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Niteshade felt something... like the uneasy feeling something was watching them. Then Maddie help give the plan and suddenly Ura was out the door. A piece of paper was floating around as if help in some updraft, so he snatched it and without looking at folded it up for later. He'd look at it after they got off, if it was another of those damned eyes he had a thought of how to possibly handle it. Let's see how someone would see out of it when he added a pirate eye-patch to blind it. If nothing else the folded paper hopefully would keep whatever was there for doing anything for the time being.

Taking one of the bundles of money, he pulled out a section of about $3000 to $4000 and handed it to Sapphira saying, "This should help in getting some clothes for him while you wait for us. Try to get something to help him not stand out so much. Pick yourself up something if you find it as well, I have no clue what we'll come across once we're off."

Idle hands were the most dangerous, and hopefully this would kept them both out of trouble while he and Maddie got the shots needed. Turning to Maddie he winked at her saying, "I'm going to see if I can catch that cat before it takes off around town."

Heading out he caught up to Ura at the motorcycle and found the cat stalking nearby. It took a minute, but he finally got the cat after a couple near misses and a dive or two to the concrete. Shaking his head with a smile, he turned to Ura saying "man this cat sure knows how to show someone an interesting time."

Ura looked on as Neko-kun was taken away. He hope that he would be ok...the cat had passed it's exspected life time already...but was still healty. Ura looked up at the lady he was going to get colthes with. He did not even remember having new clothes, he got his from the free box or his dad's/mom's closet. his old clothe where to small, and he leard the hard way that it was better to look like a slob when your out on the street at night. "We go..now?" he asked looking up at the lady.

Maddie kept her eyes wide and frightened through Niteshade's entire performance, even though she wanted to laugh at how thickly he was spreading the drama. She bit her lip to keep from smiling and twisted one pinky anxiously, trying to look like the underling that had forgotten and put her supervisor's job on the line.

Finally, after intense scrutiny of both of them, the woman sighed and accepted the bonus. "You're lucky I don't have any appointments this morning," she grumbled. Actually, she was lucky these two had come so desperately needing her help. This was her ticket out of Vegas. She was a good vet, but her heart was sick of the things people did to animals for sport. When she was younger, she'd wanted to make a difference, but now she wanted to go to a little town where tying firecrackers to a dog's tail was the worst thing she had to worry about. "Do you have a carrier or...?"

"I, um, crashed into it by mistake," Maddie confessed, blinking rapidly like she was about to cry. "Can you please sell us one?"

"I suppose," she agreed.

Ura could not help but figet. He hated cars. They made him sick...Why would anyone be in one? Last time he was in one he was 5. Finaly they got to the store. He let the lady shope for him. She seemed to know what she was doing. Holding clothes to him to see if they would fit and all. Then Ura saw something. A black turtal neak sweater, black pants and a red vest on a glass person by the window. "Umm, lady-san..can we get...black glasses dress?" He asked looking at her with bambi eyes.

The veterinarian quickly gathered up the cat and without another word went into the back room. Maddie and Niteshade sat down on the bench to wait. Time dragged on in the quiet of the early morning. No one else seemed to have either an appointment or emergency, and so the two were quite alone.

Maddie was so tired from this morning's ordeals that in the peace of the abandoned waiting room, she began to drift off, her head slumping to one side. A part of her knew that she was dozing and would wake up with a crick in her neck, but the rest of her didn't care. Her mind began to wander as she wandered over the edges of REM sleep.

Her mind flew back to her favorite two favorite childhood stories Peter Pan and Labyrinth. She'd always loved Wendy for her impetuous attitude that didn't cancel out her mothering instinct, like a lot of feminists seemed to expect. And she'd adored the challenge and romance of a twisting labyrinth. Not to mention that David Bowie made a HOT Goblin King. Somehow, in her dreamy state, she was following a ball of light and flying over the labyrinth walls, occasionally hearing a goblin scream "that's cheating!" Niteshade was beside her, an impish grin on his face. He caught her and and they raced through the air, over the goblin city, and past the palace to touch down in at the edge of a dark lagoon. Then, from the shadows behind a rocky outcropping stepped the Goblin King. Except he wasn't his usual sexy, angsty self. He was Ishmael.

Ishmael held out his hand and the bobble of light they had followed fell into it as a cold crystal sphere. He looked into the crystal as if he were looking into the future. Then he gave her a sideways glance and a superior sneer. The sneer turned into a chilling laugh.

Maddie wrenched herself awake. She scrubbed her eyes and hugged herself to stop the shivering. Was it just her or was it freezing? She looked at Niteshade's concerned face.

"Just a dream," she muttered. Wendy. Sarah. Both were storytellers. She was sure of it. Maybe they were fictional, but maybe they weren't. All stories came from somewhere. And somehow Ishmael had his finger in both plots. How many more storytellers had been exposed and exploited by Ishmael? Maddie didn't want to know. Not yet.

Niteshade sat and waited on the veterinarian when he noticed Maddie dozing off. She needed some rest, hell he needed more rest but that wouldn't be possible until they were out of this city. He'd sleep on the plane, if they could ever get on one that is. If they made it out of all this, then it would be a grand story they would have. Written down and presented to the masses as another fanciful construct of a writers mind. How many of those stories started this way? Which led to the thoughts of how many of them were actually real, like this one? People wouldn't believe it, even if presented before them. People as a whole tended to shun that which they do not want to know about and instead substitute other things for the causes and meaning of things. But thinking on it, that must be what they do in order to continue and not fall into utter chaos.

As he was pondering these sobering thoughts and wondering whether he could read any story again and not ponder its possible validity, Maddie came awake and was shivering. Niteshade must have had his thoughts on his shoulder then, as she responded it was only a dream. He thought on it a few moments, then said "I've been told dreams can be very prophetic, or help show you something you've been trying to figure out but hadn't made the proper connections of yet. Then again, they may just be your mind purging itself from too much information." He smiled to try and lighten the mood. That was when the vet came back out with the cat in a carrying cage and a handful of documents. Squeezing Maddie's hand and giving a wink, he stood up to go meet her.

"Oh thank you so much, you don't know how you've saved the day with this" he said, and actually meant it quite literally. For without it then they'd have to find other means of transportation as Ura wouldn't go anywhere without his cat, "I'll do my best to direct any business your way I can in the future." As he picked up the carrier, he had an urge to give a slight story to make sure she did okay fine in her business. But he wouldn't want to give Ishmael any help in finding them, so he suppressed it. However, it did lead to a thought of maybe baiting him to help them leave this town. When they got out to the bike, he told Maddie his idea "Let's head to a bus station and tell a little story to leave a trail there for Ishmael to find and thus occupy his time while we make our get-away stage left as they say. What do you think?"

Ura was asleep in the cab. Cars made him sleepy. He was very happy that he had gotten the cool outfit..that he was wearing. He was also happy Neko-kun was going to docter. He woke with a start when the cab stoped at the airport.

Ura smiled at the couple. "Hi!" He said, bowing to them. "I geted new clothes!!" He was very happy about that. He turned so that they could see. "Where is Neko_Kun?"