again.

"What shall we do now?," Eric asked Mariel.
"I think we should stay here and look after him, and wait for one of the sorcerers to arrive," she suggested. "They will know best."
"You said it takes a lot of power to cast a spell like that," Eric reminded her. "What if it was one of the sorcerers?"
"I hadn't thought about it, but it could be. How well do you know them?"
"They come once in a while to get metallic staves or amulets fixed. They don't usually talk much; they only get things done. Kharchek was here yesterday and Selinur came here the day before."
"Weird names," Mariel commented.
"Those are their last names. I don't know their first ones," Eric told her.
"So either of them could have done it. What did they do when they were here?"
"Well, Selinur left a silver-colored staff for my father to fix it. Kharchek came to pick up a reinforced sword."
"Why would a sorcerer want a sword?," Mariel wondered.
"They channel magic through them. The lurians told me that long metallic objects are good for channeling spells. I've been thinking of a way to channel earth magic through a reinforced sword once I manage to make one."
"You're going to make a sword?," Mariel asked.
"Yes," he confirmed. "It will be my own sword. Made and wielded by myself."
"I bet no one will be able to stop you once you have it," Mariel commented with a smile.
"I hope so," yearned Eric.
"Did any of the sorcerers act strangely? Did any on them get close to the anvil?"
"If you ask me, they always ask strangely," Eric commented. "Oh, how could I have forgotten!"
"What?," Mariel asked.
"Kharchek sat on the anvil to examine his new sword. He also looked at Selinur's staff in a strange way."
"Well, that doesn't prove he did it, but at least we know he had the chance. Is Selinur's staff still here?"
"Yes. Follow me," Eric said, and guided Mariel to a storage room where lots of metallic object were lying in as good an order as was possible. He picked up the staff among those objects and showed it to Mariel.
"This staff has channeled a lot of magic," Mariel declared. "I can feel it's still holding strong magic inside."
"Dark magic?," Eric asked, rather scared.
"Dark magic is only light magic used backwards," Mariel informed her. "Darkness is only the absence of light. It's not an entity in itself."
"Alright, but is it evil magic?," he tried to specify.
"It's not meant to cause harm by itself," Mariel answered as precisely as she could. "But it could be used for it. It all depends on the holder."
Right after she said this, they heard knocks at the front door.

"This is not a good time for a customer to come," Eric sighed.
"It doesn't feel like a customer," Mariel told him. "I sense connection magic at work."
"Do you think it's the one who cursed the anvil?," Eric consulted her.
"I don't know," she said. "We'd better check for ourselves. Someone who could do something like that can easily force his way in. We can win some time if we open the door and watch him."
"I'll have my sword ready, if it helps," Eric decided.
"I'm too worn out to cast a good protection spell, but I'll be ready to shoot a million light spheres if it's necessary," Mariel supported him.
The knocks returned.
Preparing themselves for anything, Eric and Mariel walked to the door and opened it. A short, platinum-blond-haired merial with deep gray eyes was standing on the other side. The solemnity of his face and his blue and purple robes gave him an air of authority that overly made up for his short stature.
"Selinur!," Eric exclaimed.
Mariel was surprised when she heard him. She had been expecting Kharchek. Selinur looked straight into Eric's eyes.
"Where is your father?," he asked him.
"He's safe, and I won't let anyone hurt him," Eric bluffed. He didn't really think he could take on someone like Selinur.
"I don't want to hurt him, kid. Nor you," the sorcerer assured. "Something's wrong in this house. I need to fix it."
"How do you know something's wrong?," Eric inquired.
"I sensed it as soon as I came back to Harland," he replied.
"Connection magic," Mariel explained.
Selinur took a closer look at the elvin.
"Who are you?," he asked.
"I'm Mariel Shimmer," she answered.
"Shimmer," he repeated. "Any connection with the Shimmers from the Ayrus council?"
"I'm their daughter," Mariel replied, surprised that he had heard about her parents.
Selinur and Mariel stared deeply into each other's eyes. Eric didn't understand what was going on, but Mariel seemed to calm down.
"He didn't do it. He's here to help," she told Eric.
"How do you know?," Eric asked.
"Connection magic... again," Selinur and Mariel replied at the same time. They both smiled.
"You're a very special child," Selinur commended her.
"I'm no longer a child," Mariel calmly remarked.
"We shall see that," Selinur stated, as he walked into the house.
Eric was still reserved, but he trusted Mariel more than anyone, so he let him in and followed him to the backyard. His father was already sitting with his back against the wall.

"Good morning," he said as soon as he saw the sorcerer. "Please forgive my position and excuse me. I haven't been able to finish repairing your staff yet. I've had... some problems."
"I can see that," Selinur remarked. He kneeled down and helped him up. "Now to see what's wrong in here."
"It's the anvil," Mariel informed him. "It has a spell on it."
Selinur stopped moving for a moment, and then, after examining the anvil, he looked at Mariel.
"This will be a hard job," he said. "Do you think you're ready to work with me on this?"
"Me?!," Mariel asked, shocked.
"I normally wouldn't expose someone so young to this kind of magic, but I could feel you have a strong power; and you said you were no longer a child."
Mariel couldn't believe what was happening. And experienced sorcerer was asking her to help him?! And what if she couldn't do it?
"Don't be afraid, everything will be fine," he promised. "Take my hands."

Mariel held both of Selinur's hands and they stood each on one side of the anvil. She then felt him guide her into the magic that surrounded the anvil. They both felt it, and slowly began to untie its threads. It would be impossible to tell how much time passed. But with every passing moment Mariel achieved a better understanding of that magic. She was impressed at Selinur's ability to guide her; just as he was of her ability to follow him. In the end, the last threads of the spell were cast away, and the enchantment was broken. Mariel was about to collapse, but Selinur held her firmly.
"We must go back slowly, so that we don't hurt ourselves," his voice spoke into her mind.
Mariel was appalled, but that didn't stop her from following his advice. She slowly let reality settle down in and around her. Once she could see Eric, his father and the house, and feel the wind stroke her skin, she asked the sorcerer how he had done that.
"We had to become strongly connected in order to undo the spell together," he explained. "In that state, physical barriers don't exist, and nothing can cloud communication."
"I'll remember that," she promised.
"I must admit I'm impressed," Selinur commended her. "You did an amazing job. I'm surprised that I hadn't noticed you before."
"Have you been to Ayrus?," Mariel asked her.
"Yes, but only on business. And I can never seem to get out of there without getting involved in an argument with an elvin sorcerer or five."
"Then why did you trust me?," she wanted to know.
"Because you trusted me," he told her. "You had seen what had happened here and had all the right to suspect me; but as soon as I opened myself up to you, you saw through me and knew I was on your side. Someone whose mind is open enough for that definitely deserves my trust."
"Then it was Kharckek who cursed the anvil?," Eric joined the conversation.
"I am afraid so," Selinur said. "I was attacked by him today. He told me he had something important to show me and had me follow him to an isolated spot in the forest. Then he suddenly attacked me with his sword, channeling lightening through it. I managed to evade him and then we had a duel. When he saw he couldn't win, he escaped to the north. I thought of following him, but then I thought he must have had a reason to drive me away from town. I searched for his magic and found out that I was right, so I decided to come here before I was too late. I wasn't counting on someone else doing the most urgent job before I arrived, however."
He looked at Mariel when he spoke the last words. The elvin blushed.
"But why did he do that?!," Eric inquired.
"I think it was because of the staff," his father theorized. "He looked very interested in it last time he came here."
"How important can a staff be?!," Eric complained. "It can't be enough to hurt someone like this. I could have lost you today!"
"Kharchek has been jealous for a long time," Selinur affirmed. "He tried to hide it, but it consumed him from the inside like poison. He was jealous, not just of my staff or my power, but of everything he didn't have and everything he couldn't do. I believe he was even jealous of things that didn't exist. Those sick feelings must have grown so much that now he wants to destroy all the things he hates so much, and everyone who relates to them."
"And someone like that is on the loose?!," Eric shouted, altered. "We must get to him and stop him before he gets to harm anyone else!"
"We will," Selinur said. "But we need to rest first. Even if we find Kharchek, we can't confront him in our current state."
"I don't need to rest, I'm going for him," Eric announced, heading into the house.
"Don't go. It's insane!," his father warned him. "You're not ready to face him."
"I'll do what it takes to stop him," he blared, determined. He was reaching the front door when Mariel called him.
"Eric, wait!," she shouted.
Eric turned around and looked at her.
"Don't try to stop me," he told her.
"Then I'm going with you," she offered.
"No, you must stay here. You're exhausted," Eric remarked.
"I'm not letting you go there alone. Besides, it will be hard for you to find him without me. I can help you track him down."
"Alright, but don't try to drive me away from him."
"You know me well enough to know I wouldn't do that," she confronted him.
"Then guide me," he accepted.

They both left the house and headed to the north.
"This is ridiculous!," Selinur protested and ran after the young ones.
He reached them, but was unable to dissuade them, so instead he decided to follow them and protect them.
That turned out to be unnecessary, though. The three of them walked a long way at the fastest pace Mariel could muster, but they found no trace of the rogue sorcerer. Eric wanted to keep up with the search, but Mariel's legs gave in and he realized he couldn't put her through so much strain. When Selinur knew they wouldn't go any further, he looked around and decided to return to Harland.
"You'd better look after your father, boy," he said to Eric before leaving. "And Mariel Shimmer... pay me a visit when you can."
He then turn around and left.

"I didn't get to thank you for what you did today," Eric realized. "I owe you big time."
"You owe me nothing," Mariel responded. "I know you'd do the same for me anytime."
He nodded, noting that she was right.
"I wonder why Selinur insisted on following us and then left us alone," Eric commented.
"Maybe he knew that you wouldn't be alone," a voice came from above.

Eric and Mariel looked up and saw 4 bright spots of light. One was red, one was green, one was yellow and the other was light violet.
"The lurians!," Eric exclaimed.
"What's going on?" the yellow lurian asked, descending to their level.
"What's not going on?," Eric sighed.
"A merial sorcerer named Kharchek attacked another sorcerer and Eric's father," Mariel explained. "We were trying to find him, but he seems to have vanished away. You haven't seen him, have you?"
"No, sorry," the green lurian replied. "But we'll tell you if we see him."
"When I get him, I'll make sure he never hurts anyone else," Eric assured.
"And how are you planning to do that?," the red lurian inquired.
"I don't know, but I'll find a way," Eric affirmed.
"I'm sure you will," the violet lurian told him in her very thin voice. "You're a little big guy."
"Was that phrase supposed to make any sense?," the red one teased her.
"Well, yes, it was," the purple one confronted her. "He's still very young but has already done great things and I can see a bright future ahead of him. If he works hard, hell be able to do just about anything."
"We'll see," the red lurian replied.
"Was anyone hurt?," the yellow lurian wanted to know.
"My father was," Eric told her. "But he's better now. Mariel healed him."
"Would that be..." the green lurian began, examining the elvin. "You?"
"Yes, I'm Mariel," she answered. "What are your names?"
"Oh, sorry we didn't introduce ourselves," the green lurian apologized. "I am Tirena. My red friend over here is Nayra. The violet one is Pura, and the naughty yellow girl is Einy. We're currently in the first class of the teaching school and we're all graduating this year."
"Einy?," Eric repeated. "I remember you. You were the one who shot me on my back on my first training session!"
"You still remember that?," Einy giggled. "Sorry, please forgive me. I only did what I had to."
"I know, it's ok," Eric accepted. He was already feeling much more collected.
"I'm offended," Pura, the violet light, shot out. "You remember Einy but not us? Nayra and I were also there. Several times, actually."
"Yes, I was the only one who missed your first training session," Tirena told him. "I heard it was great. My brother Shurin was there. He told me he had the privilege of the first shot."
"I'll make sure to remember you from now on," Eric promised. "It's just hard for me to distinguish between you, though. The ones who have the same color look exactly the same."
"You may learn some day, little big guy," Pura giggled.
"Or maybe not," Nayra countered. There was a slight tone of anger in her voice.
"In any case, you can tell us from each other from our voices," Tirena intervened.
"And for our sparkling personalities!," Einy chirped.
"Thanks, friends. You really know how to cheer me up," Eric praised them.
"I'll have to learn how to do that too," Mariel reckoned.
"When I said friends, that included you," Eric told her.
Mariel smiled.
"I just wish that worked on me as well," she let out. "I can't shake the feeling that something's wrong."
"Of course it is, Kharckek got away," Eric reminded her. "But he won't get far. As soon as he makes a move we will hunt him down. He'll now have all the merials of Harland after him."
"It's not just Kharchek. He's a part of it, yes, but I feel there's something bigger. Scarier. Like there's something wrong with the world."
"You're scaring me," Eric told her. "But whatever it is we'll find a way to sort it out. We'll protect each other."
"That's big talk," Pura pointed out. "But the kind of big talk I'm all in for."
"We'll be on the watch," Tirena promised. "If anything happens, you can always count on the lurians to help you."
"Thanks, I'll be on the watch too," Mariel responded.
"I think you can skip class today," Nayra told Eric. "You've had a much tougher training, and your father must be worried sick. Let me follow you home, if only to show him you're not alone."
"I can go with him," Mariel offered.
"No, you should go back to your own home," Tirena advised her. "I'm sure you're being missed right now. We can meet again tomorrow, or any other time when things have calmed down."
At that moment, neither Mariel nor Eric felt like things would calm down any time soon. But they understood it would be best to return home and let their parents know they were alright. They had no reason to stay there anyway. So, they let the lurians follow each of them to their places.

Interesting things going on.

Thanks, llearch. :)

Now the accidentally skipped chapter 5, and chapter 6 below it.


Mariel didn't get in trouble for her little adventure. Her parents were used to her leaving home for hours, and she skipped her class with Primrose telling her that she had exhausted herself from using too much magic, which was actually the truth. The only elvin who noticed any change in her was Jasmine. Mariel kept visiting her out of habit and not to leave her alone, but Jasmine could see that she wasn't quite the same.
"What's the matter with you?," Jasmine asked her.
"What are you talking about?," Mariel tried to know.
"You used to laugh and talk a lot. Today the last thing you said was 'hello'. You look up and sigh all the time and you don't even complain that you're bored. Because I know many of my games get you bored stiff."
"Oh, sorry, Jasmine. I'm just worried."
"Worried about what?"
"You wouldn't understand."
"Try me. I'm 9 now, I understand a lot of things. I even know where babies come from."
Mariel almost laughed at the last statement, but the weight of what she was about to say stopped him from doing that. She paused for a moment, trying to find the best words.
"I've been... feeling things lately," she finally said. "I don't know what it is yet, but it's not good. And I feel it's coming this way."
"Magic?," Jasmine asked her.
"Probably," she replied.
"I hate magic!," Jasmine ranted.
"Why?!"
"If it wasn't for magic, you wouldn't get worried, you wouldn't be feeling things and you would still be my friend."
"But I am your friend," Mariel assured, holding Jasmine's hand. "I will always be your friend. Bad things happen in the world. It's not because of magic. It's because of... I don't know. But they happen. And sometimes we can't stop them from happening; we can only do our best to make things better. And that's why I get distracted. I'm trying to figure out what I can do. But that won't ever make it care for you any less. You and I will always be friends."
"Promised?," Jasmine urged her.
"Promised," Mariel confirmed.

Eric had taken things even worse than Mariel in spite of not feeling what she could feel. Up to then, being a warrior had been a beautiful dream filled with colorful promises of strength and glory. Now he had found another side to it, and it was a side he wished he had never known. As an elf, death was something he didn't normally face. He hadn't seen anyone die before, except for some insects and a little bird once; now being on the point of losing his father had shaken his world like nothing ever had. And he didn't fear death nearly as much as the hate that could push someone to cause it. He became determined to stop Kharchek and anyone who followed his steps, and for that he trained harder than ever, both in the fields of fighting and crafting of weapons, pushing himself so much that the lurians had found themselves in the need of urging him to stop before his raged consumed him. And even their efforts had short-lived results. Plus, the repeated news that the local explorers had found no signs of Kharchek wasn't helping.

In order to discharge his rage without hurting anyone once the advice from his friends had begun to sink in, Eric ran into the forest and started dealing blows with his sword to the biggest rock he could find. Until a familiar voice interrupted him.
"That sword is going to need a lot of maintenance when you get back home."
Eric turned around to face the ever so mysterious faerie.
"If there's still anything left of it," she added.
"Erin," he let his lips utter. "How did you find me?"
"Do you really need to ask? You're making a lot of noise. Even the worms must be shaking under the ground right now."
"Sorry, I didn't think I'd hurt anyone by hitting a rock," he apologized.
"You haven't hurt anyone," she comforted him. "But you've managed to scare me, and I'm not easily scared. You're beginning to look like..."
"Like someone you know?," Eric inquired, jumping at the opportunity to find out something about Erin's past.
"Someone I know since I was born and I could never run away from," she half joked. "Believe me, being like that will only hurt you. Don't lose yourself like that."
For the first time Eric looked at Erin as if he was looking at a mirror, and knew that any questions would be out of place.
"Thanks," he said to her, sheathing what was left of his sword.
"You're welcome," she responded. "Keep your innocence. It's one of the best things you have. And... you'll have to do something about that sword."
"I'm already making a new one," he revealed.

After the meeting with Jasmine, Mariel reckoned that she would need the advice of an expert. She still believed that most sorcerers in Ayrus were too full of themselves, and Primrose didn't have the knowledge she needed. Actually, the last classes had been spent in refining what Mariel already knew and creating a new potion together. Mariel had the feeling that she wouldn't be able to learn much more from Primrose, unless her teacher started to learn some new things herself. So, Mariel decided to take Selinur up on his offer and look for him. She didn't feel very comfortable entering Harland -she had only done it once in an emergency-, so she stood outside the town limits and used her connection magic to call for him.

Selinur walked to Mariel's encounter and welcomed her with a smile. He insisted on her following him to his place, and in the end she accepted. His house was old and poorly lit, with books lying on top of every piece of furniture. Not what Mariel had expected of an experienced sorcerer's home, but she already knew life was full of surprises. He offered her something to drink, but she politely refused. Her attention was hoarded by the piles of magic books. Selinur noticed that, and offered her the chance to take a look at them. Mariel immediately picked up a book with a black cover from the table in front of her.
"The principle of opposites," Selinur spoke up. "Interesting book for someone who's walking the path of sorcery or trying to master a domain on its whole. If you ask me, you cannot fully comprehend an element unless you know both of its polarities well. Some tend to forget about the reverse polarities, thus never reaching their full potential."
"Do all elements have reverse polarities?," Mariel asked him with curiosity. She knew about darkness, but hadn't thought about the polarities of the other elements.
"Darkness. Cold. Vacuum. Drought. Erosion. Death," Selinur recited.
"There's death magic too?," Mariel asked, scared.
"Understood as the absence of life, yes. It is possible to suck life out of a living being; though death magic by itself is hard to master, as souls normally tend to cling to their bodies and taking them out against their will is not something anyone can do. Other than shadows, I haven't heard of anyone capable of doing that. Those with enough balance, knowledge and self control to stand a chance, wouldn't do it for the same reasons that would allow them to."
"Shadows?," Mariel asked him, holding the word in her thoughts.
"Pure life beings with no material form. They have the ability to take a soul out of a battered and unconscious body and possess it. That's the only way they can interact with the material world. Though I'm only telling you what I have read or heard. I have never been in contact with a Shadow, and none has been found in this region."
"Why would nature create something like that?," Mariel wondered.
"There's a theory that suggests that Shadows aren't natural, or in any case they were not born like that. Some say they are a product of life magic."
"I didn't know life magic could be so harmful," Mariel admitted.
"All magic can. It always depends on who uses it and how. Any element can be used to make life better or worse."
"Doesn't nature find its balance?," Mariel asked him.
"It tends to, but it's a slow process. And you must remember we're all part of it. The world is what we make from it."
Those words stuck into Mariel's mind like fire carvings.
"I'll make sure to make the best of it," she promised.

Time passed. Mariel split her time into meeting Selinur, Primrose and Jasmine, experimenting on her own and being with Eric, which was increasingly becoming the best part. Having no news of Kharchek, their worries slowly began to fade to a second plane, and they were able to enjoy each other's company like before or even more. Eric finished forging his reinforced sword - made of the hardest alloy known to elves, thick, sharp-edged and with a shiny golden hilt-, and was very proud to show it o the young sorceress, who immediately knew the sword would never be separated from its owner. He also told her that he would soon finish his training in Urthum and would be assigned a guide to assist him on his first journey.
"That's the way with everyone who finishes the course," he explained. "I'll be the youngest merial who has ever achieved that!"
"Congratulations!," she cheered. "I just wish I could go with you."
"You can," he told her. "There are no rules against that. It would be great if you came with me."
"It would be hard to convince my parents to let me go," she said. "They still think I'm too young to stay away from home for more than a day, and it will be hard to think of a good excuse. Besides, I have to tend to my studies."
"Too young?! You'll be fourteen in a few days. And you're the best sorceress I've ever met! Well, the one who learns the fastest anyway. You can continue learning and practising your magic during the trip. I'm sure you'll find things you'd never find at home. Anyway, I think it will be some time before I actually leave, so you have time to show your parents that you can take care of yourself."
"We'll see," Mariel told him. "I'll try not to miss it."

Hmm... I've just reread this chapter. Shurin is a good lurian. Not that that comment has much relevance, but he's good with words.


Eric was sitting outside Urthum after his class when a bright spot of green light approached him.
"Tirena?," Eric tried to guess.
"No," a male voice told him. "But close. I'm Shurin, Tirena's brother."
"Oh. Sorry for mixing you up," Eric apologized.
"It can happen to anyone," Shurin conceded. "So, how's your training going?"
"Good," Eric replied. "But you must know that. You've seen me train many times."
"True, but I wanted to know how you felt it."
"Are you on the teaching course too?," Eric took the turn to ask.
"I've already completed it," Shurin informed her. "Now I help around at school. Which is the same thing Tirena's planning to do when she graduates, so I guess many will be mixing us up in the future."
"Then I guess neither of you is going to be my guide," Eric deduced.
"No, we're not the journeying type. But there are plenty of lurians among the graduates and the ones who are graduating this year who would gladly take on the opportunity. You're likely to be assigned someone you've already had contact with."
"Like Nayra, Pura and Einy?"
"Yes," Shurin laughed.
"What are you laughing at?," Eric asked him.
"Just some old memories. When Einy entered the teaching school, no one thought she would be able to finish it. She was so undisciplined and was always getting in trouble. But with time she proved everybody wrong. Before the tests she locked herself in her room and studied so hard that no one could believe it, and she passed every test with excellent grades."
"Wow!," Eric exclaimed. "And what about Pura and Nayra?"
"Oh, they are both great," Shurin replied. "As long as they're not together. They can't seem to get along. Nayra always things she knows best and Pura just can't stand it. She likes being herself whether others agree with her or not."
"I think that's a good thing," Eric commented. "I'm like that too. I've been frowned upon many times for not thinking like others, but I've held to what I believed in and with time things began to work out."
"That's great to hear," Shurin commended him. "Though I must admit I find Pura a little weird."
"Yeah, she calls me 'little big guy'," Eric laughed. "But it's alright. I think they're all good in their own ways. Nayra's always trying to do things right. Einy can give courses about having fun. And Pura's the most direct and honest. And Tirena, even if she won't be my guide, has always been helpful and understanding. And Auna has taught me so much! Just like Sofrim, the sorcerer. Everyone in Urthum has been great to me. And you're all so different! When I first saw you, I thought that the only differences between you were your voices and the colors of your light."
"Then you have learned the importance of looking close," Shurin pointed out. "Just don't look too close or the light might hurt your eyes," he joked.

Things were finally going on the right course, and it didn't seem like they could change for a while. Until they did.
Eric didn't notice anything out of ordinary. He was heading to the training school as usual, when he was met by a sight he hadn't expected to encounter there. Actually, he was surprised not only by what his eyes saw, but also what his mind made of it. He knew who she was, practically as well as he knew himself. But either his eyes were playing a trick on him, or she had suddenly become extremely beautiful. Everything, from the long threads of gold that fell gracefully down to her young breasts, to her soft skin which was all white except for her ruby-like lips and her cheeks that trapped the sun in them, and the shiny fragments of clear sky that rested peacefully on her face, was all perfect. Even her long white dress decorated with small glittering stones which had once seemed like an excess of elegance to Eric, looked completely different as the wind formed soft waves on its surface. The merial didn't understand what was going on, but he didn't do anything to stop it.

"Is everything alright?," Mariel asked, bringing him back to reality.
"I think so," Eric responded. "I was just remembering how you were surrounded by light when I first met you. And now..."
"And now?," Mariel wanted to know. Eric did his best to find the words.
"Now it looks like the light is inside you," he finally finished.
"I hope so," Mariel sighed worriedly. "I feel we will need all the light we can get."
"Why, what's wrong?"
"I don't know yet."
It's amazing how those can be the scariest words, especially remembering the last time Eric had heard her pronounce them.
"Where?," he asked.
"Somewhere between Urthum and Isthum, I think," Mariel replied.
Without the need for further words, both elves ran to the place Mariel pointed to. What they found was a large burnt area which seemed to have held crops in the past. That, and a large group of lurians floating over the burnt land, and a motionless Erin kneeling down on the blackness.
"What happened here?," Eric asked.
"We shouldn't have let our guards down," Mariel lamented.
"What would you have done?," a red lurian they recognized as Nayra faced her. "This is something no one could have predicted nor prevented."
"Screw us!," cried out an enraged Pura. Everybody turned towards her. "After all these years of being so careful... What have all our precautions served us for?"
"Well, they didn't attack us," pointed out Yolker, a male blue lurian who had also assisted Eric in his training. "Only our crops."
"But we'll starve without them!," complained a pink lurian who was unknown to the elves.
"We will work hard, and we will get them back," Tirena decided.
"But we must find a way to stop this from happening again," her brother pointed out.
"We'll cast protection spells," suggested Sofrim, the gray lurian sorcerer. "We won't take our safety for granted again."
"That won't be enough," Erin finally broke her silence and stood up. "I saw what happened here. It was black fire. It struck overnight and consumed everything. I tried to stop it, but I couldn't."
"Why didn't you ask for help, then? For all we know you could have caused the fire!," a light blue lurian accused her.
"I did ask for help," Erin defended herself. "Many lurians from Isthum came to help me. Most of them are here now, so you can ask them. It's not my fault if you were sleeping too deeply. I can't believe after all these years you can lay such an accusation on me! I thought you knew me better than that."
"Please forgive him, he didn't mean it," a maroon lurian begged her. "You've always helped us and protected us. You've never given us any reason not to trust you."
"Besides, this was black fire," Erin continued. "Caused by magic. I consider myself able to fight many kinds of magic, but I can't use it myself."
"Do you think it was Kharchek?," Eric suggested, worried.
"I feel traces of magic here," Mariel said. "But not his magic. This is something else."
"Then we're being attacked from more than one front," he concluded.
"This is what I've been fearing," Mariel revealed.
"What are we going to do now?," asked Pura.
"You, work on restoring your crops and protecting yourselves," Erin instructed. "I'll get to the source of this and finish it off once and for all."
"What?! It's too dangerous! You can't do it on your own!," Eric warned her.
"Thanks for your concern, kid, but I can't stay motionless while someone or something is trying to take over the world. I'd rather die fighting than watch everything I hold dear crumble in front of me."
That was a side of Erin he had never seen before. He had always thought there was more to her than she cared to show. Now he was finding that to be an understatement.
"I'll go with you," Eric offered. "I'm finishing my training soon. I was going to go on a journey anyway, so I'd rather go with you and do something right."
"I'm going too," Mariel said. "Over the last year I've been feeling something was wrong. I can't live with that feeling unless I try to do something about it."
"You two really are something!," Tirena praised them.
"I've always known it," Pura remarked.
"That must mean one of us is going too," Einy deduced. "Who will it be?"
"Auna will decide that," Shurin informed her. "She'll talk to all of you before the journey begins."
"I just hope things turn out right," she sighed.
"We'll make sure they do," Eric promised.

So far so good.  Is this chapter 5 or 6, though?

Err... it was chapter 6, sorry. Chapter 5 is up, and so is chapter 6 since you've already read it.

New chapter up!


Erin didn't like the idea, but she agreed to stay for a few more days until Eric graduated from the lurians' school. Before meeting him, she wouldn't have thought she'd ever wait for a kid to follow her on a dangerous journey, but there was something special about Eric. He somehow reminded her of the way things should have always been. And deep inside, though she wouldn't admit it to herself, she wanted to believe in him. She wanted him to be right, to be able to make a difference.

Eric's parents were ok with his going on an exploration trip. His mother had done that many times, though she hadn't started at such a young age as her son's. But if Eric had proved something in his life, it was that he could take care of himself. Mariel wasn't as lucky. She went straight to her parents with the truth, telling them that she'd been feeling something was wrong and urging them to go to the council and take action. She was too worried to rely on her little group alone. Eric and the lurians had only seen small parts of the problem, but she'd been sensing magic at work for the last year, and it was getting stronger. She talked to her parents about all of this, and they said that if there was ever a threat to Ayrus, the city would be protected and there would be nothing to fear. Other places beyond Ayrus didn't even cross their minds, let alone searching for the source of the problem and taking it down before it became too strong for anyone. And, of course, they wouldn't listen to Mariel's ideas. Why would they? She was only 14 after all and they'd been around since like forever; they had to know better than her! Despite knowing this, she mentioned the thought of going to the council herself, only to be told that she wasn't old enough to present an issue to the council or attend their meetings. Mariel didn't know what to do. All her ideas were reaching dead ends. Finally, she came up with a good one, but the only way to get it to work would be allowing her parents enough time to dismiss the subject.

All the lurians from Urthum had gathered around the training school for Eric's graduation ceremony. Even some from Isthum were there, acknowledging the importance of the event. Erin stood out among the crowd, as of course did Eric's parents. Eric was the center of attention as he stood by Auna's side while she pronounced an emotive speech. Well, emotive for Eric, at least, who felt like he couldn't hold his heart from jumping out of his chest. For as long as the ceremony lasted, all his worries faded away. He felt like the dream he'd worked for during his whole life was finally coming true. Even though Auna warned him that he still had a lot to learn and that facing the outside world would be his real trial, Eric felt he was finally a warrior; and nothing could be better than that. Well, nothing except having Mariel by his side, watching him achieve his greatest dream. He couldn't understand why she wasn't there; her absence was the only thing that stopped him from feeling complete.

When Auna's speech concluded, Eric's parents handed him a backpack with a shield, clothes, a small and old book and some vitals which, along with his sword, would conform his equipment on his journey. Then came the time to announce the name of the lurian who would become Eric's guide. Eric was nervous. He hoped it was a lurian he'd already talked to; that way it would be easier to get along during a long trip. He hoped Shurin had been right about Auna choosing someone who was close to him. In the end, those worries disappeared when Auna called out Pura's name. The light violet lurian soared above the crowd and reached Eric's right shoulder in a split second. Eric smiled.

"It's good to see it's you," he said.
"Really? Well, now I'm flattered!," she chirped.
"Did you want to come with me?"
"You bet, little big guy!," she laughed. "I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I want to watch you become what I see you can be."
"But this is no ordinary trip. This could be dangerous," he warned her.
"As dangerous as staying," Pura pointed out. "We've already been attacked, remember? Anyway, I'm not an easy target. I'll be proud to watch your back and guide you as I was trained to."
"Can you tell me something?," Eric asked her.
"Sure, what is it?"
"How did they choose you? I mean, did you pass a test or something?"
"I passed all my tests, just like everyone else," she told him. "Then Auna talked to us one by one. I think that's how she made up her mind. She asked me what my relationship with you was like, and how I felt about you and about going on a journey like this. I guess she liked my answers."
"And what were your answers?"
"You already know. It's not like I'm not telling you all the time, right?"
"Right," Eric laughed.
"For a moment, I thought that I was too excited and that they would look for someone who was more balanced, like Nayra," she began to say, when Erin interrupted them.
"Are we going?," the faerie said. "I've already waited long enough, I'm not waiting until you decide to finish your endless conversation, which you can continue as we move, by the way."
"Just a second," Eric said, looking around.

He began to walk slowly, as if searching for something. Pura and Erin didn't understand what was going on, but they followed him past the nearest trees, away from the puzzled crowd, where Eric finally found the one he had been missing.
"I was afraid you wouldn't come," Eric admitted to her.
"Sorry, I had some problems," Mariel apologized. "My parents wouldn't let me go on a quest to save the world; I had to convince them that I was going on a trip to explore the forest and improve my knowledge of nature and magic. Which I'll probably be doing anyway. I tried to catch up with you at the ceremony, but I see I was too late."
"You hate telling lies, don't you?," Eric observed.
"It's not the way I am," she told him. "But well, I've managed to have them let me go. Them and Jasmine; she didn't want me to leave, but I promised her I would return and said it was important, and in the end she accepted. I can begin to do things right from now. Oh, they gave me a shield, by the way, in case I need protection."
She handed Eric a shield she took from her own backpack and he examined it. It was flat, with a plain silvery face on which you could see your own face, golden borders and a handle.
"It's quite thin and its shape is not the best," Eric diagnosed. "It won't endure many strong attacks. But at least it will offer some protection."
"Thanks for the information," Mariel replied. "I'll try to use some magic on it to make it better."
"The shield is not the biggest problem," Erin commented breaking into the conversation.
"What else is wrong?," Mariel asked her.
"Are you really planning to go on a journey dressed like that?!," Erin scolded her. "That pretty dress of yours will tear apart as soon as it gets stuck on the first thorn. And it won't be good for running either. Maybe if you could fly, you could afford that luxury; but even so, I wouldn't go out to a possible confrontation wearing something so uncomfortable and fragile."
"I know it won't last long," Mariel told her. "And I don't mind. I'm willing to take much bigger risks than ruining my dress. But think about it. This is a day we will all remember forever. We will now walk our first steps into something I'm sure we can't even begin to imagine. If we succeed, and I trust that we will, everyone who sees us now will remember the moment when we headed off to start our journey. So I think it would be best to offer them a nice image to remember."
"Nice thoughts!," Pura praised her.
"You must be kidding me!," Erin cried out. "I should have expected that from a 14-year-old elvin, but Pura, you're supposed to be the voice of wisdom here!"
"There's nothing wrong in looking good," Pura defended herself. "And she has already stated that she doesn't mind ruining her looks along the journey, so why don't you just relax and let each of us have it our own way?"
"It will be hard to relax among a bunch like you," Erin complained.
"Don't be so rude!," Eric demanded. "If we're going to do something together, we will have to get along. So why don't you make a little effort and start out right?"
Erin sighed. She had no arguments against that logic.
"Ok, but be warned. This is not a game."
"We know that," Mariel assured.

They all went back to Urthum, where they got to say goodbye to everyone and receive their good wishes. Then they headed to the north and, as they passed by Isthum and left it behind, they began their journey into the unknown.

Everything went well until Eric picked up his book and began to browse it.
"What is that book?," Mariel wanted to know.
"It's some kind of catalogue, or manual. It gives information about all the creatures ever found on this area."
"Let me check," Erin said getting on the book and turning its pages until she reached the index. Then she looked at it for a while and left the book. "It only has data on the creatures from the southern half of the forest," she commented.
"I guess it was the best book my mum could afford not to return," Eric sighed.
"I know about some beings from the north," Pura stated. "I studied them at school."
"I know more about some creatures from the south than the book says," Erin replied in a loud voice.
"That was uncalled for," Pura claimed.
"I was just doing the same as you, so if my comment was uncalled for, so was yours," Erin shot back.
"I don't know much about you, but I know you've been living in Isthum and I think I know where you're getting to. I won't let you cause more trouble than we already have."
"I'm not getting anywhere," Erin assured. "I just said that I know about the creatures from the south. So if anyone's causing trouble, that's you. If I were you, I'd rather watch my... oh, wait. I'd rather not be you at all."
"WILL YOU PLEASE STOP IT?!," Eric shouted out. "Why can't you two just get along?! You're arguing over nothing! How are we supposed to stand a chance against an enemy if we can't even stay together without fighting? If Pura knows about the north and Erin knows about the south... well, perfect! Together you both know everything we can find!"
"It doesn't work like that," Erin sighed. "We can come across things we'll never expect. We must be prepared for anything. But you're right about one thing, we mustn't fight amongst ourselves. Besides our knowledge is not something to argue about, right, Pura?"
"Right," Pura agreed.
Neither Eric nor Mariel could understand where that had all come from, but they were glad it was over. Well, at least it was until lunchtime.

When the group began to feel hungry, Pura suggested looking for food in the forest, so that they could save their supplies for a time when food was not at hand. Erin offered to make a fire for the things that needed to be cooked, and the problem came when Eric offered to help Erin.
"I can do it alone. Go help your friends find something to put on the fire," Erin insisted.
"Why can't you ever accept help?," Eric asked.
"I accept help when I need it," Erin affirmed. "Right now I don't. And when I don't, I work best on my own."
"I'm trying to help you, not to hold you back," Eric remarked.
"I know. Holding me back is just an unfortunate side effect. Just think about it, I could have almost finished getting the wood by now."
"You don't have to be so rude, you know," Eric told her. "What's going on with you? You're acting so strange today!"
"I always act strange," Erin pointed out.
"True, and I don't know why you do it. But still, you've never been like this before. Why is it? Are you mad at Pura for something?"
"No, I barely even know her," she confessed.
"Then why are you treating her like that? She's good, she doesn't mean to hurt you. It looks as if you were trying to push everyone away from you!"
"You know what? You make the fire. It will serve you as practice," Erin decided. "I'll go and find something to eat for all of us."
Before Eric could reply, the faerie flew away, leaving the merial with the thought that he would never get to understand her.

After lunch, they went on, not knowing what they were going to find, nor when they would find it. Every now and then Pura would fly up and check how things looked ahead of them, but she never found anything out of ordinary. At least Erin and her had stopped fighting for the moment.
"I must admit I thought this trip would be more exciting," Eric commented.
"Get used to this," Erin told him. "Warriors usually have to travel long distances without anything 'exciting' happening on the way. It's better this way. It means we're not being considered a threat yet."
"By whom?," Eric asked.
"Whoever we're up against," Erin answered.
"How do we even know we're going on the right direction?," Eric questioned.
"The perturbed sorcerer escaped to the north. The black fire came from the north. Whatever's going on, it's coming from there."
"But they could have moved by now. They could be anywhere. We don't even know who we're after. Is Kharchek working with someone else or did the black fire have nothing to do with him?"
"I feel we're on the right way," Mariel informed him. That seemed to calm him down a little.

An uneventful day came to its end, followed by an also uneventful night in which the travelers set up a small camp and took turns to keep guard. They resumed their activity with the sunrise, and kept moving until a wall of vines blocked their way. Countless vines were linking each pair of trees for as far as they could see on each side, pressed tight against each other forming a solid structure.
"This can't be natural," Pura stated the obvious. "And no creatures form something like this for their everyday lives. The dassels may use a similar construction as a dam, but we're not anywhere near a river now."
"I can cut through it with my sword," Eric readied himself.
"So can I, but we'd better not destroy what others built without a reason," Erin advised him. "We don't know what this wall is for. It may be some kind of protection."
"You're right. Sorry," Eric apologized. "What should we do, then?"
"I think we should go over it," Erin suggested.
"It's so high!," Mariel noted. "I think I'll need help to climb it."
"I'll help you," Eric offered. "You start climbing and I'll go right behind you."

Mariel and Erin began to climb the wall of vines, while Erin and Pura flew by their side. Pura would go up and down and tell Mariel how much closer she was getting. Mariel's main concern at that moment was how she would make it down after reaching the top. However, when he set her foot on the other side of the wall, getting down was the least of her problems. One of the vines suddenly wrapped itself around her ankle, while the others began to shake making her lose her grip. She managed to find another spot to get her hands on before falling, but then all the vines of the wall untied themselves and began to move, hitting both elves and throwing them from side to side. Until Mariel finally slipped. Erin managed to hold Mariel's back up and slow down her fall so that she got to the ground unhurt. Eric jumped down evading as many vines as he could and slicing the others with his sword. Pura flew down right behind him.

"What's going on?!," he asked when she reached the ground.
"Dassels," Pura responded. "But if you're asking why they're attacking us, that I don't know."
As soon as Pura said this, a dozen of small plant faeries came out of everywhere and surrounded them. They stared at the group with rage, and all the plants around them turn towards them backing the dassels up.
"Why are you doing this?," Mariel asked, trying to avoid a confrontation that was inevitable to everyone else's eyes.
"We won't tolerate any trespassers," one of the dassels spoke.
"But we're not trying to hurt you. We're just trying to move ahead," she explained.
"That's something you're not going to do," another dassel said, stretching out an arm. At that moment, one of the vines hit Mariel from behind.
"Ok, if you're looking for trouble, you don't know what you're getting yourselves into," Erin warned them, taking her sword out of nowhere.
She pressed her hands against her sword, and as a branch threw itself against her, she sliced it in two as if it was thin air.
"Are you three going to do something or will you just watch?," Erin called out.

As the dassels kept attacking, Eric put his own sword to use, while Mariel and Pura shot light spheres at the dassels.
The faeries were hit by the light attacks, but they resisted. The plants they used to attack were turned to pieces, but they kept coming. There wasn't much Mariel could do when some of the vines caught her by her waist and wrists and began to press against her.
"We're not doing anything to them!," Pura complained. "Dassels feed on light. We need more power to defeat them."
"We have more power," Erin affirmed. "I haven't sliced any of the dassels yet, but I will if they force me to."
Saying this, she made for the vines that were trapping Mariel and cut them down.
"Thanks. I'll try something different now," Mariel announced. "Everybody close your eyes."
Her companions did as she instructed, even if that put them at a disadvantage. Eric trusted her completely and Erin wanted to find out what she had in mind. As for Pura, they didn't know if she even had eyes to close, but in any case not many things could hurt her. Even through their eyelids, the bright light that suddenly appeared was annoying. To anyone who had been looking straight at it, it would have been blinding. When it faded away, they all opened their eyes. The dassels were lying on the ground, and the plants had stopped moving.

"Are they..." Eric began to ask.
"They're dazed," Mariel told him. "The light was too intense for them. Even plants are hurt when they're exposed to too much light."
"Then we'd better go before they wake up," Pura suggested.
"Better for them," Erin blared as she started moving. "This wasn't a real battle. It was just warm-up. No dassel would stand a chance against my sword, and you're all stronger than you think. This means our enemies are still disorganized. Otherwise they wouldn't have let dassels attack us. They would have picked a bigger threat."
"What do you mean?," Eric asked her. "Are you saying those dassels and Kharchek are connected?"
"Maybe not directly," Erin reflected. "Not yet, but I think that the same force is driving them."
"What force? And how did you come to that conclusion?"
"I haven't figured everything out yet, but I'm working on it," Erin said. "By the way, nice trick you pulled out, Mariel!"
"Thanks. It was hard; I hadn't been able to test it before. It was Glare, a level 3 spell. I only managed to make it this strong because light is my element."
"What's a level 3 spell?," asked Eric.
"Most magic books have spells sorted by difficulty level. The higher the level, the harder it is to learn them and cast them. They also tend to be more powerful. Most magic users start by learning low level spells, both when they begin their training and when they start exploring a new domain. Level 3 is not very strong, but I'm still learning; and I can make light spells stronger than they normally would be."
"It's good that we have a strong light user in the group," Pura sighed. "I should learn some magic too. Otherwise I won't be able to help much in battle. I'm a light being, I should be able to harness light as well as you do."
"And better," Mariel added. "I still have a lot to learn. But I can try to teach you what I know."
"That would be great," Pura accepted.
"So, what are we going to do now?," Eric asked.
"Keep moving," Erin replied. "And prepare ourselves physically and mentally for what lies ahead. Then see what they throw at us."

Aw, have they stopped bickering already?  I kind of liked the idea of a party where the members hate each other  >:3

No, I think they just stop bickering when attacked. Given a bit of time alone, they'll start bickering again...


:-)

You're both right, in a way... It's not that they hate each other (sorry to disappoint you), but there's some tension between them, mainly due to the fact that one of them talks too little and the other talks too much. Add that to the fact that they're both keeping secrets but Erin knows what Pura's secret is... and there you have it.

And now... the begining of a side-quest. Because all adventures have at least one of them.


The encounter with the dassels, as brief as it had been, had affected the group. Not a word was said for hours, and when Eric finally broke the silence, Erin wished that he hadn't.
"I kept thinking about what you said," he told her. "That you hadn't sliced any dassels yet, but you would if you had to."
"I said what I had to say," Erin replied, anticipating his question. That didn't stop him from going on.
"Would you really have killed them?," he questioned her.
Erin sighed and thought for a moment.
"Believe me, I'm not one to kill first and think later; I don't take life lightly. But sometimes... more often than not... things don't turn out the way they should. If they leave us with no choice, then I will. If it's our lives or theirs, I'll choose ours."
"Have you ever killed anyone before?," Eric inquired.
The silence that followed made the merial really scared.
"Have you?!," he insisted.
"No," Erin finally replied, allowing breath to return to her friend. "But I should have."
"What do you mean? How? Why?!"
"Trust me this time. You don't want to know."
"Don't push us aside like this," Mariel joined the discussion. "We'll never be able to understand you if you don't open up yourself."
"I don't need you to understand me," Erin groaned. "I don't need anyone to understand me."

With this, she began to fly faster, putting as much distance as she could between her and the rest of the group. It didn't help: Pura was much faster than her, and reached her in a second.
"Go away, lurian!," Erin shouted. "Go back and protect the young ones."
"They're not the ones who need me at this moment," Pura stated.
"I don't need you either," Erin rejected her. "You may know more about me than they do, but that doesn't give you the right to interfere with my life."
"I don't know that much about you," Pura admitted. "I know you arrived in Isthum about 8 years ago, but that's all. Whatever the Isthumi knew, they've kept to themselves."
"And that doesn't bother you?," Erin inquired.
"You'll open up when you feel you're ready," she answered. "I know why secrets are kept; it's for protection. And I don't intend to threaten whatever it is you're protecting."
"I guess having a lurian in the group is not that bad after all," Erin chuckled. "But if you're not trying to find out the story of my life, then why did you follow me?"
"To bring you back," Pura replied. "We need you, Erin. You're the only one in the group who has real fighting experience, and you've seen through your own eyes many of the things I've only read in books. Besides, Eric cares for you. He suffers a lot when he sees you're hurt."
"How do you know that?," Erin queried.
"The little big guy is quite transparent," Pura replied. "Since the first time I saw the two of you together, I knew he considered you a good friend. And he takes friendship very seriously."
There was a moment of silence, in which Erin seemed to be having an inner debate.
"I guess I've been unfair, haven't I?," she concluded. "How can I go on a quest to save the world if I can only think about myself?"
"Does that mean you're returning?"
"Yes, I'll go back with you," Erin confirmed. "But please, don't tell the kids anything about this conversation. Something like this could easily give them a wrong idea about me. I don't want them to think I'm fragile or anything."
"Whatever you say. Though I believe having feelings is a strength, not a sign of fragility."
"Hold on to your innocence, Pura," Erin smiled. "You as much as the kids."

Not much happened after Erin rejoined the group and the elves gave her a warm welcome. The curious thing was that the mysterious faerie didn't engage in an argument with anyone else for the rest of the day. But she was far from relaxed. She was still alert, trying to detect any threats before they were caught in them. Nothing seemed to come, and so she considered the possibility of the attack from the dassels being an isolated incident. She considered it, but didn't find it very likely. Her mind was still juggling with the theory of a web of evil forces, full of threads with ends that were distant from each other and rather disorganized, but with a core... a common origin somewhere. If that theory was correct, it would be some time before they reached the core, but the threats would start coming more often and being tighter and more refined as they advanced in their journey.

Erin had accidentally let her mind wander, and only became aware of it when the sound of flowing water became too strong to go unnoticed.
"We're heading towards a river," she announced.
"That's great!," Eric exclaimed. "That way we'll have as much water as we need for as long as we follow it."
"That's not great," Erin contradicted him. "While having water is a good thing, no place is as exposed as a river. No trees grow over it, so we'll be easily spotted from the air. And the creatures who live in the water can be very treacherous. Some of them can blend with the water and you can't see them until they're onto you. And if they manage to drag you into the water, you're lost. It's much harder to fight in the water, and your need for air becomes a great disadvantage against the creatures who can breathe underwater. If they decide to attack us, let's not give them the surprise factor and the advantage of fighting in their own territory."
"You know," Pura began, "as dangerous as that may be, we don't know if any water creatures are going to attack us; and we do know that we need water. Being spotted from the air won't be a problem if we go near the river, but not right on the shore. And that way whatever is in there will have to come out of the water to reach us."
"I think she's right," Mariel supported her.
"Then you all agree," Erin sighed, beginning to fly towards the river. "I can't argue with that, but I still have a bad feeling."
"No offense, but was there ever a moment in which you didn't have a bad feeling?," Eric questioned, following her. The others began to move.
"There were some," Erin replied. "And those moments turned out to be right before disaster stroke."
"In that case maybe your having a bad feeling now is a good sign," Eric joked.
"That doesn't make any sense," Erin argued.
"But it's logically correct," Pura remarked.
Erin stared at her with a look that demanded an explanation and it had better be a good one.
"Well, if you stick to pure logic and don't try to make any sense out of it," Pura conceded.
"I can't make any sense of what you just said, but if you call that logic, then your logic is useless," Erin protested.
"That's Erin for you. Always so visceral," Pura commented to no one in particular.
"I don't think my internal organs have much to do with your senseless babbling," Erin countered.
"Don't tell me you don't even know what 'visceral' means in this context!"
"Please don't start it again!," Mariel cried.
"I think I shouldn't have said anything at all," Eric reflected.

They maintained the course until the river became visible, and then turned to follow its flow. The argument eventually died down and the forest was once more filled with its own sounds, out of which the sound of the water predominated. That was until a new sound became audible. It was a high-pitched sound, like a screech, which as the group got closer became a desperate cry.
"I will investigate," Pura proposed, flashing towards the origin of the sounds.
In a blink, the lurian was back.
"It's a mermaid," she announced. "She's trapped in a net of algae and trailing plants, and she looked hurt. Who knows how long she's been struggling to get out!"
"We must help her!," Eric declared.
Waiting no longer than a second for a response, the merial rushed to the site where the mermaid lay.
"We need to do something about his impulsiveness," Erin commented, following him.
Mariel followed quietly, but as fast as she could.

As soon as they got to the river, they could see the mermaid. Her long, platinum-blond hair was so tangled in the water plants that they seemed to be the same thing. She had trailing plants wrapped around her arms, waist and neck, and all around her long fish-like tail, which had some visible cuts probably made by the branches. Eric took out his sword and the mermaid screamed.
"Don't be scared, we're trying to help you," Mariel assured.
The screaming stopped, allowing Eric to cut the branches one by one. Mariel took out her small knife from her backpack -the one she used to cut herbs for her potions- and helped him.
"I wonder how she does it," Erin commented.
"How she does what?," Pura asked.
"Get everyone to trust her," Erin explained.
"Oh. It must be because she distills honesty," Pura concluded.

Soon, the mermaid was free of her vegetal prison.
"How can I thank you?," she spoke in a thin voice.
"You could tell us what happened to you," Eric said.
"Oh. I was assaulted by a group of dassels and heerynauts."
"Heerynauts?," Eric asked.
"Small water creatures. They can manipulate the water around them," Pura explained.
"Who are you?," Erin inquired.
"I'm Mirna from Asyrann," the mermaid replied.
"Asyrann?," Erin asked, looking at Pura.
"Never heard of that place," Pura replied.
"Asyrann is a city built on the bottom of the Heelim lake, downstream from here," Mirna informed them. "Or at least it was. Now that our pearl has been stolen, the city will die unless we manage to find it."
"How can a whole city depend on a pearl?," Eric inquired.
"It wasn't any pearl. The Pearl of Asyran holds an immense magical power. It provided us with light in places so deep that the rays of the sun can't touch them, it kept the whole lake at an ideal temperature all year long, and those who were ill or hurt would heal immediately upon touching it. I don't know when or how the pearl was created, but the whole city was built around it, and we may not survive without it."
"How was it stolen?," Mariel queried.
"It was so strange... we had never been attacked before, but one day a large group of heerynauts entered the city and did something to the water. Suddenly everything became black, and not even the light from the pearl could cast the darkness away. Everyone was confused. We didn't understand what was going on, but the first thing we all thought of was protecting the pearl. However, a loud screeching sound came in from everywhere and we became dizzy. I remember being hit by something, but I can't tell if it was a weapon or a wall. When the sound stopped, we tried to find the pearl, but we couldn't. A few minutes later the water cleared out, and we saw the pearl holder was empty. Many scouts were sent to find the heerynauts. I was one of them. But as you can see, I fell into a trap."
"That's awful!," Eric exclaimed. "Is there any way we can help you?"
"Maybe," she said. "Who are you?"
"Oh, sorry we didn't introduce ourselves," Mariel apologized. "My name is Mariel. He's Eric, and these are Erin and Pura. We're on an initiation journey, but we're also trying to find the source of the evil forces that have been affecting the world lately."
"Tell everyone, will you?," Erin scolded her. "Why don't you send a flare signal so that our enemies track us down, since you're at it?"
"I'm sorry, Erin, but Mirna seems reliable," Mariel defended herself.
"She does," Erin agreed. "But appearances can be deceitful."
"Give her some credit," Eric supported Mariel. "She's a powerful sorceress. She knows who she can trust."
"You're a sorceress?," Mirna asked Mariel.
"Yes, but not as powerful as he gives me credit for," she told her. "I still have a lot to learn. But I do have a good intuition to judge the intentions of others."
"It looks like you're a group of heroes or something," Mirna commented. "You can help me, then. Come to Asyrann with me and help us recover the pearl from its captors."
"Why go to Asyrann?," Erin questioned her. "The pearl must be miles away by now. It will probably be somewhere away from the water, where your people can't reach it."
"If the pearl is so powerful, then its magic would be felt from a long distance if it were out of the water," Mariel theorized. "We would be able to see its light from here. The air is harder to darken than the water and darkness magic wouldn't last, especially not against that pearl."
"According to everything I've heard about light magic, she's right," Pura backed her up.
"The pearl must be hidden underground, or inside a deep cave," Mariel deduced. "It must be surrounded by something that blocks the passing of light. Still, if we get near it, I should be able to sense its power."
"Let me get this straight," Erin stopped her. "You're not suggesting that we explore the soil under the water, are you?"
"I think that's the place where we're most likely to find it," Mariel affirmed.
"It's the place where we're most likely to pass out," Erin contradicted her. "If we're going to confront heerynauts, we'll be at their mercy down there."
"What happened to the brave fighter I met two years ago?," Eric asked her.
"She's still here, but she doesn't want to commit suicide," Erin shot back. "There's a line between bravery and recklessness. We have to come up with a different plan."
"So you do want to help?," Eric tried to confirm.
"I never said the opposite," she replied. "But we must make sure we can at least breathe while we try to get the pearl back."
"Oh, if that's the problem, I have the solution," Mirna declared. "I've brought along some bubble leaves. If you chew them, they can provide air for you for up to a day. Maybe more for you and the light creature, since you're smaller."
"My name is Pura," the lurian corrected her.
"Oh, sorry, Pura," she apologized.
"Fighting underwater while chewing leaves for air sounds like one of the most uncomfortable situations I can imagine," Erin remarked, "but I don't want you to think I'm inconsiderate. I'll go with you, but I'll stay above the water until I'm needed. And I suggest we try to lure the heerynauts out of the water if we have to confront them. As a general rule, try not to fight in your opponent's territory."
"Like we've done with the dassels, you mean?," Eric asked her.
"Well, I think a desert or the top of a volcano would be ideal places to fight dassels," Erin pointed out. "But they're bad fighters anyway. At least those we found. They'd even lose a battle in the middle of a jungle."
"The dassels who attacked me were quite strong," Mirna remarked.
"I didn't mean to offend you," Erin stated, probably trying to apologize. "If they were, I'd like to see them. It would be interesting to see a dassel who can touch my sword and still want to fight."
"I thought you'd said something about recklessness," Eric reminded her.
"Give me a break, will you?," Erin laughed. "Ok, so I was bragging, but it's true that I'm yet to see a dassel who can hold itself in a battle for more than 10 minutes."
"I'll get into the river and start searching for the pearl," decided Mariel, putting an end to a conversation that was bound to cause nothing but tension among her partners.

No comments? Ok, the side-quest's ending anyway.


The search for the pearl began with Mirna and Mariel seeking for signs underwater, while Eric, Erin and Pura followed them on the shore. Eric asked why they had to go underwater, and Pura explained that energy spreads in all directions under the water and it would be easier to feel the magic from the pearl that way. As it took time for them to find anything, Eric decided to check his book for information on the heerynauts.

"It doesn't say anything about the screeches Mirna mentioned," he commented after a few moments.
"That book is quite incomplete, if you ask me," Erin remarked.
"The book can't say more than the author knew," Pura pointed out. "Maybe the author didn't get to hear that sound."
"I thought those books were written by professional explorers," Erin said.
"But sometimes not even an explorer gets to see everything," Pura noted. "For example, what would an explorer say about you?"
"Nothing," Erin replied. "I would kick his butt before he got to write my name on a book. If I can't talk him out of it, that is."
"See what I say?," Pura chuckled.
"You're getting worse by the minute!," Eric complained. "Are you sure those evil forces are not affecting you?"
"Don't worry, I'm clean," Erin responded. "I was just kidding about the butt-kicking part. Pura and I have made it a habit of testing each other's limits. Right, Pura?"
"Well, you can put it that way," Pura conceded. "It's true that I'm not mad at you anymore, and I don't think you will do anything to hurt me intentionally. And you can say the same about me."
"Yes, you're too blatantly honest for your own good, but you know how to keep a secret if you have to. I'll just make sure not to give you too many secrets to keep," Erin commented.

"Hey, I've just noticed something!," Eric exclaimed.
"What is it?," Pura asked.
"We're 5 now and I'm the only male!"
"We should give your boy a prize for his observational skills," Erin joked, directing her look at Pura.
"I'm sure he didn't mean he's only just noticed that," Pura defended him.
"No, I knew, but... why am I surrounded by females?"
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?," Pura asked him.
"Don't worry, I'll never act like a typical female, so you're safe," Erin assure.
"What does a typical female act like?," Pura dared her.
"Like the stereotype. You know... all sweet and corny and defenseless... always waiting for a brave guy to save her," Erin described. "Just like... you know."
She pointed with her head to the water, where Mirna was swimming.
"Why do you have to be so aggressive?," Eric questioned her.
"Sorry. It's nothing personal, but I feel disgusted by that kind of attitude. I think everyone should have the means and the courage to do something for themselves. What kind of life would you have otherwise? Just float wherever the river takes you and hope that you won't crash against a rock on your way?"
"I still think you're being unfair," Pura argued. "You barely even know her. Give her a chance. Everyone has something good to offer."
"Not everyone, but I can't blame you. I used to think that way too, when I was younger," Erin confessed. "It feels better to think that. The world looks nicer and simpler."
"How old are you?," Eric inquired.
"2 years older than I was the first time you asked," she said.
"But you didn't tell me that time," Eric reminded her.
"Then what makes you think I'm going to tell you now?"
"Well, we're friends now," Eric pointed out.
"Ok, friend, I'm older than you and Mariel and probably older than Pura, but that's all you're ever gonna get, so please stop asking."
"You have an incredible talent for responding to questions without answering them, did you know that?"
"Thanks, I'm flattered," Erin smiled.

Fortunately for everyone, the argument came to a stop due to Mariel coming out to the surface, followed by Mirna.
"I've felt something," Mariel announced. "Powerful magic. It must be the pearl, or maybe what's holding it."
"Great!," Eric exclaimed. "Where is it?"
"A few steps ahead, there's a tunnel going down from the left side of the river."
"On the other shore, you mean?"
"Yes, under the shore. That's where the energy's coming from."
"Oh, great!," Erin exclaimed sarcastically.
"What's the problem?," Eric asked her.
"Nothing, nothing. Let's go and get this over with."

Mirna handed out the bubble leaves and everyone took them in and got into the water. Erin stayed behind for a moment, fighting her own thoughts. Her muscles tensed when the cold water touched her skin, but she knew she couldn't allow herself to be slowed down by a minor annoyance. If she was going to reach the center of the web, the 'core' as she called it, then she would have to endure much worse than whatever she'd find now. This was only the first test. She had an air supply to last for a day or more and the chances of the tunnel collapsing were small unless someone caused that intentionally. She'd have to make sure that didn't happen. And yes, the water would offer resistance to her moves, but she had the physical strength to counter that effect. Her friends wouldn't be so lucky, but she'd help them if they needed her. The only problem left was her sword. But she'd deal with that when the time came.

The tunnel was long and silent. Too silent. The only sounds they could hear were the ones they made while swimming and releasing the worn-out air from their lungs. Until Mirna heard something, and stopped. The others, who were behind her, stopped to look at her.
"They're close," she informed them, being the only one who could speak underwater.
Erin got closer to her, but didn't find a way to get more information. In the end, she took the front and swam forward.
Erin and the others began to hear the sounds a few seconds later. Many voices, all speaking at the same time. It was impossible to make out what they were saying. Not long afterwards, they took a turn and found an opening. The walls of the tunnel parted from each other, forming a spherical area the size of a small house. Many small, blue-skinned beings were gathered inside, chatting loudly. A white light came from behind the crowd. It had to be the pearl. Naturally, they couldn't stay there contemplating it. Light travels in all directions, and just as the group saw the heerynauts, the water creatures spotted them. Of course, that would have had to happen sooner or later, and there would have been no way to discuss a plan underwater. There are times when you just have to improvise.

The heerynauts stopped talking and looked at each other, confused. Apparently they weren't expecting an intrusion. Finally, one of them came out from the crowd, floating right in front of the furthest wall, and issued a command.
"Get them!"

The heerynauts turned to the intruders and closed their fists together in front of their mouths. Not the kind of action the pearl seekers were expecting. Actually, no action seemed to follow. This was really awkward. Until Mirna began to scream and cry. The others looked at her, and saw she was covering her ears with her hands and twisting her body uncontrollably. That explained many things. Among the creatures who inhabited the forest of Lumms, mermaids had the most acute hearing. Probably the explorer who had written Eric's book hadn't been able to hear the heerynauts' sonic attack. But that wasn't the time to think about those things. It was the time to act.

Eric took out his sword and launched himself forward towards the heerynauts. The blue creatures were caught by surprise, but reacted fast, clinging to Eric's arms and legs and hindering his moves more than the water could. Mariel and Pura began to shoot light spheres at the heerynauts, trying to open a path in order to reach the pearl. They were succeeding. Well, at least until a dart was shot at Mariel's back. She fell, and when she tried to stand up again her body was all covered by heerynauts pressing her against the ground, like ants on a fallen piece of fruit. Pura moved up, and kept shooting her light balls at Mariel's attackers, but they were too many for her alone. That was when Erin came in their aid. Her fists managed to set enough heerynauts apart for the elvin to stand back on her feet. However, Mariel tumbled and immediately noticed that something was wrong. She took the dart out of her back and looked at it, worried. She couldn't smell it under the water, but she didn't have to. She was already experiencing the dizziness and clumsiness that came as the first symptoms of poisoning with several substances that Primrose had taught her about. She didn't know what kind of posion it was yet, but she knew she had to heal herself before she fell unconscious. If that happened, it would most probably be too late. Luckily for her, elves had a natural resistance to most toxic substances, so her body would be able to fight the poison for a while unless more darts came her way. She walked slowly, trying to make for the pearl.

Erin instantly recognized Mariel's condition and her intentions, and made it her task to protect her from further attacks. Of course, that was easier thought than done. She could have easily blocked attacks with her sword, but there wasn't enough air to summon it. It was incredible how something so valuable could be taken for granted most of the time. She looked around, searching for the heerynaut with the darts, and found him in time for stopping him from taking another shot. She moved faster than she'd ever thought she could under the water, and broke the heerynaut's blowgun in two with her bare hands. The heerynaut seemed to be as surprised as she was; but the shock didn't last long. The blue-skinned being opened his hands, stretching out the membranes between his fingers, and a strong current of water blew Erin down, sticking her to the ground. She tried to get back up, but more heerynauts surrounded her and the water began to press harder. She couldn't move; and what was worse, the pressing stream didn't leave enough room in her neck for the little air that came out of the bubble leaves to pass. The only thought that crossed Erin's mind at that moment was "I knew something bad would happen".

Eric had his hands full with heerynauts attacking him from all directions. He used his sword to blow away their attacks, but there was only so much he could do. And, all his old friends being out of sight, he couldn't turn his back on Mirna, who now lay immobilized on the ground, her eyelids tightly closed and her hands pressing against her ears. He couldn't begin to imagine how much the sound was hurting her. He had to find the heerynauts who were still making it, and stop them.

Mariel had almost made it. She could already see the pearl in front of her. Its pure, beautiful light invited her to get closer, giving her the strength to walk the next step, and the following one... but the heerynauts surrounded her before she could reach it. Before she knew, she was trapped in a whirlpool, spinning out of control. She was in pain, and the dizziness forced her to close her eyes. Although inside the whirlpool she would have seen nothing but blurs anyway.

"I can't let them win," she thought. "I'm so close, I have to do something!"

She felt a strong pain run up her spine. As a reflex, she let her shoulders and head fall forward. One second later, an idea came to her mind. She stop struggling against the water, letting her whole body fall.
"She's out," one of the heerynauts said. The water around Mariel stopped spinning, and instead deposited her slowly on the ground. The elvin lay motionless, confirming the heerynaut's thoughts. The water creatures closed in, ready to deal the final blow and get rid of her forever, but all of a sudden an intense light came out from the apparently inert body, blinding them. The light pierced through their flesh, or at least that was how they felt it. All the cells in their bodies began to vibrate. It was a kind of energy they weren't used to, and they couldn't stand it. The ones who were closer to Mariel fell unconscious. The others fled as fast as they could, leaving the elf alone. Mariel opened her eyes, letting the light guide her, and slithered on the ground. "This is the last effort," she told herself. "Then everything will be fine."

Pura watched everything from above, trying to come up with the best course of action, her own mind being her worst opponent.
"I can't be so worthless," she scolded herself. "How did I ever get to graduate? I wasn't that bad at the practices, but I'm useless when real trouble comes. My friends cannot count on me when they need me the most!"
Her thoughts were beginning to irritate her more than her enemies ever could. If she didn't react to them, she would sooner or later react to her own rage against herself. She could launch herself against the heerynauts just to shut her thoughts up. Of course, that wouldn't help much. She would have to control herself or else the heerynauts would be onto her in no time.
"Now that I think of it, why haven't they attacked me yet?," she wondered. "They have seen me, and they have felt my attacks before, so why didn't they react? Do they consider me too little of a threat to worry about me, or is it that they haven't figured out how to hurt me yet?"
Those thoughts sounded promising. In either case, she had an advantage. Whether she was being underestimated, or thought invulnerable, she stood a chance to go back into the battle without receiving any attacks, at least for some time. That should be enough to do something helpful once and for all. Sometimes it was good to be a lurian.

She crossed the battlefield trying to find the place where she was needed the most, and soon found Erin, who was still being crushed by the water attacks. She did her best to make her light balls stronger than ever, and shot them at each of the faerie's attackers. The heerynauts were thrown off-balance, allowing the winged warrior to get up and swallow the air contained in her mouth. She would have thanked Pura if she'd been able to speak. But things being as they were, she contented herself with dealing some bone-crashing blows with her fists, repaying the favors she had received.

Eric finally managed to reach the screeching heerynauts. He was learning to handle himself in the water, and it didn't take him long to neutralize them. All he had to do was pin his sword into the ground and send a shockwave through it. The earth below the heerynauts ascended, hitting them and making them fall. That didn't really hurt them, as the water cushioned the impact, but at least it was enough to make them stop screeching. Now Mirna was able to get back up and swim towards the pearl. She was a really fast swimmer. More heerynauts tried to block her way, but they were pinned down by Pura's light balls. The lurian had turned out to be a better fighter than she'd given herself credit for. Eric followed the mermaid, and soon encountered Erin on the way. Once together, both warriors set themselves to block the way for any attacking heerynauts. They had already assembled themselves as a team. No words were needed.

When Mirna reached the pearl, she noticed the wall in front of her was undulating. She wondered what was going on, but she knew she didn't have the time to investigate it. She took the big pearl in her hands, and its light became stronger.
"I am now protected by the Pearl of Asyrann," she declared. "There's nothing you can do to hurt me."

She then noticed Mariel lying on the ground, and brought the pearl down to the elvin's hand. Mariel touched it, and felt its life-giving energy surge through her. It felt as if time had stopped to help her heal. Everything was silent. Soon, she was able to stand up. She offered Mirna her most grateful smile, a poor gesture for the help the mermaid had offered, but the only thing she could do at that moment. Then she turned against the heerynauts like her friends.
"Leave now," Mirna ordered. "And never come back."

Erin shook her head, unbelieving. Could Mirna really be so stupid? Well, maybe she had an excuse. Maybe she had lived away from any threats all her life and had never learned about the danger of the words she had just pronounced. That was, unfortunately, a lesson that could only be learnt the hard way.

Most heerynauts were already out, but the ones that remained weren't quite eager to comply with Mirna's command. They launched their most powerful currents of water at her, pushing her against the waving wall. The mud began to pull her in. She made her best effort to come out and to keep the pearl away from the wall, but the wiggling mud was too strong. Erin rushed to help her, and caught one of the mermaid's wrists in her arms. She began to pull with all her strength. Eric helped her pulling the other arm, and then her shoulder, while Mariel and Pura used their light attacks to stop the heerynauts. Mirna finally made it out of the wall, and swam for her life when the whole place was engulfed in a huge whirlpool. She embraced the pearl firmly, and Pura clang to her hair. Eric and Mariel held each other's hands and struggled to get out, while Erin pushed them to make them move faster. The water lifted up all the fallen heerynauts, and caught even the ones who were still swimming, pulling everyone and everything into the undulating wall.

"What's going on?," Mirna shouted, holding the pearl with all her strength.
No one could reply, but even if they had been able to speak, that wouldn't have helped much. They were all clueless. All they knew at that moment was that they had to get out. They held on to each other firmly and pushed forward with everything they had. Eric requested the soil to help him, using the little earth magic he could muster. After minutes that felt much longer than they were, the group finally made it to the tunnel where the currents were weaker. Once there, Erin began to hit the walls around the opening to cause them to collapse. Just the opposite of what she had originally thought she would be doing. Everyone had to swim away from the falling walls, but soon the opening was sealed. They swam out of the tunnel as fast as they could, and once in the river they rushed to the surface.

"That was close," Eric sighed, as soon as his head came into contact with the atmosphere.
"Tell me about it!," Erin retorted, flying out of the water and shaking her wet wings.
"Why didn't you use your sword in there?," Eric inquired.
"Remember what I told you about the bag of air?," she reminded him. "I can't form it under the water, so it was impossible to take my sword out."
"Why didn't you tell us before?," he complained.
"I'm not keen on showing my weaknesses," she responded. "That leaves others the chance to exploit them."
"But we're friends!," Eric claimed. "I would never exploit your weaknesses. I would only use my knowledge to help you."
"I trust you, Eric, but there's no way to know who else can hear us," she said.
"Don't you think you may be getting a bit paranoid?," Mariel remarked.
"Don't hold your thoughts, I know I must look like a complete nuts to you many times," Erin stated. "But you can feel evil forces lurking. You have seen some of them in action by now. The heerynauts didn't know much about us, and that helped us a lot. It may have even saved our lives today. Still, there was another force at work down there. That strange wall and the whirlpool... the heerynauts were trapped by it, which means they didn't cause them. There's still too much we don't know about our enemies, so let's make sure they find out as little about us as possible. Oh, that reminds me. Thanks for helping me out down there, Pura."
"You're very welcome," Pura replied.
"I think we should all thank each other," Mariel suggested.
"Well, thanks everyone," Eric laughed. "I really thought I could hold myself better in the water. I never thought it would be that hard."
"Maybe one day you will learn to listen to me," Erin scolded him.
"But we found the pearl," Mirna pointed out. "And we got it back. Now will you please follow me to Asyrann to help me take it home safely? It's not far from here."
"I'm not putting one more bubble leaf into my mouth," Erin declared.
"You won't have to," Mirna assured. "You can follow me from the air until we get to the lake. Then I'll call for a sorcerer to cast a spell to help you breathe underwater."
"If there are sorcerers in Asyrann, then why didn't they go for the pearl?," Erin questioned.
"They had to stay to protect the city," the mermaid explained. "They couldn't leave their people when they needed them the most."
Erin sighed.
"Ok, let's go," she accepted. "Let's put an end to this whole thing so we can continue on our journey."

I -could- say "yay, good story" every time you post another chapter, but you know that already. :-)

As a matter of fact, I don't. I'm not a good judge of my own writings, which is one of the reasons why all well-intentioned comments can help me. But thanks.

Personally, even I doubt there's much to say about chapters 8 and 9, except maybe for the subtleties of Erin's inner dialogue. Chapter 10, however, will introduce the much-dreaded song, as well as a character whose interaction with Erin won 2 Golden Pen awards on TPM (I'm only boasting because I can hardly believe it myself, if I really thought my work was so great I would have no need to say it).

I like reading your story. Have a cookie. :mowcookie

Oh, thanks! Sorry I didn't notice your reply earlier.

And also sorry for the delay in posting this. It's fun for me to reread this and notice how much everyone's changed since this chapter. Well, Timper hasn't changed that much (ironically?), but I think everyone else has... or will, seen from the perspective of this chapter.


As soon as the group made it to the lake, Mirna dived into the water with the pearl to emerge, minutes later, with another mermaid. This one had silvery blue hair, adorned with a crown of small, star-shaped stones, and her irises were golden.
"So you're the brave warriors who rescued our pearl," the mermaid praised them in a sweet, soothing voice.
"Technically, two brave warriors, a sorceress and a teacher," Pura noted, immediately getting stared at by her friends. "Oh, sorry," she apologized. "As you can clearly see, I'm the teacher. We're all very glad we could help."
"Thank you for all your help," the blue-haired mermaid replied. "My name is Nuray. I'm a sorceress. Will you please come down to our city to receive the gratitude of our people? It would mean so much to us!"
"It will be great to see an underwater city!," Eric cheered.
"It will be an honor," Mariel considered.
"And a pleasure," Pura added.
Erin simply sighed. All her friends were so excited... it wouldn't have been fair to go against them. Plus she was running out of good arguments to reject that kind of invitation. The fact that she had nearly drowned a few hours earlier didn't sound like a powerful enough reason; they wouldn't be in danger in Asyrann, and if she let the thought of the recent events stop her, then she'd never be able to put her head under the water again. Not that being underwater could ever be an important part of her life, but she hated the thought of being hindered. To her, that was the next worst thing to being useless. So she accepted.

Nuray took her hands out of the water, revealing some kind of silvery powder contained in them. She spoke some words the travelers couldn't understand, and blew the powder at them.
"It is safe to go down now," she announced. "The spell will work until you get out of the water."
With that, she disappeared into the water. Mirna followed her, and after her went Pura, Eric, Mariel and finally Erin. The water of the lake was warmer than the river, and as they went under the reflective surface, they found that it was also clearer. It took the group some time to get used to breathing. The water was denser than the air, and it felt strange to take it in. But after a few minutes, it felt almost natural. Mirna and Nuray allowed them the time to get comfortable before leading them to the city.

The lake was much deeper than it looked from the outside. Barely any sunlight reached its depths. But, as the light from the sun disappeared, a new source of light took its place. Following it, they discovered the hidden city. Its crystalline constructions were a sight to remember. Nearly everything was built out of white stones that reflected the light from the pearl, which now lay in the center of the city, providing even the most remote corners with perennial light. Right behind the pearl, there was a construction that resembled and amphitheater, with white columns forming a semi-circle that delimitated the stage. That was were Nuray headed, and the others followed her. Mermaids and mermen came swimming from all directions, gathering curiously around the crew. Nuray did her best to organize the crowd, directing them to the seats, and then spoke to them about the brave heroes who had saved their city. Now Erin was not the only one who felt slightly embarrassed, but fortunately the speech was short. An old merman floated out of the crowd and instructed everyone to bring their best foods to make a banquet for the heroes. Erin said they didn't have much time, but Mirna pointed out that they would have to eat anyway, so why not let the Asyrannians express their gratitude?

The banquet took less than 10 minutes to be formed. Everyone brought the best dishes they had, which consisted mainly of fish and algae, some other water plants, a few crustaceans and some small round berries. The travelers tried a bit of everything and nobody complained. It wasn't the kind of food they were used to, but it wasn't bad. And it was offered to them with such passion that rejecting anything could be seen as an offense. In the end, Mariel concluded that they would have to thank the Asyrannians now, for the treatment they had received. That was when the lake people decided a celebration was in order.
"I think it's time to go," Erin suggested.
But then music came from everywhere and Nuray started singing. Her voice was too beautiful to turn away from it.
"Did you know that mermaids had such a wonderful voice?," Mariel asked Pura.
"It's one of their best attributes," Pura replied. "They have used it as a tool to avoid confrontations; though it doesn't work when their opponents are truly determined. It is said that they can also kill air-breathing beings by luring them into the water with their voices, but I haven't heard of any real cases."
"Just like magic," Mariel concluded. "It can bring bliss or torment, depending on how you use it."

Mariel closed her eyes. Nobody noticed it, but the concentration of salt in the water around her face raised slightly.
After Nuray, other mermaids sang, including Mirna. When she left the stage, she swam straight towards her new friends and asked them if any of them wanted to sing.
"I can't sing," Eric said. "I have a terrible voice."
"I heard that elves had beautiful voices," Mirna claimed.
"Not this one," Eric insisted.
Mirna turned to Erin.
"Forget it!," the faerie turned her down. "I've already had enough for today, singing would be too much. Besides, I'll do you all a favor by staying quiet. I don't know what Eric's singing voice is like, but it can't be worse than mine."
"Don't ask me," Pura said. "I'm too shy to sing to a crowd of mermaids. And I can't think of any good songs right now."
"No one will criticize you," Mirna assured.
"Still," Pura insisted. "I only sing to myself. I'm not ready for such an audience."
"I'll do it," Mariel offered. "I have a song I wrote on the day we parted. I've never been able to sing it before, so... it may not be very good, but I'll be happy to share it with you."
Mirna smiled with satisfaction. She had always wanted to hear an elf sing, and the audience would certainly be delighted at having one of the heroes sing to them.

As Mariel stood on the stage, silence fell all around. She warned the audience that her voice wasn't as sweet and inviting as the voice of a mermaid, and that the song had been written by a young elf who still had a lot to learn, but none of that diminished their eagerness to hear it. So, she began to sing, and a soft, sweet music came from around her, like magic, accompanying every beat with perfection. And so, she sang.

Magic's all around us;
every place I reach.
I hear its voice, it's telling me
to fight for what I need.

Now it's time to take the chance.
Find the strength within.
Take my hand and don't look back.
We'll share an endless dream.

Look inside your heart,
you'll see.
Magic's all around.
Trust me.
With our wills unfurled
we can change the world.
All you need is to believe.

Look into my eyes,
reach me.
We do have a chance;
believe.
Set your soul to fly;
aim it for the sky.
Call my name and I'll be here.

Let's chase our dreams.
Let's make them real.

"It's corny," Erin commented.
"It's beautiful!," Eric swooned.
"She has a lovely voice!," Pura commended her.
The lake people seemed to agree with the last statement. They were, indeed, delighted by the sound of her voice. They surrounded her and complimented her so much that her face turned red.
"Thank you! It means a lot to me coming from you!," Mariel thanked them.
"These are the corniest creatures I've ever seen," Erin declared.
"Well, you may not like the lyrics, but you must admit her voice really is something!," Pura remarked.
"Thank you so much for everything," interjected Mirna, directing her words to Mariel first and immediately to the others. "We'll never be able to pay you for what you did today."
"You already have," Eric told her. "I'd never been treated this way in my whole life! And thanks to you I got to see another bright side of Mariel I didn't know. How many virtues can a single being have?"
Mariel heard him, and her blush became stronger than ever.
"You tell me," she said, turning to him. "You've already shown more than I could count."
"The last thing we needed!," Erin ranted.
"Oh, come on, they're so cute!," chirped Pura.
"If I see one more sign of cuteness today I'll faint," Erin declared.
"Even you must have a soft side somewhere in there," Pura confronted her.
"If I do, I hope I never find it," was Erin's reply.
"Take this as a token of our gratitude," Nuray offered, facing the group again and handing Mariel a crown of stars just like hers. "And I must tell you, you have a wonderful voice."
"Thanks," Mariel smiled, taking the crown in her hands. "Thanks so much!"
"The crown isn't just for decoration," Nuray informed her. "It will also help you focus your magic abilities and increase their power. I take it you're the sorceress of the group."
"Your assumption is right," Mariel said with a smile, placing the crown on her head. "Thanks again. You have all been great to us."
"You're the ones we must thank," Nuray replied. "I hope we meet again."
"We will," Mariel assured. "We will come back to Asyrann after our mission is complete. Will you be alright?"
"We will be more careful from now on," Nuray affirmed. "We'll be working on protection spells to shield ourselves from sonic attacks and prevent the pearl from falling on the wrong hands again. We'll also take other defensive measures. Don't worry. We'll be fine."
"I guess this is goodbye," observed Mirna. "The river ends here and I can't move freely out of the water like you, so I'll see you when you return."
"You've been great company," Eric assured.
"I know I've been nothing but a heavy load to you," she contradicted him. "But thanks. It's good to know you care about me enough to try to make me feel better."
"Don't forget you were the one who reached the pearl," Eric reminded her. "And you saved Mariel's life. Nothing I could do would be enough to thank you for that."
"You would have done better without me," Mirna assured. "But it was a pleasure to be with you."
"It was great to be with you," Mariel told the mermaid. "Take care, and stop bringing yourself down."
"I'll try. Good luck on your journey!"

The good-byes were long, but before night came the group was back on the road, figuratively speaking. They made up for the lost time by staying up late, Pura and Mariel providing the light to see where they were going. At one moment, they heard something moving among the bushes, but it turned out to be a mouse. Having found no threats, they set their camp when they were too tired to keep walking, and took turns for keeping guard, as usual. During Erin's turn, she spotted a pair of eyes watching her from a tree. She first looked around, to make sure the camp was safe, and then flew close to the tree to see who the eyes belonged to. She was half relieved and half disappointed when she found out it was an owl.
"The kids may be right," she thought. "I may be getting a bit paranoid. But better safe than sorry."

The four travelers got up with the sun and resumed their march. Everything was alright, or so it seemed. At least until Mariel made a curious remark.
"Have you noticed that eagle has been flying above us since we left?"
Everybody looked up and saw an eagle hovering right above their heads.
"I hadn't, but thanks for pointing it out," Erin told her. "It seems I was right last night, we're being watched."
"By an eagle?," Eric questioned.
"Things aren't always what they seem," Erin remarked.
The eagle described a circle in the air and then turned right and flew away.
"It's gone now, I think you were jumping to conclusions," Eric suggested.
"I think it was too much of a coincidence that it left just now," Erin observed.
"I second her on this," Pura told her charge. "We should be careful."
They were about to leave the place when Erin turned around and stretched out her hands. Her sword appeared between them, pointing at a short cane.
"That plant wasn't here before," she denounced. "Show yourself, shifter!"
Much to the surprise of Eric and Mariel, the cane took the form of a small man, about Erin's height or a centimeter taller. He had shoulder-length black hair, brown eyes, white skin though not as white as Mariel's, and he was wearing quite unusual clothes: straight, black trousers and black boots, a sleeveless black jacket with golden lines on all its borders and high shoulder plates, which left the long sleeves of a tight, white shirt visible. The small man was lifting his arms to the level of his head.
"Hey, hey, easy! Don't kill me with that look!," he begged.
"I see your clothing's not the only weird thing about you," Erin commented. "I would have thought you'd find my sword more threatening than my stare."
"That's because you haven't seen the way your eyes look now," he retorted.
"He doesn't look dangerous," Eric stated.
"I am," the strange guy corrected him. "But only to those who want to cause trouble."
"You're quite cocky for someone who has a sword pointing to his chest," Erin remarked.
"I can always turn into diamond," he told her.
"I wouldn't give you the time," she shot back. "Who are you?"
"I'm Timper Wayworth. I'm an explorer. The best you'll ever find. And a shifter, as you have already noticed."
"Why were you spying on us?," Erin interrogated him.
"I wasn't spying on you!," he claimed. "I was just... observing you."
Erin made a slight pressure with the point of her sword on Timper's chest.
"Well, you must admit you're an interesting sight," he said. "I mean, you all, as a group. You're quite an unusual crew. An elvin, a merial, a lurian and... I must admit I haven't figured out what you are yet."
"Let's leave it that way," Erin suggested firmly.
"Your temper doesn't match your looks," Timper told her. "But who am I to say that? Anyway, I saw you come out of the lake yesterday and that attracted my curiosity. And hearing you speak drew me in even more. I've been on exploratory journeys for nearly all my life and not many things have caught my attention the way you all have. I heard you say something about being careful, and I've heard some awful things have happened lately, especially in the north. I thought you might know something about it. I was going there to find out what was going on and see if I could do something to help."
"Why would and explorer want to help strangers?," she questioned him.
"What else does an explorer live for?," he replied. "Well, apart from seeing the world and everything. The life of an explorer is lonely. Sometimes too lonely. You get to know lots of beings, but you never stay with them for a long time. That kind of life would be meaningless if I couldn't at least do something for others."
"He seems honest," Mariel observed.
"I am," Timper affirmed. "I can prove it to you. I'll tell you everything I can do, so you'll have nothing to fear from me."
"How can we know you're not keeping secrets?," Erin pointed out.
"Strange question coming from someone who won't even let me know her species, but you'll have to trust someone some time. The price for closing yourself from everyone is too high. You may think you're protecting yourself, but you might end up with nothing to protect. Fear and suspicions can consume the strongest spirit. I've seen that happen to some beings I've met."
To everyone's surprise, Erin made her sword vanish.
"Thank you. I'll make sure you don't regret it," Timper said, relieved. "As for my abilities, as a shifter I can turn into any living being or any solid object; but if I turn into living creatures I can only do it well if I've already seen the species before. Otherwise I'd have to put too much imagination into it and it wouldn't come out right. When I transform into something, I gain all its physical properties, but not other special abilities. So if I turned into a heerynaut I would be able to breathe underwater, but not control the water around me. Now, as an explorer I have great knowledge of this area, I adapt easily to my surroundings, I am a good observer and I'm good at improvising. And personally, I like inventing things, I don't know a thing of magic but I can find ways to defend myself against it, I have a good memory and I'm a fast learner. Well, generally, at least; it didn't work when I tried to learn a magic spell, but nobody's perfect."
When he saw the faces of the group, he added: "I know modesty is not one of my virtues. If it were, I'd be practically perfect."
He winked, making the elves laugh.
"Well, it seems we're going in the same direction," Eric pointed out. "If you want, you can come with us."
"I would be good to have an explorer in the group," added Pura.
"It would be a pleasure to join you," Timper accepted. "If you don't mind, that is," he turned to Erin.
"Whatever," Erin replied, expressionless.
"Welcome aboard," Mariel greeted him. "Please excuse Erin. She may seem rude, but she's actually a good person. I'm Mariel, he's Eric and the lurian is Pura."
"Pleased to meet you," Timper responded. "And don't worry. I trust that there's more to her than meets the eye. Erin, right? Getting to know you will be an interesting challenge. I just hope you give me that chance. And to the world too."
"Don't set your hopes too high," Erin warned him. "You could be disappointed. Even if you do succeed."
Timper was puzzled. Actually, everybody was. Erin was acting too strange. Even more than she used to.
"I have the feeling you're the one who's going to be surprised," Timper replied. "You don't strike me as someone who can live inside a shell for ever. And when you come out, you'll amaze even yourself."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Erin sighed. "But come on, start walking. We're missing the day's best hours."
And so, Timper joined the group.

I'm posting this from work and nobody knows... :D  Ok, here's chapter 11. Hopefully I'll get a reply... an ACK at least to know that someone's still reading it. This chapter contains the first revelation about Pura, and something that was once criticized as redundancy, but the truth is they don't get to choose so these things can happen. (I like being cryptic sometimes. You may understand it after reading this chapter.)


As the travelers moved on, a conversation took place among them.
"What does shape-shifting feel like?," Eric asked Timper, curious.
"It's natural to me," the shifter replied. "Just like walking or kneeling down. It doesn't feel like anything in particular. Normally, I keep my original shape, unless I have a reason to change it."
"But when you walk you feel the pressure of your feet on the ground, and the weight of your body change from one foot to the other," Eric pointed out. "When you kneel down you feel it in your knees. You must feel something."
"Well, yes, you feel your body adjust to the new shape, and sometimes get harder or softer, but that's all," Timper replied. "It only feels different when the shape you assume has a noticeably different perception, like an eagle's sight or a mermaid's hearing."
"And what if you transform into a plant or an object? What are your senses like, then?," Eric queried.
"They don't change," Timper replied.
"Where are you from?," Mariel asked him.
"I was born in Passing Port, by the river Bell, but it's been long since I've last been there. Very long," Timper answered.
"Why?," Eric inquired.
"No one ever stays there," he responded. "It's just a small settlement for explorers who don't like attachments. They stay there for a few days to rest and eat abundantly until their energies are restored, then leave. I was born there only because my parents happened to be near the place when I started trying to come out. Then they decided to stay until I was capable of surviving by myself, which was more than many others did. They taught me the basics to become an explorer like them, and then they left too. They sad I would never reach my full potential if they took me by the hand all the time. They may have been right, but I must admit I missed them. Then, when I was 10, I left too. My first exploration trip. I got back a year later, but the place had changed completely. No one I knew was there."
"That's so sad!," Mariel exclaimed.
"It's life," Timper sighed. "I have learnt to be alone just like hundreds of others have. An explorer can't afford staying on a fixed place, and I really don't want that either. I love travelling and seeing the world. Though it feels best if I have someone to travel with."
"Has that happened before?," Pura joined the conversation.
"A few times," Timper answered. "Never for too long. It's easier to meet others when visiting towns and villages. I've sometimes spent weeks in one place where I felt welcome. But I've always returned to the wide world. I've never found a group like yours before. What brought you all together?"
"Don't tell," Erin warned her friends.
"Hey, what's the problem?," Timper complained. "Why don't you trust me?"
"You have no fixed shape, no fixed home, no fixed friends..." Erin began. "How can we trust your loyalties to remain in one place?"
"You offend me, miss," Timper claimed. "I am honorable and loyal. And you already know much more about me than I know about you, so I should be the one complaining. This has happened too many times. So many tend to associate shape-shifting with falseness and say we shifters can never be as good as the real thing! Well, you know something? I'm as real as anybody else, and I'm fed up with that stuff!"

Eric and Mariel didn't know much about shifters, but seeing someone confront Erin was a sight to remember.
"Sorry, didn't mean to hit a nerve," Erin replied in a half-smile. "You're quite a strong character."
"You're a strong one too, that much is clear," Timper responded.
"Oh, she's strong indeed," Eric remarked. "Not just her character. Her body too."
"You mean strong as in strong faerie?," Timper inquired. "Like massennes, faerfliyes, nassukuns...?"
"Are you planning to name all species until you hit mine?," Erin tested him. "Yes, I'm as strong as all those you mentioned, so you can stop now."
"Are all those names of strong faeries?," Eric inquired.
"I've heard of massennes," Pura pointed out. "They're non-elemental faeries. They live on the east."
"Yes, and they have 3 pairs of wings, unlike me," Erin added. "I've heard of them too."
"I've seen a few," Timper said. "The only race of strong faeries I have seen face to face. I heard faerfliyes were stronger though."
"Fireflies?," Eric asked.
"Not fireflies!," Pura laughed. "But... they are fire faeries, right? I think I read about them once. They're from the... north?"
"How come you're a teacher and I know more than you about most species?," Erin questioned her. "They're fire faeries, true. Their hair turns into flames when they release fire."
"Indeed," Timper confirmed.
"And what about nassukuns?," Pura queried. "Please excuse my ignorance, but I've never heard about them before. I want to learn and do my job better. This is my first trip too."
"It's understandable that you don't know them," Timper conceded. "They're light faeries, but they're linked to the opposite polarity, so we could say they're darkness faeries. They live in dark caves or in underground tunnels and never come out during the day. It is said that the light hurts them. Their eyes are very sensitive, and they see very well in the dark. I guess the presence of a lurian would repel them. They're quite rare, I once met an explorer who claimed to have seen one, but I never have."
"I thought you'd said you were the best explorer around," Erin reminded him.
"I am," he affirmed. "Though maybe not the luckiest. Finding a nassukun has never been my priority anyway. I'm more into enjoying what comes to me rather than tracking something down. But if I really want to find something, it doesn't take me a long time. Normally."
"You were right about something," Erin admitted.
"About what?," Timper wanted to know.
"You tend to brag a lot," Erin retorted. "How did you become the center of attention?"
"Did I? I thought that was your role," Timper laughed.
"Very funny," Erin told him, her lips not arcing up in the least. "Why don't you change to a faster shape now? You're slowing us down!"
"Sorry, I'll move faster," Timper apologized. "I'll keep up with the rest of you and shift if I get tired. I can use some exercise for now."
"Watch what you wish for," Erin warned him. "Stick with us and you'll probably be getting more exercise than you can handle."
"Well, at least it seems you'll be giving me a rest now," Pura commented.
"For as long as you manage to remain silent, fair Pura," Erin replied.
"Wow, I'm surprised! I thought it was just me you treated like that!," Timper exclaimed.
"No, it's not just you," Erin answered. "Pura and Eric have been trying to figure me out since we first met. So far, all their attempts have failed, and I doubt you'll be any luckier. At least Mariel knows enough to let me be."
"I'm careful not to hurt you," Mariel responded. "But I do wish you were more open. Perhaps I could help you if you let me."
"So it's the world against me," Erin sighed.
"I'm not against you!," Mariel claimed.
"No one is," Timper assured. "Ok, I get it. I won't insist. I don't wanna hurt you. But for your own sake I hope you learn to trust others one day."
Erin sighed, and soared past the crowns of the trees.

Nobody went after the flying warrior this time. They thought it would be best to let her be alone for a while. She ended up coming down on her own, about half an hour later. Her only words as she descended were "it's going to rain."
Everybody looked up to the sky. Timper assumed the shape of an eagle once more, took into the sky, and got down after a few seconds, turning back into his old shape.
"Looks like a heavy storm's on its way here," he announced. "It could be a thunderstorm, we'd better find shelter."
"I'll check if I can find a cave or something," Pura offered. "I'll be back soon."
The Lurian flew away like a flash, and came back only 5 seconds later.
"I've found a cave!," she announced.
"I'll have to learn to do that," Timper decided.
"Could I ask you not to do it before we have a little talk?," Pura said to him.
"Sure, but why?"
"It's complicated. I might get in trouble if you transform into a lurian, so please don't do it."
"Does everybody here have secrets?," Timper inquired.
"I don't," Eric assured.
"Neither do I," Mariel concluded. "Well, at least none for you, but I did tell my parents I was just going on an exploration trip."
"Few know what we're after," Eric explained.
"And I'm not among them yet," Timper pointed out. "What are we after?"
Mariel looked at Erin and, receiving no reply from her, she answered.
"An evil sorcerer named Kharchek and the source of all the recent attacks. Though we don't know if they're related or not yet."
"Then you've heard of those attacks too. That means we're not only going in the same direction, but we're also doing it for the same reason," Timper deduced.
"Where's the cave?," Erin asked Pura, changing the subject abruptly.
"Oh! Follow me," Pura instructed the group.

The travelers followed the violet light until they found a large wall of earth and stone. The ground level changed from that point, as if it were a step on a giant ladder. There was a hole on the wall, big enough for an adult elvin to fit through it. The sky was already dark, and thunders were making their presence noticed.
"Let's go in," Eric suggested.
"I don't like this," Mariel warned him.
"What don't you like?," he asked her.
"I don't know. Something just feels wrong. Like... I can't tell exactly what it is. Something feels wrong, and I could say it feels almost familiar, but I'm beginning to get confused. I know it doesn't make sense."
"If something's wrong here, then we're on the right place," Eric told her. "We'll sort it out. Don't worry, I'll be with you."
Mariel nodded and smiled, following the others into the cave. She was still unsure of her own perception, but she couldn't wish for better company than she had. Erin and Timper looked experienced and knowledgeable. Pura specialized in giving everyone surprises. And Eric would do anything for her. Just as she would for him. They were a team that couldn't be set apart. Together, they could do anything. Just like her song said. Her song... Magic's all around... magic...
"Hey, wait!," Mariel shouted, noticing the undeniable presence of magic inside the cave, which couldn't be darker than it was now. She heard no reply but the echo of her own voice. She looked around and saw nothing but darkness. She tried to grasp Eric's hand, but it wasn't there. She was alone. Alone. And afraid. She summoned a level 2 light sphere and made it float in front of her, hoping that it would reveal her surroundings, but the light shone empty in the middle of the blackness. Still, Mariel didn't let it fade away. She needed to have at least her small light by her side, even if nothing could be seen behind it. At least, with the light, she didn't feel completely alone and helpless. It reminded her that there was still something she could trust.

"How did it get so dark?," Eric asked, turning to look at Mariel. She wasn't there. Neither were Pura, Erin, nor Timper. It was so dark that he couldn't even see the mouth of the cave. He gave a few steps back, probing the space behind him with his left hand, hoping to find any of his friends, the exit or at least a wall. Any point of reference would be better than nothing, which was what he had now. His steps didn't seem to lead him anywhere, but his mind did get somewhere in the process. He finally began to make sense of the last words Mariel had spoken. The fact that she had been confused about it puzzled him, but he knew so little about magic... maybe it was more complicated than he thought. In any case, this was clearly dark magic. And now he had used the word correctly; it couldn't be darker. He could only think of one being who would use that kind of magic against them. His suspicions were confirmed when his image appeared right in front of him, as if his thoughts had been materialized. He looked a bit taller than Eric remembered him, but it could be a visual effect caused by the surroundings and his own anxiety. His pointy chin, black hair and green eyes which looked almost red with hate, his macabre smile, were unmistakable. Many times had Eric dreamed of his encounter with Kharchek, but he hadn't expected it to come so soon. And he hadn't thought he'd be alone either. What would he do now?

The others weren't having a good time either. They were also separated from each other and surrounded by the same impenetrable darkness. Each of them was kept occupied by a different opponent. Erin found a big red demon with a large spike on its right hand, who moved swiftly and evaded most of her blows. Timper had to face a floating ball of fire, which shot energy projectiles at him. How do you fight pure energy? He just did his best to evade the attacks until he thought of something, but he soon realized he'd need a faster shape to prevent the shots from reaching him. Mariel soon came face to face with a horrible zombie, who kept a thick and sharp sword pointed at her and moved much faster than she ever could. Her light balls were a poor protection, as the zombie easily cast them aside them with a move of his sword. As for Pura, she had to face a living skeleton with incredibly sharp-looking claws who, much like Mariel's opponent, somehow managed to dodge all the light spheres she shot at it. It looked small at first, but that was an advantage. A big creature was most likely to miss Pura or, even better, to dismiss her. A small one could get a better aim at her and, if it managed to see past her light, it could even slash her to pieces. Things became even worse when the small skeleton kneeled down and changed... transforming into a huge spider. What would it do now? Trap her in a web? Shoot acid at her and dissolve her little body to nothing? What an awful way to reveal one of her carefully concealed secrets! She was not invulnerable. No lurian was. There was more to her than a spot of light. She could be hurt. She could even be killed. If the word was out, it wouldn't be long before Urthum and Isthum were attacked. She would be indirectly responsible of the doom of all those she cared for. No, she couldn't let that happen. She had to fight. She pushed her light out to make it more intense than ever, and pulled out a new light attack she didn't even know she was capable of.

Erin was finally managing to measure her opponent. It moved fast, but in spite of its appearance, it wasn't very strong. Its spike was its main weapon, accompanied only by the ability to blow strong gusts of wind at her. She was caught off-guard the first time and was blown against a wall, but she could endure much more than that. She flew below the next current and reached the demon's back, dealing a strong blow at it which made the monster lose balance and fall. Her enemy rolled over and got up soon, but she was already aiming at its spike. With a quick move of her sword, the long pointy weapon was sent away, leaving the monster disarmed. But then, things changed. The once solid demon suddenly disappeared into thin air. The spike floated up, lifted by a small tornado, and in a matter of seconds the demon had rebuilt itself.
"This might be an interesting challenge after all," Erin spoke out. But her opponent didn't hear her. It just stood there, pointing at her with its spike, waiting for her to make a move.
Mariel was being overwhelmed by the zombie's incessant attacks. She made a desperate move and blocked his sword with her backpack, which was instantly torn apart but its content saved by the shield inside it. She had been working on a spell to increase the shield's protection. It seemed to have worked at least partially. The shield took some damage, but it didn't break. She used her chance to try her glare spell. She wasn't sure if it would work in such a dark place, but it was worth a try. Releasing all the light she could muster, she ran around the now blinded zombie and shot a light sphere at its back. Surprisingly, the zombie stopped moving.

Timper's new arthropod form didn't help him escape from the light storm that suddenly fell upon him. countless needles of light were launched to the ground at an incredible speed, some of them piercing through his body. He had to turn into a silver stone in order to deflect the rest of rain of light. When the rain stopped, Timper used his chance to shift back and escape. He needed a safe spot while he came up with a plan. And he needed to find his friends.

Pura's enemy suddenly vanished from sight, so she did the only thing she could think of. She made use of her best physical attribute and dashed away right before the spider came back into scene. She didn't know what threats she would find deeper into the cave, but she would at least escape the current one and maybe find Eric and the others. Much to her surprise, the spider didn't even try to follow her. It turned away!

Eric had thought of asking questions to buy some time, but he had to scratch out that plan when Kharchek released a light attack at him. The light was dark purple, but it moved just like all the other light balls he'd seen before. Too fast for anyone who wasn't experienced in fighting them, but that wasn't Eric's case. Apparently, Kharchek didn't know much about him. He was beginning to agree with Erin that one of their biggest strengths was the little knowledge their enemies had of them. He avoided the first attack reflectively, just like the following ones. His sword deflected the light balls to the sides, just like it had done in his many training sessions with Mariel and the lurians. It was easy. Too easy. Kharchek didn't move nearly as fast as he had expected. He barely managed to avoid Eric's sword. Until Eric tried aiming the sword straight to his chest and something blocked it.
"I knew it couldn't be that easy," he thought. "He's playing around. But why? Wouldn't it be easier to just use his strongest attack and get rid of me? Is he measuring me or what? And where's his sword? Something's wrong here."
Eric's suspicions were confirmed when a blinding flash forced him to close his eyes. He took too long to guess the following step, even though many of his practice sessions had ended that way. It only made sense once he felt the energy ball hit his back right between his scapulas and surge through his chest. He immediately stopped attacking. It was the only thing which he thought could work. The only thing that would make Mariel become aware of the trick just like he had now.

Mariel was even more confused that she had been when she entered the cave. The monster who had attacked her now stood motionless in front of her. She watched him carefully and, against the warnings of her senses, she tried to establish a connection. She needed to understand what was going on. She needed something to make sense. She felt the magic barrier and finally understood its nature. It was a mixture of light and connection magic; how ironic, the two domains she could handle best. The first move her opponent did was slow, and no longer unexpected. He lifted the arm that held his sword, but only to put it back into its sheath.
"How could I have been so blind?!," she exclaimed, finally greeting the one sight she's longed for the most.
"I can't blame you," Eric's voice replied. "It happened to me too. If you hadn't acted so much like yourself, I wouldn't have reacted."
"Good thing you know me well, then," Mariel smiled. "Another zombie?"
"Worse. Kharchek," Eric replied. "I can't believe someone set us a trap like this."
"I can feel his magic," Mariel told him. "He's involved in this."

All of a sudden, the connection was broken.
"Mariel!," Eric shouted, losing her to the darkness.
He fought hard to get her back, straining his mind to the limit, holding to the thought of her. He didn't know how to use connection magic, but he had to find a way to reach Mariel again.
"Look into my eyes, reach me," he whispered.
"We do have a chance; believe," Mariel grinned, resurging from the darkness enveloped in an aura of light. "Thanks for being there. And for remembering."
"What happened?," Eric asked.
"I'll tell you later. Now we need to bring the others back and cancel this spell."
"How?," Eric wondered.
"I'll try to set a connection. Just follow me. Connection magic isn't hard to use if you're being guided. If we all work together we'll break the spell. Kharchek isn't here anymore, so we should have no opposition for now."
"How do you know he's not here?," Eric inquired.
"I felt him leave. I mean, he wasn't physically here at all, but a part of him was. Then he left when you and I found him out. Now help me and concentrate on the others, please."

One by one, they were called. Pura was the first one to respond, already suspicious of what her senses showed her. Once more, she proved to be better than she gave herself credit for. Knowing nothing of connection magic, she channeled its force like an expert and boosted it incredibly. That way they reached the large spider who soon took the more familiar form of Timper Wayworth. Timper joined the group, not without publicly admitting he felt like a fool for having fallen for a trick like that.
"Don't blame yourself," Mariel told him. "You didn't know much about us, and you said you didn't know how to use magic, so we should all congratulate you for snapping out of it."
"So only Erin is left," Eric pointed out.
"That will be a tough one," Pura sighed.
"Don't give up now," Mariel encouraged her. "We've almost made it! I can feel the confusion magic fading away as we speak."
The group focused their thoughts on Erin, doing their best to reach her. But she was absorbed by the fight she was in. No one could penetrate her. She swung her sword from one side to another, making her opponent lose his weapon again. And before he could dissolve, she launched herself into him, bringing him down with a slam. She stood on the red monster's chest and prepared her sword for the final strike, but at that moment she hesitated, against all her expectations. At that moment, Eric's voice finally reached her.
"Don't do it," the Merial begged.
The demon disappeared from under Erin's feet and turned into a strong gust of wind that pushed her up to the roof of the cave. The impact blew the air out of her lungs, but only for a moment.
"Tell me why I shouldn't kill that monster," she demanded, still lost in the spell but reaching for Eric.
"It's all an illusion," he said. "A spell. You must stop fighting it and come back to us, to reality."
"It hits too hard to be an illusion," Erin told him, evading a new blow of the quick sword. Was it a sword? It had looked like a spike before. "Well, maybe something is wrong."
"We were made to fight each other," Mariel informed her. "You may be fighting an innocent who was trapped in the cave just like us."
"Try to reach for him," Eric advised her. "Whoever he is, he'll probably be easier to reach than Erin."
"Anyone would," Timper commented while Mariel began to seek for the stranger.
"I heard you, shifter," Erin shouted out.
"Really?! That's great!," Timper exclaimed. "I thought it wouldn't work, but if you heard me, then you can fight the illusion and come back to your senses."
"I don't like the way you worded that," Erin told him. "Maybe I should leave this opponent and fight you instead."
"I'm beginning to believe you have a sense of humor hidden in there," Timper smiled. "Though I've seen your last moves, and I'd rather have you on my side. I've already received some awful light attacks today. Of a kind I hadn't seen before, even."
"Sorry," Pura apologized. "I don't know how I pulled that out. Nor how I managed to channel Mariel's magic. But I'm glad I achieved the latter and sorry about the former."
"Pura pulled out a new trick? I wish I had seen that!," Erin exclaimed, turning around and facing her friends. "Ok, good job all of you. I'm no longer being attacked, so I'm guessing your spell worked. And yes, 'real guy', you can be proud. You brought me back. But don't make it a new subject to brag about."
"Never, Milady," Timper smiled making a funny reverence.
"It's giving way," Mariel announced.

A few seconds later, the walls of the large cave were visible, as was the being who stood right behind Erin. He looked like a young boy, not much older than Eric and Mariel. He had light gray hair and pale greyish skin. Even his clothes were a light tone of grey, nearly white, and he was carrying a white leather bag. Only his eyes didn't match the rest of him. They were dark brown, with a touch of purple on the borders. He was holding a light sword in a superficially wounded right hand, and looking at the group in astonishment.
"Who are you?," he asked them when he found it safe to talk.
"We're a group of travelers," Eric told him. "Two warriors, a sorceress, a teacher and an explorer."
"I'm an explorer too," the stranger revealed. "My name is Gallead."
"A ferwill," Timper noticed.
"What's a ferwill?," this time it was Mariel who asked.
"An air-elemental creature," explained Pura. "They can summon wind and transform into wind themselves."
"I could see that," Erin confirmed. "So, Gallead, how did you get caught in this mess?"
"I was trying to find shelter from the storm and I was suddenly attacked by a flying creature who blew the hardest punches I've ever felt."
"Come on, I didn't hit you that hard!," Erin claimed.
"'I'm sorry' would do better," Eric told her.
"Ok, I'm sorry," she complied, faking indifference.
"Your hand is hurt, let me heal you," Mariel offered.
"It's ok, I can do that," Gallead said. "I know a couple of physical enhancement spells, but thanks."
"Physical enhancement," Mariel repeated. "Interesting. That's a domain I haven't explored yet. I use direct healing spells for that. I also use light and connection magic, and I'm trying to work on protection but it's not working as well as I hoped it would. Maybe I should find a way around it from another domain."
"Why don't you just publish a book telling everyone what we can do?," Erin complained.
"Wow, that's a lot!," Gallead exclaimed, ignoring the last comment. "I can only use spells to boost my agility and heal myself."
"That's more than I can do," Timper pointed out. "But I have other ways of boosting my agility."
"Yes. Some scary ones too," Pura remarked.
"Why should you be scared?," Eric asked her.
"Nevermind," she replied.

"Where were you going?," Mariel asked Gallead.
"Nowhere in particular," the ferwill replied. "I'm just out to see the world and hopefully write a book someday. Though for now all I've managed to put on paper were some illustrations."
"You draw?," Pura asked, excited. "I'd love to see your drawings."
"I have some here," Gallead said, opening his bag and taking out some sketches. Mariel held them in her hands and showed them to everyone.
"They're amazing!," she commented.
"Easily some of the best drawings I've ever seen, and I have seen many," Pura stated.
Timper turned into a neini to fly above the drawings and take a look at them. The green wings made him look weirder than usual.
"Wow, if I could draw like this, I wouldn't need words to describe what I've seen!," he exclaimed.
"If you could get such a compliment from a braggart like him, you must be something," Erin declared. "Let me take a look."
She flew up to Timper's side and examined the drawings.
"Not bad," she concluded. "Not bad at all."
"Then we all agree," Eric stated. "If you ever get tired of being an explorer, you can have a good life as an artist."
"Thanks, everyone. I'm glad you appreciate my drawings. I just needed to let them out. But I'm not planning to give up my way of life for now. There's still much I want to see, and I haven't found a place to call home yet."
"Does that mean that you don't want to be an explorer for the rest of your life?," Timper inquired.
"I don't know. I guess time will tell. I like traveling and seeing new places, but I'd also like to have a place to return to. And call me crazy, but I'd like someone to share my experiences with."
"I guess I understand you," Timper said. "Though to me, the world is my home."
"So our two explorers are quite different from each other," Mariel concluded.
"Oh, no!," Erin scolded her. "We're not taking in another explorer. Let alone a romantic one. We already have more than enough. It would be... redundant."
"He can help," Eric told her. "The more we are, the better our chance will be to defeat our enemies."
"Enemies?," Gallead queried.
"The sorcerer who enchanted this cave and some others. We don't know who they are yet, but I've been feeling the presence of evil magic lately... well, for the last year. And there have been many attacks already."
"Shadows?," Gallead asked.
A tingling feeling run up Mariel's spine when she heard the word. She remembered it well.
"Not that we know of," she responded. "Why? Have you heard of any attacks by them?"
"I heard some cities had been attacked by shadows years ago. When I left the Valley of Winds, I was warned not to go into that area because shadows still lurked there, and no living being could be safe from them. I heard they could do horrible things."
"Like strip someone's soul out of their body and occupy it, yes, I've heard it too," Mariel replied. "I guess it's more than a myth, then."
"We should be careful," Timper said. "If they're a part of the problem, we're probably heading right into their nest. We must be prepared."
"We will," Erin assured.
"Will you join us?," Eric asked Gallead.
"If you didn't think I was crazy before, you will now," the ferwill replied. "But I will. If there's something I can do to stop others from causing suffering, then I will do it. Some of my people have gone to the wastelands and never returned. I'd always wanted to do something about it, to help them or at least stop others from being hurt. But I knew I couldn't take on the shadows on my own. Maybe with you, we will stand a chance."
"Maybe you should be a warrior, then," Eric suggested.
"I don't think so," Gallead disagreed. "My Swift sword is the only weapon I can wield, and I'm not even good enough with it. I think I'll make a better explorer. Or an artist, eventually."
"I can help you with your sword if you want," Eric offered. "We can train a little during our stops."
"While the rest of us make lunch or dinner?," Erin said sarcastically.
"I'm not a good cook," Eric admitted. "I'd better do something I can be more useful at."
"I can help you cook if you want," Gallead offered. "That way we'll be even. I know some special recipes with herbs which are original from the Valley of Winds. You've never tried anything like them."
"I know why Gallead and I are so different now," Timper reflected. "Apparently he did grow up in a decent place."
"Yes, your past can make a difference," Erin sighed. "But now we're here to forge our future."
Timper didn't reply. He'd already learnt to recognize the moments when Erin was best left with her own thoughts. He contemplated her in silence, while the others finished making the proper introductions and welcomed Gallead to the group.

I must say I really did like that chapter.  It actually made my spine tingle when I figured out what was happening in the cave.

SYN+ACK

:-)

Thanks, both of you!

And I'm glad you liked it, JP. :)

One more chapter!


The group continued their steady march, one member stronger. Hours passed without them encountering anyone, or anything other than plants and rocks. This gave most of them a chance to relax and engage in light talk, but Mariel stayed out of the conversation. Her mind was wandering through places she'd rather not go to at all, and that showed in her face. It looked unnaturally pale, and devoid of her usual heartwarming smile. Eric noticed this, and asked her what was wrong.
"I'm worried," she replied.
"Well, I'm not saying you don't have reasons to be worried," Eric conceded. "But why now? I mean, things seem to be ok right now, we're moving and no one is stopping us. What has changed? Are you sensing evil magic or something?"
"No, it's not that," she told him. "It's..." She looked up and then continued. "Do you remember that moment at the cave when our connection almost broke?"
"Yes, but it didn't," Eric replied.
"It didn't. But something happened at that moment."
"What was it?"
"I heard Kharchek's voice inside my mind, right before he left," she revealed. "He let me know it was him. He knows about us; and he's not afraid of us. He said: I am only one of many; you kids will never prevail."
Mariel lowered her head and Eric put his hand on her shoulder, comforting her.
"You shouldn't be worrying like that," he said. "We're strong and we'll get stronger. We're together and nothing can set us apart. You said it, we can change the world. Whatever's wrong, we'll sort it out."
"I wish I could be so confident," she sighed. "I don't want to be pessimistic or anything, but I felt his power at the cave and it was strong. I'm not sure if I would have made it without the crown the mermaids gave me, and I do know I wouldn't have made it without the rest of you. If it wasn't for you, Eric, I would be still trapped in that cave, confused by Kharchek's spell."
"But you were with us," Eric reminded her. "And we'll always be there for you. I'm not stupid, I know we're up against something big and none of us can quell it on their own, but none of us is alone. We'll work together. Know this, Mariel: I'll never leave you alone; not for a second. You can always count on me."
"Thanks," Mariel smiled, recovering her colors. "You know how to make me feel better. Everything you've just said goes back to you. You know that, don't you?"
"I know," he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. The gesture only lasted a few seconds, as they needed freedom of movement to keep advancing through the forest.

"The vegetation is growing thicker," Gallead observed, looking at the others. "We'll have to slow down, and maybe cut a few branches to make our path broader."
"We could stop for a while," Eric suggested.
"What for?," Erin inquired.
"Well, we've been walking steadily for days and we haven't stopped for anything other than eating or sleeping. But now with all these trees and bushes all around, I don't think anyone will spot us for a while. We could use this chance to have a training session."
"Hmm... it doesn't sound like such a bad idea," Erin reflected. "It will slow us down a little, but we'll also be better prepared for whatever comes to us. We should get to know each other's abilities and improve them, so that we can work together when we need it."
"So you're going to participate too?," Timper tried to confirm.
"All of you have seen me fight," she told him. "I'll watch for now; but I may join later if I feel I'm needed."
"So much for learning to work together."
"Watching you will help me know you better and adjust to you. I'll see more if I watch from the sidelines than I would if I were in the middle of it."
"Whatever you say," Timper conceded. "I still think you're unfair, but have it your way, it will probably work best for you."
"Why do you think I'm unfair?," Erin demanded.
"You expect from others what you're not willing to give them yourself," he sentenced.
"You don't know me well enough."
"You won't let me!"
Erin meditated for a second.
"Go ahead," she concluded. "I'll join you later. I have some things I need to think about right now."

By that moment, the others had already began their training. They had divided in pairs. Eric and Gallead were testing their skills with their swords, while Mariel and Pura were trying to make the best of their light attacks. It took Pura some time, but she managed to summon her Light Rain again. Mariel had to resort to her shield to block the incoming energy, and only a second later she decided to end her part of the session.
"You've just given me an idea!," she announced, walking away from the training field. "Thanks, Pura!"
"Umm... you're welcome, I guess," the lurian replied. "Tell me when you're done, I'd like to see what miracle I have inspired."
"You'll be the first one to know," Mariel promised.
"Lost your partner?," Timper approached Pura. "I can train with you if you want. Let's make up for the embarrassment we caused each other in the cave."
"Sounds good to me," Pura accepted. "Just don't..."
"I won't turn into a lurian, don't worry," he interrupted her.
"I was going to ask you not to throw acid on me, but thanks."
"I can't throw acid on you," he informed her. "I'm not carrying any. Anyway, this is just training so we won't cause any serious harm to each other."

Things went well between Timper and Pura. He evaded most of her blows, and she was too fast for him to reach her without breaking his promise. Plus he couldn't use any long range attacks, so Pura was untouchable. That was until she shot a light ball at him and Timper, instead of blocking it, transformed into a mirror and returned the attack to its owner.
In the meantime, Gallead was fast becoming overwhelmed by Eric's dexterity. He could only avoid the merial's closest attacks by turning into wind and materializing beyond the reach of his sword. He could barely get a hit in. After a few minutes of watching this, Erin decided to intervene.
"That's embarrassing!," she shouted. "Gallead, you're swinging your sword the wrong way, no wonder you always lose it."
"I don't always lose it," he defended himself. "And I'm an explorer, not a warrior. It's natural for you and Eric to be more skilled with your swords than me."
"So when your next enemy slashes you to pieces, what will you do? Tell him it was natural?"
"Erin, I can't believe how rude you can be!," Eric yelled. "I know you mean well, but you were just way too aggressive. Gallead is doing his best."
"Apparently his best is not enough, but that can change; that's exactly what training sessions are for. I can help you if you want."
"Will you apologize?," Eric asked her.
"Did my words hurt you?," she asked Gallead.
"They didn't exactly make me feel comfortable," Gallead told her.
"Ok, sorry, then."
"No problem. Perhaps I can help you improve your skills with words while you help me get better with my sword."
Erin laughed.
"What a bunch I've run into!," she exclaimed.
She gave Gallead a few instructions which the ferwill didn't take too long to assimilate. He was clearly not a warrior, but after an hour he was able to block most attacks and look for uncovered spots on his opponent's body, though Eric didn't give him many. After that, Eric and Erin had a match of their own, and everyone else sat down to watch them. They were both good, but in the end the faerie prevailed.
"It was a close match," she commended him. "You're tough for your age. When you reach mine, you'll probably be better than me."
"And what age is that?," Eric inquired.
"You never give up, do you?," Erin guffawed.

When the group resumed their march, the vines and branches forced them to go slower than before. Those who had swords used them to form a path they could walk or fly through. Timper turned into a sword himself, having Mariel hold him in order to help with the task. The elvin's arms weren't very strong, but he added his own force to the impulse she gave him and that, added to a sharp blade, did the trick. Night fell soon, and they advanced with magical light until most of them were too tired. Taking turns to watch had become easier now that they were six. Each of them kept guard for a little over an hour, the first and last shifts being longer than the others to make up for the annoyance of interrupting their sleep. Though, since Eric and Mariel didn't need much sleep, they didn't mind taking the middle shifts.

In the morning, the group reached a large clearing. It was comforting to see the sunlight at its fullest again, and to finally be able to advance without restrictions. But at least one of them didn't like the idea of being in the open. Erin kept advising the others to get out of there as fast as possible, so that no one spotted them.
"It is true that we're more visible here, but we make more noise when the vegetation is thick," Timper pointed out. "So we're actually safer from most attackers here."
No sooner did he say that than a rumbling noise was heard in the distance. It became stronger, as if getting closer, and the ground below them began to tremble.
"What's that?," Erin shouted.
Everybody looked in the direction the noise was coming from.
"Some kind of animals," Eric finally said. "Many of them. Brown fur, more than 4 legs, I think. They move too fast to see them clearly."
"Let me see," Timper said, growing up to the size of a merial. Some of his features changed slightly, especially his eyes and ears. Anyone could have taken him for a merial, but to those who knew him his personal characteristics were unmistakable.
"Trasks," he declared. "A stampede of them. They're not usually so furious. Something must have made them mad. We'd better get out of here before they reach us or we'll be in trouble. They're earth creatures. Light attacks have very little effect on them and it's impossible to calm them down when they're enraged."
"Not even with connection magic?," Mariel asked.
"They don't have the intelligence to understand words," Timper told her, "nor to change their minds. You can either try to fight them or get out of their way, there's no other option. And they're strong."
"Let's get out," Pura urged the group. "I've read about the trasks and we don't want to fight them. Not if we can avoid it."

The group moved faster and made it out of the clearing, but the tremors only became stronger.
"They're following us," Timper deduced.
"But why?," Mariel asked.
"I don't know, but I wouldn't try to ask them if I were you."
"Let's get ready for the fight, then," Erin suggested, turning around. "They may be strong, but they're stupid. We should be able to take them down rather fast."
"I don't think stupid is the word," Gallead told her. "They perceive the world in a different way. They don't need words to communicate what they feel or need. Would you call birds stupid too?"
"Whatever, just watch out," Erin warned him.
"I won't let them touch me," he said. "I can handle earth creatures. They can't hurt the wind."
"Ok, then. Do what you see fit. Eric, have your sword ready. Pura and Mariel, take cover. Timper, if you have any form that can kick Trask butts, we could use it now."
"How about this one?," Timper asked growing 3 pairs of pointy, transparent wings and shortening his sleeves and trousers to make room for bigger muscles.
"Massenn. Not bad," Erin accepted. "Do you know how to use those muscles?"
"Of course. I take my work seriously and explore all the capabilities of each species I encounter."
"Alright, then. You can take the front with me. Eric and Gallead, protect the girls."
"I was supposed to be Eric's guardian, not the other way around," Pura complained.
"Maybe if we have to fight in the water again, which I hope doesn't happen," Erin told her. "For now stay away from the trasks unless you have another new trick which can help against them."
"Stay with me, Pura," Mariel asked her. "No one can do everything. We may be able to help, but not by fighting."
"How then?," questioned Pura.
"I don't know yet. I'm thinking."

The trask stampede arrived. Eric opened a breach in the ground to stop them, but the 6-legged creatures closed it with no effort. Their size wasn't impressive: they barely reached Eric's shoulders when standing on their 6 limbs. But the effects their race was causing on the ground suggested that they were much heavier than they looked. Mariel and Pura hid behind a group of trees, while the others did the best to stop the trasks from pouncing on them. Eric's shield proved to be quite useful against their claws, and Gallead didn't have problems evading them, though his Swift sword could barely scratch their thick skin. Erin and Timper flew from one side to another using their fists as weapons. When Timper asked her why she wasn't using her sword, she told him that she couldn't make full use of its attributes against this kind of creatures.
"Why, what kind of sword is it?," he asked, evading a set of claws from a trask's front leg while hitting another with his elbow.
"I thought you were the one who knew everything," she retorted, punching a trask's stomach. "Don't tell me you've never seen a sword like mine before."
"To tell the truth, I haven't. But I'll do my best to find out."
"Good luck!"
Saying this, Erin charged against a trask but was stopped by a wall of stone that suddenly erupted from the ground.
"What?!," she yelled by reflex.
"Don't tell me you didn't know about the trasks' earth manipulation capabilities," Timper mocked her. "I guess we're even now."
As he was speaking, a trask caught him from behind and smashed him into the ground.
"Timper!," Erin cried out.
"I'm... fine," the shifter replied lifting up the trask's paw. "A little bruised, but I'll live. I guess we'd better not talk while we fight."
"What am I going to do with you?," Erin wondered.
Timper refrained from letting out any of the answers that crossed his mind. It wasn't the time for jokes, nor for putting more strain on the faerie's evidently battered soul.

Eric was wearing out. He'd tried to use earth magic, but the trasks' control over that element was too powerful. He managed to repel most attacks, but they kept coming, and he couldn't stop one of them from slashing his side while he was trying to prevent being trampled by another. Even Gallead was hurt while he was trying to blow a group of trasks away. After pushing away some of them in his wind form, he came down and attempted a stronger attack. He managed to summon a strong current of wind, but he had to remain solid to maintain its strength; and that left him vulnerable to attacks from behind and from the sides. Now most of the trasks were directing their attention to him and Eric... Until something distracted half of them and they turned away. When Eric was given the chance to look, he saw his own image jumping from one side to another. For a moment, he was confused. But then he understood who was helping him, and he kept fighting. It was hard when the ground below him wouldn't hold him and was making efforts to bring him down; but at least the illusion was driving some of them away. He was impressed. He didn't know Mariel was capable of doing something like that. But then, as the trasks scattered, one of them reached the spot where Mariel was hiding and attacked her too. She shot a light sphere right at the creature's eyes and blinded it, but the trask kept attacking. It tried to scratch her and its claw got stuck in her dress. She thanked herself for not listening to Erin's advice of using less noticeable clothes. The lower half of the dress was torn apart by the trask's claw, but the elvin was unhurt. However, the attack forced her to drop the illusion, which required a lot of concentration and Pura's channeling help to remain visible.

"We must flee!," Pura shouted, while shooting as many light balls as she could in an attempt to slow down the trask.
"Where?," Mariel questioned. "There's nowhere to run."
"I don't know, we should find a river or something. Lure them into the water where they can't attack."
"Is there a river nearby?"
"I only know the one we left 4 days ago, but I heard there was another in this region. I can look for it."
"Go, then!"

But even before Pura could acknowledge Mariel's agreement and leave, everything went black. Literally. This caused the trasks to become as confused as their opponents, and they stopped attacking. Everybody stood still. A deep voice came from the distance and pronounced words which were unknown to the travelers. When things became visible again, a barrier of darkness was encasing all the trasks, and a tall white-haired man was standing in front of them. He was wearing shiny white clothes, and there was a small aura of light around him.
"Who are you?," Eric asked, covering his wound with his hand.
"I'm Jor," the stranger replied. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"I'm Eric Eatan. These are my friends: Erin, Timper, Gallead, and back there are Mariel and Pura."
"This place isn't safe for anyone," Jor warned them. "Why are you here?"
"We're heading to the north," Eric explained.
"You know, it would be best if you refrained from telling our story to every stranger we came across," Erin told him.
"What's the matter? You don't trust me?," Jor asked.
"I don't know anything about you," Erin replied. "I have no reason to trust you yet."
"Well, what do you want to know? I'm a shakast, a being of light. I have been exploring this forest for the last few years, learning its secrets."
"So you're an explorer?"
"No, I didn't say that. I like to explore, but I also cultivate the art of fighting and magic."
"That sounds hard to believe," Erin commented. "No one can do everything."
"And neither can I," Jor told her. "But as long as I live, I'll collect as much knowledge as I can. After all, knowledge is power."
"In that case, do you happen to know what caused those trasks to attack us?," Timper asked him.
"It must have been something they ate," Jor said. "I've heard strange things are happening these days. Why don't we walk away from here so that the trasks don't get to us if they manage to release themselves? I'm good with barrier spells, but I can't hold that many creatures forever."
"Alright," Eric acceded. "Ow... Mariel, do you have any healing herbs left or enough magic to cast a healing spell? This wound's starting to hurt more now that I've stopped fighting."
"That illusion spell wore me out," Mariel said. "It was a level 4 connection spell, and I had to add some light to make it more believable. Connection alone wasn't working. I had to use what I learned at the cave, and Pura helped me channel it; so now I can barely use any magic. Maybe a sphere of light, but that's all. I'll give you my herbs, but I'll have to process them first. Can you hold on for a minute?"
"Sure. But tell me, why did you put so much strain on yourself?"
"You were in trouble," was Mariel's reply. "You needed help. I did the only thing I could do."
"Maybe you're not strong enough for this kind of challenge yet," Jor suggested. "Why don't you go back to your homes? The route to the north only gets more dangerous. Where are you trying to get anyway?"
"We're trying to get to the bottom of all these attacks," Eric told him. "It is important. You can come with us if you want. After what you've done today, we'll probably be much safer with you."
"Speaking of that..." Mariel said while pressing some green and yellow leaves together. "How did you do that? What kind of magic was that?"
"Reverse light magic mixed with a barrier spell," he said. "Quite an effective combination."
"The barrier spell... which domain did you use to cast it?"
"You don't expect me to reveal all my tricks, do you? I worked hard on achieving this power. You should do the same."
"If we're going to work together, sharing our knowledge would help all of us," she told him.
"Well, share your knowledge, then. What domains can you use?"
"Light, connection and healing," she responded. "And I'm trying to explore others too. So, what was it?"
"It wasn't any of your domains," he replied. "You won't be able to cast that spell for now. Leave barriers to me."
Mariel wasn't satisfied with the answer, but she did not insist. She finished mixing and treating her herbs and applied them on their friends' wounds in order to heal them. When they felt better, the group headed to the north again.

As they walked, Jor and Mariel kept watching each other without saying a word. Eric wished he could know what was going on between them. The whole group remained unusually silent. The merial had an uncomfortable sensation. He had grown used to the constant chatter, and even the arguments.
"Why isn't anyone talking?," he finally asked when night was already falling.
"I guess we're tired," Mariel answered, but she didn't look at Eric as she spoke.
"Well, let's stop then," Eric suggested. "If we're too tired to talk, we can't expect to be ready to confront any dangers."
"Wise decision," Jor complimented him. "I'll dig a hole on the ground, it's the safest shelter in this area."
"I'll help," Erin offered.
"Can you use magic?," Jor asked her.
"No, but I have a good pair of arms," she said.
"I can see that. Ok, then, I guess you can help."
"What did he mean by that?," Timper wondered. He spoke in a low voice so that only those closest to him could hear him, those being Eric and Mariel.
"Eric, can you come with me for a moment, please?," Mariel asked. "I'll change your compress. Timper, you can help me."
Timper and Eric followed her to a silent corner.
"What's going on?," Timper asked her once he'd become sure they were away from everyone else's hearing range. "I know you don't need my help to change a compress you've made yourself."
"That's true, you've been acting strangely today," Eric agreed.
"It's Jor," Mariel confessed. "There's something about him. I don't know what yet, but when he used that darkness spell, and then the barrier... I got the feeling that it had all happened before. And then he asked so many questions..."
"I ask questions all the time," Eric pointed out.
"Yes, but it's different. You're as open as you're curious. Jor keeps to himself even more than Erin does."
"And that's saying a lot!," Timper commented. "But do you have any reasons to be suspicious? I mean... you've never distrusted Erin, nor me or Gallead."
"She has a talent for knowing who deserves her trust," Eric told him.
"It's just intuition and perception, enhanced by my knowledge of connection magic. Though it failed me at the cave."
"It worked in the end," Eric reminded her. "I'd trust your perception with my life. If it's telling you something's wrong, then something must be wrong. We'll find out."

Mariel nodded, and that was the sign for the three to rejoin the group. Jor directed a look at Eric when they returned, and then continued his digging work. Gallead was now helping him too. They were using their swords, their arms and a shovel Jor had hidden somewhere in the forest. Pura was watching from above. Eric, Mariel and Timper decided to help. Being there more workers than tools, Timper decided to do the job of a second shovel.
"It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it," he joked. When Eric felt strong enough, he used his earth magic to finish the job.

Jor got inside the hole to measure it. He walked from side to side, testing the walls with his hands.
"This will do," he diagnosed.
Then he got out and invited the group to try it.
"Are you sure it's a good idea?," Mariel asked. "I've never been inside a hole like this before, but it looks quite uncomfortable."
"It's good once you get used to it," Jor assured. "I've spent many nights in holes like this."
"Ok. Come with us, then."
"Now you don't trust me either," he claimed. "What have I done to earn your distrust?"
"Why are you so sure I don't trust you?"
"You didn't change your friend's compress."
Mariel realized her mistake, and was ashamed. She should have done what she'd said she was going to do. Changing the compress would have left some marks on Eric's clothes. Marks someone would have to pay attention to in order to notice them, but Jor evidently was watching them closely. What was he hiding?
"Don't worry, I'll prove myself," Jor offered. "I will enter the shelter first."
He walked into the hole and sat against one of its walls. The rest of the group followed him.
"I guess we can take seven turns now," Gallead suggested.
"Or maybe two of us can keep guard together," Erin said. "I'll take the last shift with Jor."
"I'll take the previous one," Mariel offered.
"And I'll take the one before," Eric said.
"If no one wants the first shift, then I'll take it," Timper decided.
"What do you like best, Gallead? Second or third?," Pura asked.
"It's the same," Gallead replied.
"Then take the second, so I get to wake up the little big guy."
"Okay, second then."

They got organized and spent a not too comfortable but still bearable night. Nothing relevant happened during the first 5 shifts, but when Mariel left her post to curl up inside the hole again, she couldn't get to sleep. She stayed awake as Erin and Jor got out, and heard what they spoke.
"Where did you get that shovel?," Erin inquired.
"I bought it during one of my trips. Do you like it?"
"It's not bad. Though some of its traits are wasted on a digging tool. I'd never seen anyone carry one on a journey before, I don't see why they'd make a self-storing shovel like that one."
"There are many things you haven't seen yet."
"Don't be so sure."
There was silence for a while.
Jor finally broke it.
"I heard the cities of Shantar and Holtar in the north were destroyed a year after my visit. It was a pity; they were homes to brave and powerful warriors."
"I wouldn't use that word lightly," Erin replied, avoiding his eyes.
"Which word?"
"Warriors. Nor brave. Those cities had been engaged in a pointless war for generations. No one even knew what they were fighting for, but still they continued. There were some exceptions, but most of their inhabitants were closer to street fighters than true warriors."
"Oh, so you know," he said. "I wouldn't judge them so fast. They were all working hard on improving themselves and gaining more power. I find that admirable. Don't you? From what I've seen so far, I can tell you have it in you. But it seems their attackers were more powerful in the end."
"You know nothing about me," Erin snapped. "You know nothing about anything at all."
"Why the sudden outburst?"
"That's me. I have sudden and unexplainable outbursts. But I care. I wouldn't make comments on a massacre as if I were talking about a wedding. The others may be immature at times, but at least they show respect for life. What are you doing this for?"
"I guess I made a mistake with you. I'm sorry."

Silence fell over them like lead. They didn't say a word for the rest of their shift. Tension kept building. When the sun rose, Erin turned around without thinking twice and got into the hole to wake up her friends.
Jor used that chance to cast a new spell. The hole became dark, except for the dim light Pura was shedding.
"What?!," Erin yelled. "What are you doing?!"
"Sorry, miss," Jor's voice came from outside. "I've seen you're not going to help me and I won't allow you to interfere with my goals. I've heard enough to realize your little group can become a major annoyance, so goodbye. Enjoy the rest of your life while it lasts!"
"Repulsive bastard!," Erin yelled, hitting a barrier while trying to come out. Her shouts woke up those who were still sleeping.
"What's going on?," Eric asked.
"He tricked us, that's what!! Mariel, undo this spell now! Get us out of here."
"I can't," Mariel told her. "I can't even cast a spell like this, let alone undo it."
"Then what? We can't stay here forever!," Eric complained.
"I know, I'll try to find a way."
Pura dashed against the barrier many times trying to break it, but it was in vain. Not even her light could come out. All physical attacks were also useless.
"The worst thing is I should have realized earlier," Mariel scolded herself. "I guess I was caught by surprise yesterday, but that's no excuse. I should have recognized that energy signature before he cast a spell on us."
"What are you talking about?," Eric inquired.
"This magic... it has the same pattern as the traces I found at the lurians' field. It was Jor who burnt the crops."
"Oh, no! And I've told him practically everything about us!," Eric scolded himself.
"We've all messed up," Erin shared the blame. "But I won't let that happen again. This bastard deserves to be crushed twice. He rejoices in the suffering of others."
"Remind me to never trust appearances again," Pura asked the rest.
"Blaming ourselves is not going to help," Timper remarked. "We need to find a way to get out of here."

... is it just me who can see an obvious way of trying to get out?

Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before one of their encounters turned out to be a bad apple.

I can't yet see the escape route Llearch is thinking of, but I'll reread it later and see if I can figure it out.

Did you want a hint?

You'll find out now...


Jamie Wilmslow woke up with a start. The first rays of the sun were coming in through the window right beside her bed. A part of her tried to cling to her dreams, but couldn't. She tried to remember what had happened. Only the last phrase that had resounded in her mind before she awoke was still there, words spoken by no voice in particular, with no certain origin or purpose: "one day can change the rest of your life". Right after 'hearing' that phrase, Jamie had felt something. That had been what woke her up, that much she was sure of. But exactly what it was she had felt was even more unclear than the meaning of the words. She tried to focus on it; made an effort to understand it. She knew it was important. She sat up in order to think more clearly, and the feeling came again. This time she managed to get a firm enough grasp of it to know it came from the outside, and it wasn't good. Or was it? She had mixed feelings; it would be hard to untie them and make sense of them. It was as if the best and the worst had suddenly come together. It was too hard for her to sort it out on her own.

Luckily for Jamie, she was not alone; or she could stop being alone the moment she wanted to. Mildred, her sister, was sleeping in another bed, only a few steps away from hers. Mildred's sleep, while not as light as Jamie's, was never too deep either; it wouldn't be hard to wake her up. Jamie crouched down next to her sister's bed and moved her body as gently as she could from side to side. The reaction was immediate.

"Hmm?," Mildred hummed, pressing her eyelids tightly.
"Wake up," Jamie told her.
"What time is it?" Mildred slowly opened her eyes to look through the window across the room. "It's sunrise. What's the hurry?"
"Didn't you feel it?," queried Jamie.
"Feel what?"
"I take that as a no. Are mom and dad still sleeping?"
"How should I know? I was sleeping only a few seconds ago."
"You didn't feel them in your sleep, did you?"

Now Mildred sat up and stared at her sister firmly.
"I was sleeping," she said. "Just sleeping. It's something most people normally do, you know. It's good for your health."
"I know, I know. I guess I'm too attached to this world to ever leave it completely."
"Yeah. When you die you'll come back as a ghost and wander on this world forever."
Both sisters burst into laughter.

"You said something about feeling... something," Mildred recovered the subject. "What were you talking about?"
"Oh! Outside. Something's going on, but I just can't tell what. I felt something really bad... but something really good too! I can't make sense out of it."
"Ok, ok, let's go slowly. Where did you feel it?"
"Outside."
"More precision, please."
"In the light. The sunlight, I think. And then the air. The air was disturbed, but it brought something sweet and pleasant. The light was... extremely confusing."
"Let me check," Mildred said, getting out of her bed to kneel down on Jamie's and look through the window. "Darn, I missed it. Whatever the light was carrying, it's gone now. But it's true that the air has something peculiar today."
"I'll check it out," Jamie decided, taking off her night dress and picking a black dress from her closet.

It was a tradition in the Wilmslow family to wear black clothes most of the time, in order to be more receptive to the energies around them (black was a receptive color by nature). White was a color they wore when they felt they needed protection (absorbs nothing, reflects everything). Many times Jamie thought that might be the reason why she, who had shiny black hair, could feel the invisible forces around her better than her brown-haired sister could (times when Mildred would invariably point out that she had more common sense than Jamie, which was probably true).
"Alone?," Mildred stopped her. "It may be dangerous. The forest has been uneasy lately and now this is here... really close and-"
"And we must do something about it. Besides, I somehow feel that I won't be alone."
"You can't live your whole life based on hunches."
"You can come with me. We'll split up to cover more terrain and if any of us needs help, the other will be just one scream away."
"One scream away. You're already thinking of screaming, yet you make it sound like there was nothing to be afraid of."
"I don't know if there's anything to be afraid of or not. I'm already confused, so please don't add to it. Will you support me, or shall I go out on my own?"
Mildred strode to the closet and picked up a dress from the other side.
"I'm with you."


"I can't believe I fell for such a stupid trick!," Erin roared, delivering punches at the impenetrable blackness above.
The group had already tried looking for a counter-spell, sending light into the darkness, digging a tunnel... but none of their attempts had worked. The barrier was all around them. They were trapped.
"I don't know that much about barrier spells, but I don't think brute force is capable of breaking them," Pura commented.
"Oh, shut up!"
"You know... fighting isn't going to help either," Eric pointed out.
"What do you want me to do, then?," Erin asked. "Stop going through the things that won't help and please tell me something that will."
"I wish I'd managed to conquer the domain of protection," Mariel sighed. "If I had, then I could have a chance of breaking this barrier. It was made by combining the domains of protection and light. But for some reason, I can't seem to connect with that domain. I've also tried to mix light and protection to cast a spell on my shield -that was the supposedly brilliant idea I had during the practice-, but it didn't work."
"Don't get so worked up, it's not your fault," Pura told her. "No one can master all domains of magic. Many live their whole lives without being able to harness any. And some, like me, can use only one. You're already good at 3 domains, so you should be proud."
"Good at 3 domains..." Mariel let out another sigh. "Connection is one of them, and still I couldn't read Jor fast enough to know he would betray us. I just felt there was something wrong about him, but that was all."
"Jor is very skilled with protection magic," Gallead pointed out. "He could easily protect himself from any readings. The fact that you actually found out that something was not right with him says a lot about your skills."
"Talk about saying a lot!," Erin shouted, failing to contain her rage. "He knows so much about us! Now we're really in trouble!"
"We should go after him when we get out of here," Eric suggested.
"He could be on the other side of the world by then," blared Erin.
"Then are we going to the wastelands?," Gallead asked.
Erin turned round and stared at him.
"We know that evil is concentrating there," the ferwill said. "I took it that was where we were going."
"No, that's too obvious," Erin said after thinking for a few seconds. "Jor wants us to go there. It can only be a trap. We need to find where the core actually is. It must be somewhere in the north, because its influence extends from north to south, but not exactly in the wastelands."
"The core?," Eric asked. "What's that? You'd never mentioned it before."
"The source of all the attacks," Erin explained. "What we've been after all along, and if Jor is as important to it as I suspect, then it's after us now."
"Where did all those thoughts come from, Erin?," the merial inquired. "It doesn't look like something that has just come to your mind."
"You've been maturing this, haven't you?," Mariel joined what felt like an interrogatory to Erin. "You've been thinking about it all the time, not wanting to talk to anyone else... not to get us worried? But we were already worried, and any information you shared with us would only help us. You're not alone in this, Erin. We can help. It's true, we're young and inexperienced and all, but we wouldn't be here if we didn't believe we can do something."
"Get out of my head!," Erin yelled.
"What? I'm not reading your thoughts!," Mariel told her. "I can't do that, and even if I could, I wouldn't. Thoughts are private."
"Then how did you know all that?"
"I've been travelling with you for weeks. And I've known you for a long time even before that. I've been trying to understand you ever since I first met you. I just didn't ask questions because I saw you didn't like them."
"So everyone is trying to decipher me?"
"We're not! We're trying to be your friends!"

Erin came down and sat on the ground. She meditated on Mariel's words. Maybe the elvin had a point; maybe she had been too hard on everyone all along. She'd set up her defenses so high, she'd ended up hurting those who cared for her. Maybe it was time to decide who she had to protect herself from, and who were safe company. Mariel was clearly the latter; she wouldn't even step on an ant. Next to her, Eric was probably the most innocent creature on the planet. Gallead looked clean, though she didn't know him well enough to be sure yet. As for Pura and Timper... those were hard ones. Pura was the most open lurian she'd ever met (though she was aware of the oxymoron in that phrase), and had an extremely developed sense of protection; it could be safe to trust her, but then again... she was Pura! Opening up to her would go against her principles. And Timper... he had admitted to trying to figure Erin out. He had confronted her at times when no one else would have dared to, and today had been awkwardly silent during the recent conversation; just looking at her. If there were any signs that could tell her not to trust someone, Timper had them all written on his forehead. But then again, he'd told her everything there was to know about him just to prove a point, he had allowed her to her touch his chest with the point of her sword without offering resistance, he had respected her feelings and even her need to withdraw to herself like no one else had and he seemed to honestly care for her! And the others thought she was the most undecipherable creature ever? No way! Timper was!

"Can I ask you a question and hope for you not to be offended?," Mariel probed Erin.
"Sure you can. I cannot guarantee your hopes will come true, but I'll try."
"I had trouble falling asleep after my shift last night, and I overheard your conversation with Jor. Still, I didn't make much sense out of it. Why did he suddenly start talking about the wastelands?"
Erin closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she let it go.
"He was testing me," she said. "He wanted to know which side I was on. I guess he didn't like the answer."
"Is that why you say he wants us to go there?"
"Yes. Either that or leave us trapped here until we starve to death... or die from lack of oxygen."
"Now that you say it, how come we're still breathing normally?," Timper wondered. "This hole is not that big. We should have began to notice the decrease in oxygen by now."
"I share your thoughts, Timper," Mariel said. "It seems that the air hasn't changed one bit. I've been examining the barrier to find a breach, and I'm practically certain it's letting air pass. Maybe he wants us to linger for a long time before we die."
"Are you serious?!," Timper suddenly broke his silence. "Though that would explain why we could still hear Jor's voice after he trapped us. I thought it had been telepathy or something."
"If that's true, I guess I've overestimated our enemy," Erin smiled for the first time that day.
"That's impossible! Someone so powerful would know better," Gallead refused to believe Jor's plan had such a huge loophole.
It was now clear to all the group that at least one of them had a chance to escape.
"Maybe he didn't consider you a threat," Pura suggested. "Those things often happen. Being underestimated can give you a lot of power."
"You can learn that from Pura," Erin remarked.
"Now you shut up!," Pura yelled at Erin. "Some of us have reasons for what we do."
"Are you saying I don't?"
"Oh, did I ever said that?"
"Stop it, please!!," Eric shouted. "I thought we could finally have a rest from your arguments."
"Changing the world would be easier," Erin laughed.
"I'm not the one who doesn't cooperate," Pura remarked.
"Stop. Please. Now."
"Alright...," the lurian accepted.
Erin's silence was taken as an agreement.

"Can you get out of here and look for help?," Eric asked Gallead. "Any kind of help."
"I'll do my best," Gallead said. "I still find it hard to believe that air can get out. Will you be fine till I return?"
"We'll be alright," Eric assured. "Good luck. I hope you find a way to break the spell."
Gallead was still unsure. It was a really hard task he had to take on.
"You can do it," Mariel said, placing her hand on Gallead's shoulder. "Trust yourself, and you'll make it. That's the way life works."
"We're counting on you," Eric told him, shaking Gallead's hand.
The ferwill nodded, and vanished from sight as a strong gust of wind ascended from the bottom of the trap... to the surface.

If anyone had been on that place at that moment, and felt  the fast curling wind that rose up into the sky and then forward into the first direction it could turn to, they would have easily felt that the wind was happy. Though most would have immediately thought that that made no sense, and discarded that feeling. Still, in this case it was true. Gallead was thrilled to see the sun again, to feel the treetops shake as he passed by them... to be free. But he didn't forget his mission. He knew his friends were counting on him, and he'd never be able to enjoy his freedom again - nor anything else - if he failed them. He needed to find something... anything... that could help him break the dark barrier.

During his flight, Gallead found many kinds of birds nesting on the treetops, many varieties of plants, a few clearings and even a river, but none of that was likely to be useful at that moment. Until he saw a dark figure moving slowly across the forest. Gallead couldn't see the figure clearly while flying at such a high speed, so he decided to land (which implied becoming solid again) and hide behind a group of trees to watch closer. What he saw then, was a being unlike any other he'd seen before. It was a female, that much was clear from the curves of her body, which also revealed that their owner was physically mature. Although, unless she belonged to one of the non-aging species, she was still young. She was wearing a long black dress, tight around the chest and torso, and loose below the hips. Her straight, black hair fell down to her chest, plaited in two pigtails. Her light-colored skin seemed to have low pigmentation, as it revealed the tint of the blood running below it, especially on her cheeks, and her lips were of an incredibly perfect ruby shade. She reminded him of an elf in some aspects, but there was something different about her; something Gallead could not put in words as much as he tried. She somehow seemed... closer.

The mysterious being brought her walk to a halt and turned round. Now her eyes were facing Gallead. They were medium brown, the same tone as an infusion Gallead used to prepare back at the Valley of Winds... only the color looked so much better on those irises! They were clearly not the eyes of an elf, but they weren't any less beautiful. The deep, round pupils matched the smooth features of her face, especially the small round nose. If he'd been trying to draw a perfect face, he wouldn't have been able to imagine a better one. She turned around completely, now her whole body facing the trunk that was sheltering Gallead. The ferwill turned away, placing his back on the grey tree-trunk to hide. He needed help, but he couldn't turn to the first creature he saw without being sure he could trust her. He couldn't afford running into another Jor.

"Who's there?," a soft female voice spoke.
How had she found him? Could she see through solid objects? Did she have an extremely acute sense of smell or hearing? Or maybe a psychic sense? Or had he just been too careless and revealed his position while being hypnotized by her image?
"You can come out, I won't hurt you," the voice assured.
A warm and comfortable sensation enveloped Gallead, inviting him to cast his worries aside. It reminded him of the moment when Mariel first reached out to him inside the cave. He somehow felt he could trust her. He slowly turned around and came out from behind the tree.

An expression of astonishment formed on the mysterious girl's face as she saw the ferwill. She took a deep breath with her mouth, her eyes wide-open, and the warm sensation Gallead was experiencing suddenly faded away, and was replaced by a great sensation of curiosity.

"Was that magic?," Gallead asked.
The girl closed her lips and nodded.
"Don't be scared, please," she begged him. "I only want to know you."
"I'm not scared," Gallead said with a smile. "Not of you, in any case. You're the most comforting sight I've seen in a long time."
The girl blushed.
"Are you a magical creature?," she asked him. "Sorry, of course, you must be. It's just... I've always heard of beings like you, and I knew you were somewhere in this forest. I felt your presence, but I never thought I'd actually see you one day."
"You felt my presence?," Gallead asked, confused.
"Well, I felt yours only this morning, but I felt others before. When I was little I dreamed of meeting one of you. You must think I'm crazy."
"I wouldn't call anyone crazy for dreaming," Gallead assured. "But I must admit I don't understand you. Who are you?"
"Oh! Sorry I didn't introduce myself. I'm not usually this dimwitted; it's just... today is a strange day. I'm Jamie. Jamie Wilmslow, from Shadowy Meadow."
"I'm Gallead from the Valley of Winds," he replied offering his hand.
Jamie's hand approached Gallead's slowly and caressed it gently before holding it with firmness. The back of her hand was softer than her palm and fingers, but her touch was pleasant. Her hands were small, but firm.
"Valley of Winds..." she repeated, almost in a whisper. "I've never heard of it before."
"It's among the mountains, north-east from here. It's a ferwill village. It's quite small, but it's a nice place. Especially for the children."
"Then you must be a ferwill," Jamie deduced, and a nod from Gallead confirmed it. "Can you really yourself turn into wind like the books say?"
"Yes, I can," Gallead replied. "But what about you? I've seen many creatures in my journeys, but I've never met anyone quite like you before."
"Really? I... No, I can't believe it. You must have seen other humans before."
"Human? Is that what you are?"
Gallead's expression changed all of a sudden when Jamie gave him an affirmative response. He now looked serious and reflective.
"This is strange. I've heard stories about humans, but I guess they must be just rumors."
"Stories? What did they say?"
"You wouldn't like to hear them."
"I've already heard so much, nothing you can say will scare me."
"Well, I've heard that humans were very dangerous and deceitful. That they had no respect for other species and hardly any respect for their own kind, and that they destroyed everything they touched. But, if it helps, I don't think you're like that."
"It does help," Jamie smiled. "That must explain why you're the first magical creature to ever show himself to a member of my family. I've heard rumors about your kind too. Rumors that said you were naughty and liked playing tricks on people, and other things too; but I never wanted to believe any of it. I wanted to see for myself. I know how misleading a rumor can be, and what awful things it can cause. That's the main reason why my family lives away from the rest of the society."
"Why? Have others hurt you?," Gallead asked, worried.
Jamie sighed.
"Many humans let their lives be ruled by fear, and they're afraid of everything they can't understand. And what they fear, they try to destroy. In that sense I guess the stories you heard were true, at least partially. My family... We're witches. We're constantly dealing with things other people don't understand. That's why the others didn't want us with them. That's why my parents decided to move into the forest as soon as my sister and I were born; to protect us and let us grow safe and practise the craft without anyone trying to ruin our lives. I guess they made the right choice, but sometimes... Sometimes I just feel too lonely."
"I know what you mean..." Gallead said. "Well... except for one thing."
"What thing?"
"What is a witch?"

Jamie looked at Gallead with surprise in her eyes. She had never expected anyone not to know what a witch was. She tried to explain it in the best way she could.
"We dedicate ourselves to exploring magic and the ways of the universe."
"So you're like a sorceress?"
"Hmm... I guess so. Yes, you can call me that."
"That's strange. In all the populations I'd found before today, sorcerers were highly respected."
"I guess we're rather odd... So you're not afraid of me?"
"Why would I be?"
Both Jamie and Gallead smiled, and they both felt something warm and pleasant. Only this time it wasn't magic. At least not the kind of magic a sorcerer can cast.
"I have a question," Gallead said. "If you're the one who works with magic, why did you call me a magical being?"
"Aren't you one? I mean... you can turn into air."
"That's a trait of my species, but as far as magic goes I can only use two spells, and only on myself."
"Which spells?"
"Agility and self healing."
"That's interesting. I've never thought of using a spell to boost my agility. I know some protection and connection spells, and I've been exploring light and healing lately. I have the feeling I'll need them soon; for some time we've been feeling something's wrong with the forest. But we haven't been able to find out what it is yet."
"Something's wrong indeed. Entire cities have been destroyed and many others were attacked. I'm an explorer and I've heard many stories which I wish were just rumors. I met some friends a few days ago; they were trying to make things right, so I joined them. But we were attacked and now all the others are trapped. I was the only one who could escape. Now that you've said you can use protection magic, I think you could help them. Mariel said the barrier that's holding them was made with light and protection magic."
"Mariel?"
"One of my friends. She's a sorceress, but she hasn't been able to open the barrier. Will you please help us?"
"Why didn't you ask earlier?"
"I was... Well, at first I wasn't sure I could trust you, and then I... I was stupid, I guess. Being with you, talking to you, looking at your eyes... it all felt so good, I think I didn't want that moment to come to an end."

Jamie was confused. Too many unexplainable things had happened that morning, and the day was only starting. The one thing she was sure about, however, was that she'd never felt so flattered in her entire life. And, while she couldn't quite make sense of her feelings, something was clear: this was, indeed, a day unlike any other.
"One day can change the rest of your life," she whispered to herself, starting to interpret the words of her dream.
"Do you think today is that kind of day?," Gallead asked her.
Jamie gasped. She hadn't expected Gallead to hear her.
"I was just thinking aloud. I'll do my best to help, but I may need help from the rest of my family. Do you mind if I call them? At least my sister, Mildred. She and I work best together."
"I'll trust you," Gallead said.
"Trust her with what?," another female voice came from behind Jamie.
The speaker showed herself. She was slightly taller than Jamie and the dress she was wearing was very similar to hers. Long brown locks fell below her shoulders, and her wide smile was much like Jamie's. The shape of her body was also quite similar, while the rest of her features were a bit sharper and her eyes had a color between brown and green. Her skin was white (at least what humans call white), but not as light-colored as Jamie's. The pinkish cheeks were present in both.
"There she is," Jamie smiled without turning. "Hi, Mid! How did you find me?"
"If I had been trying to find you, you wouldn't have got away for one second," Mildred affirmed, walking to her sister's side. "I see you've found a new friend. What's his name?"
"Oh. His name is Gallead. Gallead, this is my twin sister, Mildred."
"The one who got the brains," Mildred joked. "Just kidding."
"Mid, Gallead's friends need help. They're trapped by a barrier made of light and protection magic. Will you come with me and help them?"
"Sure!," Mildred accepted. "That must be what we were feeling this morning. What kind of friends are they?"
"Magical creatures, I guess," Gallead said with a smile. "At least according to Jamie's definition. Two elves, a shifter, a lurian and a strong faerie who won't reveal her species nor her background, but I can tell she's good."
"Let's go," Mildred suggested. "If the barrier spell was what woke you up, they have been trapped since sunrise. We shouldn't waste time."

Gallead led the witches to the spot where the barrier was. A wide hole could be seen there, but their eyes found nothing inside - only blackness. The place was silent. Gallead began to wonder if his friends had found a way out, but when he got closer to the hole he heard Mariel's voice calling for him.
"Gallead, is that you? Who's with you? Did you get help?"
"Gallead's here?," Eric's voice joined hers.
"I'm here," he confirmed. "And I've brought help. Jamie, Mildred, what do you think? Can you break this barrier?"
"The spell looks strong," Mildred judged. "But there must be a way to break it. Both types of magic are blended in quite an unusual way, though."
"We must find a way to untie the threads that brought those two kinds of magic together," Jamie remarked, kneeling down on the border of the hole.
"If you manage to make a breach, I can help you untie them," Mariel said. "Are you good with protection magic? If you are, you can hold back the protection part while I pull out the light part. That way we'll keep them separate while each of us undoes a part of the spell."
"That sounds like a good idea," Mildred agreed.
"Is she the sorceress you mentioned?," Jamie asked Gallead.
"Yes, she is," he replied. "She's Mariel. She's an expert in light and connection magic."
"Connection? That will help too. Ok, then. We can make a connection bridge so that we can work at the same pace without interfering with each other. It will also help us see the threads of the spell more clearly."
"True, but it won't work until we make a breach," Mariel said from inside the hole. "I've already tried that. The barrier repels connection magic just as it repels everything else other than air and light. It absorbs light and lets air pass through."
"Thanks for telling us," Mildred said. "We'll try to work with that."

Mildred and Jamie began to whisper words that made no sense to anyone else - not even Mariel -, but whatever they were saying seemed to work. Soon, energy began to build around them. Neither Gallead nor most of the occupants of the hole understood what was going on, other than the fact that the 3 young girls were casting a spell, or rather, trying to revert one. It took them about 2 minutes to open a breach through which connection magic could flow, and another 10 to completely undo the barrier. That seemed like an eternity for those who had missed the first rays of the sun, but an air of celebration filled the place when the morning light made its way into the hole, and those who had been trapped finally came out.

What came afterwards was a mixture of introductions, exclamations, remarks and silence (the latter only from a few). Mariel was impressed at the way the human witches had been able to tap into Jor's spell and break it, but Mildred and Jamie weren't any less impressed by her. Feeling her magic in action, making the task infinitely lighter, and now seeing her in person, brought amazement to both of them.
"Your eyes..." Jamie commented. "It looks as if a powerful light emanated from them."
"Should you be surprised?," Gallead said, getting closer to her, "when the most amazing light is hidden behind yours?"
Jamie blushed.
"Now where did THAT come from?!," Erin exclaimed.
"Note to self: never try a poetic approach," Timper half-joked.
"We should go now," Eric said. "We've lost too much time, Jor could be anywhere by now."
"You don't have to go yet," Jamie told the group. "We can help you. I mean... we've been feeling things lately... maybe we can help you find out what direction your enemy took, and we can also offer you something to eat and a place to recover your energies for a while."
"Why would you do that?," Eric asked her. "I mean, you've already helped us so much today! We'd never be able to pay you back."
"To think I'd always believed that if I ever saw an elf, I'd be the one with the pay-back problems," Mildred commented. "We'll be honored to help you as much as we can. You don't have to do anything for us. Though it would be great if you could tell us what's wrong with the forest, and help us sort it out."
"It would be great if we could all work together," Gallead suggested. "Can't you two come with us?"
"Sorry, we can't," Jamie responded, shadows covering her face. "We need to stay here and protect Shadowy Meadow. If things can get as bad as I think they can, we'll need a strong focal point for good magic. And we'll need to stick together. Our family, I mean. Shadowy Meadow is a spot of energetic confluence; a place where light and darkness come together. If there's anything we can do to prevent the balance between them from breaking, we'll only be able to do it here. But you can stay with us for as long as you can. I'm sure our parents wouldn't mind."
"Could you please translate what she said?," Eric whispered to Mariel.
"Later," the elvin said.
Gallead sighed and shook his head.
"I'm not a sorcerer," he said. "I wouldn't be of any help here. I don't really know what we're dealing with, nor why so many beings have suddenly risen to destroy everything in their wake, but whenever we find out, I'll have to deal with it in the way I can. However, if everything goes well and we make it back, I'll be honored to accept your invitation."
"Take something to eat, at least," Jamie urged the group. "You do eat, right?"
Gallead chuckled.
"Yes, we do."
"What's with those two?," Erin grumbled.
"I think I know, but I have the feeling you wouldn't like to know," Pura giggled.
"I'm not stupid, Pura. But I mean... they've only just met!"
"I tend to think logically," Timper said, joining the faeries, "but I do know logic doesn't work in all cases. Some things simply... are."


Elsewhere, a secret meeting took place. When the shakast arrived, a small transparent-winged being was sitting on a rock, waiting for him. He had short, straight red hair, and his short beard was just as red. The clothes he was wearing were clearly fire-themed, as if he was trying to give others a warning of what they'd get if they ever got in his way. He was small in size, true, but Jor knew better than to misjudge him. This fiery creature was a dangerous threat to anyone who opposed him, and he had proven that in the past. He combined strategic proficiency, physical strength, knowledge of weapons and firepower in a lethal way.
"What took you so long?," the faerfliye inquired.
"I have traveled a long distance," Jor responded.
"You're always so serious! But that could be a good thing. Someone like you is bound to take the job seriously. Actually, you turned up earlier than we expected. Did you get anything?"
"I don't like the tone you're using," Jor warned him.
"Which tone?"
"A tone of superiority. As if you considered yourself to have some degree of authority over me."
"Me? Oh, no, I always talk like that, you should know me by now. You've proven yourself just as I have. We're together in this. Partners."
"That will have to do," Jor accepted.
"Why so much harshness?"
"I don't like your kind."
"I'm one of a kind. You won't find anyone like me. I think the way I put an end to a millenary war proved that."
"I must admit I was delighted when I saw that. You must have sacrificed a lot. After all, one of the cities was your own, wasn't it?"
"It's not sacrifice unless you lose something that's important to you, and I only lost the things that made me weak. So, let me repeat my question: did you get anything?"
"For a moment, I thought I had. But I seem to have found quite the opposite of what I was looking for."
"That could be a good thing too. We need both polarities for things to work, or so says Haggaus."
"What do you mean?," Jor inquired. "How does he know that? Has he made any progress?"
"He has read the signs," his partner announced.
"Finally!"
"Yes. Finally. We have until the spring equinox."
"That's only a few months from now. Why?"
"A matter of balance of light and darkness. You should understand it better than me, you know magic's not my thing. But he says it's the moment when they both have equal strength. '12 hours of each on that one day,' he said. So, if either side manages to shatter that perfect balance, that side will gain unparalleled power."
"But why this equinox in particular?"
"I'll go on with what he said. Normally any equinox would have done, but now forces have been set in motion and they can't be stopped. It's now or never. 'Twelve must confront twelve,' that's what Haggaus said. So maybe what you found can serve us. It will be good to identify our opponents. We can be better prepared."
"How many are we now?"
"3 fixed, 2 in trial and I think I've found another promising pair. We need at least 5 more."
"Will Haggaus get out and start recruiting now that he's done with the readings?"
"He's one step ahead of you. He's already been working with the candidates, exploring their potential."
"I know one. Who's the other?"
"I heard that it's a she, but I've never seen her. Haggaus says it's essential that we don't disturb her right now."
"And you follow his commands?"
"I don't know if interrupting her treatment would ruin things or not, but it will be better to play his game until we know more. So tell me, who did you find?"
"They were just six, not too well organized, though very determined. Two seemed to share a strong bond, but those were young and inexperienced. Two others didn't seem very dangerous, just a lurian and a weird air creature; but the remaining two were smart and shouldn't be underestimated. I have an idea of what they're weak against based on recent experience, but I suggest we try all elements to be sure."
"Why just the elements? We can do better things," the winged one suggested.
A smile formed in the mouths of both.
"We'll try everything we have," Jor decided. "That way we can test them and our own group at the same time. We'll kill two birds with the same stone."

One of the things I like about your writing, Gabi, is the way you drop information into it.

Quote
"What took you so long?," the faerfliye inquired.

Look, we now know he's a faerfliye. All without drawing attention to it, and just in passing.

.. and I can hardly wait for the next slice... :-)

Oh goodie... now we start to get a handle on what's going on  >:3

Heh, thanks. Well, I'm liked you liked the information. Don't worry, llearch, I'm sure next chapter will prove what you're thinking.

I doubt it, somehow. Not unless you're planning on proving that people suck, and that makes for a terrible story....

Ok, let's see if it has anything to do with that or not. :P


The Wilmslow twins convinced the group to stay at Shadowy Meadow for a few hours, arguing that a pause and a good meal would help them face their journey with renewed energy rather than being a waste of time. Gallead wasn't hard to persuade; he wanted to know more about Jamie and the way she and her family lived. And Mariel was very interested in the way they handled magic, which had many points in common with her ways, but also had many differences. She wanted to find out if they were just differences of form or if there was anything she could learn from the ways of witches that could be useful for her. Plus, she wanted to find out how two human girls who were merely a year older than her had developed such great skills in protection magic, when that domain was so elusive for her. This led to a long conversation between her and the whole family, and the conclusion was that, since not everyone had the same potential to accede to each domain (and that was the main reason why there were many spells which could be cast in different ways), mastering protection magic would be harder for Mariel. That didn't mean it would be impossible for her to achieve that; she had time on her side and was perseverant enough to eventually accomplish any goals she set for herself; but it would be best for her if she started investigating other domains first. In this respect, when she informed the sisters of her failed attempts of enhancing her shield, and showed the protective weapon to them, Jamie suggested she used light magic to turn it into a reflective shield and make it deflect any energy attacks or even have them bounce back. In return for this, Mariel told the witches many of the things she had learned from Primrose and Selinur. There was no time for anyone to learn new spells, but in the end they all had more knowledge and ideas than they'd had before.

When the time came for the travelers to depart, Jamie asked them if they would return after their mission was complete. To which Gallead promised that at least he would, and asked her to stay safe and protect that part of the forest until then. Finally, the group left. Though Gallead didn't stop looking back until Shadowy Meadow was nothing but a shadow in the distance. Only then, Erin broke the silence.
"Now, will anyone explain..."
"Why we trusted them?," Timper interrupted her.
"How did you know what I was going to say?"
"I'm getting to know you. Besides, I actually have the same question. I know that Mariel trusted them and she seems to have a powerful intuition about who deserves her trust. But I agree that everything went too fast to make any sense. I wouldn't have opened up so fast to anyone, and I'm the one who told you everything I could do on the way we met."
"That doesn't make sense; in which way didn't you open up?"
"In the way Mariel did... Or Gallead."
"There was something special about her..." Gallead said in a way that showed more evocation than self defense. "The way she looked at me, the way she talked... It was as if I could see through her. And I loved every bit of what I saw."
"Now you'll say you could get lost in her eyes forever," Erin laughed.
"It's possible," Gallead replied.
"Oh, I can't believe this!"
"I don't expect you to understand me," Gallead told her. "Though it would be great for you if you could. But you and I are very different. I'll never be such a good fighter as you are."
"Just clear this out for me. Do you fall in love with every pretty girl you meet?"
"No, of course not!"
Gallead shook his head, sighed and then continued.
"It's not something I can explain. It had never happened to me before. I don't know what it means, if it means anything at all. Our races are not even biologically compatible, and I don't really know if I'll get to see her again. I could die in this quest for all I know. But..."
"But?," now it was Eric who asked, proving that their conversation had exceeded the limit of the small group who was carrying it out.
Gallead paused for a moment, thinking.
"But I really want to believe I'll see her at least once more," he finally said. "Ever since I left the Valley, I've dreamed of having a place to return to after each journey. Now I feel I've finally found one. It could be an illusion. Maybe she doesn't feel the same way and she was just surprised that she found creatures she hadn't seen before. But something inside me tells me otherwise and I want to believe it. Call me crazy if you want; I have no way to show I'm not."
"You're not crazy," Eric told him. "I think I know what you mean."

The air was filled with silence, while the minds of the travelers were anything but. Mariel, Eric, Gallead, Erin, Timper... even Pura. All of them were too concentrated in their own thoughts to utter a word. Until the silence was finally broken by the cracking of a heavy tree branch, which shot itself to the ground, nearly smashing the smallest ones. Luckily for the group, they all reacted fast enough and evaded it.
"Umm... what's the chance of that being an accident?," Pura wondered.
"Normally, high," answered Erin. "These days, I'd say close to null."
"I'll look around," Timper said, taking the shape of a small bird.
"Me too," Pura decided, flying in the direction where the branch had come from.

It turned out Erin had been right, but it was neither Timper not Pura who found that out. The attack revealed its nature when the trees around the group began to close in.
"Dassels?," Eric asked no one in particular.
"Too powerful," Timper responded from above. "Either we're facing hundreds of them or we're up against something bigger."
"Please let it be something bigger," Erin yearned. "A hundred Dassels are more irritating than a hundred flies."
At that moment, one of the tree roots rose from the ground where Erin was standing. The faerie flew away from it and lifted her arms, pulling her sword out of the air.
"I've never enjoyed gardening, but I guess it's time to do some," she announced.

Erin began to swing her sword and slice the attacking branches as if they were made of paper. Eric and Gallead did their part, while Mariel, Timper and Pura tried to locate the source of the attack, each in their own way.
"They're driven by magic," Mariel finally sentenced.
"Then try to find who's causing it," Erin told her.
"I'll watch your back," Eric offered, getting closer to her in order to stop any trees from reaching her while she was concentrating.
It was easier said than done. The trees wouldn't give the group a break. It was as if the whole forest was against them. They attacked with their branches, roots and trunks, and they also used their bulks to restrict their mobility, not missing a chance to surround one fighter and isolate him or her from the rest of the group. The first one to be trapped was Gallead, whose sword wasn't as thick and hard as those of Eric and Erin, and needed more blows to get the same job done. Gallead managed to cast his agility spell before the trees started pressing him, but couldn't find an opening that was big enough for his sword to pass, and the trees didn't allow him the time to create one with his weapon. He had no choice but to escape through the treetops, leaving his sword behind. When he materialized again, he encountered a 6-winged, thick-muscled Timper, who soon became aware of his predicament.

"Something's making them stronger and more resistant," Timper said. "sheer strength won't bring them down. You'll need a good sword to cut them and stop them. One like Eric's."
"Eric's sword is too heavy for me," Gallead replied. "I could lift it, but I can't fight with it."
"With Eric's sword, maybe. But with a sword that helps you, you'll do a great job."
Saying this, Timper stood on Gallead's hands and assumed the shape of a reinforced steel sword. Gallead decided not to ask any questions, and to try out Timper's plan. Timper was heavy in this form, but Gallead's agility spell helped him swing him faster, and the false sword added the extra impulse Gallead needed to slice the tree trunks and make them fall. Things were beginning to look good for them.

Pura was the next one to be surrounded by thick trunks, but the trees could never press hard enough to prevent her from sliding through small open spaces, and the branches could never move fast enough to hit her. All they could do was try to block any possible openings before she detected them, but it was still easy for her to get out. Staying out was the hard part. She was beginning to tire from flying so fast without stopping for even a second. And she wanted to do something useful, not just keep escaping until her friends could put an end to the threat. So she did the only thing she could think of: she soared above the treetops and made a rain of light fall on the group of trees that had been trying to get her. Most of their leaves sizzled and burnt from the excess of light, but the wood was unaffected. Realizing there was not much else she could do, she decided to look for Eric and help him detect any unseen threats. But before she could find him, she spotted something else.

At that point, Erin had been left alone. She would have had no problems getting rid of the trees, if not for the fact that they kept coming, no matter how many she cut down. They had managed to push her away from the rest of the group, and now she could see no signs of any of her friends. Moreover, it looked as if a half of the forest had gathered around her and was trying to crush her. Well, half the forest would be an exaggeration, but there were easily 40 or 50 trees dedicated to her alone. They were closing in... getting too close for comfort. Too close for their own good. No sentient being could be found anywhere around. Erin was on her own. No friends, no witnesses... no constraints.

When Pura found Eric and Mariel and informed them of her discovery, they all made their way to the spot she indicated. They arrived too late, though. By the time they reached it, the shining point on the ground that Pura had seen had lost its brilliance and turned into a simple puddle of melted glass. The attack had ceased, the earth around the glass was dry and most of the trees of that area were burnt. When Gallead showed up, they asked him if he had any idea of what had happened, and he told them that he had only seen a huge fire. He had blown strong winds to encase it and stop it from spreading, until it had eventually died out. No one knew what had caused it, except maybe for the two members of the group who were still missing.

Timper had been separated from Gallead a few minutes earlier, when, while trying to cut down a tree, another tree had hit the ferwill and pushed him back. Gallead had got up quickly, but the trees had moved to block his way and, when he got to the spot where he'd left Timper stuck in a tree trunk, the shifter had disappeared.

"We need to find him!," Eric urged the others as soon as he heard Gallead's story. "And Erin too. They could be in trouble."
"The magic is gone," Mariel informed him. "I think it was this glass thing that was controlling the trees. I can't believe it caused so much damage to the forest. I wonder who or what is responsible. In any case, I don't think Erin and Timper are in danger right now. Maybe they're just lost."
"Timper doesn't strike me as being the kind who gets lost," Gallead said. "I'm sure he'll find us before we can find him and Erin. I think we should all stay in one place, to make it easier for them to locate us. We'll miss each other if we move."
"What if they're hurt, or unconscious?," Eric suggested, concerned.
"We're talking about Erin here," Pura replied. "I'm not sure if there's anything in this world that she can't endure. And Timper seems to be quite tough too. We should give them some time to find us before we start looking for them. They can't be too far."


Jumping back a few minutes, Timper was pinned to a tree trunk, while several branches were trying to beat him up and break him. He was too hard to be easily broken, and he could get harder; but that wouldn't stop the trees, nor help his friends. He was worried about them. They were all out of sight, and at least one of them was unarmed. He decided to take the risk and look for them. So, he shook his metallic blade to break loose, let himself fall and regained his original shape.

Evading the trees in the best way he could, Timper initially followed an erratic path marked by the available spaces. But then, the unexpected smell of smoke and burnt wood determined his course. Suspecting that yet another threat had risen, he decided to investigate the source of the smell. For that, he turned into a luysher: a small, semi-transparent air being, and the fastest form he could use without breaking a promise and unleashing a possible tragedy (as unlikely and senseless as that sounded, he didn't want to be responsible for the consequences if Pura's words were founded). He managed to avoid most attacks and endure the few that connected, and as the air got hotter and harder to breathe and the sound of flames became clearer, the trees ceased their movement. Timper didn't understand what was going on, but he had the feeling that the fire had something to do with it. The flames soon became visible, as they embraced a wall of trees right in front of him. He stuck to the ground to avoid being burnt, and walked past them. Once on the other side, he followed the fire to its source, and his eyes met a scene he'd only seen illustrated in old books.

There it was, the origin of the fire. It was a faerfliye, with a head crowned in orange flames and a short golden dress that shone in different tones, reflecting the oscillating light. A female faerfliye, with a pair of transparent wings that were definitely a lot more resistant than they looked, and a pair of legs that... no, no time for that kind of thoughts. She was still releasing fire; she could burn everything in the area if she didn't stop, and she didn't seem to be in a state in which the idea of stopping would come to her mind. This uncontrolled display of power was a proof of that. Flames burst out of her hands with the fierceness of a beast being unleashed after years of captivity. And Timper could be wrong, but that beast didn't seem to care about who or what stood on its way. It would advance and devour, and if it went too far, guilt would consume its creator more than anything ever had. For, though much about her remained a mystery, especially now, he did know her that much.

"Please, stop! Don't do this to yourself!," Timper shouted, but the fire faerie could only hear the sound of her own flames.
He tried to think of something that could make her stop, but every idea he could think of would either be useless or make her hate him. Finally, he came out with a very risky, crazy plan. He transformed into a neini, a creature most vulnerable to fire, and pushed the air with his green wings to ascend to the faerfliye's side. When he was in her range of sight, he urged her to stop once more.
"It's over," he said. "The threat is gone. Now please stop!"

The flow of fire was cut abruptly, and the flames on Erin's head died down, her orange-ish golden hair falling back on her shoulders and her body sliding down at a slow pace. Her eyes showed nothing but shock. Timper followed her to the ground, returned to his normal shape and contemplated her in silence. Until she finally spoke.
"Timper..."
"Are you alright?," he asked her.
"No, I'm not!," her attitude suddenly changed. "What are you doing here? You... you could have died! And what... why... What the hell are you doing here?!"
"I trusted you, I knew you wouldn't hurt me. And you're welcome."
"What am I supposed to thank you for?"
"I stopped you from burning the whole forest."
"Burning the whole forest? Don't be ridiculous! I was going to stop as soon as the trees stopped attacking."
"They stopped about 5 minutes ago," Timper revealed.

Erin paused for a few seconds, reflecting.
"You've seen me," she finally said. "You know what I am."
"A faerfliye," he confirmed. "What's wrong with that? You know what I am too."
"You don't understand!"
"Then help me understand."
She made another pause, then shook her head.
"I can't. Just... just leave."
"Erin, please. I want to understand you. That's all I... Ok, since it has come to this, explain yourself and I'll tell you what I've been hiding all this time. A secret for a secret. That has to be fair."
"You have a secret?," Erin questioned him. "What are you talking about?"
"You were right about one thing when you met me. I wasn't being completely honest. But I had to keep something to myself. If I hadn't, you would have sent me away immediately."
"And now you'll reveal your secret because...?"
"Because I have nothing to lose anymore. If I don't speak, odds are you'll kick me out of the group to protect your secret. If I do, there's a chance you may understand me."
"Don't jump to conclusions about me. Speak."
"Ok..."

Timper took a deep breath and paused for a moment, trying to find the words and the strength to say them. "The truth is that, when I met you, I wasn't on a quest to help the people from the wastelands. I'm in this now, 100%, but back then I was debating whether it was best to go there and check what was going on or head elsewhere and wait for things to calm down. But when I saw you, things changed."
"How did they change?"
"I can't explain it. There was something about you that drew me in. You were a mind-blowing puzzle, and -sorry, I must say this- a beautiful one at that! The more I saw you, the more I felt the need to know you better."
"Let me get this straight. Are you saying you decided to go on a quest that might cost you your life... because of me?"
"I had to try. My life would be worthless if I weren't willing to take a risk when it's worth it. That's the way the greatest discoveries are made. What kind of explorer would I be if I turned my back on something like this?"
"'This' being?"
"Pardon?"
"'This' being me, the quest or the mental challenge you get from having me around?"
"Everything, actually."
"I can't believe this," Erin shook her head and laughed.
"I'm sorry. You must think I'm a fool now. In my defense I can say... it was worth it; for as long as it lasted. Everything I found out about you was a delightful surprise. You have even more in you than I originally thought. And call me egocentric, but I think it helped you too. You've opened up a lot since I met you, and shown sides of you I'm not even sure you knew about. And they all made me wish I could stay by your side."
"I never said you can't," was Erin's unexpected reply.
"Pardon? Did I hear well?"
"I must admit this is a bit... unsettling, but now I know you can keep a secret, and... I don't want to say anything I'll regret later, but I do feel having you around is doing me well."
Now Timper's eyes couldn't be wider.
"Don't take me wrong," Erin clarified. "I'm not going to go Gallead any time soon... Not ever, in fact. But I've lived many years and no one has ever treated me the way you do. And, for some reason, that allows me to do and say things I wouldn't have before. It's like I can be myself around you and it won't matter. I somehow feel... free, or at least a bit closer to being free." She paused for a moment and then added: "now I guess I am a fool."
"Why are you always so hard on yourself?," Timper asked her, walking one step closer to her, still refraining from touching her.
Erin sighed.
"I guess I'll have to tell you. Let's do this: if you haven't changed your mind about me once I've told you what you want to know, you can stay with us. But there's a good chance I'll only bring shame to myself and you won't have any desire to be anywhere near me again."
"I really doubt that's a possibility, but please go on."

"Ok. As you may already have figured out, I'm a wastelander. Only it was not a wasteland when I lived there. I grew up in Shantar, one of the two faerfliye cities that were constantly in war against each other."
"The other was Holtar, right?"
"Right. Then, if you've heard about those cities, you must know that the war went on for many centuries. This resulted in Shantar and Holtar making some of the best weapons in the world, but it also made life very hard for those who lived there. I was one of the kids who lost their parents in the war."
"Sorry, I didn't know."
"It's ok. That was a long time ago, and too many things have happened since then. I was raised in a community house with other orphans and the whole city looked after us. They gave us everything we needed, including a huge dose of physical training. No wonder almost everyone ended up growing into warriors. I was never the most sociable creature, but I had two good friends in the house: Allen and Wilson were their names."
"So, what happened?"
"What happened was that finally the 3 of us ended up joining the army because that was the normal course of things, but the closer we got to the battlefield and the more news we got about the war, the sicker we all grew of it. I was all for fighting for what I believed in, but all I could see there was meaningless slaughter. And there were no signs of either side having a chance to win, so it would probably go on forever. Allen saw this and deserted. He ended up being arrested, and they made Wilson lock him in until he decided to rejoin. He was a bit crazy, you know. When he came back, he said it had been nice to have a friend watch over him."
"That's weird."
"That's nothing. There was one night when things changed drastically, and for the worst. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to get some fresh air and fly around a little. I was only a few meters off the borders of the city when I found two suspicious shapes. I hid myself to watch, and found Wilson talking to a guy from Holtar!"
"A secret meeting between both cities?"
"Sort of. Or so I thought. There turned out to be outsiders involved, but back then I didn't know what to make of it. I intercepted Wilson when the other guy left and asked him what that was all about, and why he hadn't told us about it."
"What did he say?"
"He said he'd found a way to end the war, and told me to trust him. Something didn't smell good, but he was a friend, so I let him go and only decided to watch him closely. That was a huge mistake, but my biggest mistake came later."
"Why? What happened?"
"Well, a part of what happened, you already know. We were invaded. Both cities. An army of creatures we'd never known came in and, while we fought to repel them, we were missing too much information to succeed. Most of them turned out to be shadows. You'll never imagine what it feels to see those you know fall helplessly, their very essence stripped away from them. I hope you never get to see that. And then the shadows took their bodies and attacked us, like zombies. Few things could be worse than that, but there was something worse. Among the attackers was Wilson. It was not his body taken by a shadow; you could see the difference in their eyes. It was him, acting by his own free will. He kept raving about ending the war once and for all and destroying those who caused it... he had turned against his own people. Even against his friends."

A tear slipped down Erin's eye. Timper had the feeling there was something she hadn't said yet, but before he could do anything, she dried her face with her hand and continued.
"Allen tried to stop him, but in the end he failed and Wilson killed him. I couldn't take it anymore and I... I..."
"What?! What did you do?!" Now Timper was starting to get scared.
"I flew away," Erin revealed. "I was too scared and confused and horrified. I couldn't even think. I just escaped before Wilson could see me and flew for hours... days... weeks. I really don't know how long, I wasn't even thinking. Later I scorned myself for that; now I think I would have lost if I had fought, I was strong, but I couldn't defeat an army of shadows on my own. But still, I shouldn't have saved myself and let my city fall. I'll never forgive myself for that."
"So, what would you rather have done? Died in a futile battle, making your death the only change in the result?"
"The way you put it, I would have been pathetic no matter what I'd done."
"No way, Erin. Your life is worth too much to waste it like that. The fact that you're now fighting to make things right proves it. There was nothing you could have done back then, but there's a lot you can do now. And you're doing it."
"I can't believe it. I thought you'd be ashamed of me by now, but instead, you're praising me."
"I only give praise when it's deserved," Timper said. "...And every now and then I give a little extra praise to myself too."
Erin chuckled, unbelieving. She would have never guessed she'd be able to laugh after letting out what had been burning her from the inside for 8 years. What powers did Timper have?!
"Are you sure you're real?," she asked him.
"Absolutely. That's my motto, remember?"
"Oh, yes, I'll never forget that."
"So, what did you do for the last 8 years?"
"Well, after I escaped I flew straight until I collapsed... It turned out I fell in a restricted area in the middle of Isthum, a lurian village. When the lurians tried to lift me up, I woke up and saw something I wasn't supposed to see. So the lurians took me in. They said they'd help me recover from whatever it was I'd been through, though I knew they only wanted to make sure I wouldn't let out their secret. Still, it was good to be a part of a community again. The lurians learnt not to ask questions and gave me everything I needed, and in return I offered them protection and helped them with the heavier tasks. I spent most of the time out in the forest, training to take the uncontrollable emotions out of my system, and hoping I'd eventually get strong enough to take on Wilson and the shadows. Some time later I met Eric and Mariel, and then the massive attacks began and I knew it was time to go back and finally make things right. You already know the rest of the story."

"Wow!," Timper exclaimed.
"No, don't tell me I've left you speechless because I wouldn't believe it. You always have something to say."
"I guess you've thrown more at me than even I can find a good reply for."
"Well, it's relieving to know you don't hate me after this."
"Never! Trust me, Erin, one day you'll learn to see yourself as you really are. And that day nothing and no one will be able to stop you."
"We'll see. I hope you're right. So... what shall we do now?"
"That's a tough question." Timper stopped to think for a minute. "Ok, I don't know what we'll do when we have to face the rest of the group, but first would you please allow me to find out something? Consider it professional research."
"Do I want to know what you're trying to find out?"
"It's simple. I want to know how strong faerfliyes really are. Is it true that you're stronger than massennes?"
"Oh, so that was it!," Erin laughed. "Yes, we are, at least in average."
"Would you mind if I checked how strong I can be as a faerfliye?"
"Go ahead, if it helps you do a better job as an explorer. Actually, it would be interesting to see what you'd look like as a faerfliye."
"Alright, then. There I go; I hope neither of us gets disappointed by this."

Timper's jacket opened behind his back, to make room for the new pair of transparent wings, while his hair began to turn from black to bright orange. No other change occurred.
"Not bad," Erin sentenced. "Though your clothing still looks rather awkward."
"I usually change my clothes when I have to fit in, but that's not the case now," Timper said. "The thing is... I don't feel any different. Except for the wings. The wind is tickling them a little. Did I do anything wrong, or is this the way I'm supposed to feel?"
"I don't know," Erin replied. "You're the shifter, not me. Why don't you try lifting a rock or something? That way we'll know if you did it right."
"Good idea. Too bad I won't be able to shoot fire, that would have been nice. You looked awesome, by the way. Hey, wait! I have a better idea."
"What's gotten into your mind this time?"
"I can test my strength against you."
"Are you sure? I'm a trained warrior, not to mention I've been a faerfliye all my life. Even if I've been hiding it for the last 8 years."
"Not in battle. A game. We can get that trunk over there and hand-wrestle. Let's see how much of a fight I can put up."
Erin chuckled again.
"You're getting weirder by the minute."
"Relaxing once in while is good for health. Come on, it won't hurt you."
"You're a lost case... But what gives? Let's do it."
"Shall we do it with our left hands? I'm ambidextrous, I'll have more of a chance if I'm up against the hand you don't hold your sword with."
"I can hold it with either hand if I have to, or with both at the same time. But no, let's do it right and use our right hands. I'm not willing to have everything your way, you know."
"Whatever you say."
With that, they both took their positions and the competition began. The struggle lasted for about 2 minutes, and there were moments in which it wasn't clear who would win. But in the end, Erin prevailed.

"Alright, I accept my defeat," Timper sighed. "Just please don't start that old speech about the copy being unable to defeat the real thing and all that stuff."
"The real thing?," Erin laughed. "You know... the difference between reality and illusions is that real things are much more complex, harder to understand, challenging... usually harder to deal with. But when you become aware of reality, you fight hard in order to never be trapped by an illusion again. As far as I can tell, it doesn't get more real than you are."
Timper couldn't believe what he was hearing. Had that been a compliment? From Erin?!
"But you'll have to learn how to put those muscles to good use," she continued, standing up. "Or else you'll never stand a chance against a trained warrior."
That was more like the Erin he knew. He would have been scared if she had changed drastically all of a sudden.
"That will be hard," he answered, getting up from his position and reverting to his original form. "You wouldn't want me to transform into a faerfliye in public, right? That could give away your secret."
Erin paused for a moment to think.
"You know... I think they already know my secret," she finally said. "Jor has to, at least. There's no other explanation for the things he said, and he has seen the place where I was born. I guess keeping it from our friends will only hinder us. It's already been giving me trouble. I believe it's time to stop holding back. That is if you can tell the others what they need to know without having them hate me for that."
Many kinds of thoughts circled inside Timper's mind at that moment. While he was wondering how anyone could possibly hate Erin, he was also appalled and flattered at her sudden decision to trust him. But the thought that won his mouth was...
"What?! I've gone through so much trouble to find the truth about you, and now that I've found it you decide to let it out?!"
Erin laughed. It was an honest, clear, heartfelt laughter; the kind of which Timper had been dreaming of hearing come from Erin's mouth. It was literally a dream come true.
"What can I say? It seems I'm real enough too."
She turned around and started walking away.
"Where are you going?," Timper asked.
"To get the others, of course. And you'd better help getting the group back together. We're on a quest, remember? There's no time to waste!"
And with this, she took off.

Nice to see Erin open up there.

Sorry for the extremely long delay, and many thanks to llearch for reopening this topic.

As I read this chapter again to revise it (I think I fixed most phrasal verbs on this one), something made me laugh. D&D fans could well assume all the trouble in this chapter was caused by a D20. While I didn't actually roll a dice for this, you'll see what I mean when you read it.

Also, there's a lot of foreshadowing on this chapter.


Minutes passed and there were no signs of Erin and Timper. The group began to worry, and decided to search for them. All but Mariel parted in different directions, while the young elvin waited at the meeting point in case they showed up. In the meantime, she tried to find a way to do something for the forest. She couldn't stand watching the destruction that had just fallen upon it. Most of the vegetation in the area had been burnt or cut down during the battle, and there were no signs of any animals around. "We need to be more careful, or else we'll be no better than the forces we're fighting against," she sentenced. But how? How could they defend themselves without causing pain and destruction to those around them? There had to be a way...

Then she remembered the books she had brought along. She hadn't had time to read much since the journey had started. Now was a good time to see if she could find any useful spells. She skipped through the pages of a book and then another, until a picture of a blooming tree caught her attention and she stopped to read that page more carefully. Vegetal magic: one of the most basic forms of Life magic. Why hadn't she thought of that before? At least there was a way to make up for the damage they had caused.

2 hours passed before anyone returned to the meeting point. That gave Mariel the time to get the handle of a basic plant healing spell and apply it on several trees and bushes. She couldn't revive dead trees and wasn't proficient enough to regrow severed trunks and fallen branches, but she managed to heal most superficial burns and cuts. And all in just 2 hours! She reckoned Vegetal magic would be something interesting to explore in the future. It might even help the group on their quest eventually.

Then, a sword came floating in the wind at high speed.
"Watch out!," Mariel cried.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Gallead said, regaining his original form. "Wow, you've done all of this?"
"I've been trying to heal these trees, yes."
"It's amazing!"
She looked at him and smiled. She remembered how Primrose used to say she was a prodigy. She wasn't really sure if that was true, but she was glad she could do things well. They'd need as much power as they could get.
"So... you haven't seen them, have you?," she asked Gallead.
"I'm sorry. I managed to find my sword, but Timper and Erin seem to have disappeared. I was hoping someone else would have found them by now."
"I hope nothing bad has happened."
"Have you tried using your magic?"
"To find them?"
"Yes. Like you did at the cave, you used your magic to reach us all."
"Oh, that only works if you're close enough. And even if you are, if the person doesn't want to be found then it will be hard to make it work."
"Why wouldn't they want us to find them?"
"I don't know, I was just telling you how it works. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't. They must just be further than we thought."
"Or closer," Gallead said, pointing up.

Mariel looked at the sky and saw the shapes of an eagle and a faerie flying above her head.
"I'll get them," Gallead offered, and took off again.
Erin and Timper were caught in a small private tornado. Erin tried to fight it, but Timper helped her calm down.
"Easy, it's just Gallead," he told her. "Mariel's waiting for us below."
"I wish I had the an eagle's sight," Erin sighed.
"You have me," the eagle said, winking.
"What am I getting into?," Erin murmured, shaking her head while she let the wind carry her down.
"You're here! Where have you been?," Mariel greeted them when they landed.
"Talking," Timper said. "Lost track of time."
"You got us all scared."
"Sorry, but you should know better than to get so worried about us," Erin told her. "Not many things can blow the air out of me. Certainly not some plants."
"But... the fire?"
Erin and Timper looked at each other.
"We'll explain that when the others are back," Timper promised. "I take it they're searching for us?"
"I'll see if I can call them," Mariel offered.

It didn't take a long time before the group was reunited. Pura showed up right away as soon as she received Mariel's call, and Eric ran as fast as he could, taking only a few minutes to join his friends. Erin decided to let Timper do the talking and watch carefully in case he said anything that made her look bad. She was surprised at how good his words were to her, and how well the others took the information. The first one to make a question was Eric.
"Why didn't you tell us before? Were you afraid of us?"
Erin shook her head.
"Leave it to you to ask annoying questions. I should have known you'd come up with one."
"And I should have known you weren't going to reply," Eric shot back. "But I thought you were finally opening up."
"I've opened up more than I ever thought I would. Let's just not try to undress my deepest emotions right now. I have my reasons for doing everything I do. They may be right or wrong, but they are."
"Sorry, I won't bother you again."
"Where do we go from here?," Gallead inquired.
"I guess we'll continue on the same path," Timper said. "Finish what we started."
"We'll have to make new plans and get more training," Eric suggested. "Get comfortable with teaming up with each other, and know the range of our powers and everything we have. Is anyone else keeping a big secret we should know about?"
An awkward silence settled in, broken only by Erin.
"I think I know everything about our weaknesses and capabilities. I have that covered."
Pura descended and sat on a rock.
"Indeed you do," she said. "I must thank you for that coverage."
"If anyone has any secrets, that someone is likely to blow them on their own anyway," Erin replied.
Not many understood what Erin was going on about. Timper had some suspicions, but he decided to trust Erin. He wouldn't get anywhere if he didn't.

The group used the interval to have something to eat, and then set off, not wanting to waste the remaining hours of light. Everything seemed to be going fine until Mariel announced that something strange was going on. At that exact moment, a small creature jumped down from a tree and planted itself in front of the group. The skin of this being was completely white, while the loose, full-body suit and conical hat resembled the clothing of a clown or harlequin, except that they were made entirely of shiny black silk. The creature's gender was impossible to determine until it spoke with a thin, yet male voice.
"Good travelers, will you please help me?"
"Who are you?," Eric inquired, still a bit startled.
"My name is Meinor. I live in a small village near the river."
"You're far away from home," Erin said. "We have passed the river a long time ago."
"Am I? I don't understand much of what's going on, but... You need an explanation. I'll tell you as much as I know."
"What race do you belong to?," Mariel asked.
"He looks like a mannur," Timper noted. "Speaks like one too."
"He's right," Meinor confirmed.
Gallead smiled to himself. When Meinor looked at him, he manifested his thoughts.
"You must have found out a lot about us by now, right?"
"What do you mean?," Eric asked him.
"Mannurs can sense the feelings of others," Gallead explained.
Erin clutched her teeth. She wasn't too comfortable with that information.
"Don't worry. I won't intrude in your lives or anything," Meinor told her. "I just need help."
"What kind of help do you need?," Queried Mariel.
"I need you to help me find my partner... And my home."
"It's not common for a mannur to get lost," Timper remarked.
"I told you I don't know what's going on. Kyra and I were walking through the forest and then we found a tunnel on the ground. It hadn't been there before, and Kyra wanted to explore it, so she went inside... and suddenly I stopped feeling her! I looked for her, but she was gone. And I suddenly ended up in a part of the forest I'd never seen. I was about to crack from despair, until I found you. I felt you were all trying to do good things, so I thought you could help me."
"Do good things," Eric laughed. "A very simple way to describe what we're all here for."
"I really don't think we're here to find a lost creature find his way home," Erin said. "He'll find it sooner or later and we've lost too much time already. We shouldn't forget our true objective."
"Come on, it won't hurt to help," Eric insisted.
"How do we know it's not a trap?," inquired Pura, taking Erin's side for the first time. "We've fallen into one before, I wouldn't want that to turn into a habit."
"I don't think it's a trap," Gallead stated. "Mannurs wouldn't generally hurt others on purpose, since the pain and suffering they caused would bounce back to them."
"That rules out most cases, though some beings actually enjoy suffering," Erin pointed out. "Still, if it were a trap, he'd probably have thought of a better story to tell us. This one's just too stupid not to be true, so I'm guessing he does need help. Either that, or the trap would be too simple and we'd get out of it easily."
"Why are you so defensive?," Meinor questioned.
"Experience," Erin replied.
"If he was transported from another part of the forest, maybe the river he mentioned isn't even the one we passed by," Pura noted. "How do we know where he's supposed to go? And how did he get here in the first place?"
"Did you feel anything strange before finding yourself here?," Mariel asked Meinor.
"Nothing. I just walked into the tunnel to search for Kyra and all of a sudden I was here, standing on a branch of that tree."
"It's got to be magic," Eric sentenced. "Isn't it, Mariel?"
"I can't think of any other explanation," the elvin responded.
"Does it work backwards too?," Pura wondered. "I mean, if we go up to that tree, will we appear at the entrance of the tunnel?"
"I'm not sure. Meinor, you didn't feel Kyra when you got here, did you?"
"No, no signs of her," Meinor lowered his head with sadness.
"You both walked into the same tunnel, but the magic didn't bring you both to the same place..." Mariel rubbed her head, thinking. "This could be hard. It may take time to find out how the spell works."
"Should we really use our time on that?," Erin questioned. She seemed to be more irritable and anxious since she and Timper had reappeared. "He's not hurt, nor in danger. He's just lost. He and his girl can find their way home on their own, and we can't let our enemies gain terrain."
"But there's magic involved," Eric reminded her. "Our enemies must be causing this. It must be part of a bigger scheme. If we break the spell now, it's a win for our side."

Erin sighed. She should have known that. What was causing her to get distracted like that? She concluded it might be the fact that the mannur wouldn't stop staring at her. Weren't there more interesting things out there to look at? Just as she had those thoughts, Meinor turned his sight off of her and fixed it on Mariel.
"What's that sensation? Is it magic?," he asked her.
"It's shifting," she replied, without losing her concentration. Then she turned around. "There's more than one point."
"What does that mean?," Eric asked her.
She turned to look at him.
"It means that the spell is active on more than one place," she explained. "I don't quite understand it yet. But I can feel the magic on more than one spot, and I think the location is changing. If only I could reach into it and... Aahh!"

While Mariel was speaking, a hole opened on the spot where she was standing, swallowing the earth below her. She began to fall, but instead of landing on the bottom of the pit, she disappeared.
"Mariel!," Eric shouted, rushing to the place where the elvin had just been.
Pura flew past him and launched a ball of light at his chest to stop him.
"What are you doing?!," he yelled at her.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't think of another way to stop you," she apologized. "You were about to do something crazy. You've heard what they said. If you get in there, you won't find her. You'll just appear on any other place and then you'll be lost too. We need to think logically."
"We need to find her!"
"I hate to say this, but that could be hard," Erin said. "She's the one who knows the most about magic. Without her, we have no way to trace the spell to wherever it is it took her. I hate to admit this, but even I took her for granted."
"There's a way," Eric said, determined.
"Yes, there must be," Pura supported him.
"No, there is one. I may not be an expert in magic, but I've felt Mariel's magic many times. I've even helped her with it a few times. If she uses it, and she will, I'm sure I will feel it and find her."
"But what if she's too far away?," Pura questioned. There was worry in her voice.
"Wait," Gallead said.
"Wait for what?," asked Pura. "For her to find the way back?"
"No, I'm feeling something."
"But you can't use connection magic! How can you be feeling something?"
"Is it Mariel?," Eric asked with hope.
"To both of you, I don't know. Wait here. I'll go and check."
"I'm going with you," Eric decided.
"Then I guess I should go too," Pura sighed.
"No, I think you should wait here," Meinor told her.
"Why? What do you know?," the lurian asked.
"It's just a feeling," he said, while Eric and Gallead rushed into the unknown. "But I think there's nothing for you where they're going. The ferwill's mind may be confused, but his heart knows what he's after, and so does your charge."
"How did you know Eric was my charge?"
"That's the kind of feeling you have for him. Aside from friendship. Besides, I know lurians train warriors of other races to fight for them. Though I can't imagine the reason. There are many things about your race that I don't understand at all."
"We're a mysterious kind and we'd rather remain that way," Pura replied. "But if you're sure he'll be alright, I'll let him go."
"He's already gone."
"I can still reach them."
"Oh. Right. You're fast. Don't worry, he has more confidence and determination than I've ever seen on anyone before."
"Yes, the little big guy is admirable in that respect."
Pura's voice reflected a smile of pride.


Gallead guided Eric up to the entrance of a cave, and then made a sudden stop.
"What is it?," Eric asked.
"I don't know. I... I suddenly stopped feeling it. It came from inside this cave."
"What were you feeling?"
"Warmth... a welcoming sensation. It was like magic, or maybe something even more powerful."
"What can be more powerful than magic?"
"By the way you came rushing at the first chance of finding Mariel, I believe you have an answer to that question."
"Pardon?"
"It doesn't matter now. It's gone."
"We should go into that cave."
"I'm not so sure. Things didn't turn out well the last time either of us went into one."
"Don't tell me you're afraid of caves just because one cave you entered was enchanted."
"No, but this one's enchanted too. At least I felt something coming from inside. And now that it's gone, it could have changed into anything else. If we go in, we don't know what we would find."
"We won't find anything at all if we don't take the risk," Eric pointed out. "You can back off if you want. I'm going in."
"I'm going with you. The aim of all this might be to separate each of us from the others. Let's not give them what they want."
"Alright, then we'll go in together."

Eric took Gallead's hand to make sure that both of them arrived at the same place. He was rather disappointed when they crossed the entrance of the cave and found out they were inside... a cave. He looked back to check if anything at all had happened, and he noticed the cave went on for as far as he could see. So, they had been transported after all. The question was: was that the same place Mariel had been taken to?

Eric didn't have much time to ask himself questions, for rocks suddenly began to fall from the top of the cave. He jumped forward instinctively, while Gallead assumed a more ethereal form until the threat was over. There was no use in fighting falling rocks. An opening was made on the roof of the cave, and the travelers could soon see what had caused the stones to fall, as a huge creature with brown skin that resembled an arid mountain made its way into the chamber where Gallead and Eric were standing. The creature stood upright. Its two legs were the size of large tree trunks, and its two arms, with no fingers at their ends, matched their length if not their width. Its face wasn't easy to distinguish, but its eyes could be inside the two small caves on the front of its head, and using some imagination the stone-like protuberance below them could be its nose. There was nothing on that face that resembled a mouth or ears, let alone eyebrows.
"Hmm... You don't think this creature is friendly, do you?," Eric asked Gallead without much hope. When he was forced to jump back to avoid being hit by the pillar that conformed one of its upper extremities, he replied to himself: "thought so."
Gallead took out his sword, but the light blade couldn't even scratch the giant's thick skin. Eric's reinforced sword wasn't doing much better, leaving barely any marks where it passed. The creature didn't show any signs of pain or fatigue. It was time for a change of strategy.
"Gallead, up!," Eric instructed his friend while planting his sword into the ground.
Gallead understood the message and took off right before the base of the cave began to shake. The monster was about to land a punch on the merial, but the earthquake caused it to trip and dig its fist -if it could be called that- into the ground instead, with such strength it had trouble taking it out again.
"Nice move!," Gallead commended Eric, becoming solid again.
"Yeah, but I don't know how many of those I can pull out. Using that much power is exhausting."
"Then let me help you."

Gallead placed his left hand on his chest and the right hand on top of it, then did the same on Eric's chest. Eric felt his strength flowing back to him, his heart returning to its normal, relaxed pace, and his lungs getting filled with fresh air.
"How did you do that?," he asked.
"Healing. One of the two spells I know," Gallead answered. "And I guess I'll have to use the other right now."

Gallead's greyish skin became lighter for a second, and then he gave a huge leap forward and to his left, carrying Eric along with him, just in time to avoid another blow. They might have held the creature back for a while, but it would take a lot more effort to bring it down. Luckily for them, the massive monster wasn't as fast as it was strong. Eric's natural agility and Gallead's boosted mobility helped them avoid the most dangerous blows. Even when the beast stomped on the ground, causing a shockwave. They managed to jump up right in time. And when the right pillar did touch Gallead, he transformed into wind before taking serious damage. However, they were beginning to feel tired, while the creature looked like it could keep going forever, and none of their efforts to hurt it or stop its attacks had given satisfactory results. That was until Gallead made a connection.

"This creature has no hands or claws," he pointed out.
"I can see that. But it punches hard," Eric replied.
"No, I mean... what would a creature need them for?"
"Hold a sword? Write?"
"That too, but without hands or claws, you can't climb!"
"Oh!," Eric open his eyes widely in realization. "I get it. Fade when my sword hits the ground."

Gallead nodded and ran to the side, blowing a gust of wind at the monster to get its attention. As soon as the creature turned around, Eric took the chance to sink his sword right between its feet. At that moment, Gallead faded from sight, and strong tremors created a massive crack on the ground where the monster was standing. Caught by surprise, the brown giant tried to cling to something solid, but to no avail. Giving up, it fell helplessly into the depths. The breach opened was so wide, even Eric fell into it shortly after the monster. The two were too close together. The merial had known that would happen, but there was no other way to get his opponent trapped. He had stayed close to a solid wall, though, and stuck his sword into it to prevent himself from falling any further. However, what he had not prevented was the beast enduring the fall without much harm and beating on the walls of its new prison, making them shake. If it kept going like that, Eric's sword would break loose and he would fall inevitably. He tried to climb up, but every stone he held on to eventually cut loose and rolled down to the bottom. He didn't dare take his sword out of its place before he could find something firm enough to hold him.

"Let go," Gallead's voice said from above. "I'll get you."

Trusting his friend, Eric pulled back his reinforced steel sword and let himself fall. His fall didn't last a second, however, as a strong whirlwind lifted him up and deposited him on the surface.

"Thanks," Eric said as soon as his feet touched the ground and he could see Gallead's face again. "I owe you one."
"No worries. We make a good team."
"Yeah. What was that, anyway?"
"I don't know, but it reminded me a lot of the trasks we fought before. Strong, earth-based or so it seems, incredible resistance, no signs of reasoning..."
"It does seem like Jor's doing, doesn't it?"
"Yes. I wonder why he's after us. I'd never seen him before the trasks attacked."
"Neither had I, but Mariel said he was the one who attacked the lurians. So I guess we got in between him and something he wants. Either that, or Erin really pissed him off during their night watch."

Gallead laughed, but his laughter was short-lived. A sticky white fluid suddenly popped out of one of the cave's walls and wrapped the hand that held his sword, solidifying immediately. He turned around to find the source of the attack, but only to have more of that fluid shot at his face, and then at each part of his body, trapping him completely. When he tried to transform into air, he found his prison to be so tight and complete that he had no way out. Eric wasn't any luckier. He received the same attacks, and was soon encapsulated into a solid, white container. He could hardly even breathe, and the little air left for him wouldn't last for too long. How could they have fallen into that trap? How had it all happened? It was then that both Eric and Gallead heard voices inside their minds. The voices were not quite the same for each of them, but the message was. "Don't give up now."


Minutes earlier, when Mariel touched the ground, she found herself inside a long, dark tunnel. No light came from above and, aside from the pile of dirt which had fallen with her, there were no signs of the place where she had been mere moments earlier. She reckoned that, while trying to analyze the spell, she had attracted it to herself. She also realized that her friends didn't have much of a chance to find her; she'd have to find her way back on her own. That wouldn't be easy. The spell had acted too fast, not allowing her the chance to understand how it worked before it dropped her. Now it was no longer active on that location. That meant she'd have to walk through the tunnels using her magic until she could sense it again. At least the lack of lighting wouldn't be a problem for her.

Mariel walked along the quiet tunnel, her sight assisted by a sphere of light which floated a few centimeters above her right shoulder, and her magical perception guided by a seeking spell. Wouldn't she be surprised, when after a not very long walk she found the first signs of magic, and these turned out to belong to a seeking spell much like her own! She followed the trail. Something told her she had nothing to fear about the user of that magic. Moreover, as both seeking spells intertwined with each other, the resulting pattern began to seem familiar. The elvin sorceress ran towards the source of that magic, and once her orb met an equal form of light and they both illuminated the dark figure sitting at the end of the tunnel, she concluded, with a broad smile, "great minds think alike."

"That's what my sister always says," the black-haired witch laughed, standing up. She, too, had been feeling Mariel's presence as she got closer. "Though she and I didn't think alike when I thought it would be a good idea to take a closer look at the magic-filled hole which had sprouted out of nowhere. But it can't be that bad, if it helped us meet again. I can't believe you're here too! I didn't expect to see you again so soon. I was hoping I would some day, but I thought it would take longer."
"Yes, it's a surprise. It's good to see you again too. Though it would be best if we weren't both lost."
"So your friends aren't with you?"
"Not right now. We were together, but then I tried to track down a spell and, it ended up tracking me down instead and bringing me here."
"But they're fine, right?"
"Yes, everyone's alright. Gallead thinks about you a lot."
"He does?"

Jamie's face lit up at the mention of Gallead. She wished she could see him again, have him by her side. When she first saw him, she had been amazed at his sight just because he was a ferwill. But that feeling was long gone and had been replaced by something much stronger, something she could hold on to while she waited for the silent war to end and she and her family did thier best to protect the part of the forest they lived in. The way he had looked at her... she felt she could keep gazing into those eyes forever. They made her feel special, important, loved. They brought her peace, hope, and many things she couldn't put in words. She could almost feel him at that moment, as she thought of him... Almost?

"What is it, Jamie?," Mariel asked, noticing the change in her expression.
"Gallead's getting close," the human replied.
"Really? How do you know?"
"I don't know, but I can feel it. He's about to reach a portal and get here. He'll find us."
"That's great!," Mariel cheered.
"Oh, wait..." Jamie's smile slowly slid away from her face. "Too late. The spell has moved again. I can't feel him anymore."
"Don't worry, we'll find a way to get back," Mariel encouraged her. "If we work together, we'll decipher this spell and revert it."
Jamie nodded, and they both tried to trace the spell once more. It took time; it had already left the tunnels, and they had to combine their efforts to lead it back to them. It was a kind of magic neither of them had encountered before. And they failed to understand it. They did, however, manage to see through it at one point. They saw the walls of a better lit cave, and small creatures (or large insects) stuck on them. They saw the insects open their mouths and release some thick, white liquid. And then they saw nothing else, but they felt something: shock, frustration, fear. They didn't know why those visions had come to them, but they knew what they meant. Eric and Gallead were in danger.
"Don't give up," both girls whispered instinctively.
Only then each of them realized the other was seeing and feeling the same things. They looked at each other and asked no questions; there was no time for them.
"We need to help them break out of those prisons," Mariel said.
"Yes, but how? We're not even there!"
"With our wills unfurled."
"What?"
Jamie didn't quite understand Mariel's answer, especially since she had never heard her song, but Eric reacted to her words.

"Mariel?," the warrior spoke out inside his shell.
"I'm with you," came the reply. "You need to get out of there."
"Gallead, can you hear me?," Jamie tried.
"Jamie! I can hear you," the ferwill answered. "But how?"
"The spell connects different places," Jamie explained. "We used it to help us connect with you and Eric."
"We? Who are you with?"
"She's with Mariel," the answer came from outside. "They're working together."
"You got it right!," Mariel cheered. "As always."
"I wish I could get the way out of this prison right like that," Eric groaned. "I'm stuck! What's it made of?"
"Something that came from the insides of some big, grey bugs," Mariel replied.
"How do you know?"
"I saw them attack you. There was magic around them."
"Hidden by magic," Eric concluded.
"What was hidden by magic?," Gallead asked.
Jamie provided the explanation.
"Why can't I hear what Mariel says?," Gallead questioned.
"I guess I could only connect with you and Mariel could only connect with Eric," Jamie told him. "The spell is strange and tricky. We couldn't neutralize it, we couldn't bend it... All we could do was ride on it and make use of what was already there."
"Are you saying there was already a connection between us?"
"If I said 'yes', would you be surprised?"
Gallead thought for a moment before responding.
"I'd think everything's beginning to fall into place," he finally replied.
"Makes sense," said Eric, who had heard Gallead's words. "I guess that connection isn't meant for us to say goodbye before the air runs out. Is there any way we can get out of this bug-made cocoons?"
"If they're natural, they should respond to erosion," Gallead suggested.
"What's that?," Eric asked.
"Wearing them away."
"What's what?," Mariel inquired at about the same time.
"Erosion. Gallead has already answered."
"You didn't know?"
"When was I supposed to learn it?"
"Hmm... I guess this is as good a moment as any other. Erosion could work, but it might take too long."
"Mariel says it would take too long," Eric told Gallead.
"Eolic erosion alone could take ages, but a sword could help make it faster."
"Good idea!," exclaimed Jamie.
"What language are you speaking?," Eric wondered.
"Eolic erosion means erosion from the wind," Gallead explained.
"Ah, I should have guessed. That sounds good, try it and help me out if it works."

Gallead's cocoon was attacked from the inside by the force of an enclosed whirlwind and the sharp point of the Swift sword. It took less than a minute for the dense material to give in, letting the sword cut an opening around the sides. The upper half of the shell was pushed away and a strong wind came blowing out of the capsule. More fluid was shot from the walls, but it fell to the ground as it was released. There was no way to hit the wind.
"You've done it!," Jamie cheered. "Now blow on the walls. Send the bugs away, that should give you the time to help Eric."
Without stopping, Gallead followed Jamie's advice. He couldn't see the bugs, but he felt them cut loose as he blew all along the walls of the cave. Once he was sure he had all of them, he tossed them away through the hole opened by the earth giant like a hurricane. Then he made his sword spin around his friend's prison to cut an opening and release him.

Eric had never been more delighted at taking in a breath of fresh air. He thanked Gallead as the ferwill assumed his normal form and offered him his hand.
"I'd never done that kind of precision work in wind form before," Gallead admitted. "I'm not sure if I'd be able to do that again."
"I know you would, but let's hope you don't have to for a while," Eric said.
"The bugs are coming back!," Mariel warned Eric.
"A cave-in could stop them," Eric thought out loud.
"A cave-in would block our way out," Gallead said, guessing what was going on.
"We can make another," Eric assured.
"Ok, I'll trust you with this."

Eric lifted his sword and hurled it against a side wall. Once it got stuck there, he grasped it with his hands and used it to channel as much magic as was left on him. The walls began to shake, then the ceiling, and Eric took out his sword and ran just in time before the hard rocks gave in and collapsed. Once the rambling stopped, there was no light left in the section where he and Gallead were standing.
"Did that stop the bugs?," Eric asked. Fighting invisible enemies was not something he enjoyed.
"Yes..." Mariel said. "No, wait! Some landed on your side!"
"How can we stop what we can't see?!," Eric growled, frustrated.
"They're not gone yet?!," Gallead joined him.
"A glare could daze them," Mariel suggested.
"I don't know how to do that," Eric told her. "And even if I did, I don't think I could cast another spell right now."
A string of white fluid was shot at him. It hit his shirt, but he managed to jump away before getting hit by another attack.
"Gallead, can't you crash them against the rocks or something? I'm running out of options," Eric said while evading another attack.
"I don't think that would work," Gallead replied, also jumping from one side to another to avoid being trapped again. "Nothing I did could stop them before."
"Trust me, Eric. You don't have to use a spell on your own," Mariel insisted. "Just channel my magic like you've done before."
"All the times I did that, I was standing still," Eric pointed out. "I can't concentrate on channeling your magic and dodging the attacks at the same time."
"It will be just a moment," Mariel said. "They won't have time to hit you."

Eric decided to trust Mariel and, after warning Gallead to close his eyes, stopped moving for a moment. A new string was shot at him, but before it connected, he felt Mariel's light surge through him. He let it out, and the whole cave became brightly lit. It was too bright to look. Eric had to close his eyes too, and even so he could see the light through his eyelids. If that didn't stun the bugs, nothing else would. Fortunately for him, when most of the light faded away and he opened his eyes, he realized it had worked even better than he expected. Not only were the bugs dizzy and circling without direction, but they were also visible! They looked like grey crabs the size of his fist, only with 6 legs and no pincers or antennae. Their eyes were small black circles on the front of their shells. Satisfied, he turned to look at Gallead, but he couldn't find him.
"Gallead's searching for something Jamie felt," Mariel said, guessing his thoughts. "It may put an end to this whole mess."

And so he was. The ferwill blew through the darkness, wishing he could see where he was going. But he trusted that he'd know it when he'd found what he and Jamie were seeking. The space became narrower, and he managed to spread across it, feeling every rock, every drop of water, every little fungus and every crack on the stone walls as he passed. If he and Eric hadn't been in danger, it would have been an enjoyable experience. Finally, he encountered something sharper. It felt like a big, icosahedral crystal.
"That's it," Jamie's voice told him. "I can feel it. The magic's coming from that crystal."
"Does that mean that if I break it, the spell will be broken too?"
"I think so."
Gallead stopped to reflect.
"What's the problem?," Jamie asked him. "You don't think it will work?"
"I'm wondering what will happen if it does work," Gallead reply.
"I think we'll all go back to the places we were at before this all started."
"Will the connection be broken?"
Jamie didn't answer right away. Gallead could hear her take a deep breath and sigh.
"It will," he deduced. "You said you used the spell to reach us. That means you won't be with me anymore if I break this crystal."
"That won't happen," Jamie said. "The connection spell may break, but the bond between us won't. I will be with you, and you will be with me. We'll be supporting each other all the time, giving each other strength until we meet again. And we will meet again."
The answer wasn't as comforting as Gallead would have wanted, but he knew what was the right thing to do. So he decided to trust that Jamie was right when she said they'd meet again. She'd always been right so far, and if they both managed to live through the war nothing would stop them from fulfilling what they both wanted. Both of them thought what they felt was crazy; they weren't even biologically compatible, he was elemental and she wasn't (and neither of them had shifter blood to stop that difference from being an obstacle). But it was truer and stronger than anything else they'd ever felt. It was worth following it to its last consequences, breaching all the obstacles to make a safe world for that feeling to grow in. To see each other's faces again. To do things they'd never done... together. Trusting that feeling, Gallead lifted his sword and swung it against the crystal, shattering it. At that moment, a bright light came out of the shards and installed itself inside the Swift sword. When the blade stopped glowing, the sword felt even lighter than before. Before he could figure out what had happened, Gallead felt the air around him slowly begin to change, light making its way to his eyes.

"He made it," Jamie smiled, feeling the spell being slowly lifted like a wave leaving the shore.
"It was nice working with you," Mariel said. "I hope we can do that again some other time. Hopefully under better circumstances."
"I hope so too. Oh, wait! Before I go, there's something I need to tell you!"
"What is it?"
"We've been scouting the forest with connection, feeling the magical energies. We've found out that Shadowy Meadow's not the only focus of resistance. There's another to the northeast. Look for it, you may get help there."
"Thanks. Your family's doing a great work keeping the evil forces from spreading to the south. Please keep it up!"
"Will do."
Mariel saw Jamie's image become transparent, until it finally disappeared. Then, light descended towards her. It wasn't a magical light. It was sunlight. She was back.
"That was a nice trip," she joked.
"She's back!," cheered Pura right before getting down to where Mariel was and flying in fast circles around her head.
"It's nice to see you again, Pura. Though you're making me dizzy," Mariel told the lurian.
"Oops! Sorry!," Pura said, stopping behind her friend's neck.
"No problem. Now it would be great if someone could help me get out of this hole."
"Oh, now she'll want a ladder and all. The things I have to do for you!," Timper joked before serving as a means for the elf to climb up.
Meinor was no longer with the group. He and Kyra were probably together again, standing wherever it was that he had come from.

In the meantime, Eric and Gallead had appeared together at the mouth of the cave from which they had originally been transported. Understanding that the spell was broken, they made their way to the spot where they had left the rest of the group. They had lots of questions, but only one was spoken, possibly the most shallow one.
"You healed me at the cave, but I thought you had said you could only heal yourself with magic," Eric said to Gallead.
"Yes, I had yet to try it on others. But I'm glad it worked," Gallead replied.
Those were all the words they spoke before meeting the others. For all the other questions, they felt they would find the answers later; neither of them had them at that moment.


Far away, a tall figure stood before a metallic door with geometric patterns carved on it. His bright, golden eyes were contemplating either the door, or their owner's thought, or both. Straight, shiny black hair crowned the head those eyes belonged to, and the rest of the body was covered in white and golden robes. The elf turned around when he heard footsteps behind him, and his gaze was met by a pair of shiny turquoise eyes which gave an expression of excitement to a face framed in wavy golden hair. That hair fell down to a pair of shoulders covered by a white cloak, and he did his best not to look below them, but his instincts failed him. The sight was too good to be true. He forced himself to shake that sensation away and speak in a harsh tone.
"Nice work. But that dress doesn't suit you."
"Of course it does," the female replied. "I noticed the way you looked at me."
"I was just examining your appearance. And I owe you no explanations."
"Then don't give them. I never asked for them."
"You're good," he admitted. "Very good at what you do. But it's all just smoke and mirrors."
"You know it's more than that," she replied. "I've got a grip on how things work around here. I've done a good job; otherwise you wouldn't have called me to this place."
"I might have underestimated you. How much have you found out?"
"A lot, actually. It's amazing how much Jor and Wilson talk when they think they're alone. I'm also surprised someone as powerful as Jor would let his guard down like that. I would have thought he'd notice me. But it seems he's only on the watch for magic."
"I'll make sure to scold him. One of our enemies could have done the same thing you did. We can't afford becoming vulnerable. Not now."
"Not ever."
"True," he said with a smile. "I like the way you think. That's why I have decided to show you something I'm sure you haven't seen yet. Right behind this door lies the answer to all our calls. Our greatest source of power and the reason why we can never be defeated."
"That sounds too good to be true."
"I understand your skepticism. I actually cherish it. But because of the way this artifact works, it will never be broken; it can only add to its own power, feed itself from everything it takes. But before I show it to you and tell you how it works, I need to know something. Are you ready to join our group and take our quest to the last consequences? Are you willing to claim ultimate power and use it to get revenge on the world that turned its back on you? Or are you having second thoughts?"
"How can you be asking that? How could I have second thoughts? They took everything from me; there's nothing left in the world as it is that I would want. And they wouldn't think twice before smashing me to bits, so why would I?"
"Alright, then. By the time spring comes, you'll have the power to shape the world to your liking. Now I'll open this door and show you..."

Haggaus -for that was his name- was interrupted before he could finish the phrase, by an angry faerfliye who burst into the chamber, nearly knocking the door down.
"Wilson! What could have happened to cause such anger in you?," Haggaus questioned.
"Jor's recruit in trial screwed up, that's what happened," Wilson replied, literally catching fire.
"Easy. You won't achieve anything by burning this place to ashes. Why don't you tell me the exact events as they unfolded?"
"I'll tell you the exact events as they unfolded," Wilson mimicked him, putting out the flames on his head. "He felt a possible threat on the south-east and decided to try and destroy it on his own. He ended up being repelled instead, by an army of warriors and sorcerers gathered in a fortress called Twocastle. He sent the magical version of a cry for help and Jor's on his way to pick up what's left of him. But he said his condition seemed bad. Orb of Souls kind of bad."
"I'll be the one who decides that. Jor doesn't even know how to use the Orb, and apparently doesn't seem to know how to choose his candidates either. When he brings him, I'll give the merial one last chance if he can endure the treatment. But if he fails again, it will be the last time he does so."
"Speaking of candidates, is she the one you've been training?"
"Yes, and let me tell you that she knows much more about you than you know about her. You'll need to learn to be on the watch for her now that she'll be our partner."
"So you have promoted her."
"Yes. We're four now."
"Make that six. The whisterels I chose have done an impressive work. I hadn't seen a more perfect act of destruction for years. They complement each other amazingly."
"If it's a perfect act you want to see, you should see me on the stage," the female said.
"You'll have time for your hobbies later," Haggaus dismissed her, not turning to see the signs of the rage his words provoked on her. "Now I'll let you take a look at the Orb and then we'll get back on business. We need to do something about that fortress... What was its name?"
"Twocastle," Wilson answered. "And I think I know exactly what we can do to bring them down."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Now... how well does the metaphor hold when a sword gets a boost by breaking the dice?

Interesting, particularly the part at the end.  I have to confess it was heavy going, though.  Have you considered splitting it up into smaller, more frequent chapters?  It might help cut down on the gaps, and it is certainly more digestible than a huge chunk of text.
Don't get me wrong, it's well-written but I think you might be pushing the limits of what is comfortable to read in a web browser.

Perhaps it's just me being pressed for time, but I had to read this chapter in two halves... and forgot to carry on until I saw the plug in CJP  :B

Oh, sorry. I thought that might be it.

Ok, I'll try to keep that in mind and split the long chapters into smaller ones (and make up some way to keep the numbering for those who have read the ones on TPM). If I recall correctly, though, chapter 16 isn't very long. I'll have to check.

I'm glad you liked it, in any case. Thanks for replying. :)

CJP? What's CJP?

Quote from: Gabi on July 24, 2007, 04:52:43 PM
CJP? What's CJP?

Shorthand for 'Chronicles of Jakob Pettersohn'...

Ah, right. Well, I'm glad it worked. :mowgrin

Here's another chapter! ^^


Everybody had a lot of questions about what had happened. They discussed them during their night stop. Not the least intriguing of those questions was what that had been all about, but since they couldn't answer that one yet, they moved on to others like what had happened to Swift when Gallead broke the crystal, how many different places had been connected by that magic and whether there were more hidden portals around, what the creatures who had attacked Eric and Gallead were, and last but not least, what was the place Jamie had told Mariel about, and whether they should go there instead of heading straight to the wastelands or whatever was lying in the north.
For most of the questions, the group found no answers, so they decided to stay on the watch. Mariel assumed that the creatures had been altered by magic, but since she hadn't been there, it was just a theory. It was likely, though, since none of the experts had managed to figure out what they were; not even after Gallead had drawn them on his notebook and Eric confirmed the likeness was remarkable. About their course, they argued for a while, but the opinion that prevailed was that they should check out the place Jamie had mentioned, as they could learn more about what they were up against, restore their energies and maybe even add new numbers to their ranks (needless to say, not everyone was in favor of that last part, but half the group trusted the Wilmslow family enough to believe that whatever they could find there would be good, and two out of the remaining three considered it was worth trying).

"I'm the most experienced of us," Erin complained once the decision was taken. "How come we never get to do what I say?"
"Well, the rest of us have agreed," Mariel told her. "If 5 want something and 1 wants something else, and we can't do both at the same time, I think it's fair that we do what most of us think is best. Or we could keep discussing it until we all agreed, but that could take forever. Believe me, I know. My parents have spent whole days and nights away from home for that reason."
"I think we've done well so far," Eric commented.
"By chance," Erin remarked. "We've been relying on luck and last minute inspiration too much, and working too little on improving our teamwork. Ok, I agree with you about going to the northeast instead of straight to the north; we're not ready to face the shadows anyway. But we should work hard on getting ready. We don't even know what we have on our side right now."
"What do you mean?," Pura asked.
"I'm talking about Gallead's sword," she explained. "Something affected it, right? But how? And how will that affect us next time we battle? And Mariel is learning new spells; is there any chance they could help us against our enemies? And even me; you've never seen me use fire - except for Timper, that is. You all should get used to it, so that I could use it in battle without watching out for anyone accidentally getting in the middle, nor worrying about anyone getting distracted from the surprise. I say we need a training session before we go anywhere."
"Alright, we can have one first thing tomorrow morning," Eric agreed.
"I think now would be best," Erin countered. "We've been lucky so far, we've never been attacked by night. But we should be prepared in case it happens. The more battles we win, the more attention we draw to us. One day they will come for us, if they're not working on it yet."
"Makes sense," Eric said. "Is everyone ok with it?"
"I'm sleepy," Pura objected. "But I'll do my best. It's true, if they come for us, they won't wait for us to wake up. But let's make it short or else we'll all be sleepy tomorrow."
"You act like a little girl," Erin told her.
"I'm not in the mood for arguments now. Bite your tongue and let's start."
"Same pairings as before?," Eric asked.
"No, let's try something different," Erin suggested. "We must be ready to adapt to changes, as well as work with any of the others. So... I know. Eric against Timper, me against Gallead, and Mariel against Pura."
"Strange, but interesting," Timper commented.
"I won't last a second," Gallead flinched.
"If you can't handle a friendly match, why are you even here?," Erin questioned him.
"You may be good at fighting, but you know nothing about motivation!," Pura scolded her. "Don't listen to her, Gallead. Her tongue is sharper than her sword and, unlike her sword, she can't hold it. But she means good. She won't hurt you, and anyway, you're quite hard to hit for all I've seen and heard. I think she wants to be the first one to see what your sword can do."
"Don't provoke me or I might stop holding my tongue for real," Erin warned the lurian. "But, for a change, your words have been useful this time."
"Please don't start it again!," Eric yelled. "I don't know what the problem is between you two, but you should sort it out. How are we supposed to defeat our enemies if some of us keep fighting against each other?"
"It's just some minor tension," Erin said. "You could call it a tactical disagreement. Other than that, we're fine. You're right, we should focus. Shall we start now?"
"Ok, I'm ready," Gallead declared.

No further instructions were given. There were no fixed rules, so the practice would be over when they considered they'd had enough, and they were free to do whatever they wanted. They already trusted each other enough to know nobody would cross the line.

Oddly enough, Erin was the first one to be surprised. Gallead easily avoided all the blows she directed at him. She deduced he'd taken the chance to use his agility spell while she and Pura were arguing; she had to give him more credit than she'd thought (and pay more attention in the future). She took out her sword to try it against Swift. Gallead's light sword moved incredibly fast, and almost took Erin's weapon out of her hands. Hadn't it been for her strong grip, he would have succeeded. She tried a different approach, and flew up to the top of a small tree to put some obstacles between her and her opponent. Swift slashed through the branches as if they were made of air, but as soon as that happened Gallead ceased his attack.

"Sorry, I got carried away," the ferwill said. "I won't let that happen again."
"What? The branches?," Erin questioned. "They'll grow again, there are more important things. Stay focused. A moment's hesitation in a real battle can cost you your life. Sorry to sound harsh, but I'd rather you didn't learn that the hard way."

Erin was apologizing for her rudeness before anyone made any remarks about it. That was a first. Gallead understood her good intentions and nodded, getting back in motion.

In the meantime, Mariel was having a hard time trying to hit Pura. The lurian moved faster than anything she had ever seen, except maybe light itself. She could throw as many light balls as she wanted without getting tired, but so could Pura and, while Mariel's landed far away from their target, Pura's were quite accurate. Speed had never been the elvin's strong point. She could work on improving it, but no matter how hard she tried, she could never hope to be as fast as Eric or Gallead, let alone Pura. She'd have to change her strategy if she wanted to get a hit in. She tried a glare, but her opponent turned out to be the only one not affected by it. After most of her companions reminded her to focus on her own match without interfering with the others (Gallead was the only one who took an understanding role, and Mariel was disappointed that even Eric was unforgiving this time), she promised not to use that spell again without a warning. It had been useless anyway; apparently Pura could see through intense light.

"If you're going to attack someone with their own element, go for an intense attack that can actually do some damage," the teacher advised. "You may harness light easily, but it's not the same as being a light elemental. Unlike you, I have a natural resistance to it. You'll have to find a way to get through that, or refrain from using light against me at all."
"Now I see why you were chosen as Eric's advisor," Mariel said with a smile. "You do your job very well. Alright, I guess I'll try some new tricks."

With this, Mariel pulled her shield out of her backpack. It was so glossy, it reflected all the images around it like a mirror.
"Have you spent hours polishing it or used a spell on it?," Pura queried.
"You'll see," Mariel smiled.

Teacher and sorceress resumed their practice battle. Pura kept firing shiny projectiles, but this time Mariel didn't counter with light balls of her own. Instead, she only covered herself with her shield. Surpassing even her own expectations, the enchanted artifact absorbed all the light and deflected it back to the sender as fast as it had come. Not even Pura could react fast enough to avoid it.
"Wow, I'm impressed!," the lurian exclaimed, her voice showing some agitation. "As I always am whenever you're involved. That was a good spell! Had it been anything other than light, I'd be lying on the ground by now."
"Thanks. I could try another new spell, but I'm exhausted. I guess I took too long trying to hit you and dodge your attacks before I decided to try this. Maybe next time I can try the new tricks first. Can we call it off for now?"
"Sounds good to me. I was getting tired myself," admitted Pura.

So, Mariel and Pura retreated to the camp and watched the still ongoing battles from the distance. Timper was doing a nice job evading as many blows as he could by taking different shapes at the right time, but Eric was clearly dominating the match. Unlike the others, the two of them didn't have any long range attacks to use against each other, so they stayed close together most of the time. Timper's disadvantage came not only from the lack of fighting experience compared to Eric, but also from the fact that he didn't have any weapons except his own body. Luckily for him, he was good at improvising, as he showed when he turned into a spider, his small size and the darkness of the night sheltering him from Eric's eyes, ran quickly to the spot Eric was about to step on and took the form of a hard and pointy spike, breaching through Eric's shoe and piercing his skin. Eric reacted fast, however, taking out his foot and hitting Timper with the flat side of his sword. Neither the sword nor the spike took much damage from that, which was a sign that at least one of them would have to do something different if they wanted the training session to continue. Once more, it was up to Timper to provide the change. When the next blow came, this time from the side, the shifter released his hold on the ground, transforming into a sphere of steel. The impact sent him rolling away, and he took advantage of the distance to try out his own new trick. Arms and legs sprouted out of the metallic sphere, followed by a red-haired head, a torso and a pair of transparent wings. When the faerfliye charged against Eric and actually managed to pull his reinforced sword out of the warrior's hand, the shock was enough to break even Erin's concentration. However, Timper had to request for the session to finish, as Eric, before losing his grip, had swung his sword in a way the explorer hadn't predicted, forcing Timper's palms towards the edges. So, in spite of succeeding to disarm his opponent, the shifter had cut his own hands in the process.

If seeing Timper take the form of a faerfliye in front of the others hadn't been enough of a shock for Erin, watching him pull off exactly the same maneuver she had used when she'd first trained against Eric definitely was. She concluded he would never cease to amaze her, hardly realizing that she'd never said that about anyone before.

"Are we done too?," Gallead asked his training partner.
Erin shook her head, landing back into reality.
"We've barely even started," she said.
She let her hair ignite, and launched a fireball against the ferwill. Gallead barely managed to evade it in time, but he was readier for the next one. Instead of trying to block the attacks with his sword, like Eric did, Gallead summoned strong winds to blow the fire away before it could touch him.
"Not bad," Erin pronounced. "But how much can you handle?"

The fire grew in intensity, and so did the wind. The forces looked evenly match, but in the end, it was Gallead who stood firmly on the ground, and Erin who was airborne, with nothing to hold on to but the air itself. The air currents eventually became strong enough to blow her away. All the spectators were stunned at the thought of Gallead actually beating Erin, but things changed when the faerfliye placed her body in a horizontal position, holding her sword firmly with both hands ahead of her, and cut through the wind at an incredible speed. It looked as if, instead of repelling her, Gallead's wind were pulling her towards its source! Gallead was forced to fade immediately in order to avoid the living projectile, and when he reappeared, Erin was ready and pointing at his chest with her sword.
"Now we're done," she said, letting her sword disappear in a blink.
Gallead sighed and let himself fall on the ground.

"Wow, Erin, that was impressive!," Eric cheered. "How did you do that?"
"I can still pull some tricks out of my air-bag," was her puzzling reply.
"I should have imagined you still had some secrets," Timper commented.
"Have fun figuring out that one," she dared him. "Tell me if you give up, I might explain it to you if I'm in the right mood."
"If this is a game, give me all the pieces and I'll solve the puzzle."
"Right now what we all need is to recover and sleep. How about 6 shifts again? The ones who lost can take the 3 last ones, so you can sleep first."
"Evasive as ever. Ok, I won't oppose. I'll take the 4th shift if you take the 3rd."
"Whatever, but after my shift I'll be going back to sleep right away. We have a long way ahead of us. We don't even know how long."
"When did we ever know?," Timper laughed.
"I think I can lead us to the place Jamie mentioned," Mariel offered. "If her family could feel it, I think I can too. It will just take some concentration."
"Ok," Eric agreed. "Rest now so that you can be fresh in the morning."
"Let me heal your foot first."
"It's fine, it was just a small puncture."
"We'll have to walk all day tomorrow. Learn enough humility not to hinder yourself."
Eric was impressed at the way Mariel managed to keep smiling and sounding sweet even when she was scolding him.
"Alright, can't beat your logic," he gave in.

"Not bad," Erin sentenced.
You might want to change that to 'pronounced'.
Good chapter though, and about the right length.

Pronounced? Thank you. It's hard to find the right words sometimes, especially in English.

Heh, reminds me of a quote, but i can't remember where it's from:
"The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

Interesting, but... have you read the chapter or just the comments, techmaster-glitch?

Quote from: Gabi on September 03, 2007, 09:38:15 AM
Pronounced? Thank you. It's hard to find the right words sometimes, especially in English.

Well it goes both ways... you've taught me a few things yourself :P

"For most of the questions, the group found no answers, so they decided to stay on the watch."

By "on the watch" I guess you mean they're remaining alert. I'm not sure that's quite the right phrase to use there, though. Sadly, the correct phrase is on the tip of my tongue... but I'll be damned if I can remember it right now. :-/

I'll sleep on it and get back to you tomorrow, hopefully. In the mean time, I enjoyed this chapter - even if I'm somewhat late with the comments :-]

I appreciate your comments, and I know you were away when I posted it. And no one on the other forum where I'm posting this has replied yet.

First split-up chapter!


The night was quite uneventful, to the group's benefit. Actually, the only thing that caught anyone's attention was the fact that, by the time Erin woke Timper up, she was wearing a thick woolen coat. When the shifter took a look at her, she quickly told him it was getting cold.
"Did you pull that out of your air bag?," he asked her.
"Don't be silly, only my sword can be stored that way," she replied.
"Then where did you get it from?," Timper kept on inquiring.
"It was in a pocket on Eric's pack," she explained. "Most of my stuff is there."
The answer seemed to satisfy the explorer, until she turned her back on him to lie down, and he saw the coat had an open space around her wings and a little above them, and a vertical row of buttons below. The upper button was left open to make room for Erin's wings. The coat had clearly been made for someone whose wings were placed on a slightly higher point of her back. Most likely not a faerfliye, as the members of the same species tended to have their wings on the same place.
"You couldn't get one that fitted you?," Timper investigated.
"I could, but I preferred this one," she replied sarcastically. "Of course I couldn't, I left Shantar empty-handed."
"Oh. Sorry."
"No problem."
"Where did you get it?"
"You're beginning to sound more and more like Eric. That's scary. I'm tired and it's your turn to watch now, so goodnight."

With this, Erin went back to sleep. Timper let her go, but he kept on thinking. From what he knew of her history, she'd had no chance to get that coat after she left Shantar. Unless she'd got it from a neini village, but neinis had thinner wings and would need a smaller opening for them. A dassel's wings were further apart from each other, so the hole would have been wider, and they weren't so high up the back either. And there were no other winged faeries in the area where she'd been living. Something just didn't make sense. Unless...
Timper began to formulate a theory. It was crazy, but he'd seen stranger things (Timper himself being one of them). He began to test many things he'd seen and heard from this new point of view, and things that had been impossible to comprehend suddenly began to make sense. If only he could prove it! He had the means, but he was not supposed to do that. It could cost him the trust of those around him, including Erin's, which he'd worked so hard to earn. He didn't want to take that risk. Some things were more important than professional achievements.

A period of calm followed. That, added to the fact that Mariel was more certain at each passing moment, was a clear indication that they were on the right path. They wished they knew exactly what they were looking for, but Mariel was sure she'd know when she'd found it, and the others trusted her with that. That was until she lost track of the energy she was following.
"What does that mean?," queried Eric as soon as he heard the news. "Is the resistance point gone?"
"I don't know," Mariel replied. "I just don't feel anything anymore."
"Anything good or anything bad?"
"Both. Neither, I mean. There's nothing at all."
"We weren't transported somewhere else, where we?," asked Pura, flying around to make sure everything was in the same place as it used to be.
"I think I would have felt it," Mariel replied. "But how can I be sure? If I don't feel the point, I could be missing anything. I don't understand what's going on, has my magic stopped working?"
"Don't despair," Erin told her. "Something's going on, and we'll find it out. We just need to be careful."
"Your magic has never failed you and it has no reason to start now," Timper added. "My guess is that either something is blocking it, or magic doesn't work here for some reason. I've heard of places that were protected against magic. Like ancient temples, or places where treasures were hidden. This could be one of them."
"Yes, I've heard that too," Gallead agreed.
"Then I think we should keep walking in the same direction," Eric suggested. "If that's where we last knew the point was, it must be still there. We'll pass by whatever it is that's blocking Mariel's magic and she'll be able to feel it again."

As nobody else could think of a better plan, the group followed Eric's suggestion. They kept on walking until the scenery around them changed abruptly. They were no longer in the forest under the cloudy sky, but inside a large room with golden walls and columns.
"Oh, no, not another transporting spell!," Eric complained.
"Transporting spell?," an undefined voice echoed out of nowhere and everywhere. "Not quite."
"Who are you?," Eric inquired.
"I'm the gatekeeper," the voice responded.
"Show yourself!," the warrior demanded.

An image began to form in front of the group. It was completely transparent, and about Eric's height. Exactly what it was, was unclear. But it had arms and legs, and an oval head that seemed too big for the body that held it, with no face.
"You needn't be so impatient," the figured said.
Now the voice clearly sounded as coming out of the transparent creature, and it sounded male, though it was low and still had a slight echo.
"What are you?," Eric asked, puzzled.
"I'm my own creation," came the even more puzzling reply. "I have no name for it yet. But I do have a purpose, and it is to safeguard the path to Twocastle. Only those who manage to bring the two keys can proceed to the sacred fortress."
"Twocastle?," Eric turned to Mariel. "Do you think that's the place we were looking for?"
"It could be," the elvin replied. "It does sound like it."
"Are the six of you up to the challenge?," the gatekeeper questioned.
"We are," Eric replied decidedly, without turning to look at his companions' expressions. "Where are the 2 keys?"
"They are behind these doors," the figure answered. At that moment, 2 doors appeared on the wall behind him. They were both red, with golden arabesques on them. One of them barely surpassed Eric's height, while the other measured only 20 centimeters (or about two thirds of a foot).
"Of course, it's not as easy as crossing the door and picking up a key," the gatekeeper warned the group. "You'll have to look for them, and there will be obstacles in the way. Also, no more than 2 can cross each door. Otherwise the keys won't show themselves."
"Sounds like an interesting challenge," Eric judged. "Alright, Mariel and I can go together."
"That won't be possible," the gatekeeper said.
"Why not?!," Eric questioned, no longer liking the whole idea.
"Because your friend is taller than both doors."
"She can lower her head to pass."
"It's a rule. To pass through one of these doors, you must be shorter than it. You won't get to Twocastle by disobeying it."
"It's a stupid rule."
"It's alright, I'll go with you," Pura offered. "I'm good at searching and avoiding obstacles, I can help. Let's do things the right way."
"Yes, listen to your guide. She's wise."
"How did you know that she was his guide?," Mariel questioned. "And how did you know I was Mariel, when we never gave you our names?"
"He looked at you when he said your name," the gatekeeper explained. "And I assumed she was his guide because lurians are known to guide young merials on their first journeys."
"Risky assumptions, but correct ones," Timper pronounced, still thoughtful. "If Pura goes through the larger door, I guess that only leaves me and Erin to pass through the other."
"Assuming the faerie by your side is Erin, that's right," the figure replied.
"What will Mariel and I do?," Gallead inquired.
"You can wait here until your friends return with the keys."
Nobody seemed too sure about the sense of the whole thing, but they agreed to try it out. The gatekeeper suggested both pairs headed off at the same time to make things faster, and so they did as soon as Mariel asked Eric to take care, and he promised to do so.

The 'large' door led to a corridor with beige walls and floor. After walking a few steps, Eric and Pura found more corridors sprouting from the sides.
"It's a maze," he sentenced.
"I can check all the paths and see which one's the right one," Pura offered.
"What about the obstacles? There could be traps."
"I can fly and I'm fast. I'll avoid the traps easily."
"What if you get lost?"
"I also have a good sense of direction. It's a requirement to be a guide. Don't worry, I'll be fine. If I don't find anything in 5 minutes, I'll be back."
"Ok."

Pura zoomed out, and Eric sat down to wait. Every now and then, she saw her pop out of one of the corridors and dash into another. After a while, she stopped in front of Eric.
"Second one on the left," she said. "I didn't find the key, but it leads to a hall full of mirrors, while the others lead to dead ends or back here. I didn't find any traps except from some spikes and arrows. The arrows were nasty, but I dodged them all. I guess most traps must be activated by stepping on certain spots, so you should be careful."
"Thanks, Pura. You've done a great job," Eric commended her.

The merial followed his guide's indications, and slowly walked through the corridor. He could soon see a pile of arrows lying on the floor. They had to be the ones fired when Pura had passed. She tried flying through that area again, but nothing happened, so the two concluded it was safe to walk through. Then came a section where no traps had been activated. They reckoned it was the best place for a weight-triggered trap, so they both examined the floor with caution, watching out for any tiles that weren't tightly fixed to the others. That way, they managed to evade all threats until they reached the hall of mirrors Pura had mentioned.

"We'll have to be careful not to get lost here," Pura warned Eric. "All paths mirror each other. If we split up, the multiple images may confuse us. I do have a good sense of direction, but I'm not completely sure I'd pass this test on my own."
"Let's not split up, then. Stay close to me, I'll leave marks on the floor with my sword so that we know where we've already been. We'll keep looking down and ignore the mirrors."
"But what if there are traps behind the mirrors?"
"Then we'll evade them. What choice do we have?"


In the meantime, Erin and Timper had to explore another maze, only that this one was sensibly colder than the other. It looked as if the white walls were absorbing all the heat from inside.
"Are you alright?," Timper asked Erin, who was pressing her arms tightly around her chest.
"I could be better. Have I mentioned I don't like this place?"
"This is the first time. I was actually wondering why you hadn't yet. Want a better coat?"
"Do you have one?"
"Not exactly."
"Oh, no, don't you dare! Don't tell me you're not feeling cold yourself."
"As a matter of fact, I am. I'm trying to think of a form that can endure the cold, and walk through this small corridor at the same time. I wouldn't have that problem if I were a coat and you were carrying me."
"Of course you wouldn't. I'd be doing all the work and you'd be enjoying it from the most comfortable seat. Not to mention the other implications. No way."
"Who said anything about implications?"
"You don't have to. You're male, that's enough."
"You offend me. You know I respect you more than anything or anyone. I'd do nothing that would make you feel uncomfortable."
"Remember that next time you're about to ask me a question I'm not supposed to answer."
"Have I done that many times?"
"A few. My own secrets are mine to keep or reveal, but those of others I just can't tell."
"I respect that. That's one of the things I like the most about you."
"How so?"
"It means you can be trusted. And as you must know, that's a quality you don't find everywhere. And a very valuable one."
Those words managed to pull a smile out of Erin's mouth. But that smile was soon blurred by her shivering.

"Can't you make a fire or something?," Timper suggested.
"Not one that could follow us as we walk. Unless you'd like to transform into a torch."
"No, thanks. I'm not too keen on getting scorched."
"Well, maybe there is something we can do."
Saying this, Erin lifted her arms and let her sword appear in her hands. She instructed Timper to place his hands near the sword, without touching it. When he did so, the air around the blade raised its temperature, warming up the hands of both.
"How does that work?," Timper queried.
"This is an incandescent sword, it's made to amplify heat. In large proportions if you use it correctly."
"Wow! So that's how you did that!"
"How I did what?"
"When you were training. You heated up the air around your sword to disperse it and give you impulse at the same time, right?"
"Busted. I knew you'd figure it out sooner or later."
"That's an amazing sword. I've never seen any others like it."
"I think they only made them in a few places, and most of those places no longer exist. Jor has a spade which works the same way. At least as far as storage is concerned. It must be some kind of amplifier too, the ones who made these weapons never left anything unfinished so it has to be good."
"Why would a weapons expert make a spade?"
"They made weapons and tools, anything that could be used to take advantage over the enemies. Except that they sold the same weapons to both sides, so they didn't really give anyone much of an advantage. It was more of a loss if you didn't have them."
"Some way to do business! Didn't anyone ever turn against them for working for both sides?"
"Many wanted to, but at the end of the day, they liked their weapons too much to live without them."
"I see."

The heat of Erin's sword allowed the two to keep walking, but the air around them kept getting colder. They expected to find some obstacles, but hadn't foreseen that their surroundings as a whole would be one. They advanced through a long, freezing corridor until a wall came to their encounter. No openings could be seen to the sides, and they'd already seen everything they'd left behind. Erin could barely keep her arms stretched enough to hold her sword, and Timper wasn't doing that much better.
"Please, tell me this is not a dead end!," Erin begged. "We must have missed something. The key has to be somewhere!"
"I could see no fissures on the walls," Timper replied. "But for some time now the floor has been sounding hollow. I guess all we can do is break it and see what's below."
"Whatever it is, I hope it's warmer than this place. Let's see how hard this floor is."
Erin dug her sword on the floor, which immediately let out some steam. She shook it, but the material didn't crack beyond the width of the blade.
"We need a spinning sword," Timper sentenced.
"What's that?"
"It's my own creation. Useful for opening trap doors and making holes on a hollow floor like this one. It wraps around the material as it cuts through it and, when you pull up..."
"Don't tell me, show me. I'll listen to how it works once we're out of here."
"Alright."

It didn't take a second before Erin could see the sword in front of her. Its blade described a spiral much like a corkscrew, only bigger and much sharper. The hilt was a simple black cylinder, separated from the blade by a circle of black wood.
"And this is supposed to work? How?," Erin questioned.
Actions were the sword's reply, as he began to spin around, digging deeper and deeper into the frozen floor, until the sound of falling rubble below revealed that he had reached the other side.
"Oh, I see. I guess I'm supposed to pull you back now, right?"
"If you don't mind. It would be a lot more effective," the voice came rather muffled from the floor.

Erin couldn't figure out how it was possible for a sword to speak, but she preferred not to pump his ego by asking him. Instead, she just took the handle in her hands and pulled up, taking out a large chunk of the floor along with the sword. Timper began to turn in the opposite direction from which he'd been spinning in order to detach himself from the material. Once free, he took his normal form and made a funny reverence.
"Now, what was that for?," questioned Erin.
"Don't artists do that when they finish an act? Nevermind, now you know why I'm an explorer and not an acrobat or something. But it worked, didn't it?"
"Yes, good job. Sorry if I don't applaud, but my hands are freezing. Let's get down there. Whatever we find can't be worse than this place."
"That depends," noted Timper, kneeling down to look through the hole. "What do you prefer? Cold or water?"

First off, very nice story. Well designed, and its long(so, it will take me an hour or two to finish reading it tomorrow :P). Keep up the good writing!

Chapter 6 or 7:

Quote"I was just doing the same as you, so if my comment was uncalled for, so was yours," Erin stroke back.

Perhaps thats supposed to be 'shot'?

------------------------
edit 1:
"Hold on to your innocence, Pura," Erin smiled. "You as much as the kids."
^ Something in the last part seems a bit wrong ^

"Wise decision," Jor complimented him. "I'll dig a hole on the ground, it's the safest shelter in this area."
^ Should be 'in'.^

Many times Jamie thought that might be the reason why she, who had shiny black hair, could feel the invisible forces around her better than her brown-haired sister could (*times when Mildred would invariably point out that she had more common sense than Jamie, which was probably true).
^ Words around the * need changing/adding to. ^
------------------
edit2:
Until the silence was finally broken by the cracking of a heavy tree branch, which shot itself to the ground, nearly smashing the smallest ones.
^ Itself should be removed, and the bold section needs to be reworked. ^

"I'm not going to go Gallead any time soon... Not ever, in fact.
^ Sorry, I don't know what you meant here. ^

When he was forced to jump back to avoid being hit by the pillar that conformed one of its upper extremities, he replied to himself: "thought so."
^ Not sure what you mean here either. ^

"You needn't be so impatient," the figured said.
^ Simple spelling mistake, easy to fix :) ^

Once free, he took his normal form and made a funny ?reverence?.
^ I don't know what you mean. ^

Well, I think thats all the errors, and, having read the entire thing to date, I have to say its been a most engaging story. Keep up the good work!


-RobbieThe1st

Thanks, Robbie! For both the comment and the correction, and also for reading my story. The hard thing about writing in a foreign language is that I'm not very familiar with some expressions and sometimes I don't know what the right one is.

I've fixed it now. I'm glad you like the story so far. :)

Good stuff.  I must have missed that Timper could assume inanimate forms... I thought he could only turn into creatures.

I don't think that that item was all that inanimate... ;-]

Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on September 26, 2007, 11:02:15 AM
I don't think that that item was all that inanimate... ;-]

He was talking about turning into objects like torches and cloaks.

I don't think the word 'inanimate' could ever apply to him. ;) But yes, he can. Quoting his own words on chapter 10...

"As for my abilities, as a shifter I can turn into any living being or any solid object; but if I turn into living creatures I can only do it well if I've already seen the species before. Otherwise I'd have to put too much imagination into it and it wouldn't come out right. When I transform into something, I gain all its physical properties, but not other special abilities. So if I turned into a heerynaut I would be able to breathe underwater, but not control the water around me. Now, as an explorer I have great knowledge of this area, I adapt easily to my surroundings, I am a good observer and I'm good at improvising. And personally, I like inventing things, I don't know a thing of magic but I can find ways to defend myself against it, I have a good memory and I'm a fast learner. Well, generally, at least; it didn't work when I tried to learn a magic spell, but nobody's perfect."
When he saw the faces of the group, he added: "I know modesty is not one of my virtues. If it were, I'd be practically perfect."

I guess I can post the rest now.


While Mariel and Gallead waited at the hall, the gatekeeper talked to them about unimportant things like how the winter was coming; and when the guests asked why they hadn't seen that place before entering and why Mariel couldn't feel the presence of Twocastle from there, the guardian answered, showing some pride in his still low voice, that the Temple of Trials was enchanted with many spells. Finally and inevitably, the sorceress asked the gatekeeper who had made the rules about the doors.
"A merial wrote them," the creature replied. "Does that irritate you?"
"Do you want it to irritate me?," the elvin shot back.
"Hmm... Not particularly. I was just wondering, since there's this rivalry going on between elvins and merials. I figured an elvin like you wouldn't like the idea of abiding by a rule a merial wrote. But then again, you and your friend seem pretty close, so maybe you two feel you're above that conflict."
"I don't like the sound of this," Gallead commented. "Gatekeeper, why are you harassing her?"
"I'm not. When have I done or said anything offensive?"
"It's the tone in which you speak to her. Has she done anything to you, or are you the one who has prejudice issues?"
"You're ready to jump at me and defend your friend. What for? I have done nothing. How well do you know her anyway? You can't possibly know her well enough to fight for her."
"How would you know that?"
"Calm down, please," Mariel asked them. "Both of you. We were just talking. Gallead, I appreciate your help, but I can defend myself. And you... You are angry for some reason, aren't you? I don't think I've done anything to trigger your anger, so what is it? If anything's wrong, maybe I can help."
"Not everything works that way," the Gatekeeper told her.
"Can I at least try? Do you have a grudge against elvins, or is it me in particular? Or is it something else?"
The gatekeeper's transparent body was shaking like a bubble about to break.
"Of course you think you can sort it out," he spat out. "Why wouldn't you? You're an elvin. You're wise and knowledgeable and powerful beyond anyone else's comprehension, right? Or not, even more. You're even wiser than most elvins because you're above even their prejudice against merials, and you're a source of pure goodness, so how could there possibly be a problem you can't solve?"
"Why are you attacking me?"
"I am attacking you?! I'd done absolutely nothing to you until you came by and decided to ruin everything!"
"Ruin everything?," Gallead questioned. "The only thing she did was walk in like the rest of us and talk to you!"
"Oh, my!," exclaimed Mariel. "He's not talking about today! It's a trap!"
"Oh, well, you've found me out. Took you long enough, didn't it? You don't seem to think too clearly when your pretty connection magic is blocked. Too bad it's already too late to help your friends. This will be just between you and me."

Gallead had never seen the merial sorcerer named Kharchek, but from what Eric and Mariel had told him, and his own experience at the cave of illusions, all evidence pointed to him. He took his sword, trying to be ready for anything, but before he could even start casting his agility spell, a lightning bolt came his way, straight from the gatekeeper's hand. He barely managed to avoid it by throwing himself to the ground. He rolled over, trying to get up, but another bolt came and he was forced to fade into the air as the only way to avoid it. At that moment, a hole opened in the ceiling, and the air in the room was abruptly sucked into it. When the hole closed itself, the only things that remained of Gallead were his bag and his light sword, lying on the floor.

"What part of 'just between you and me' didn't he understand?," the transparent one roared.
Mariel stared at him, trying her best not to show fear while holding her shield firmly with both hands; she had taken it out during the rumble.
"What have you done to him?," she inquired.
"Oh, don't worry. He's much better than you will be soon. Can't hurt the wind, can you? With such a defense, no wonder he'd eventually use it. But I expected him to wait at least a little longer! I didn't even touch him with my bolts. Of course, if I had, odds are he wouldn't have been there to try his little trick anymore. Either way, I'd win. That's the way I like it."
"You..." Mariel began, but another thought took precedence. "What have you done to yourself?"
"Oh, this? It's a long story, and I'm not planning to tell it to you of all people."
"Did you destroy your own image to get stronger? You'd give everything up to get more power, wouldn't you? Even your essence."
"You think you know me. You have no idea what you're talking about. Anyway, soon, none of that will matter. I can't believe I have to go into so much trouble over a little girl."
While he spoke, Kharchek slowly picked up Swift from the floor.
"I thought Eric was your enemy," Mariel questioned him, keeping an eye on the sword.
"That little kid would be weeping over his father's body if you hadn't come to his rescue. I have eyes everywhere, I know how things happened. He's the one who has a grudge against me, not the other way around. But don't worry, I'm not leaving him alone to mourn you. I'm working on getting rid of him as we speak. Bah, this sword is too light. Can it really cut through things? There's not enough metal to channel lightning here, let alone anything else."

He tossed away the light sword, announcing he'd do things the old-fashioned way. He charged up an unusually large sphere of light and aimed it at Mariel, but the elvin's shield absorbed all the energy and sent it back, to the shock of both the attacker and Mariel herself. The sphere passed through a jelly-like substance, spreading all over it with flashes of light, before finally reaching back into the air, split into rays of different colors which blasted against the walls. Kharchek was shaken, but still standing.

"You're not as fast as you used to be," noted Mariel, trying to hide her surprise about the effectiveness of her own deflection spell.
"But I am much more resistant now," her enemy replied. "And I'm bound to this place, so I control everything here. You're in my territory now, so there's nothing you can do... other than say your last words."

Quiet followed; the calm that comes when the important things are progressing in a plane that's not visible. Mariel could hear the wind blow fast through the columns, and feel a spell brewing around her. After her experience with the teleporting spell, she knew better than to track it down. But she still tried to figure out what kind of spell it was by inspecting the domains she was familiar with. Her first attempt was the charm: Connection. It made sense; as far as she knew, it was the domain Kharchek used the most. It was also the one she was best at handling after Light, so maybe she still had a chance after all. Her shield wouldn't help, because a connection spell was not a direct energy attack, but she still had plenty of magic to resort to, and a magical enhancer given to her by the mermaids. She hoped to get down to the root of the spell and neutralize it before it was completed, and if that failed, she could try a new trick and see if she could pull out a disconnection spell. The latter would be hard, so she put her hopes into succeeding in her first try. It looked like she still had time to act... But then again, why? What kind of spell could take so long to be performed? Unless... Unless Kharchek was tricking her again, trying to make her focus on something while the real action was somewhere else. It was time to snap back into reality and look around for any possible threats. But why was something that simple suddenly so hard?

"Connection trap," Kharchek's old voice whispered inside her mind. "As usual, you've figured it out, but too late. I thought it would be best if you knew the name of the spell that killed you."

Mariel couldn't hide her fear anymore. She hadn't been more scared in her entire life. Something was about to kill her, and she wouldn't even see it coming. It could be anything: a lightning bolt, a spell from her own domain, the roof falling on her, or even Gallead's sword. She couldn't see. She couldn't hear. She couldn't even feel her own body. All she could perceive was Kharchek's presence all around. He was having the time of his life. It felt almost as if she was inside him. Everything had his mark on it. Well... almost everything. Far behind, she could feel a faint spark of something her mind represented as light. It was falling, and all of a sudden it wasn't. It was safe, it was stunned, it was happy, it was aware. It was the one best thing she could hope to feel in a moment like this. It was Eric's presence. And he could feel her too.

When Kharckek saw Eric and Pura come back through the 'big' door, he just couldn't believe it.
"How?!," he exclaimed, too shocked to keep up his act. "You couldn't have possibly survived the maze! And even if you had, you wouldn't have returned without the key."
"Was there even a key inside?," Pura questioned.
"How did you know? And how did you come back so fast?"
"We have our own questions first," Eric declared, looking at Mariel's immobile figure. "Why are you doing this? What have you done to Mariel and where's Gallead?"
"You haven't even figured it out, have you? I won't be the one to tell you."
"You're right," Eric accepted. "It won't be you."
Saying this, he swung his sword against the nearest column with such strength that it made a hole in the gold-painted stone. Wind came out at high speed from the hollow inside, and circled around Swift, lifting it up before holding it with a greyish hand.
"He's Kharchek," Gallead warned Eric. "He's connected to this place and controls everything."
"He can't control everything," the merial argued.
"Why not?"
"Because of everything he didn't see and everything he didn't do. I say we test how connected to this place he really is."
Eric stuck his sword into the floor. Kharchek tried to stop him with a thunderbolt, but the metallic sword absorbed the electricity, sending it down to the earth. At the same time, a shockwave made the floor ahead of Eric shake, and the electricity somehow powered up the earthquake. Gallead rushed to Eric's side as a hurricane, carrying his Swift with him, but Kharchek had no way to move to the safe side, the tremors being implacable on him. His transparent body shook as much as the floor did, and soon he couldn't hold his concentration enough to keep Mariel trapped.

The elvin was delighted to regain contact with the physical world, but the scene she found told her it wasn't time to celebrate yet. She quickly addressed each of her comrades.
"Eric, I love you! Will you please keep that up for as long as you can? Gallead, Pura, could one of you bring Erin and Timper back? We need to get out of here fast! Whoever stays, try to destroy whatever you can, I think it will hurt him."
She didn't even stop to think of the effect her words would have. Her mind was deep into the battle she and her group were fighting, and the excitement of being free again. As Pura blasted off through the small door and Gallead hit everything he could with both his sword and his gusts of wind, she channeled her energy towards Eric, to help him keep up the earthquakes.

It didn't even take a minute before Erin and Pura emerged from the door, the faerfliye realizing how much faster she could move once the cold had receded and she knew where she was going. A small spider crawled out of Erin's hair, and leapt down to the floor assuming Timper's form. By that moment, Kharchek's attempts to attack had become weaker and scarcer, and the foundations of the building had begun to crumble.
"We need to get out of here," Gallead reckoned.
"How?, we can't go back the way we came without stopping the earthquakes and getting past Kharchek," Eric pointed out. "We'd give him the chance to recover and attack us."
"The ceiling has two layers and at least the first one is quite thin," Gallead said. "If we can open a hole in them, I can lift you up. Erin and Timper can take Mariel if Timper transforms into a faerfliye, and Pura can fly through."
"You got it," Erin nodded, flying up and hitting the ceiling with her sword until rubble started falling.
Kharchek tried to stop her, but with all the damage done to the building, he could barely stand up, let alone aim his spells against his opponents. Once she'd got through the first layer, she dug down to widen the hole. Then came the second layer. This one took longer, as it was harder and thicker, but the tremors cracked the stone and helped Erin with her task. In the end, light came down through the hole, and Erin returned to her friends' side to complete the operation.

Everything worked out as planned, and everybody got out. They landed on the back side of the crumbling Temple of Trials, and watched as it slowly imploded, turning into an enormous pile of rubble. Even after that, they waited, to see if Kharchek or anything else came out. Nothing happened.
"Is he dead?," Eric finally ask. "Have we killed him?"
"I don't know," Mariel said. "I can't feel him, but he was good at hiding his presence. I don't think an elf could survive that, but he was not an elf anymore. I don't know if it's even possible to kill him."
"But wasn't he connected to the temple?," Gallead pointed out. "If the temple was destroyed, then..."
"We can't have killed him!," Eric cried out. "We're not killers! I'm not a murderer!"
"He brought it upon himself," Erin tried to calm him down. "Was he even alive at all? He was a... thing. A shadow of what he used to be."
"He was alive," Eric contradicted her. "He could think and feel. He was evil, but he was alive. I caused the earthquake that brought the temple down. I killed him! And what is worst, I wanted him to die! I'm not better than him in any way."
"That's not true and you know it," Mariel told him. "You saw what he did to me. You're not a killer. You saved my life. I don't know if he's still alive or not, but suppose he isn't. Would you rather I had died in his place? Because I would have if you hadn't come to stop him!"
"I... I just wish things could be different."
"We all do," Erin said, in an understanding tone Eric had never heard from her.
"He's not dead," Pura suddenly declared.
"How do you know?," Mariel asked her with both fear and hope.
"I don't know, I just felt it. I don't know how, but what I felt... it must have been his presence. It's the same thing I felt in the cave and today at the temple. And it was... Taken away or something. It went somewhere, somehow."
"You can feel presences too?!," Eric inquired, his expression suddenly changing from beaten to astonished.
"I... I don't know. It seems I can, but I swear I didn't know it."
"That too?! Makes me wonder how many surprises you still have inside you!," Eric exclaimed.
"What?! Don't tell me you told him!," Erin scolded Pura, struck by the reason of Eric's comment. "I've been putting a lot of effort in protecting your secret since we left, and now you go and tell the biggest mouth in the world?!"
"Hey!," Eric yelled.
"There was no other way," Pura defended herself. "I can't keep a secret if it will cost me the life of the one being I'm meant to protect. Besides, I trust him. He has his heart in the right place and won't do anything that could endanger me or my people. He promised not to tell anyone, and I know he won't break his promise."
"I won't. But can there please be an exception?"
"There we go. Before a day passes, the whole world will know it. Remember when your crops were burnt and you said 'screw us'? It seems you've just granted yourself your own wish."
"I didn't even remember I'd said that. Give the boy a chance, will you? What is it, Eric?"
"Can I please tell Mariel? I know she won't tell anyone, and I wouldn't like to be keeping secrets from her."

Pura paused for a moment to think.
"Alright," she said in the end. "But only Mariel, and only because of what she said to you today. And go somewhere else to tell her. Some place where nobody else will hear you. Preferably at night."
Eric agreed to Pura's conditions, while the explorers couldn't help but feel left out and made the secret promise to tell the other as soon as either of them found out the truth.


That night, Eric and Mariel took the two middle shifts together to talk. They walked into the forest, always keeping an eye on the camp, and after Mariel told Eric what had happened in his absence, it was Eric's turn to speak.
"I was really surprised when I felt you and knew you needed me," he said. "And then when I saw you, I was really scared. Until I knew you wanted me to make a hole in the column, and then I knew you were still with me, and you'd be fine. But we've had experiences like that one before, haven't we?"
"Yes, we have. And I hope we have more of them... just under better circumstances."
"Yeah, me too," Eric laughed. "So, that was surprising, but not shocking. What was really shocking was what happened before."
"What exactly happened?"
"Well, Pura and I went through a maze filled with traps, and then another with mirrors, which was really tricky because we couldn't know what was there and what was a reflection, and then it became darker and Pura tried to shed some light, but the mirrors reflected more than we expected, so the place became too bright. It blinded me for a moment, and right then stones began to fall from the ceiling, so I had to run with my eyes closed and Pura serving as my eyes. We nearly got lost after that, but we made it into another chamber with no mirrors, and I thought we were almost there. Just a few hops over a few holes on the floor and the key had to be on the other side. But as soon as I touched the floor after my first jump, the stones gave in and I began to fall. The whole floor fell with me, so I had nothing to hold on to!"
"Oh, no! What happened? How did you save yourself?"
"I didn't."
"What do you mean?"
"I was falling down what seemed like an abyss, and suddenly something stopped my fall. I looked at what was holding me, and I couldn't believe what I saw!"
"What was it?," Mariel asked, excited.
"It was a faerie. Only a very big one. Bigger than me, about as tall as you are. And she had blue eyes. Like yours, but a bit darker. And pointy ears and lilac hair falling in curls down her shoulders. And her wings were big and transparent. Much bigger than Erin's, even in proportion. And pointy at the ends. She had a green dress with something like flowers made of cloth, and there was this bright light around her, the same color as her hair. And the look in her face... she looked worried, but she smiled when I looked at her. It was the smile of someone who cared for me a lot."
"Was it... Pura?"
"Yes! It took me longer to realize that because... well, I couldn't believe it. I didn't understand anything of what was going on. All I could say was 'how' and 'why'."
"And then?"
"And then she said 'what's a secret worth if I can't save you, little big guy?'"
Mariel burst into laughter.
"Yes, she still calls me that," Eric laughed with her. "But then she told me not to tell anyone and everything. When I told her you needed me, she took me back to the door so fast I couldn't even see where we were going. Then she left me on the ground and became small again before I opened the door."
"But if she has that power, why is she keeping it a secret? It could help her so much if she was free to use it whenever she wanted to!"
"I asked her the same thing while she was holding me. She said lurians have been keeping that ability a secret for ages in order to prevent enemies from attacking them. They think they'll be safe as long as nobody sees them as a threat, and nobody knows how to hurt them either. But Pura has been doubting that ever since their crops were destroyed."
"I see."
"I have one question now."
"What is it?"
"When you were freed from Kharchek's spell, before telling me to keep sending magic to the ground, you told me that you loved me. Did you just say that to encourage me, or was it the rush of the moment... or did you really mean it?"

oh, what a place to leave it!

That's just cruel! ;-]

I'm alive! And so is this topic, thanks to Zina. :)


"I wish I could explain the state I was in," Mariel said after thinking for a while. "It was all about feelings because there was nothing else."

"Does that mean you didn't mean to say that? Was it true or not?," Eric insisted.
"Well, it was rushed... No one has ever taught me what love is and I've never felt it before. That kind of love, I mean."
"Love can't be taught, Mariel. It's something you feel. Do you feel it? I need to know because, if you don't, I don't want to imagine things anymore."

Mariel was stunned. Eric was being more mature than her! But then again, when wasn't he surprising? She thought carefully before giving an answer. Eric had always been open to her; he deserved the truth and not the ramblings of confusion and fear. Fear! What was she afraid of?... Betting her feelings and losing, maybe. Losing everything she and Eric had built together, something too big to even give it a name. It was a risk she wasn't sure she could take... but wouldn't she be throwing it all away if she said 'no' to Eric right now? She had always trusted herself and Eric for everything, even for things others saw as impossible. And so far she'd always been right. That had to mean something; that, and the connection the two shared. She'd have to trust that connection once more.

"When we're apart, I reach for you instinctively until something brings us together," she began. "When I'm with you, I feel safe even when everything else says I'm not. We've known each other for less than 4 years, yet I can't imagine what my life would be like without you. And I don't want to imagine it. The world changes when I think of you, and I'd like it to stay that way forever."

"I... I didn't know that," Eric confessed. "But... It makes sense. We've talked about changing the world together, haven't we?"
Those words helped Mariel relax a little. Maybe Eric felt the same way about her. She smiled and, as if playing a game, she dared Eric.
"Now you tell me how you feel about me. It's only fair."
"Well, I'm not as good with words as you are, but... I'd do anything for you. I've learnt that today. I'd even kill for you if I had to. I mean, I really hope I never have to, it would crush me. But if I have to choose between your life and the life of someone who wants to hurt you, then there's nothing to think about."
"Let's hope it never comes to that again," swooned Mariel. "I'd rather keep you in one piece."
"That's what you've been doing all this time."
"What?," asked Mariel, startled at the change of context.
"Keeping me whole."

Mariel smiled and rested her head on Eric's shoulder. She felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her.
"Do you think Pura knows it?," she asked.
"Well, maybe. I guess she does, she's more perceptive than I am."
"I mean... She let you tell me her secret and not the others. Maybe she knew before even we did."
"Yes... I think Gallead knows too. He told me something that got me thinking when I was trying to rescue you, before you ended up rescuing me."
"Now, which of the many times we've rescued each other would that be?"
Eric laughed, and Mariel joined him.
"When you were tracking the transporting spell and disappeared," Eric clarified.
"Oh."
"Do you know what's great?"
"What?"
"That after all we've been through, we can still laugh together like when we were kids."
"Well, I don't feel like a kid anymore," Mariel said. "But laughing like this is something I hope I never have to give up. If I'm turning into an adult, I'd rather not be as bitter and grumpy as those in the council."
"You know? You should be in the council."
"What?!"
"Really, you'd teach them a thing or two, and make Ayrus a better place for everyone. You'd help them stop arguing and do things for a change. You'd get to fix all the things that have been getting at you since I met you!"
"I'd never thought about it that way. I guess it would be a good idea, but I don't think the council would take me into account that much. They never have."
"Because you haven't proven yourself to them. And because they've always thought you were too young. But time passes and things change. You're growing up fast and you're saving the world. That has to mean something to them!"
"Maybe... You know, if they saw you, I think they'd start seeing merials in a different way."
"They'd have to do more than just see me. I don't look any different from other merials. But if I could convince them that intelligent thoughts are not floating 160 cm off the ground, and the merials at Harland could see how brave you are, maybe that meaningless grudge could end once and for all."
"And you said you weren't good with words? I wouldn't have thought of that metaphor," Mariel laughed.
"What met-... Ah, the one about the height. Hey, you don't mind my being shorter than you, do you?"
"Why would I? We don't choose our heights, and they don't make us better or worse. Do you mind my being taller than you?"
"Not as long as every centimeter of you stays with me."
"I think we'll have a lot to talk about. I don't know where we're supposed to go from here."
"Neither do I, but I suppose we'll find out together. Right now, I think we should go back to the camp. We're not doing a great job at watching."
"Oh, you're right! Let's go back."

Fortunately for the young elves, the camp wasn't attacked that night. Even the following day was uneventful, against everyone's expectations. Some began to doubt whether they were really on the right path, while the more suspicious ones thought they could be heading straight into another trap. The group remained alert, but everything around them seemed to be quiet. Maybe too quiet.

"Shouldn't we have come across a village by now?," Gallead questioned. "I heard many populations had settled in this region, but it's been a long time since we last saw anything moving other than birds, insects, spiders and rodents. And even those were few."
"That's true," Timper agreed. "It's strange that we haven't come across anyone since we left the fake temple. I hope this doesn't mean our enemies have already taken control of the whole region, or caused everyone to evacuate it."
"If they had control over this place, why would they let us walk freely through it?," Eric argued. "Why haven't we been attacked yet?"
"It would be too optimistic to suppose that, simply, no one lives around here, right?," interjected Pura.
"We're on the right path," Mariel assured. "I can still feel Twocastle ahead, if that's its real name. But I think something has happened here. I don't know exactly what."
"Something bad?," Eric asked.
"There was magic involved," Mariel explained. "There are some remnants of energy from it, but it's a kind of magic I'm not familiar with, so that's as much as I can tell."
"A kind of magic you're not familiar with? That sounds bad," Pura moaned.
"I actually handle just a few domains," Mariel told her. "I still have a lot to learn, so the fact that I don't know what kind of magic was used here doesn't mean it's too dangerous for us to cope with. It just means we don't know anything about it yet."
"Not even whether it's bad or not?," Pura queried.
"Not even that, I'm afraid."
"I guess we'll have to be ready for anything," Eric concluded.

The scenery didn't change for some time. The travelers were almost getting used to the emptiness of the area, and were already engaging in small conversations liked they used to. But the quietness didn't last much longer. After a group of thick trees and large boulders suggested that a small turn would be the easiest way to go ahead, the group ended up in front of what, to most, would look like a dense group of bushes with exceptionally big leaves. The explorers and Pura, however, knew what that place was.

"A neini village!," the lurian exclaimed. "So this place wasn't completely deserted after all!"
"How can you tell there's a village in there?," Eric asked her.
"Only neinis build this kind of vegetal cloaks to protect their homes and what's important for them. They have a way of making plants grow thicker and closer together, and they also make leaves grow bigger to hide what's below."
"You seem to know a lot," Timper commented.
"Hey, I'm a teacher, I'm supposed to know these things. Besides, there were some neini villages near Urthum, where I grew up. I even visited one of them once."
"Really? With your school?," asked Eric.
"Not exactly. More like... With a visitor."
"A visitor?"
"Long story. Why don't we go in there and see if there's anyone home? Maybe they can tell us what's going on."
"Not all of us can go in there," Eric pointed out.
He was right. If the size of the bushes was an indicator of what was below, he, Mariel and Gallead were too big to fit in the village.

"Ok, the 3 of you can wait here," Pura suggested. "Hmm... Maybe Erin too, otherwise the neinis could get nervous."
"Are you serious? Who will save you when you get in trouble?," Erin half-joked. "Why are you so excited anyway?"
"Come on, even you should appreciate the chance to talk to someone other than us after all this time. Besides, being in a neini village brings sweet memories."
"Will you tell us about them?," Eric asked her.
"Maybe. But later. Right now I want to find out what we're dealing with."
Saying this, she disappeared into the thick vegetation.
"She'll get in trouble. We should follow her," Timper said to Erin.
"I couldn't agree more," she said, and so the two penetrated the forest within the forest.

The reception wasn't as friendly as Pura had expected. The village was there alright, with all the small houses stuck to the branches like snails under the large leaves, but all the doors and windows were shut, and no one came out of the houses to greet the visitors. Neinis were known to be gentle creatures, but if there were any left in this village, they were too afraid to come out.

"You don't think picking a door and knocking on it would help, do you?," joked Timper.
"Maybe if we told them that we're here to help," Pura suggested.
"Do you even know what their problem is?," questioned Erin.
"No, but I'll help if I can."
"Is anyone here at all?," Timper wondered.
"I think so," Pura said. "I have a feeling we're not alone here."
"Your psychic abilities again?"
"If only you'd stop making fun of me, Erin! I'm serious!"
"Ok, it just feels strange that you've suddenly developed this sixth sense or whatever it is."
"It's nothing like that. And I didn't 'suddenly' develop it. I've only just started to pay enough attention to it. I didn't think my hunches meant anything, until they started to become clearer... more like certainties than hunches. It's like they've found direction."
"When did that happen?," Timper asked her.
"At the cave, I think," Pura reflected. "When I channeled Mariel's connection magic. I didn't know I could do that, but once I did it felt natural. I think that's when my own connection found a way to manifest itself."
"So you learned connection magic by channeling Mariel's magic?"
"I wouldn't go that far. I'm nowhere near Mariel's abilities, but I do think she awoke some potential I wasn't fully aware of. So please, when I tell you I have a feeling, don't tease me, ok?"
"I've never teased you," Timper said.
"I know, you're nice. I was talking to Erin."

Before Erin could think of a good comeback, Pura's perception was proven right. One of the nearest doors opened, and two young neinis came down. They were a male and a female, both with slender bodies, pointy ears, green, leaf-like wings and equally green hair.
"Who are you?," the male asked.
"We're travelers," Timper told him. "We've been on the road for a long time, and for some days now we have seen no villages and hardly any creatures. Until we arrived here."
"Are you explorers?," the female neini queried.
"I'm an explorer," he replied. "We all have different professions, but right now we're just passing by. We'd like to know what's going on here."
"If something's wrong, maybe we can help," Pura added.
"How do we know you're not with Miranda?," the male inquired.
"You have as many reasons to trust us as we do to trust you," Erin said. "On the other hand, you do sound reasonable for a change. I've spent too much time surrounded by beings who were too innocent for their own good."
"You wouldn't be including me in that group, right?," Timper tried to make sure.
"No, not you, don't worry. You're not too innocent. You're just... strange."
"Is that a good or a bad thing?"
"Just a strange thing," Erin avoided compromise. "Now, who's that Miranda you just mentioned?"
"I don't think they're with her," the female said to the male. "They would have attacked us by now. Miranda doesn't converse with the villagers before destroying their homes."
"Let me guess, is she someone who's been attacking the villages in this region?," Erin tried.
"She's a plague," the female neini said. "She destroys everything that crosses her path. Nobody sees her coming until it's too late. We've remained hidden and watched other villages fall. She usually floods them, though sometimes she just stomps on them."
"Yes, and she makes sure that everyone who survives knows her name. I've heard that, after every attack, she's said 'My name is Miranda; remember me'."
"Seems like someone is crazy for attention," Pura commented.
"Or just plain crazy," Erin said. "Why are these maniacs sprouting everywhere all of a sudden? And what is she? You said she floods villages; is she water elemental or does she use magic?"
"Both, actually," the female said. "She's a quirran, so she has great control on the water. But the things she does can't be just natural. We'd be able to take down an ordinary quirran easily, but somehow she has managed to evade all attacks. When they're about to get her, she dives into the water and seems to disappear. Then she comes out at any corner, crushing houses or anything she can find."
"Strange. I've heard of creatures who can blend with the water, but quirrans are not among them," Timper said.
"That's why we believe she uses magic," the male neini explained. "Before disappearing, she makes the water muddy enough to cloak whatever's below. And when her opponents try to reach her, she's no longer there. They have tried everything, even absorbing the water with the roots of the plants. But she always manages to produce more. Her resources never seem to end."
"How do you know all that?," Timper asked him. "Were you there to see it?"
"No, but I've talked to many who have escaped from her attacks. She's left lots of neinis and other creatures with no homes to return to."
"If she's so powerful, why did she let them go?," Erin questioned.
"I have no idea."
"Maybe she doesn't want to kill them," Timper said. "Maybe she just wants them to know her power and be afraid of her. It could be some twisted way of gaining their respect."
"Too sick and twisted, if that's the case," Erin commented.
"Yes, but it makes sense. If she tells everyone to remember her name and makes such a huge display of power without actually killing... maybe all she wants is attention. Maybe we're just dealing with someone with serious issues, but not truly evil."
"What do you mean she's not truly evil? She's destroyed entire villages!," The male neini questioned his judgement.
"We've been chasing Jor for less than that," Erin agreed.
"I was just contemplating a possibility," Timper defended himself.
"Or is it because she's female? Maybe that's why you're suddenly so understanding towards her," Erin suggested.
"Hell, no! Whatever gave you that idea?!"
"Well, you seem to like mysterious and dangerous women with a dark past."
"No, I like one mysterious and dangerous woman with a past that's not as dark as she sees it!"

Silence followed that statement.
"I mean..."
Timper tried to fix it, but it was impossible. The words were out.
"Maybe we should leave you guys alone," Pura suggested.
"It's not the time for that," Timper said, both to Pura and to himself. "We have an emergency to deal with."
"Are you really planning to confront Miranda?," the male neini asked. "She's too dangerous. Three alone won't be able to scratch her."
"We're not alone, we have friends outside," Pura said.
"And maybe you and your people could help too, since your homes are at stake," Erin pointed out. "Besides, she's water elemental, right. As strong as she is, you should have the means to hurt her badly."
"But we're not warriors!," the male neini complained.
"Neither am I, but I fight for the things that matter to me," Pura told him. "If you stay motionless, how long will it take for her to find you and destroy your homes? Hiding won't keep you safe you forever. Believe me, I've learnt that the hard way."
"You lost your home?," he asked.
"No, but we were attacked when we least expected it, and it will be hard for my people to recover from everything we've lost. That's one of the reasons why I'm here. The other is to protect and guide a young warrior."
"Where's that warrior?," the female neini asked.
"He's waiting for us outside," Pura said.

By that time, several neinis had come out of their homes and gathered around the strangers. They were all whispering to each other. Finally, one male neini who looked older than the first two stood out from the crowd.
"We've heard everything you said," he told the newcomers. "You must understand that what you're asking us to do is... complicated, to say the least. Will you please go back outside and let us discuss the matter?"

The three agreed and left the village. When their friends asked what had happened, they told them everything, answering all the questions that came up, and then the whole group sat down to await the neinis' decision. After an hour, Eric began to doubt they were really discussing what to do.
"I'm not surprised they're taking so long," Mariel told him. "Important discussions can take many hours... Even days. Especially if the whole village is involved."
"They wouldn't expect us to wait here for days, would they?," Eric asked, hesitantly.
"If they take longer than a day, I guess they'll first come to a temporary solution. Like giving us a place to sleep in the meantime. And maybe some food, so that we don't run out of vitals while we wait. That happened once in Ayrus when a stranger came to ask for assistance from the council. They gave him everything he needed for 3 days until they reached a conclusion."
"3 days?! What did he want that was so hard to decide?"
"I don't know, they wouldn't tell me. I was too young."
"Same old story again," Eric shook his head. "Makes me feel glad I'm not still at home."
"So you'd rather risk your life than be told you're too young for something?," Gallead checked.
"Well, if you put it that way, it doesn't sound too sensible. But here I'm doing what I know, and I know it's worth something. And you all see me as someone important, not just a kid who will eventually grow up to be someone. So that's what I like. It was time for me to get out and see the world... to be myself. Of course it would be best if the world wasn't in danger while I'm seeing it, but getting the chance to do something to make things right is great. It's all I've ever dreamed of!"
"It's good to see someone's enjoying himself," Erin grumbled.
"Maybe you should follow his example," Timper suggested.
"Can you picture Erin having fun? She just wouldn't be herself!," joked Pura.
"Don't be rude!," Mariel told her.
"It's ok," Erin said. "Pura wouldn't be herself if she were nice to me."
"Nice counterattack," Timper commended her. "But what's troubling you?"
"Why do you think something's troubling me?"
"It's in your face and the tone of your voice. I think I've become good at reading you."
"Then you should know the idea of confronting a being who has an incredible control over water isn't exactly a bright perspective for me."
"Well, it's not a walk in the park for me either, but none of us is alone. Even if they decide not to come with us, I think the 6 of us have proven we can face just about anything and come out on top."
"You're scaring me. You've been sounding like Eric a lot today."
"Well, maybe the boy is right about a few things. And I think you agree with him to a point. After all, why would we be here if we didn't think we can make a difference?"
"Is that why you're here? I thought..."
"Hold it. Who says I'm not trying to make a difference right now as we speak? I'm not only talking about the battlefield. Though yes, I do think we can make a difference there too. Otherwise I would have tried to convince the group to give up and take a nicer and safer route. But no route would have been safe in the end."
"You're full of surprises."
"Thanks, I'll try to live up to that."
"That's all really cool and I wouldn't like to ruin the beautiful moment," Pura interrupted, "but do we really have the time to wait until they make a decision? The forces of evil are growing stronger as we speak. I don't think we can afford to sit around and wait for 3 days."
"Those were exactly my thoughts," Gallead seconded her. "I think we should give them some time, but we shouldn't let them hold us back for too long. Otherwise our enemies may come to us on their own terms."
"How much longer do you think we should wait?," Eric consulted the group.

Fortunately for everyone, they didn't have to set a time, nor wait as long as they'd expected. At that moment, a delegate from the village came out with news.
Unfortunately, the news wasn't the best they could hear.

"We have agreed that we're not ready to go to war," the delegate said. "We're grateful for your offer to help us free this region from Miranda's siege, but none of us has any combat experience, nor even the proper training, and we're not willing to embark ourselves on what would certainly be a suicide mission, at least for some of us. All we can do is give you food and equipment for your journey, and reward you should you come back safe and sound."

The situation wasn't the best, but there was no changing it. The group couldn't drag the neinis into battle against their will, and in any case they wouldn't be helpful if they didn't believe in what they were doing. So there wasn't much of an agreement. The neinis gave the travelers some food and ropes (the only things in their possession that could be on any help in a long journey), while the others didn't swear to keep the village safe, but promised to confront Miranda if they crossed paths with her - which, by the way things were going, was virtually a certainty.

As the group left, few comments were made. They'd already had enough time to discuss the situation. Mariel made a remark about how they'd never known the names of the villagers, while Erin was deeply concentrated on her own thoughts, half trying to come up with a plan, half worrying about how to stay focused after Timper's declaration, how he'd dared say that in front of Pura, and how she'd eventually have to make a decision about the subject... one she'd never thought she'd have to make. Come to think of it, that perspective was scarier than a battle against a powerful quirran.


Not much further to the north, a blue-skinned woman with pink hair and a tight skirt and muscle-top, sat on a large rock, persistently hitting it with a stone the size of her hand. The stone wasn't as hard as the rock, so the constant beating was causing it to crack, and small pieces of it bounced away every now and then. The scene wouldn't have made much sense to anyone watching. Luckily for this woman, nobody was watching. Otherwise they might have seen the pain, confusion and frustration in her face. She didn't want that. That was why she'd cut herself off from her crew, to discharge her anger without being seen.

Sometimes not even she could keep the facade up. In spite of her whole life being a lie, something true remained hidden inside her, threatening to come out, and she dared not destroy it. Her feelings, although locked away from the outside world (the world was no place for the truth to show), were the only real thing she still had. That and her name. She wouldn't give that up easily; she wanted to keep the illusion that it was her doing something with her life... That while this was just another play which would end like all the others, something would be left when she got down from the stage to face the merciless crowds. That she would still be herself. As stupid as that might sound, it was all she had. She had been promised the world; she knew too much about lies to believe the dream would last, but power was a nice feeling. Being on top, on the giving end, was somehow rewarding. When things went well, that was. Barely an hour ago, she had been forced to stop and turn back. The guardians of Twocastle were too strong, and had a powerful combination of fighting skills and magic, topped with a dangerous quota of fearlessness. She hated when things went wrong. That forced her to reflect and look into herself, and that was the last thing she wanted. There was too much pain and confusion inside, and someone might find out that she was just another lie.

A strong hit, and the stone was cut in half. She looked up. It was time to go back. Crushing another village would be relieving, and then she could try to think of a new strategy to break through the defense line of Twocastle. After all, they didn't really know anything about her yet.


Once the group got back on their path, it didn't take long for them to find trouble. The first to detect it was Mariel, who warned the others that magic was being used, mere seconds before water began to slide towards them from the front. The water got mixed with the earth it crawled on, turning brown. Erin took off from the ground, and she and Pura flew up to see what was ahead beyond the trees.

"It's a quirran. It must be Miranda," Pura announced, descending first.
"Why would a quirran use magic to produce water?," Gallead questioned. "They can make it naturally."
"Maybe that's not what the magic was for," suggested Eric.
"I'm trying to figure that out," Mariel said, but the attacker didn't give her much time. Before she could detect exactly what the magic was doing, the quirran stood in front of them.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?," the attacker spoke in a demanding tone.
The water was already up to her knees, and Timper had been forced to shape-shift to prevent the last wave from smashing him. He was now floating in the air in the form of a neini, the first flying creature without a water weakness that came to his mind.
"Are you Miranda?," Eric responded with another question.
"So you have heard of me!," the quirran replied with surprise and a certain satisfaction. "Yet you defy me by walking into my territories?"
"This place isn't yours. Others live here!," Eric told her.

"Let me do the talking," Erin advised her young friend. Then she turned to Miranda. "I don't know what you want with this place, but you're blocking our way and we won't have that. So back off or face all of us."
"Are all faerfliyes so cocky?," Miranda rolled her eyes. "You're the third one I've seen and you're all the same. Ready to jump into a fight whether they do or do not have a chance of winning. Which in your case, you don't."

Erin was startled at her recognizing her species immediately, but she wouldn't let that intimidate her. She'd just have to be careful. Miranda had the element advantage and knew it, but there was no reason to suppose she'd also know Erin's fighting style. She still had a good chance. Plus she was not alone, while Miranda was.

Before anything else could be said, Miranda gestured with her arm and a brown wave was launched in Erin's direction. The faerfliye evaded it, and dashed forward. She expected the quirran to block her attack, but all Miranda did was put her arm between her and the faerie, which caused her cubitus to nearly break from the blow. Erin reckoned she might have overestimated Miranda's combat ability. But then a column of water towered towards her while Miranda was instinctively holding her forearm. The water pushed Erin back, proving that her current opponent was still a puzzle.
"How did she do that?," Erin wondered.

But before anyone could think of an answer, water began to sprout from everywhere, hitting each of them like whips. Seeing that things had become serious, Erin, Eric and Gallead unsheathed out their swords. Mariel and Pura, in the meantime, did their part by attacking Miranda with light balls. But the constant waves pushing Mariel from one side to another made it hard for the elvin to aim, and Eric finally ceased attacking to protect her.
"I'll be fine," Mariel said when Eric held her and stopped her from falling into the water. "Go help the others."
"I will if they need me," he replied. "Now I'd rather help you."

The attacks didn't stop. They came from everywhere. Gallead did his best to reach for Miranda, but the water kept pushing him back. He had to give up trying to make direct contact, and start repelling the water attacks with gusts of wind. There wasn't much Erin could do either; the attacks giving her no pause, she tried to make for Miranda as she evaded them, but wasn't getting very lucky. When she saw Timper, who was also evading attacks but seemed to have it much easier than her for some reason, she asked him why he wasn't attacking.
"If I try to attack, I'll become a target and be in the same situation you are now," he replied, trying to keep up with her movement. "I think I'll be more useful if I keep thinking. I'm trying to figure something out."
"What is it?"
"Something's not right. I've been trying to understand her actions and see a pattern, but some things just don't make sense."
"Just like you."
"Thank you very much!"
"You're welcome."
"No, really."
"Uh?"
"I have a theory. Hey, Pura!! Fly over her fast and release a light rain!"
"Done!," the lurian replied, immediately following Timper's command.

Only Pura was fast enough to reach Miranda and attack her before the columns of water could stop her, and since she was airborne, the currents didn't affect her. She released a shower of light on Miranda, who covered from it by diving into the muddy water. The attacks kept coming, if now at a lower rate, but the attacker was nowhere to be seen.

"What happened?," Pura asked.
"That's what I'd like to know," Erin supported her. "Timper, what was your plan? Do you know where she's gone?"
"Did she cast a teleporting spell or something?," Eric tried. "Or maybe one for hiding herself."
"I couldn't sense any magic," Mariel said. "She only used magic when she arrived. She could have set a portal, but that would have swallowed the water."
"Let me figure this one out," Timper said, diving into the water.
"What does he have in mind?," queried Pura.
"I wish I knew that half the time," Erin shook her head. "I just hope he doesn't get in trouble... one way or another."

Finally caught up.  Nice to see this is still being updated, though I still think smaller, more frequent updates would be a good idea.
(And I must seriously try to get past that writer's block in CJP)

Well... I don't know about shorter, but how's this for more frequent?


Knowing he would have to stay in the water for a long time, Timper took the shape of a small fish -a barb- to be able to breathe underwater and go unnoticed for as long as possible. He looked back to make sure he wasn't being followed, and was half glad and half disappointed to see no one was trying to go after him. "Better this way," he thought. "Any of the others would be too noticeable. She'd find them before we found her." He wasn't really sure what exactly his aim was and, as he moved through the water, he began to realize how improvised his actions were. He was acting on a hunch, driven mainly by his own curiosity. If he didn't find Miranda, she would escape and maybe attack again later, but not much else would happen. But what if he did? Would he be able to stand up against her on his own? He was no warrior. He could get lucky and outsmart her, but it wouldn't be wise to count on that. So why was he there?... Because he needed to know. He just couldn't leave a puzzle unsolved.

While he was swimming, the currents around him changed and he was suddenly caught in a whirlpool. "Too late for second thoughts," he said to himself, trying to devise a plan to escape the whirlpool and confront Miranda. Little did he know he'd mistaken the identity of his captor; but he found that out soon enough, when a male heerynaut stepped forward from behind a large rock. Some pieces began to fall together.

"What's a fish doing here?!" the heerynaut yelled. "Did anyone pull water from the river without looking what was in it, or do we have an intruder?"
"Ask our commander," another heerynaut emerged from a hole in the ground. "She insists on summoning water with magic. That's not the way and everyone knows it! Who knows what freaky consequences magic can have?"
"You weren't so biased against magic when you insisted on going for the pearl," the first one accused the other.
"And look where that's brought us! We used to be free to do our bidding, now we follow orders from a bunch of overly powerful clowns. And our commander is the worst of all."
"Then why don't you rebel against her?" Timper suggested, interested in the turn things were taking.
"It speaks!!" the first heerynaut shouted.
"I told you. Magic is no good," said the other.

The water around Timper stopped spinning, setting him free.
"If we rebel, they'll destroy us," the second one said. "If we follow their commands, we'll be a part of what's coming. We'll be feared, and we'll take whatever we want from whoever we want. What are you, anyway? Where did you come from?"
"There's a simple answer to that," a female heerynaut came from behind.
Timper hadn't seen her coming, nor noticed any other possible hideouts nearby. But there could be a simple answer to that as well. Her voice, the look on her face... everything led him to believe that both explanations were one and the same.

"Where the hell did you come from?!" the first heerynaut exclaimed. "You're not one of us!"
"Now, now, easy. I'm with you," she told the others. "Though seeing how intelligent you are, things like these aren't worth explaining."
The two male heerynauts didn't reply, unsure of whether they'd just been complimented or insulted.
"Why are you doing this?" Timper questioned the female.
"Why?, why? Everyone has questions. It's not really worth asking, you know. Whenever you get an answer, either you won't like it, or it will be a lie. Or maybe both."
"You seem to be under a lot of pain," Timper told her.
"How would you know?"
"Your way of speaking... The look in your eyes. It's the look of someone who has lost all hope."

Timper wasn't expecting what came after his words: a direct punch on his stomach. The water cushioned the impact a little, but the blow was extremely accurate. Timper took the form of a heerynaut to level the grounds, and caught his opponent's arm in his hand, avoiding another blow.

"I thought a fish's stomach would be hard to find," he commented.
"Just like everyone else, you underestimate me. I would have expected better from someone like you, but that proves you can never expect anything. I know a fish's anatomy by heart; I studied it thoroughly for 'The Royal Conflict'. I take my parts seriously, but nobody cares, do they? All they see is a liar and a cheater."
"The Royal Conflict? Wasn't that a play?"
"You've seen it?"
"No, but I've heard of it. I missed it by two days when I visited a kindam village. The company had left when I arrived, though I heard it was great."
"Really? They said that?" her expression was beginning to change.
"Yes, they did. One or two did make some nasty comments that led me to ultimately leave the village to avoid starting a fight, but they all agreed that the cast did a great job. Were you in it?"
"You're trying to confuse me."
"Why would I?"
"Because I'm your enemy."
"You don't have to be."
"You two..." she said, turning to the heerynauts. "Leave."
"Who are you to give us orders?" one of them complained.
"I'm your commander, you idiot! Now leave before I mince you to pieces and feed you to the real fish!"

As she spoke, she assumed the shape of a shark and showed her subordinates three rows of sharp teeth. The heerynauts fled in fear, and Miranda was able to go back to her previous form and continue speaking.

"I'm surrounded by idiots!" she groaned.
"Why are you doing this?" Timper asked again. "You don't seem to be like Jor and Kharchek."
"Why not? Because I'm a shifter like you?"
"No, because you're talking to me instead of finding ways to kill me. Because you seem to be looking for understanding rather than causing a massacre. You haven't really killed anyone, have you? From what I've heard you've been scaring villagers and destroying their properties, but you haven't taken a life."
"That's my problem, not yours."
"Why is it a problem?"
"You know what? I'm fed up with you. I'm fed up with being analyzed. At least the others just scorned me and left me alone, but your pretense to help me and look so innocent and uninterested is killing me. Just go away!"

Saying this, Miranda held her breath and transformed into a massenn to deal another blow, this time considerably stronger. Timper would have to learn to predict her reactions if he didn't want to turn into her first real victim. When he regained his breath, he moved fast and grabbed Miranda by her neck, lifting her up. He took her all the way up to the surface, where he also turned into a massenn and took the fight to the air. At that point, the others saw them emerge. Most of them merely watched, but Erin joined him.

"What's going on?" she asked, blocking Miranda's fist as it headed in Timper's direction.
"Long story and I'm still missing half of it," Timper said. "Stop her attacks, but don't hurt her."
"Why?!" Erin questioned, looking at Timper as if he were crazy.
"I need to talk to her."
"Is she your relative or something?"
"No, just someone who shouldn't give up on the world just yet."
"Cut the lecture, will you?!" roared Miranda, launching a kick at the same part of Timper's body she'd been hitting all the time.
She could have aimed for a worse point, but Timper didn't know how much longer he'd be able to hold on if she went on like that.
"Stop it!" shouted Erin, mimicking Miranda's previous move, only with her as the target.

While Miranda was recovering from the blow, Erin rushed to hold her arms. Miranda tried to kick Erin back, but Erin blocked her with her own leg.
"I need an explanation," Erin demanded. "What's going on here? And why shouldn't I give this bitch what she deserves?"
"You'll need to do worse than call me names to get to me," Miranda told her. "I've heard them all, they don't faze me."
"I don't think you understand the position you're in right now," Erin replied.
"Yes. A position I can easily escape from."

Erin felt Miranda's arms slip from her hands, as her enemy's body got smaller and darker. Two of her wings changed their angle and the other 4 disappeared into her now hairy back. Her arms and legs transformed into thin and spiky appendages, and two extra limbs grew between them, out of the now iridescent abdomen. Her eyes grew bigger, and divided themselves into many cells. And so, the fly made her escape.

"Cursed..." Erin began, but she stopped herself when she saw Timper. Instead, she asked him: "what's with you and her?"
"What?!" the question left Timper startled.
"I'm not so naive as to believe you're protecting her because she's one of your own kind, so why do you want me not to hurt her in spite of everything she's done?"
"You'll think I'm crazy, but I don't think she's truly evil."
"No? Then what would you call her?"
"I don't know. She seems to be really frustrated and taking it out on the rest of the world, but she hasn't killed anyone. She limits the damage she causes. I think a part of her still wants to give life a chance."
"You're right, I do think you're crazy. I know what frustration is, and I'd never even think of going around destroying villages and threatening everyone."
"Not everyone reacts in the same way. Some are stronger than others."
"You're lying!" the fly exploded, transforming into a faerfliye and kicking Timper in a much worse place than before. "You want something from me! I can see it now. Why else would you pretend to care about me? You don't even know me!"
"That's the way with Timper," Erin replied.
She stretched out her hands and her incandescent sword materialized in them. A sign that she was taking this fight seriously.
"He seems to be attracted to troubled females, even if he doesn't really know them. He tries to help, even if he's not asked to."
"That's not true!" Timper shouted, but Miranda ignored him.
"Then he'd better drop it while he can," Miranda warned her opponents. "The only one who really did care for me is dead now. Everything I touch is cursed with pain and misery."
"Then how about I put you out of your misery?"
Erin held her sword down to Miranda's level, and flames erupted from her hair.
"Erin, no!" Timper stopped her.
"Now what?!"
"Give me a chance."

Timper's eyes were looking straight into Erin's. His appearance was still that of a massenn, but his eyes were his own, open and sincere. They spoke more than words could, letting Erin decipher the two meanings of his most recent phrase. The flames died down.


Back where the others were, the water attacks had slowly decreased in frequency, and had now come to a stop. The level of the water was descending, as if the battle was over. But nobody had seemed to do anything to cause that.

"What's going on?" Pura was the first one to ask.
"It seems Miranda's focus isn't on us anymore," opined Eric, who had began to watch his friends since the attacks to his group stopped. "But there's something I don't understand. Is that shifter Miranda? And if she is, how can she control water like a real quirran?"
"Magic," Mariel answered. "She used magic at least twice. But not for the attacks. I think she must have got help for that."
"I didn't know shifters could use magic."
"Anyone can as long as they have the potential and patience to learn. Timper and Erin have never learnt to use magic because it's not their thing, but other shifters and faerfliyes can."
"So, who has been helping Miranda?" questioned Gallead. "And where are they now?"
"I'll look around," Pura offered, setting off to just about everywhere.

She returned about three seconds later.

"I haven't found anyone yet," she said. "But I've found something incredible!"
Pura's comment attracted everyone's attention, and they all followed her to an area where the water level was the lowest. Huge, magenta-colored flowers were blooming out of the water. Each of their soft petals were as large as one of Mariel's hands, and the stalks -counting the part that was still underwater- were about 30 centimeters (or about one foot) tall.

"Heyiamar flowers!!" Mariel exclaimed in amazement. Her eyes were glowing with joy.
"I've never heard of them, but I take it they're something really good," Eric deduced.
"I'd never seen one before," Mariel told him. "Except in books, that is. They only grow in places where magic has been used persistently for several days, or in places with a very strong magical aura. They can heal any wound as long as they're fresh. Even mortal ones."
"I've heard stories about creatures regaining lost limbs with the help of those flowers," Gallead added. "I don't know if they're true, but in any case, finding one is a great achievement to say the least. And we have three here! It's amazing!"
"Is there any way to cut them and keep them fresh?" asked Eric, hoping the flowers could help them along their journey.
"I'm not quite sure," Mariel told him. "I didn't think of that before because I didn't really think I would find one. Let me check my books."
While she began to take off her backpack, Gallead answered the question.
"They can live for years while their roots are buried in the ground, but they die quickly when you cut them. If you keep their roots intact and with enough earth around them and enough humidity, you can keep them alive for a few weeks. Maybe a few months if you also use magic to preserve them."
"Wow, you know a lot!" Pura complimented him.
Gallead's cheeks turned a bit less pale than they normally were.
"Thanks. Well, I think I'm supposed to. It's my job after all," he said with a smile.

At that moment, the water receded instantly, and the conversation was interrupted by a loud scream. It came from the place where Erin, Timper and Miranda were fighting. The group hurried back to see what was going on, and found the female shifter lying on the ground, blood flowing out of her torso. She no longer had wings, and the fire-red hair she'd had as a faerfliye had now turned golden blond. Her eyes were closed, and there was no water left around her. Erin and Timper were still in the air, showing some bruises and red marks, but not nearly as hurt as their opponent. They looked as shocked as the others were. After looking at each other, the group's attention turned to a small pond -or a large puddle-; the only place where water could still be found.

"There they are!" exclaimed Pura, finally noticing the presence of the so-called helpers.
"What happened?" Gallead asked the fighters.
"We were half talking, half fighting, and then suddenly all the water towered through Miranda's body," Erin explained. "She was in the shape of a faerfliye, so the effect was even worse. Seems to me that she messed up and was betrayed by her own group."
"She had some heerynauts helping her," Timper said, descending to Miranda's level to check on her. "She called her idiots. I guess they didn't like it."
"No, you fool..." Miranda spoke out with a thin thread of voice, opening her turquoise eyes.
Timper was slightly relieved. She was still alive, and conscious. But barely.
"Any moron can take an insult," she continued. "What nobody can tolerate is deceit. Yet, everyone deceives everybody else. I lied to them, just as I lied to you. My whole life is a lie. It's ironic, the only times when I felt I was really myself were while I was acting. But the audience thought I was cheating even then."

She let out a long sigh, and tried to catch her breath again. In the meantime, the little water that remained disappeared. Mariel noticed a portal opening and shutting down in a second. The heerynauts had left.
"There's no peace for us, Timper. I'm not sure there's peace for anyone. I don't know how you did it, but... You must be deceiving yourself too. I did once, and lost everything."
She sighed again.
"It doesn't matter," she concluded. "I guess I'll find peace now."
With one last sigh, her eyes closed again.

"We can't let it end like this!" Eric blared.
"I know, it isn't fair," Timper agreed.
"Many things in life aren't," Erin told him.
"But it doesn't have to, does it?" Eric said. "She's still alive, isn't she? If we can take her to the flowers, she can heal and then she'll be fine."
"What flowers?" Timper's head rose abruptly.
"Pura found three heyiamar flowers not far from here."
"Really?! This is a miracle! Then we do still have a chance!"
"Are you sure that's what she would want?" Erin questioned.
"Let's at least give her the choice, " Timper said.

Still in his massenn form, he carefully lifted Miranda's body. Her breath was fainter with every passing second.
"We need to hurry. Where are the flowers?"
"Follow me," Pura told him.
"We'll regret this one day," Erin sentenced. But Timper pretended not to listen.

Once Timper reached the flowers, he placed Miranda on the center of the nearest one, returning to his normal form. The petals closed around her.
"This will take some time," Gallead said. "She has serious wounds. They won't heal easily."
"Right now I'm more concerned about the wounds this flower can't heal," Timper replied.
"We should go before she wakes up," Erin suggested. "We don't know what will happen when she gets out of there. I wouldn't count on her wanting to make friends with us, she'll still be the same bastard with one more frustration to add to the list."
"Expecting such a sudden change would be asking for too much of a miracle," Timper admitted. "But I hope she sees that not the whole world is as rotten as she got to believe."
"And what do you gain from that?"
"What is there to gain from anything?" Timper asked back. "From everything we're doing... What do we get? Satisfaction, peace... knowing that at least one little thing in the world will be better thanks to you... It may seem like nothing, but it's a lot. And for her, if she does eventually decide to give life another chance... it will mean everything."
"You're weird," Erin told him.
"Considering what your concept of normality seems to be, I'll take that as a compliment."
"Wasn't there anything personal involved?"
"Well, I must admit I did go through some of the problems she's had. Only I've had it a lot better than her, and I have more inner strength to handle those things. No one close to me has died, so I don't know how that feels. No one has ever been that close to me before anyway. Not until a short time ago. But I've seen you overcome some of the worst things, so I knew it was possible. I couldn't just turn my back on her when there was a chance I could help her and change her life."
"I should have guessed," Erin laughed. "You had to be a hero. Anything less than that would be too little for you."
"Well, at least you got your laughter back!"
"Am I on the same level as Miranda?" she questioned.
"Huh?"
For the second time that day, Erin's question startled Timper.

The rest of the group didn't intervene in the conversation. They knew this was something Erin and Timper had to sort out on their own. In the meantime, they took the two remaining flowers, being careful not to break the roots and to leave enough earth attached to them. Mariel enveloped the flowers in fresh pieces of cloth she carried for the most delicate herbs, and put in practice the vegetal magic she'd been learning to help them stay moist and healthy. Then, she placed them in a special compartment in her backpack.


A heerynaut entered a large chamber. It was the same who had originally attacked Timper. Haggaus was sitting on an armchair on the other side of the room. He looked down to meet the heerynaut's gaze. The water creature shivered, but tried to hide it.
"You called, sir?" he asked formally, preparing himself mentally for whatever might come.
"Yes," the elf replied. "Your group sent the distress signal and were transported back. However, your leader hasn't come with you. Why?"

The heerynaut hesitated, trying to measure the consequences of each phrase he could possibly utter. This only irritated Haggaus.
"Why?!" he roared.
"She was a liar!" the soldier finally said. "A deceiver! She was not a real quirran. She was a shifter!"
"And don't you think I know that, you idiot?!"
Haggaus's eyes looked like they could pierce through the heerynaut's thick skin and cut right through his heart.
"I'm sorry..." he tried to apologize. "But... if I may ask... Why weren't we informed of that?"
"You're informed only of what you need to know," Haggaus said. "You're executors, not generals. We make the strategic decisions and you obey. Now, where is she?!"
"She..." he began. He hesitated for a moment, but realized his silence would only make the elf angrier. "She received a fatal wound during a battle."
"Does that mean she's dead?"
"Most likely, sir."
"Most likely is not an answer. Is she dead or alive?"
"I... I don't know, sir."
"You don't know! And yet you left her alone to save your sorry lives?! Go back to where she is and bring her back! And if she's dead, I'll hold you personally responsible!"
"But..."
"But nothing! You have failed to fulfill your responsibilities. This is your last chance to redeem yourselves before I feed you to the Orb of Souls. Now get out of my sight!"

"Looks like one more of us has screwed up," Wilson came in through the back door when the heerynaut left through the front  one.
Haggaus didn't know how long he had been listening, but he wouldn't ask.
"I wouldn't count those things among 'us'. They'd better bring Miranda back alive and well. They're the most unreliable creatures I've seen. Even more so than Kharchek."
"I told you so."
"I thought your view of them was biased."
"You should know better. I've killed my own friends, my thoughts and actions are never biased."
"I may still feed them to the Orb even if they do bring her back," Haggaus said, still thinking about the heerynauts.
"Oh, please do. My army could use some extra raw power."
"Really? How would you use it?"
"I've been thinking... I think I have what it takes to get rid of Twocastle once and for all."
"Interesting. I'd like to hear your plan once Jor, Day and Night report back. And Miranda, provided she's still alive."
"Why are you so interested in getting her back? Can't she be replaced?" Wilson questioned.
"Once you find the perfect clay and manage to mold it to suit your needs, you don't want it ruined," Haggaus explained. "Besides, the winter has begun and we're still six even with her. We need to be twelve before spring, we can't afford to lose a valuable associate."
"Don't our armies count?"
"Brutes won't turn the balance. We need a solid group where each one of us can make a difference."
"Alright. Just one question."
"What is it?"
"While I plan the way to bring Twocastle down, Day and Night cut the access to it from the north, Miranda takes care of the south and Jor looks for new recruits, what are you doing?"
"I'm working on eliminating another potential threat."
"The ones who defeated Kharchek?"
"No, they'll come to us. We just need to make sure we're ready for them. No, I'm talking about a small meadow, many days south from Twocastle. There's a powerful magical field protecting that place, and I'm going to bring it down along with the people who cast it."
"And how will that help us?"
"I find it strange that you're asking. We'll gain unrestricted access to the southern part of the forest and prevent our enemies from growing in numbers. Just as we're halfway onto our goal, so are they. We must make sure we get there first."
"Are you sure it has to be that way? Twelve versus twelve by the equinox?"
"I am. It has always worked that way and the symbols on the Orb confirm it. Ease your doubts, Wilson. You're not used to relying on magic, but it's never failed me before. We will get that power. We know the rules of the game. They don't. We just need to make sure we make the right moves."


Erin rephrased the question to make sure Timper understood it.
"Do you see me and Miranda in the same way?"
"What?! How can you possibly ask that question?!" he replied, offended. "After all I've said and done... All we've been through together... How can you even think of that?"
"She's jealous," Eric explained, right before getting a warning from Pura not to intervene.
"I'm not jealous!" Erin yelled. "He can have babies with her for all I care! But he'll make a big mistake if he tries to get close to her."
"Erin, please, calm down. You're not so irrational."

Timper was somewhat scared by this sudden outburst, but it also made him feel better in a way. Erin was jealous. She tended to hide her emotions until they exploded; this wasn't the first time. This meant that, despite what she'd been showing so far, she did have feelings for him.
"You should trust him, you know he'd move the world to be with you," Gallead tried to temper her.
"And who said I wanted the world moved?" she blared.
"Gallead, please stop. I know you mean good, but you're making me look even worse," Timper told him.
"It must be an explorers' disease," Erin said.
"What?" asked Timper and Gallead in unison.
"Trying to mend things that either can't be sorted out or don't need to be."
"And what's the case now?" queried Timper.
"The case?"
"Yes, all this. You and me. Can't it be sorted out, or doesn't it need to be?"
Erin's face changed, a smile forming on it, almost letting a giggle escape.
"If you don't know the answer to that question," she said, "then you don't know me well enough."
With this, she took off, flying above and ahead of the group, keeping distance, but staying close enough to be seen. Timper didn't go after her. He just observed her, and admired her.
"I have a feeling I'll really enjoy learning more about you," he whispered.

A good chapter.  However, there were a couple of things which might want changing slightly:
Firstly, I'd forgotten that a barb was a kind of fish and assumed that Timper had transformed into a spike of some kind, which was quite a bizarre mental image.  You might want to clarify that slightly.

Secondly, you probably meant 'faze' instead of 'phase'.  Everyone seems to do that, but it still irritates me :3

Finally, introducing the flowers right before they were needed came over as a little predictable.  I'm sure I'm guilty of worse, and it's probably not worth the major effort needed to fix - just a slight quibble.

Hope this is a useful critique for you.

It is. And thanks for reading it so fast!

Well, the use of flowers may have been predictable, but coincidences happen sometimes. That was one of the details I've kept from the original outline I had in 2002, it wouldn't feel right to change it. 'Phase' for 'faze' I'll change immediately. Any ideas to make the 'barb' thing clearer?

Quote from: Gabi on February 12, 2008, 06:46:15 AM
It is. And thanks for reading it so fast!

Actually I'm having a major problem with what I'm doing at work, so I'm doing other things to take my mind off it in the hopes that a possible solution will appear  :3

As for the flowers, I'm not suggesting you change it here, more highlighting it for future chapters.  It's not always possible of course, especially with last-minute ideas, but when I can, something I often do is introduce it a chapter or two ahead.  Just a suggestion.

Quote from: Gabi on February 12, 2008, 06:46:15 AM
Any ideas to make the 'barb' thing clearer?

Well, the simplest route would be to simply change it from 'a small barb' to 'a small fish'.

And one final typo - you have the second heerynaut jumping out of a whole. I believe you mean "hole" instead...

JP: oh, but Timper wouldn't like a report of his actions to be so vague. :P

llearch: thanks, I'm fixing that. You mistyped heerynaut, by the way.

So I did. Let me fix that.

The group moved on. Many comments were made about the recent events, especially by Erin who, after hearing Timper's version of the story, could hardly believe he'd almost got his butt kicked by an actress. He refrained from commenting on the parts where he had been kicked. Things hadn't turned out the way he had expected, but he still wanted to believe there was hope for Miranda. She was troubled and confused, she'd made many bad choices, but he still had the feeling that there was some good in her. He tried not to talk about it too much, though. He didn't want Erin to come to the wrong conclusions. The last thing he wanted was the faerfliye warrior to be mad at him, for more than one reason. It wasn't worth the risk anyway. His thoughts about Miranda were merely speculations; he didn't really know her.

"Why are you so mean to me?" he finally decided to ask Erin.
"What are you talking about?" she questioned.
"I tried to do something good and you made fun of me. And you're always rude to me when we talk."
"I'm not rude to you. I've actually been nicer to you than I've been to anyone else."
"Well, it's true that not everyone has seen you smile, which is quite sad. But not everyone has had your sword pointing to their hearts either."
"What? When did I ever point my sword to your heart?"
"When we first met. Don't you remember? It was the first thing you ever did to me."
"Oh, I didn't point it to your heart. You didn't even have a heart for me to point at!"
"Heart, trunk, whatever. You threatened to kill me when you first saw me."
"You'd earned it, you were stalking us. I wasn't going to kill you anyway. And you didn't seem to find your life threatened either, or else you wouldn't have uttered that ridiculous phrase."
"Ridiculous?"
"Is 'don't kill me with that look' a reasonable thing to say to someone who may slice you in half?"
"Wow!"
"Wow what?"
"You remember the first words I ever said to you! I'm impressed."
"You're crazy."
"Maybe a little," Timper grinned.
"If it makes you feel better, I promise I won't kill you," she said with a smile.
"Seeing you smile does make me feel a lot better. Promise you'll keep smiling and I may let you kill me some time," he winked.

"Hey, isn't it too cold?" Erin changed the subject.
"It's winter," Timper replied.
"I know, but it wasn't this cold yesterday."
"It wouldn't be the first time the weather's changed abruptly around here. But yes, I grant you it's quite cold."
"It's going to snow," Gallead commented. His gaze was lost in the sky.
"We should find shelter before the night comes," Eric suggested. "We can't sleep in the open."
"Everyone's stating the obvious today," Erin retorted.
"You could be less incisive and more helpful," Timper told her. "Unless the cold is getting to you more than you care to show."
"If I couldn't take a winter day, I wouldn't have survived all this time," she replied. "But it's true I'm not enjoying it. How come it snows here, if it never snowed in Shantar, nor in Isthum?"
"Snow isn't that common here either, but we're higher above the sea level than Isthum is, and we're not sheltered by mountains like Shantar was," Timper explained. "Cold winds can blow freely in this region."

It didn't take long before snow began to fall. Fortunately, the wind wasn't strong, so everyone was able to keep moving. It stopped almost as soon as it started, just a warning of the upcoming days, leaving a thin white coat on some parts of the ground, and just water on others.

"Gallead, what's wrong?" asked Mariel, noticing the ferwill was still lost in his thoughts.
"Oh," he said, turning round to face her. "I really don't know. I guess I'm just worried."
"Why? I mean... We do have things to worry about, but why is now different?"
"I've told you I don't know. I have a bad feeling, but I can't explain it. I don't normally have feelings like this."
"What do you feel?"
"I feel something's wrong. And I'm worried, but I can't help it, can I? Not if I don't even know what the problem is."
"Maybe we can figure it out," Mariel suggested.
"I'm not sure. I'm not a sorcerer; the only magic I know how to use is related to physical enhancement and healing, so I have no reason to have a hunch that actually means anything."
"The only magic you can actively use. But you've been open to connection magic before. What if someone is trying to contact you?"
"In that case, wouldn't you feel it?"
"Hmm... I guess I would."
"Don't worry. I guess I'm just getting tired of finding more enemies and not making it to the point. I wish Jamie was here."
"Yes, she and her family could be of great help. But they're already helping us where they are. As for the point, I have good news for you."
"Are we close?"
"We're about to reach it," Mariel announced.

As if on cue, lights came flashing from behind a nearby hill. As they got closer -which they quickly did-, their true nature became evident. It was fire! More precisely, fire arrows. Gallead reacted quickly and pushed Mariel down before the arrows could reach her. A puddle of water put out the fire. The group, taken by surprise, got ready to confront their new attacker. About ten seconds passed before two new arrows came by. Already prepared, the travelers easily dodged them.

"It seems our new opponent isn't brave enough to show its face," Erin stated.

Flaming arrows kept coming at a rather slow rate, until Gallead set up a front of wind to deflect them. The fifth pair of arrows were sent back to their source, but they didn't reach it. Instead, they disappeared into thin air.

"I don't like the look of this," Erin said.
"Fire and vanishing weapons? Either someone's imitating you or we're up against a faerfliye," Eric deduced.
"I don't use arrows," Erin told him. "By the range those arrows reach and the force they come out with, I'd say it's a faerfliye alright. Not a very experienced one, though. Otherwise those arrows would have at least scratched one of us."
"First a merial, then a shifter, now a faerfliye... What's next? Are they trying to summon one of each of our races to fight against us?" Eric questioned.
"Before anyone jumps to more conclusions, I think I'll go and check out what's going on," offered Pura.
"Are you sure?" Eric asked her.
"Those arrows won't touch me," she assured.
"Ok, go."

Pura flashed away, disappearing behind the hill. Oddly enough, the arrows stopped coming. The group waited for a minute, but nothing happened.

"Pura, is everything alright?" Eric called out, ready to go after her.
The violet light emerged from behind the hill.
"Everything's fine!" Pura answered. "Come here, all of you! They're friends!"
"They're... friends?" Eric repeated, puzzled.
"I have no idea what's going on," Erin said. "But I guess we'll find out if we go. There's no getting an explanation from Pura from this distance."

Eric, Mariel, Erin, Timper and Gallead made for the top of the hill in the best way each of them could. It wasn't as steep as it had seemed from the distance. When they reached the top, they found that the path ahead of them was shrouded in mist. While they were still contemplating the whiteness, Pura came to greet them, followed by two young, red-haired faeries who didn't look older than twelve. They were a boy and a girl. They both wore thick yellow clothes, and the girl had her bright orange hair tied in a ponytail. She had freckles on her face, and brown eyes. The boy's eyes were hazel.

"Hi! These are Jim and May," Pura introduced the two. "My friends Mariel, Erin, Timper, Gallead, and my friend and brilliant student Eric."
Eric chuckled at Pura's remark.
"Don't embarrass me," he told her. "But what are you two doing here? And why were you attacking us?"
"I'm sorry," May apologized. "We thought you were invaders. We've been attacked so many times... We were just trying to defend ourselves."
"Who's been attacking you?" asked Eric.
"Who hasn't?" Jim retorted. "Starting with zombies and strange earth creatures back in our old home, then an elf mage, a quirran and two whisterels... They just can't leave us alone."
"It seems you've been the target of as many attacks as we have," Timper noted. "Why?"
"I don't know," Jim said. "We've done nothing to them. All we want is just to live."
"Gavin says they see us as a threat," May explained.
"Who's Gavin?" Erin asked.
"He's our friend. He saved us when our town was attacked," May said. "He took us to our new home and has been protecting us since then. I mean... We all protect each other."
"That must be the place Jamie spoke of!" Gallead cheered.
"It must be. I can feel it from here," Mariel confirmed.
"Who's Jamie? And how can you feel it?" asked Jim.
"Jamie's a friend, and I'm a sorceress," Mariel explained. "We've been told that a source of great good lay in this area, and we've been looking for it. We're trying to stop the attacks too, so maybe we can help each other."
"This is strange..." Jim said. "I feel like I can trust you, but why?"
"Because it's true," Mariel smiled. "And I know we can trust you too. We're on the same side."
"You're strange, but nice," May told her. "I know! Why don't you come home with us? We'll introduce you to Gavin and Galmand and Seren and everyone. You'll love them!"
"Who did you say?" asked Pura.
"Oh, some friends of ours," Jim told her. "Come on, follow us!"

The children flew into the mist, and the group followed, not knowing what to expect. When the mist cleared out, they were surprised at what they saw ahead. It was a construction with a rather unusual shape: one large cylindrical tower made of grey stones, and a smaller, white, castle-shaped structure attached to it.

"Is that Twocastle?," Eric asked, looking at the strange building.
"Yes, it is," May said. "Come on in, you can wait in the big tower and we'll bring Gavin to meet you."
"Wait a second," Erin stopped them. "Before we go in there, I'd like to know something. How do you two know you can trust us? And how do we know this isn't just another trap?"
"Your friend was kind to us," Jim said, pointing at Pura. "Bad people are never nice."
"Actually, they are sometimes," Eric told him. "We've fought two enemies who tried to look like friends before."
"And that was nothing," Erin added. "But if we go on, it will seem we're trying to prevent you from trusting us. We'll just deal with things as they come."

The young faerfliyes gave Erin a puzzled look. Giving up their attempts to understand her, they pushed the large and heavy door of the grey tower, allowing everyone to enter.
"May, you can wait here with them while I bring Gavin, so they know this isn't a trap," Jim told his sister.
May nodded, and her brother went back outside.

The interior of the tower was lit with candles stuck all over the walls. The door led to a wide, round hall, in the center of which was a large wooden table. There were pillows of different shapes, colors and sizes all over the stone floor, and a fireplace warmed up the room. A set of stairs spiraled up from the walls, leading to a first floor.

"What's upstairs?" Timper asked.
"Rooms for large guests," May answered. "You and the faeries can stay in the smaller castle, but the others won't fit inside, so they'll have to use the rooms upstairs if you're going to stay for the night."
"What is this place?" Mariel asked, intrigued.
"They said it was built as a resting spot for travelers, but it has turned into a fortress since the war began," May replied. "Refugees like us are coming from everywhere. Most of us have had to leave our homes to escape the attacks. But together, we're stronger. We can defend ourselves. Twocastle is protected by both an army and strong magic, so we can hold on until the war is over, and still offer shelter for those who need it."
"For now, at least," a female voice came from above.
Everyone looked up, as a slim figure started moving down the stairs. Her steps could not be heard, nor her feet seen; only her long yellow dress could be seen crawling down the steps. Its wearer had brown skin, golden eyes and thick lips. Her ears barely stood out on the sides of her perfectly curved bald head, which was decorated with a yellow ribbon tied around it, crossing the middle of her forehead. The ribbon had a bright red stone in the center.

"Oh, Seren! Hi! I thought you were outside," May greeted the newcomer.
"Hello, May. Greetings to everyone else," Seren replied. "I was outside, indeed, but I came in as soon as I noticed the snow was coming."
"You were smarter than us, then. Have you been listening to us since we arrived?"
"Since you met, actually. Sorry, I was curious. You did a good job as a guide, but you got one detail wrong. This castle wasn't built as a shelter. It was turned into one after it was found; the only building still standing among the ruins of an old city. No one here knows what its original purpose was."
"Are you a refugee too?" Eric asked Seren.
"I can say I am," she replied. "I did come here to escape an attack my people couldn't possibly resist, but I didn't come just to save myself. I came here to find someone who'd be able to strike back, and possibly end the war once and for all. I've been helping around since then, and waiting."
"Waiting for what?" asked Eric.
"For the winter to end," Seren smiled.
"But why did you say we're only holding on for now?" May questioned. "Don't you think we can resist here until the war ends?"
"I really wish I could be that optimistic," Seren said. "My intuition, however, tells me otherwise. And I'm afraid it's never been wrong before. We haven't seen the worst of our enemies yet. All these attacks have been just tests. When they really decide to get rid of us... Oh, sorry. What am I doing? I shouldn't be speaking like this to a girl your age. Forget what I said, you can actually still make a difference; just... not necessarily here."
"I'm not a little girl, you know!" May complained. "I'm twelve already, so don't treat me like a baby. I've seen horrible things happen... I've lost my home and most of my family and I'm still here, fighting. So don't hide things from me just because I'm young."
"I'm not doing that," Seren replied. "I'm not hiding anything; but I must learn not to be so harsh."
"Seren, harsh? Is that even possible?" a strong yet cheerful male voice said.

The door was pushed open again by an adult male faerfliye. He had short, reddish-orange hair and beard and was wearing a white shirt and beige trousers. Behind him came Jim, and by his side floated a male faerie with pointy ears and transparent wings which were quite large in proportion to the rest of his body. He wore the same kind of clothes as the faerfliye, only that his trousers were as white as his shirt. His eyes were green, his hair was bright blue, and an aura of blue light surrounded his body.

"So these are the new visitors," the faerfliye contemplated the guests. "Welcome to Twocastle! Sorry for the unfriendly reception, we've been through many attacks lately and can't help but be cautious. My name is Gavin, and this is my friend and right hand Galmand. You've already met Jim."
"Consider yourselves forgiven!" Pura blurted out. "As long as you show us around and we get the chance to talk."

Galmand's eyes opened widely, but he took his time to reply. Finally, he said he'd show them the small castle, but only the smaller three would be able to see the whole of it.
"Maybe the rest of you would prefer to see this tower now," Gavin concluded.
Mariel said it was ok either way, and Eric agreed. Gallead hesitated for a second, but then decided it would be best to take a look at the large tower while Erin, Timper and Pura saw the other section.
"I'll show you around, then," Seren offered. "Gavin, you can go with the others in case they decide to split up."
Gavin didn't understand Seren's reasons, but he'd learnt to follow her instincts without questioning them. He nodded, and left the tower followed by Galmand, Jim, May and the three smaller travelers.

"This is really strange," Eric commented once his friends had left. "I feel like I'm missing half of what's going on."
"I'm not too sure about it either," Mariel admitted. "Gallead?"
"I don't know, I may be seeing things," the ferwill said. "I just thought I saw Pura's light glow brighter, and with what she said I thought she was up to something. I was curious, but I thought it was best not to follow her this time."
"You thought correctly," Seren told him. "If I'm right about her. Come, I'll show you your rooms."
She moved up as silently as she had descended, and the others followed.
"How does she do that?" Eric wondered.
"She's a grumma. She doesn't have legs, only a strong and very flexible tail," Gallead explained.
"Oh. That too, but I was asking why she seems to know everything."
"About that, I have no clue."
"You can always ask," Seren giggled. "I don't know everything, I just have an uncommon intuition, and I've heard a few stories about your friend Pura."
"Really? How?!"
"I know someone who knows her," she said. "He's only said good things about her. If it really is her. It could be another Pura, but too many things match. Oh, here we are. You can pick the rooms you like the most. No one's occupying this floor aside from me right now. There are two bathrooms down the corridor and a small kitchen for those who want to cook or brew potions. The main kitchen is on the small castle, though, and dinner will be brought to you from there, so you don't have to use this kitchen unless you want to. There's a library on the other side; you can read as much as you want while you're here; or you can take a book, but only if you leave one in return. Everything else is distributed among the rooms. I'd give you a tour, but I think you'll get the most out of exploring by yourselves. You can relax and do whatever you like, but I suggest that you get down by sunset. There will be a show before dinner, and you don't want to miss it."
"A show?" they all asked.
"Lights on the sky, music and some surprises. Everyone's invited to participate or watch. We always have shows on special events."
"And what's the event now?" queried Gallead.
"Your arrival, of course!" Seren smiled.


The small castle was filled with even more light than the large one. Many creatures were inside, and they all greeted the visitors joyfully.
"They don't look like war refugees," Erin commented.
"We celebrate what we have instead of mourning for what we've lost," Gavin explained. "That makes us stronger."
"Does it?" Timper questioned. "Can't all those hidden feelings explode in the worst possible moment?"
"Oh, we don't hide them," Galmand told him. "But we look at all the good things we still have, and all we've gained. Life has so much to offer! It's worth not missing it. We could all have died, but we didn't, so we try to make the best of our lives."
"You remind me of a young girl I know," Erin laughed.
"In more than one way if it's Mariel you're talking about," Pura added. "What do you do here, Galmand?"
"I mainly protect the fortress with magic, heal those who need it and fight if I have to. I also make light shows when we have a party; I guess I'll be making one tonight, right, Gavin?"
"Yes, it will be a good way to honor our visitors," the faerfliye replied.
"A light show?!" Erin laughed louder than before.
"What is it?" asked Gavin.
"Nothing. It's just... You guys are the opposite of subtlety."
"Our enemies already know we're here," Gavin remarked. "We may as well let them know that all their attempts to bring us down are failing and we still have reasons to celebrate."
"Alright, that explains the light show. What about certain discretion rules?"
"We haven't been breaking any," Galmand stared at Erin, puzzled. "But I assume someone has, or else you wouldn't be asking that question. Maybe we could talk about that in detail later."
"No, it's ok," Erin shrugged it off.

After walking through countless corridors, rooms and halls, the visitors were left to move freely. Gavin and Galmand headed to their rooms to change their clothes for the party.
"I'll take around 5 seconds, so I guess I'll then sit around and wait for the fun to start," Galmand stated.
"5 seconds? You do always get ready before I do, but don't go overboard with the bragging. It doesn't suit you, and someone might put your words to a test," Gavin word them.
"I'll be looking forward to that moment," Galmand replied in a mysterious tone.
"I think I'll take another look around and leave you two guys alone," Pura spoke out to Erin and Timper.
"Do what you like best," said Erin, deliberately ignoring any possible connotations.
Those words had worked wonders. Even Timper was fooled about Pura's intentions.


Ten seconds later, Galmand heard knocks on his door. He stood up, expectantly, and slowly turned the door open. His eyes met a sight he had been missing for years. It was one of his own kind... A female, with deep blue eyes and light violet locks falling on her chest, wrapped in a green dress that would have been more suitable for the summer. But he didn't think she was feeling cold at that moment: it was quite warm inside. And it had just turned warmer.
"Who's that mysterious lady waiting at my door?" he welcomed her with a wide smile.
Even though he'd spoken in the form of a question, his tone and expression showed that he clearly knew the answer.
"So you remember me! I'm impressed," she told him, letting herself in.
"How could I not? That trip to the south was an experience I'll never forget. I'd never found a lurian who was not afraid to open up like you did."
"I'm sorry to be the herald of bad news, but they have managed to introduce that fear into me. Those history lessons were truly vivid."
"But that was another time. Another era. Neither of us had been born back then. I think we do have a chance, if we try. I believe there's a way to stop history from repeating itself while being and active part of it."
"You haven't changed, have you?" she giggled. "Well, I am an active part of history. I'm a guide... A teacher."
"But wouldn't you like to do more? For yourself as well as for others."
He turned towards a trunk that lay in front of his bed, and opened it.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked him.
"I want you to fulfill the promise you made to me before I left," he replied, searching inside the trunk. Finally, he found what he was looking for. "I'd been keeping this for you in case we crossed paths again."
He stretched out his arms, revealing a long silver dress. The cloth was as soft as it was shiny, and it seemed to be made to fit her size, though Galmand knew it could stretch and shrink as needed.

"This is... beautiful!" she exclaimed. "How did you get it?"
"Shh..." Galmand whispered, gently touching her lips with his fingers. "I'll tell you later. For now, I'd like you to go to the room assigned to you and put it on. Then, if it fits you, you can wear it during tonight's dinner and impress the audience."
"The audience? Are you asking me to sing... in public?"
"Do you have a problem with that?"
"I've never done it before!"
"Trust me. There was a first time for everyone who did it and, if something about you hasn't changed, you have nothing to be afraid of," he assured.
"What if the audience doesn't like it?"
"Nothing bad will happen if they don't, but that's not going to happen anyway. They'll love you; it's impossible not to."
"I wish I had your confidence," she sighed. "For this and every other aspect of my life."
"It will do you good. There's nothing like singing to boost your own confidence," he told her.
"Will you sing too?"
"If that's what it takes to make you feel comfortable, I will."
She thought for a moment, and then came to a decision.
"Ok, I'll do it."


Everyone had had the time to hold their own investigations by the time the celebration began. Mariel and Gallead had been exploring the library, while Eric filled Seren with questions and was left with even more questions than he previously had. One thing was clear, though. The inhabitants of Twocastle were friendly. Seren's answers were puzzling, but she didn't try to dodge Eric's questions, which represented a positive change for him. That way he found out that her people used to live in underground tunnels until waves of invaders started coming. One time they'd flooded the tunnels, another they'd set them on fire. Few grummar had survived the attacks, and she'd had the feeling it would only get worse. She had volunteered to serve as a sentinel, and spent days on the surface, trying to detect the next wave before it was too late, but this time it had come from below, destroying the very foundations of her city, and causing the land above it to crumble and smash everything to pieces. Then the attackers had left, ignoring her presence, or escaping what was coming next. Only the following day she had met Gavin and the two kids he had just rescued from another slaughtered village. He'd told her the shadows were coming, and urged her to follow him, and that was how she had arrived at Twocastle.

When Eric asked her about the reason of the attacks, Seren said she could only reckon something too powerful had been awakened, and all those with lust for power were now jumping at the opportunity. At first, it had been just random, chaotic attacks; but now it was getting worse. Now a group was prevailing, and getting organized.
"How do you know that?" Eric asked her.
"It's clear. Their actions have a direction now. And time only seems to push them towards their goal. There's something I'm missing, but I'm sure someone has got a hold of the cause of all this. And unless it breaks from the inside, our chances are minimum."
"Break from the inside?"
"I mean something needs to cause that direction to turn. And what about you? What has caused you to come this far?"
Eric told Seren his own story, and for some reason that brought some hope back to her. Especially after he described their last battle.
"Stick together," she advised him. "Maybe not everything's lost."

Erin and Timper, on the other hand, had been inspecting each corner of the small castle again and again, first to make sure they knew where they were standing, and then to try to find Pura. They came across May and Jim several times, but they found no signs of their luminous friend.
"She's been acting too strange today," Erin commented. "Even for her."
"I guess she must know what she's doing," Timper told her. "I haven't managed to understand her yet, but you know her better. Do you think there's anything wrong?"
"I don't see anything wrong, but I don't know if I should be worried about that."
"That kind of reasoning would lead you to be worried all the time. Give yourself a break and relax, you've earned it."
"Relax? How?"
"I don't know. What do you like doing, other than fighting?"
"Hmm... No one's ever asked me that question before."
"Really? I can't believe it!"
"Why not? It's not the first time you go where no one else has gone."
"I know, but that's a common question."
"Then I guess I must not be common myself."
"That's out of the question. You're anything but common," Timper smiled.
"You seem to be more used to that relaxing stuff. What do you suggest we do?"
"Well, when I visit a place and the locals are friendly, I often talk to them to find out about their lifestyles and traditions... Which from your face I can tell is not what you'd like to do. Then I usually find out what games they like to play, learn them and beat them at those games."
"You'd spent too many hours without bragging. I was starting to get scared. You can't possibly beat everyone at their own games."
"Not always, of course, but I often make it. I'm skilful, you should know it by now."
"I'd like to see you back up those words."
"No problem. Just follow me and watch."
He started heading to the main hall to find someone to challenge, but found the whole place decorated, the table served with a wide variety of meals, and everyone converging towards the center of the room. The show was about to start.
"Ok, maybe later," he concluded.

A male neini welcomed everyone, "especially tonight's visitors". The guests from the grey tower arrived just in time to watch the show begin. It opened with the ceiling turning transparent and revealing the clear and starry sky above it. Actually, since there were two floors above, either those floors had become transparent too or magic was being used to replicate the sky. Mariel stared at the stars, trying to figure out which of the two it was. All she could conclude was that it was light magic, and it wasn't a simple illusion. "I need to find the person who cast that spell and learn it," she thought. Few seconds later, the sky became filled with lights of many colors. Some lights stayed together, forming colorful flowers, circles and spirals, while others moved across the sky, sometimes falling, sometimes dancing high above with the stars.

Everybody clapped and cheered, and then, with the colorful lights still up, came the time of the performers. Two kraggletups made acrobatic pirouettes, first with nothing but their bodies, then with a ball, then with two, until they had four balls almost as tall as them piled up on each other, and the two of them on top. From that height, they jumped, letting the balls fall on the stage, and each of them landing on a chair by the table.
"All that exercise has made me hungry!" one of them said, grabbing something grayish from a plate in front of him, and receiving general laughter as a response.

After them came a leenia, a small water creature with silvery blue skin and long teal hair. She hummed a sweet melody, the vibrations never stopping as her body moved smoothly, waving and circling in an almost hypnotic manner. She, too, was applauded when she left the stage, though she did it in a much more discrete way than her predecessors.

And then the third act began: the singers. The announcer got on the stage and immediately looked back. Upon receiving the message, he revealed that a mysterious singer was going to make her debut that night. Erin nearly fell off her chair when she saw "Ümberliry" ("mysterious lady" in an ancient language), displaying her whole 15.5 centimeters of height on the stage, her silver dress reflecting her bright purple light. Her reaction alone allowed Timper to confirm his earlier conclusions. Behind this singer came Galmand, shining as brightly as his partner, dressed in an elegant white suit with blue arabesques that matched his glow and his hair. The song they sang was in a language no one in the audience could understand, but they were enchanted by the sound of Ümberliry's voice. When the song finished, dozens of spectators were cheering and asking her to sing one more song. The female singer blushed with shyness, but Galmand caressed her hair, mixing his light with hers, and whispered something to her which convinced her to sing again. This time she sang a popular song which Eric knew well. Many others knew it too, but that didn't make any it less beautiful. Then she left the stage and the hall, not knowing how to react to a crowd that was applauding her. She'd never felt anything like that before... Except that time when a young mage had visited her village. She was still a student then, and he'd managed to opened her eyes to a world she'd been completely unaware of... to possibilities that, against all predictions, were finally becoming real. He'd always tried to get her to open up, to show the world who she really was, and what she was capable of. Even then she'd been too shy, too influenced by the things she had learnt, but she'd made the promise that, should they meet again, she'd let no obstacles interfere between her and her dreams, and he'd get to see the best of her. So, literally, that night had been a dream come true. And it wasn't over yet.

"Do you really have to go?" Galmand asked, finding her hideout.
"I recall myself asking the same question to you ten years ago," she replied. "Sadly, the answer is the same you gave me. I have things to do, but I'll see you again. In my case, I have a young warrior to watch over. I can't leave him until I know he's achieved his goal, and he's in good hands. I have a good idea of whose hands those may be, but it will take time."
"I'll wait for you," he told her. "I've waited all this time, I can wait longer. Just as long as I know I'll find you at the end of the road."
"Preferably before the end," she giggled.
"For now, let's make the best of the moments we can share," suggested Galmand.

In the meantime, everyone at the hall kept wondering where the mysterious lady had come from. Everyone except those who knew her. Erin, particularly, was about to explode. She turned to Gallead and asked him what it was with love that it drove everyone crazy. The ferwill couldn't help but laugh at her comment.

I forgot to comment on this.  Interesting to see more of Pura.  And maybe it's just my paranoia but was half-expecting some horrible secret to crop up regarding twocastle.  I suppose it's not too late for that, though it's looking less likely.

Thanks for replying!

I'm glad you liked Pura's scenes. :)

As a matter of fact - and I'm saying this because it's not revealed in the story, but it's mentioned in another story I posted on TPM - what is now known as Twocastle was originally a part of a city founded by Haggaus's mentor and dedicated to the endless quest for power. But the citizens eventually turned against each other and everything was destroyed... except for one building (or two, depending on the perspective). Years later this place was found and revamped as a shelter for travellers, and later on it turned into a fortress and a home for war refugees. Stones may endure the passage of time, but their use and their meaning often change.

There's a strong power in Twocastle right now, and it's - to put it in simple terms - on the good side. Its current inhabitants want to preserve it and their enemies want it for themselves, so at this point the situation is in a delicate balance. What will happen once that balance breaks... you'll have to wait and see.

Ok, read the entire story. Mostly because I saw your public reminder to Tape, and thought what did you I to lose. Apparently, not much.

It is a good story, and certainly has an interesting magic system. In fact the magic system is one of the biggest attention grabbers for me, mostly because cosmology is something I can lose myself in when it comes to a work of fiction.

Characters are decent, and storytelling ok... though the fact you're trying to tell everyone's story at the same time clogs things down a little bit. I skipped entire paragraphs just from the eyestrain, and honestly I don't think I missed much.

One thing I will say is a little on the bad side... the romances. Everyone is getting paired up. EVERYONE. The two main characters make sense, and I certainly can't fault you for having Pura with an old flame out there. But all the other romances seem... contrived. Forced if you will. The closest they came to being good was when after thinking Pura and Timper were going to be paired up, suddenly Timper and Eran got tied together in girlfriend boyfriend awkwardness.

Now, not being able to handle romances is ok. I've never tried my hand at them myself, but just look at George Lucas; he couldn't write a love scene to save his life and he is the father of one of the most famous pieces of fiction out of the modern world. The only reason the Han and Leia romance turned out so well was because Ford improvised up one of the most romantic lines in existence.

Now with that said, I can't think of anything that can be improved. I'm certainly interested to see where this will end up. So consider me another hooked reader.

Quote from: Ryan_Galen on May 06, 2008, 10:14:05 PM
The only reason the Han and Leia romance turned out so well was because Ford improvised up one of the most romantic lines in existence.

Oh? Which line was that, out of interest? (sorry for off-topic, Gabi)

Quote from: llearch n'n'daCorna on May 07, 2008, 05:15:23 AM

Quote from: Ryan_Galen on May 06, 2008, 10:14:05 PM
The only reason the Han and Leia romance turned out so well was because Ford improvised up one of the most romantic lines in existence.

Oh? Which line was that, out of interest? (sorry for off-topic, Gabi)

That would be the lines from just before Han gets frozen in carbonite.
"I love you!"
"I know."

Those two little lines almost define the rest of the relationship, making us forget how corny most of their love scenes were in Episode 5, and writing a two of their better love scenes in Episode 6.

As for how I know this: multiple TV documentaries agreeing with each other. Original line was "I love you too", which honestly just doesn't carry the same weight.

Not everyone gets paired up. Other than Galmand, you won't see any member of the Twocastle finding a partner any time soon.

Gallead is corny and is meant to be that way. Erin and Timper won an award for best romantic relationship on another forum. Go figure. I'm not saying they're right and you're wrong, after all it's all a matter of tastes, but please note that it is a matter of tastes. I'm afraid you'll have to put up with more romance if you decide to stick around.

Thanks for taking the time to read everything and reply, although comparing my romance handling with that of George Lucas can be a bit offensive, and so can saying you've skipped whole paragraphs and don't think you've missed much. If you think something can be improved, please do tell me how. But don't insult someone's writing just because some parts of it don't suit your personal tastes, nor for any other reason. I've been writing for a long time and I think I've learnt not to take these things to heart (at least not to the point where I'd stop writing because of it) but I've seen first and second hand how that kind of attitude can do a lot of harm.

I'm glad you liked the magic system. Although that, too, is a matter of tastes.

Quote from: Gabi on May 07, 2008, 11:04:18 AM
Thanks for taking the time to read everything and reply, although comparing my romance handling with that of George Lucas can be a bit offensive, and so can saying you've skipped whole paragraphs and don't think you've missed much. If you think something can be improved, please do tell me how. But don't insult someone's writing just because some parts of it don't suit your personal tastes, nor for any other reason. I've been writing for a long time and I think I've learnt not to take these things to heart (at least not to the point where I'd stop writing because of it) but I've seen first and second hand how that kind of attitude can do a lot of harm.

Trust me, I never make insults on purpose. It's just that for some reason whenever I come out of my shell on a forum my foot goes straight to my mouth.

I wasn't comparing your particular romances to George Lucas. George Lucas's romances just happened to be the best example I had off the top of my head how an otherwise spetacular writer could have one weak point.

As for skipping a paragraph... it was an action scene. And while your action scenes have been getting much better as the story goes on, sometimes we don't need to switch perspectives as much... particularly since the amount of perspectives have been growing and growing. Paragraph I skipped? In your second to last action scene, the battle with Kharchek. Really didn't need to know how Pura went to get Timper and Eran, just the fact she went. Trust me, you're getting better as time goes on, but it is something you need to be aware of.

I've always found action scenes extremely hard to write (and even to read). I haven't yet figured out how to get them right. I guess I'll keep trying.

I apologize for the delay, and also because I don't like this chapter very much, but I have to get through it. Some important things will happen in future chapters, and the group will be complete before the beginning of chapter 25.


For the first time since he had left his home, Eric got up to meet the sun shining high above in the sky. Also for the first time in that period, his companions weren't near him. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was, and recall the celebration of the previous night. It all felt like a dream. He got out of his room and began to walk around the tower, paying attention to everything he could find. He found out there wasn't much aside from what Seren had shown him. Finally, he reached the library and realized he wasn't the only one up. Gallead was inside, with his eyes fixed on an open book.

"What is it?" Eric inquired.
"Oh, hi," Gallead replied. "I don't know, I guess I'm just a bit anxious this morning. We hadn't spent so much time in one place since we got together."
"Yes, it's strange for me too. But I was asking about the book."
"Oh! Sorry. It's a listing of magical objects. I was trying to find something on the crystal I broke, but I've found nothing so far."
"What's that page about? What's that collar with a rock as a pendant?"
"That's the Amulet of Stone. A dangerous object. It not only allows the wearer to manipulate minerals, but also, if enough magic is channeled through it, it can turn anything into stone. Even living beings!"
"Argh, that's awful! Tell me, what language is that book written in? Why can you read it?"
"It's ancient Lumienne. It used to be spoken by some of the immigrants who came from Linya during the Great War. It's not commonly used anymore, but you can still hear some names in that language. I learned it because I was interested in the origins of names, and it's proving to be more useful than I thought. I wonder how this book got here. Maybe Galmand brought it."
"Galmand? Why?"
"Well, he's a mage, and he speaks the language too, so he's the only one I can think of."
"How do you know he speaks it?"
"Do you remember when he and the other faerie sang last night? He called her Ümberliry. That's not a real name; it means 'mysterious lady' in Lumienne."
"I wish I knew as much as you do."
"I wish I could fight as well as you do."
"I guess we're even," Eric laughed. "I can help you practise with your sword and you can teach me some of the things you know, what do you say?"
"I say it's a deal, my friend," Gallead smiled, as he shook Eric's hand.

"Have you seen any of the others?" Gallead finally asked.
"Mariel's downstairs finishing her breakfast, and Seren's with her. I haven't seen the others, they must be still in the small castle."
"Finishing breakfast?! Don't tell me I've missed it. That's impossible!"
"Hey, relax! It's been a long night after many long days. I would have missed it too, except I didn't manage to get much sleep at all."
"Why not?"
"Too many things on my mind, I guess."
"Do you want to talk about it? Maybe I can help you."
"I don't know... This place and everyone here... They're all great, but they've been through so much... And Seren seems to think everything's about to get worse. It sounds like she's almost certain. It's a wonder they can still hold a celebration like they did last night. Few peoples are like that, the more pressure they put on them, the closer and stronger they become, and the more they celebrate what they still have. But to know that - even being as they are - they're losing hope worries me. Also, now that we've reached Twocastle, we need to set our next goal. I'm not too comfortable not knowing what lies ahead. And for some reason I can't stop thinking of Jamie; during the party her image in my mind was stronger than ever. I'm worried about her and her family."
"You're right. Those are too many things to worry about," Eric confirmed. "Why not deal with them one by one? The Wilmslows are holding their own battle to protect their region and there's nothing we can do for them other than go on with our quest. Same goes for the Twocastle folks. We should focus on our part and trust others to do their own. So what we should do is get back together and decide on our next objective."
"Those are wise words! It seems I have more to learn from you than I thought."
"Hey, I'm learning too. So, we'll discuss that right after breakfast. Excuse me, but I'm hungry right now."
"It's alright," Gallead laughed, as his friend left for the dining room.

About an hour later, the whole group met again at the big tower's common room. Seren, Gavin and Galmand joined them to offer advice, even though the three of them had decided to stay when the others left, and defend Twocastle for as long as they could hold on; if possible, until the war was over. Seren was particularly pessimistic about this point, but Gavin and Galmand still had hope. The three also provided useful information; they told the travelers that the attacks they had been under had also come from the north, so the direction to take was clear.
"Do you know of any other place where we might find help?" Mariel asked them.
"I'm afraid you're more likely to find enemies than anything else," Seren told her.
"I'm afraid so," Galmand sadly agreed. "The only contact we've had in the last few months came from the south, and even they are out of reach now. We've been unable to get in touch with them or even sense them in the last two days."
"We're isolated," Gavin summarized. "There may be others out there who are still putting up a fight, but either they can't use connection magic or they're too debilitated to get a message through to us."
"Does that mean..." Gallead began, worried. "It doesn't mean they're dead, right?"
"Many of them are," Seren sighed.
"No, I mean the ones from the south. There can be other reasons why you haven't felt them for recently, isn't it true?"
He looked almost desperate now. It only took Galmand a glimpse at his eyes to read his emotions.
"There can be many reasons," the mage comforted him. "Something may be blocking our communication, or they can be putting all their energy into something more pressing. Or they may be hiding from a magical enemy, in which case sending signals would reveal their position. There's no reason to assume the worst if there's no evidence of it. Besides, we haven't felt a crossing, so at least we know the shadows didn't take him."
"What's a crossing?" asked Eric.
"When the shadows open a wound on their enemies' flesh, they can enter their bodies' bloodstream and expel their opponents' spirits, achieving a complete possession. We believe that those spirits are somehow collected at some point in the north, though we still don't know the means or the purpose. But we have felt their presence crossing the space from places where the shadows had recently attacked. That's what we call a crossing."
Mariel had been frowning in disgust from the first sentence.
"That's the most awful thing I've ever heard," she finally stated.
"Then consider yourself lucky," Erin told her. "Seeing it is much worse than hearing about it. Especially if you know you're next."
"I think I've felt a crossing," Pura returned to the subject. "Back at the temple after we faced Kharchek. One of our enemies," she explained to Galmand and his friends. "But there were no shadows around. Is that possible?"
"There's too much we don't know," Galmand replied. "For now, I'd say anything is possible." Then he looked at her and smiled. "So... you can feel presences?"
"Oh... I started feeling them a while ago. That was the first time, actually."
If her friends had been able to see her face, they'd have noticed a blush. Galmand's smile became wider, but he forced himself to look away from her. The last thing he wanted was to get her in trouble by exposing her.

"I believe it's time to go," Erin decided. "There's nothing else we can do here; each minute we spend here from now on will be wasted."
"Actually, there's still something you can do. You can take some food for your journey. I'm sure it will be useful," Seren replied.
"And you can take anything for which you can find a good use," Gavin added. "You'll be exposed out there. Any help we can offer won't be too much."
"You can take some magic books from the library," Galmand offered. "You don't have to leave others in exchange, it's for a good reason. Besides, I'm the only mage here right now and most of them are books I brought here myself."
"Don't you need them anymore?" Mariel asked.
"I've already read them and have a good chance of remembering what I need when the time comes. They'll be of more use to you."
"Thank you so much!" Mariel told him. "We'll do our best to make it up to you."
"You've already brought me more than I could ever expect," Galmand replied.
"You're dangerously unusual," Erin warned him.
"I have my own ways and respect those of others," Galmand answered.
"Make sure you do. Now I'll go and help those who haven't packed their things yet. Who's with me?"

Everyone stood up, putting an end to the meeting. Seren headed for the kitchen to pack some supplies for the travelers and Gavin returned to the small castle, while the others went either to their rooms or to the library. Only Galmand and Pura stayed in the common room to kiss goodbye... "Only for now," they both promised.

The group was out of the fortress by noon. Aside from the books and food supplies, they'd ended up taking some extra clothes. The weather had become unusually cold, and the land was already white when they got out. The travelers waved goodbye to the Twocastle crew, and got back on the move. All they had to do was climb up yet another hill shrouded by mist, and then the path would be clear. However, the path was not all they found when they reached the top. Two red heads stood out among the snowy terrain.
"Don't take offense, but I think someone else should be guarding the accesses," Erin said to the children. "Judging by your performance yesterday, you wouldn't give your enemies a hard time getting past you. You two should be training instead."
"We're not here as guards this time," Jim explained. "We're going with you."
"What?! You don't know what you're saying. Do you have any idea what we're going up against? This is not a children's tour."
"There's a warrior in your team who doesn't look much older than us," May pointed out.
"Eric's a special case. He wields a sword like an expert. Even so, this journey may still be too much for him. You two would either die or be scarred for life, and I wouldn't want either in my conscience."
"Give us some credit!" complained Jim. "We may not be the best at shooting arrows across a hill in the mist, but that doesn't make us hopeless fighters. We've trained. And we can use a sword too. Besides, we're not helpless children. We've been living in a war for years, you know."
"And I'm not a child anymore, I'm twelve," May stated.
"I'm just a year younger than her, but I act older," Jim added.
"Let others judge that," Timper laughed. "Do your people know about this?"
"Seren told us to come," Jim assured. "She said we'd be safer with you than in the fortress."
"How come?"
"Well, with you, we'll be moving all the time. The fortress is fixed and our enemies already know where it is. Besides, they don't know we're with you, so we have the surprise factor on our side."
"In a weird logic, that almost makes sense," Timper commented.
"It does!" Jim insisted. "We'll help you, I promise. The moment we become a load, you leave us behind."
"You know we'd never do that!" yelled Mariel.
"Of course we wouldn't," Erin confirmed. "Which adds to the reason why we can't bring you along."
"At least you should understand us! You're like us!" complained May.
Erin thought for a moment, then let out a chuckle.
"I'm starting to think I may have more in common with one of our enemies, but your determination should be rewarded."
"If even Erin accepts you, that means you're in," Eric joked. "Welcome to the group!"
"What do you mean?" Erin stared at the young elf.
"Admit it, you're the one who's always against any changes, and especially against letting others join us."
"No, I'm not. I'm just the most rational and the least impulsive. I'm not against changes, just against making rash decisions that may hurt us in the end."
"You know, I was thinking..." Timper changed the subject.
"Yes?"
"What you said earlier... You don't resemble any of our enemies. You just underestimate your own strength. And I don't mean your physical strength."
"Oh, don't start with that now, please. Ok, you two: if you want to come with us, you'll have to work as hard as the rest of us. Each of you will take a turn to keep guard in the nights, you'll help us set camp and prepare lunch and dinner, and you'll train as hard as everyone else. This isn't a game. We will be attacked, and you'll have to fight like the rest of us."
"We know," Jim assured. "That's what we've been preparing for all this time."

So, six became eight. The group moved as fast as possible, trying to make up for the lost time, and only stopped for lunch when the weather conditions discouraged them from advancing. They could see a storm brewing not far ahead, and it got worse while they were eating. Eric noted that the blizzard seemed almost unnatural, and Mariel added that it probably was.
"In that case, shouldn't we go there?" suggested Gallead. "Someone may be in trouble."
"We will be if we get caught in that storm," Erin told him. "If it doesn't stop soon, we'll have to think of something. We can't just burst in without a plan and with our stomachs full. That's the quickest form of suicide."
"Do you see anything else?" Gallead asked Eric.
"No," came the reply. "The storm's too thick. All I see is ice and snow moving as in a whirlwind."
"It may be the whisterels," May said. "We were attacked by them before. They sent a storm to our fortress. They nearly blew the walls off with their wind, and made the air so cold I thought I would die. We were lucky Galmand managed to set up a protection bubble so that we could move, then Jim and I helped Gavin form a wall of fire. Our fire was stronger than their cold, so they left with a threat."
"Negative polarities are at a loss against their original forms," recited Mariel.
"They threatened you while they ran away?" Erin asked.
"Yes, they said they'd keep coming and many more would join them," Jim explained. "They said our days were counted."
"Look! The storm is stopping!" Eric announced.

Slowly, the blizzard ceased. Whatever had caused it, it had ended as unexpectedly as it had started, revealing to the keenest eyes the roofs of what had apparently been a village.
"Who could do something like this?!" cried Mariel.
"The ones we're about to stop," Eric assured, placing his arm around her waist.
That was the cue for everyone to head towards the scene of the disaster. However, once they got there, they couldn't find anything that wasn't covered by a layer of snow as thick as the height of a small house, and neither Mariel nor Pura could detect any signs of life below. Not in the village, at least.

"I've felt something," Pura announced after spiraling around the area for the 5th time. "It's faint, but I think that someone's still alive."
"Where?" Eric asked.
"Follow me," was Pura's answer before blasting off in the direction of the presence. It took Eric about two minutes to reach her, and the others even longer. "Here," she said when her charge arrived.

She illuminated the snow below her, and Eric started digging immediately. When a piece of white skin became visible, he rushed to uncover the rest of the body. Gallead, Mariel and Timper helped him.
"It's a human," Timper noted once the task was finished. In front of them lay a young male human with a large backpack and a thick brown jacket, shoulder-length brown hair and skin that looked too white to be healthy.
"He's barely alive," Mariel remarked.
"We need to save him," said Gallead.
"You know I'm all for helping the helpless and I hate being the one to say no this time," Timper replied, "but even if we can save him, that's bound to get us in trouble. We were extremely lucky with the humans we found earlier. They were exceptional beings. But that's not the rule. Humans are among the least friendly species you can find. If you're seen by one of them, chances are they'll hunt you down and either kill you or make the rest of your life miserable."
"He doesn't look like someone who would do that," Gallead insisted.
"You can't judge someone's intentions by the way they look," Erin shook her head, unbelieving of what she'd just heard. "I thought you were smart enough to know that."
"That's not what I'm saying."
"Then what are you saying?"
"I'm saying we can't let him die just because of the species he belongs to. We don't have the right to judge him without knowing him. Following your logic, you would have killed the Wilmslows if you had found them buried in the snow instead of setting you free! Besides, I can't think of many who wouldn't think twice before intentionally hurting someone who saved their lives."
"I'm not saying we should kill him," Erin told him.
"No, you're saying we should let him die. That's the same."
"I'm saying it's dangerous, that's all. And Timper said it first. You don't know me if you think I'd kill someone who might be an innocent just because he may not be one. But let's think, shall we? What will we do with him if and when he wakes up? Where will he go? If this was his village, he has nowhere to go and no one to be with. We can't let him see us, let alone take him with us."
"Where to go is his choice," reflected Timper. "As well as what to do with his life. All we can do is ensure that he still has that choice."
"Then let's do it while we still can!" May rushed the group.

As the fire faerie spoke, a sword that looked way too big for her appeared between her hands. She pressed it against the human's chest, and steam started coming out of the now red metallic blade.
"Not as resistant as this one, but not bad either," judged Erin, materializing her own sword and sending heat through it at the patient's back.
"I'll make a potion," announced Mariel. "I'll need some fire."
"I'm on it," Jim offered.

For the next 20 minutes, everyone did the best to keep the young human warm and restore his vital signs. Then, when the potion was ready, Mariel poured it inside the patient's mouth and held his head up so that he would swallow it.
"Now all we can do is wait," she said.
"In that case, it's better to wait at a safe distance," Timper suggested. "And behind the nearest large object."
"I don't see any large objects around," Eric told him.
"Now you will."
In Timper's place now stood a white rock, big enough to hide the whole group.
"Couldn't you think of anything less notorious? Someone here needs a lesson in subtlety," Erin commented.
"Don't worry, I'll teach you whenever the opportunity sprouts," the rock retorted.
Erin didn't even try to think of a comeback, as now the human was beginning to move and any sound would reveal their location.


Not far from there, two slender figures walked across the snowy landscape. They were a male and a female, both tall and with very light skin. The cold didn't seem to affect them, as the clothes they were wearing offered hardly any protection from the weather. He wore a golden chest plate that looked nearly white in the sunlight and matched the color of his hair. His legs were covered in white cloth and golden boots, and two golden wrist plates finished his attire. She had totally distinct features, aside from the color of her skin. Her hair was jet black, as were her irises. Her crimson lips and pearly teeth made her face look beautiful as long as one wouldn't stare into the abysses that were her eyes. She wore a black top, black, round-pointed shoes and a long skirt composed by shiny black diamond-shaped stones. She also wore a thin black bracelet on each wrist. They both looked tired.

"Now that was a discharge!" the male broke the silence.
"Yeah... Still not quite what I expected," his companion sighed without looking at him. "No warm bodies to draw heat from, no breaths to take away... Sure, it was a strong blizzard and we made it stronger, but it still lacked direction."
"True. We seem to be stepping on each other's toes these days. We need to get organized."
She nodded and looked at him.
"Not everyone can handle cooperation like we do. They're too full of themselves. I bet it will get worse when the group grows larger."
"Well, someone will have to bring order," he decided. "I think I can handle that role."
"Oh, I'm sure you can," she said with a hint of irony. "Can you imagine Haggaus taking orders? Or any of the others, except for the shifter girl, and even she might be a wild card. No, we'll have to figure out how things work and find the way to use them to our advantage. This group won't be easy to handle."
"Yes, especially the new ones. I don't trust embreals; they look like deformed red snakes."
"You're too quick to judge others by their looks. I don't think those embreals are smart enough to betray us. I'm worried about Haggaus and his girl."
"We'll keep an eye on Haggaus. I wouldn't worry about the emotional cripple, if I were you. She's not up to your level."
"I guess you're right. She'd better not make a wrong move, though, or else she won't live long enough to regret it."
"I've always liked your enthusiasm, but save it for our real targets. As far as I know, we're screwed if we reduce our number."
"We're also screwed if we act rashly and add morons to our lines. Next time I'll choose who gets to join us."
"No problem here."

Somehow I missed this when it was first published, but it's still coming along nicely.  Keep it up.

One question.  When the Twocastle folks are discussing the Crossing, they say:
"we still ignore both the means and the purpose."

Should that be:
"we still don't know the means or the purpose."?

Otherwise it implies that they could find out about the soul-stealing if they wanted to, but they don't care - which seems far too callous for their character.

Oh! Interesting. I didn't know that. I'll fix it.

And thanks for reading and replying. :)

Ok, I've never liked this bit much but I'd better get past it, so here it goes.


When the young man opened his eyes and saw the clear sky, he thought for a moment that he was in heaven. A gust of cold wind gave him the news that he was still alive. As painful as it was, he was glad to be able to feel cold again. He mentally searched for his hands. They felt as hard as stone, but at least he could feel them. His legs, sheltered by his boots and two thick layers of clothes, felt better. He was almost positive he could move them. "I can't stay here," was his first thought once he'd finished inspecting his body. He made an effort to turn on his side, and suddenly felt the weight of his backpack. That's when he remembered the events that had led him there, and he wondered how he'd managed to survive. He lifted his head up. His strength was slowly returning to him. He thought he was hallucinating when he saw what seemed like a mountain in front of him, but once he managed to sit up he realized it was just a large rock. Still, it was almost as strange. As strong as the wind had been, it couldn't have carried something that big and heavy. He was suddenly overcome by an urge to uncover the many mysteries into which he'd been immersed that day. He managed to get on his knees and crawled towards the rock to take a closer look at it. Wasn't he surprised when he saw a small bundle of orange hair emerge from behind the stone. He held the white stone to help himself up, but before he could see what was behind it, a bright flash of light blinded him.

"Ow!" a child's voice cried out.
A string of whispers followed.
"Who's there?" he asked, trying to reopen his eyes.
"See what you've done?" the same voice uttered.
"Hold on," now a soft female voice whispered.

He suddenly felt warmer inside. He couldn't be more puzzled about everything that was going on, but somehow he was starting to feel better. He could now stand on his feet with ease. There was also something strange in him. It somehow felt like someone was helping him, and at the same time exploring him just like he had done minutes earlier, only deeper. It was the most unusual feeling, yet for some reason he had the feeling that whoever was doing this meant no harm, and knew that neither did he. Then the sensation left as smoothly as it had come.

"Sorry about the light. You scared us," a young lady stood up from behind the stone and walked to his side.
Now he was almost sure he was dreaming. She didn't look quite human, and still there was something familiar about her.
"Who are you? Are you the one who saved me?" he asked.
"Yes. My friends and I did," she replied. "My name is Mariel. What's yours?"
"Ralph."
"I'm sorry you got mixed into all of this, Ralph," Mariel said.
"What's 'all of this', exactly?"
"The war."
Ralph paused to reflect on that word. Some things didn't make sense yet, but the word 'war' seemed to fit what he had seen earlier that day.
"Do you know who attacked this village?" he asked.
"No, but we'll try to find out. What do you remember?"
It hurt to look back at the scene he had witnessed, but Ralph did his best to retell it. It was the only thing he could do now.
"I came here to get some medicine," he said. "But when I arrived there seemed to be no one in town. Then a strong wind began to blow, so I decided to enter a shop until it stopped. Then I saw..."
It was horrible just to think of it. Mariel stepped forward and held Ralph's hand. That somehow helped him clear his thoughts.
"I saw the shopkeeper's body," he continued. "It was ripped apart, and there was dry blood all over the floor. I got scared and tried to get away from the village, but the storm was too strong, and there came a point when I couldn't move anymore. Then the snow covered me. I thought I would die there and then."

Mariel wept. She was sharing Ralph's emotions to help him bear them.
"I'll never get used to the horrors others are willing to cause," she said. "And for that I will never stop fighting against them."
"I don't know what you are nor where you came from, but I must thank you for saving me."
"It was the least I could do," Mariel replied. "I'll do more if I can. What kind of medicine do you need?"
"All sorts, actually. It's for my village; we don't have a pharmacist, so I used to come here to buy whatever was needed. Our doctor's too busy to leave the town in the winter, especially one as cold as this one."
"Are you his assistant?"
"Not exactly. I help everyone, actually. I travel to get all the things my people need and can't get in our village, and help with different kinds of tasks."
"Are you a ranger?"
"I'd never been called a ranger before..." Ralph let out a short chuckle.
"I can give you some healing herbs. Is your village far from here?"
"Four days on foot to the northwest under these conditions. It's the nearest village in that direction. It would be faster on a horse, but mine ran away as soon as the blizzard began. I don't understand it, he'd never done anything like that before."
"Do you think there was something unnatural about this storm?"
"Yeah, I guess so. It was storming in my village as well, but it was nothing like here. I think the weather's going crazy."
"The balance of nature is breaking."
"What do you mean? What's happening?"
"Too much is happening," Erin suddenly came out from behind the stone.
Mariel looked at her, stunned.
"Well, with peeping May, screaming Jim and you out in the open, there's no reason to stay hidden anymore," Erin explained.
Soon, the whole company followed her. Ralph was most surprised when the stone itself took the form of a little man.
"What are you all? Is this a dream?" he asked, more puzzled than he's ever been.
"I wish!" Jim exclaimed. "We're three faerfliyes, a lurian, a shifter, a ferwill and two elves."
Ralph shook his head in confusion. He didn't understand half the words he had just heard. He only recognized Mariel and Eric as the two elves.
"You look like a fairy," he said to Jim.
"He is," May told him. "Faerfliyes are a kind of fire faeries. The strongest kind. I'm one too. My name is May."
"Nice to meet you, May, I'm Ralph," the human smiled.
He was still stunned, but he was beginning to feel better. For the first time since he had left his home, he found himself among friends - as strange as those friends might be.
Eric introduced himself and the rest of his friends before turning to Mariel for advice.
"What shall we do now?"
"I think we should escort Ralph to his village. He won't be safe on his own," Mariel opined.
"He'll be less safe with us if you ask me," this time Pura differed. "He may come across a random attack if he's on his own, but don't forget our enemies have their eyes on us. Sooner or later, we will be attacked. I'm surprised we haven't been for the last two days."
"But he'll also have a better chance at defending himself if he's with us," Eric pointed out. "It's only 4 days anyway, and we wouldn't deviate much from our course. It's on the northwest and we're going to the north."
"I can fight if I have to," Ralph said.
"Do you have a sword?" Erin asked.
"No, but..."
"Any kind of weapons?"
"I have a knife."
Erin thought for a second.
"Can you use magic?" she finally asked.
"I'm good at concentrating. I'm sure I can learn," Ralph replied.
Erin shook her head and sighed.
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"At least you're older than half of us. Ok, come with us. We'll make sure you don't die on your way home."
"Err... Thanks."
"Wow, I'm shocked! I didn't expect you to tell someone to join us!" Eric exclaimed.
"He's not joining us, he'll just be with us for 4 days," Erin reminded him. "We can't leave him to die here. Besides, he's caught up in this war. He needs some combat lessons badly."
"You're greater than I thought."
"Of course she is! She's greater than she thinks too!" Timper grinned.
"Ok, ok, enough with the flattery. Let's get moving."
"Yes, ma'am!" Timper saluted, tearing the fake seriousness away from Erin's face.

And so, the group parted towards their new destination.

Quote from: Gabi on September 25, 2008, 04:19:39 PM
Ok, I've never liked this bit much but I'd better get past it, so here it goes.

I didn't see anything wrong with it, to be honest.  It was very readable.

Well, I never said it was unreadable, but... it's sort of a transition scene that never seemed to come together completely. I first played it out in my mind, then wrote it a long time later, then revised it, then let another long period pass, then revised it again, and it still feels somewhat artificial to me.

It's hard to write a story with 24 main characters (of course, not all of them have the same amount of focus, but they all have to be there and I do what I can to explore them all). Ralph, Jim and May are some of the characters with whom I feel I haven't had much success so far. I don't know how much of that I'll be able to change in the upcoming chapters (outside of the conversation between Ralph and May on chapter 24), but I will do what I can.

Thanks for reading and replying. :)