Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Yeah, sorry. I saw it, but ended up getting busy before I could post. Saiirin would not contact Plushy unless it was necessary. She is prideful that way. smile Oh, Saiirin and Karinda also still think that Plushy is near the back door. They cannot sense that he has gone. By the way, Bliss, that was my fault. I misread your post. My apologies!))

Karinda snarled as the woman disappeared. Sensing a disturbance in the air behind her as the woman reappeared, Karinda spun around. With feet quickened by Elvin powers, she raced to where the woman stood.

“Then the front door should prove to be thy exit!” she hissed as Saiirin flew over the woman’s head and into the room beyond.

The silver dragon raised her back claws to give the woman’s back an encouraging kick away from the place where Plushy had been only minutes before.

“If a friend awaits thee, I trust he can withstand a few more moment’s delay.” Karinda pointed her sword threateningly at the woman and stood to the side, gesturing with her head for the woman to proceed to the front door.

Saiirin yelped as she bounced from the blackness and spiraled backward. Before she could regain her balance, she smacked into a nearby wall and fell disorientated to the floor.

Karinda snarled as a faint tingling spread down her back at Saiirin’s impact. Karinda raised her sword, prepared to charge on the woman as she turned to the still open door.

“No!” Vanessa said, grasping the back of Karinda’s free arm. “Let her go.” She looked to Saiirin as the dragon shook her head.

With passion burning in her eyes, Karinda looked to Vanessa for a moment before nodding.

Saiirin, she said to the dragon as Saiirin snarled, her wings preparing to take to the air once more. ’Tis not a fight to be fought today.

The dragon looked to her, her eyes narrowed and fangs bared, but made no further move to attack.

“Ask her to warn Plushy,” Vanessa whispered in Karinda’s ear. “I don’t know what that woman wants, but I bet there’s a reason she was so determined to leave this way.”

Saiirin— Before she could finish, the dragon snapped its teeth at her.

I shall do as the book guardian requesteth. Not for rise of my care for the beast, nay, she added defiantly.

“Do it for any reason you deem fair,” Karinda said aloud. “Your reasoning doth not need to be voiced to me.”

Saiirin snorted before finding the trail the large dragon’s mind had left in hers. Finding the fading residue, she forced her next words to Plushy. Be warned. She who hath caused the commotion within the sanctuary of words headeth toward thee.



Agrona stood tall atop the roof of a weapon’s shop, the sound of the blacksmith working at his trade floating up to her as she looked around the large square in the center of her renewed hidden city. The gray stones of the cobbled area shone like new, the flames flickering in their caged lampposts whispering of death and darkness as they cast playful shadows against the many restored wooden buildings.

Her eyes fell to the pride and joy of the square; the dock. Stairs and ramps were placed to ease the passage to the four-foot tall, mile wide mile barrier trapping the oceanic waters contained within. The flat, two foot thick walls turned to lines of wooden docks where boats with the right abilities to traverse beneath the water could anchor.

From her vantage point, Agrona could see the forms of a few dark merfolk playing in the water, the sounds of their splashing fins lost between the distance from Agrona’s rooftop and the water. She shifted her gaze to the vast statue sitting in the water’s center. An obsidian skeleton stood atop a mass of dead humans, a long sword driving through its last victim’s body. Water tinged red flowed from the human’s wounds and fell from the surrounding bodies, cascading into the ocean where the coloring disappeared.

The sound of footsteps behind her rang in her ears, a familiar aura mingling with hers.

“I was beginning to worry that you had abandoned me and the cause, Lorathin,” Agrona said without turning around.

“To abandon you would be to abandon my own life,” a masculine voice replied.

Agrona turned to the new arrival. Standing before her was a man in an ivory colored cloak, the hood pulled down to reveal his gruesome face. Though half remained that of a handsome man in his mid-twenties, the skin on the other half had fallen away and rotted in some places, revealing the skull beneath.

“What is this news you claim to have for me, then, my old friend?” Agrona asked, her eyes locking with his, a silver light glowing in the socket that had once held his left eye.

A sly smile spread across his lips, the left half slower to do so, a slight blue color seeping into that portion. “While you were… away… I continued our search for something to obliterate Chaim, the humans, and any who oppose us. Something to magnify your powers to the greatest possible extent.”

“And?” Agrona urged, irritation and eagerness at his pause adorning her face.

“And I have succeeded.”

A wicked smile spread across Agrona’s face, displaying her sharp, pearly-white shark’s teeth.

“However,” Lorathin continued, causing the demon’s smile to fade, “It’s not in my possession. Before you go on to scold me,” he raised his rotting left hand to stop Agrona as she opened her mouth, pieces of skin hanging from his hand to show a few of his phalanges. “I know where it can be found. It, a crystal no larger than the palm of your hand, is in a place that was long ago enchanted to repel any demons such as ourselves as well as any like Chaim. There are very few who can breach past the defenses, let alone break past the barrier guarding the entrance to the alternate world in which it is now.”

“So who,” Agrona asked, her voice lowering to a growl, “pray tell, can get this crystal?”

Lorathin shook his head. “I have sent many to attempt to retrieve it, even some from our organization. All failed, repelled by the barrier—a couple were even disintegrated on the spot.” He cocked his head at Agrona’s irritation. “As I have come to discover through research, there are only a few who can. And I believe we both know someone who can help us find them.”

Agrona’s smile returned. “Well then. It seems we have a ‘fortune teller’ to find.”



“Are you sure of this?” Chaim asked the kind woman sitting in a chair placed in a corner of the small room, the sound of a radio blaring from a room above them. “And does Agrona know of this crystal?” He turned to look the kindly woman in her warm, golden eyes.

“That I can’t say for sure, but it would be wise to assume the answer to that is yes.” The woman stood and straightened her blouse. “I wouldn’t have called you here if I thought it wasn’t something worth looking into. By the end of the night, I should have the information you’ll need to find those who can get to the crystal.”

“Thank you, Miranda.” Chaim looked to the woman as she tied up her platinum blond hair, the gold in her eyes fading to a more natural honey brown. “And please say hello to Harold and your son for me.”

“I have an office meeting in an hour, but I was just about to make lunch.” Miranda moved to a doorway off to the right of the room. “You’re more than welcome to stay if you want.”

“I appreciate the offer,” Chaim answered with a small smile, “but I need to spread the word to Jairon. Have a good rest of your day, and good luck at your meeting.” With that, he turned and headed to the front door.

((I don't wanna do the accents, it annoys me hehe))

Willow now stood in the spot where Plushy had been only moments ago, her left had raised forward as if fondling the air. She remained like this for only a brief moment before a smile broke the blank look on her face "I see, so that is where you've snuck off to." Turning and flashing the blank smile to the others "You have all been a great uselessness to me, For that I shall not be thanking you, But I do wonder, how fast you can run to save your dear Monsieur Plushy" and with that and a flash of black she was gone.

Looking out across the playground Willow felt slightly foolish for not being able to simply guess that the red dragon would be here, as a few children ran by she decided it was about one she got Plushys attention, the boys scream rang out for all to hear as she ripped his left lung out, leaving him to drown In his own blood "Come Ma Petit, come and protect your defenceless beings" she said to herself more than anything, scythe in hand.

((By the way, Me know it all, a morel is a funky-looking type of mushroom. The term is in use today when in reference to that particular species of the fungi (the term having been in use since 1672, according to m-w.com). However, “mushroom,” a word that has been around since roughly the 1400s, would have been more historically accurate for me to use than “morel,” which at the time of Karinda’s disappearance would have apparently referred to something of the nightshade family instead of the honey-combed mushroom it does today.… Oops.))

Vanessa’s expression changed instantaneously at the woman’s final words before darkness engulfed her, transporting her from the library.

“She truly means him harm,” Vanissa said, her voice hard as Plushy’s words sounded in Saiirin’s mind. With her shoulders squared and pace as steady as a soldiers, Vanessa went over to a thin door in a nearby wall. Shoving over boxes, she opened the door and disappeared inside the closet waiting beyond.

Karinda watched as Vanessa reappeared with a double scythe in hand.

“She’s not the only one with a scythe,” Vanessa muttered, moving to stand between Karinda and Saiirin. “Plushy’s at the school by now. Prepare yourselves.”

Giving neither Karinda nor Saiirin the time to reply, Vanessa took a deep breath and pulled her weapon upward, and slammed one of the double scythe’s ends on the floor. A flash of white light encompassed the three for a split second as the blade collided, fading just as quickly as it had appeared.

Karinda tightened her grip on her sword. Before her now was a single story building, small children running and screaming in panic as adults ushered the small ones inside. Standing near the side of the building was the woman, a child dead at her feet in a pool of his own blood.

With a snarl twisting her face, Karinda’s arm and sword burst into flames. Wind rushed around her, lifting her five feet into the air to grant her a clear shoot as she took aim at the woman from afar. The fire that had been around Karinda’s arm sped from her sword in a stream, the girl commanding it with a wave of her hand to encircle the woman.

Below, Vanessa aided in getting the children inside, her eyes glancing constantly to Karinda and the woman.



“What are we doing here?” Lorathin complained, pulling the hood of his cloak further over his head to hide the rotting half of his face. He glared at the back of the mansion not far in the distance, its form lit by the noon sun. “This place belongs to an ex-Peacekeeper.”

“Do you know why he renounced his claim on that title?” Karinda answered, glowering at a male human who paused to gawk at her and her hooded companion. A wicked smirk crossed her lips as the human met her eyes and shuddered, true fear morphing his face.

“Does it matter?” Lorathin growled, snarling at the human.

“Perhaps not to you,” Agrona replied with an air of disinterest. “As it is, the reason’s only a hunch.” She dismissed the matter with a wave of her hand. “The fortune teller’s hidden herself in this city. I wouldn’t put it past her to do everything in her power to avoid being found, especially by me. Kirin knows this town better than anyone, and I’m sure he’ll know where she’s hiding.”

Lorathin remained silent as Agrona’s pace quickened. She maneuvered easily through the streets, her lean, graceful form gaining the attention of many eyes, some captivated and others anxious.

Agrona sighed in relief as the sight of the driveway leading to Kirin’s mansion met her gaze.

“Finally,” she muttered, paying little attention to the surrounding topiary as she made her way to the front door of the mansion.

Her bangles jangling as she raised her hand, Agrona pressed the doorbell.

“I can feel your tension from here,” Agrona scolded Lorathin as he came up behind her, her gaze never leaving the door.

Almost instatly a barrier of black filled the area between Willow and the others, cutting them off from her "So predictable, now wait here dears, mother has buissness to attend to" walking out of the front of building kicking the dying child out of the way.

Plushy

The bell rings, play time is over, kids come up out of Plushys mouth. Plushy heard a kid scream. Plushy rolled over, and dumped the kids from his belly. Plushy untied his tail, and knocked many kids over. Plushy looked around and found the died kid, clasped at Willow's feet. She had kicked the kid away, serounded the other adults with shadows. Plushy jumped into the air. Plushy spred his wings and hovered infront of Willow. Plushy vomit vomit lava fire all over Willow.

((done, sorry about the delay.))

“He has managed to prove himself useful upon occasion,” Agrona said as she followed Kirin. “Are you absolutely certain there’s no way for your door to be repaired?”

Her eyes swept over the study, narrowing as they looked upon the mask hanging above the fireplace mantle, the reminder of the existence of Peacekeepers unwelcome.

“Please, make yourself comfortable,” Kirin said, gaining Agrona’s attention as he gestured to a seat near the fireplace.

“When have I ever not?” she replied, walking instead to the wall of books facing Kirin. “This is quite the collection.” She ran her hand along the spines of those on one shelf, glancing at each title as her fingers brushed past.

“Please tell me, for what purpose have you graced me with your presence today?” Kirin asked.

Agrona turned toward him. “There’s someone I’m looking for,” she answered slowly, making her way to the seat across from him and sitting upon it, “someone I can’t seem to track beyond the boundaries of your town. I hoped you could assist me in tracking her down. I suspect she’d be using a false name here, but she once went by Carissa Underlen. Perhaps you’ve heard of her?”