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((POSTIE TIME))

Dash paused in his repacking of the saddle and looked over at Red. She seemed... Nervous? Heh, he could see why. "You want me to teach you to fight?" His eyebrows disappeared beneath his hair, the shock quite apparent on his face. "Uh," but luckily he was saved from answering by the girl's quick change of subject... And Lok's retort.

"Hey now, even if I'm supposed to win, its not easy, Fuzzy. Ever try fighting against you?" He frowned, "Too many teeth, everywhere at once." There was a teasing note to his voice though. It was odd, a bit of good-natured banter between hero and dark creature.

Surprisingly, Amleth seemed rearing to go, and in a bit of a hurried waddle, he figured his way towards his own story, and Dash motioned for everyone to follow. Once they got there... It would be a good time to settle, treat their odd injuries, and figure out what they were going to do. This Sorceress would be a perpetual problem... And it almost made sense to go after HER, as opposed to waiting for an attack... But were they PREPARED to do such a thing? Dash didn't know.

They quickly found their way to a very solid, very new looking brick house, and the closer they got, the more ah, NERVOUS Amleth seemed to become. The others stood back while the pigman knocked on the door, and his brother answered.

Obviiously, said brother was going to be a bit of a problem. Amleth could hardly talk to him, and he honestly looked like he wouldn't take much crap from anyone.

So, on a whim, Dash stepped forward, giving a bow in greeting, as was the princely way. "Would you mind then if the cauldron held a delicious meal instead of a wolf? As Amleth says, we'd like to use your magnificently built house as a safe quarters for a time. I can promise you that Lok is already well-fed, and will be of no danger to you." He gave an unsure smile. Again, he was in an unfamilliar story. "And I could make our stay worth your time." He gave a disarming smile. "Oh, and I can cook too." He winced inwardly. Why did he always end up sounding so GAY?

((*rubs Percy's face* oh Percy Percy... so gay that you're not gay. X3))

((Hahaha,this'll be fun...))

Lok felt very left out... or as if he had missed the punch line to some joke. Could no one else see this guy was a d**k head? He stood back from the group looking entirely baffled. He twitched his ears and sneered at the pigman known as Niles. His fangs flashed briefly.

"Well, if I let you boil water, YOU have to rub yourself with barbuque sauce and stick some nice apples in your mouths." He replied in a dark voice, but his remark was not to be heard. Sally and Percy were jumping all over eachother just to appease the short, fat man.

Lok wrinkled his nose and glanced at Amleth. He wished he'd kick his brother in the shins and thought if he thought it at him enough, he'd do it.

He didn't do it.

Lok sighed and scratched at his chin. "Yeah, yeah. I'll be a good dog." He said lowly under his breath. "No messing on the carpet and no nibbling on the hosts... tie to me to a tree and call me Spot. I got it."

Sally then gave a cough and Lok looked to her quickly. Briefly he looked what might have been concerned and he withdrew a clawed hand back to his side. It didn't matter anyway, she had moved away from him and to Percy. He glanced at the prince and glanced away again, glowering into the distance.

Lok crossed his arms over his chest and waited. "If you don't want me to stay, pig." He remarked to Niles, not looking at him. "Then I won't."

((...THAT'S ALL I GOT!lalala.LA.))

((Okay, sorry guys... Haha I just wasn't feelin' the postin' lately. XD;; Hopefully I won't have that problem later...))3

"er, sure!" Dash said to Sally's dinner-cooking offer. Despite the fact that Amleth's brother didn't seem to want anyone but himself cooking things... Alright. Less work for him... It'd be a nice change.

A quick glance over his shoulder told that Lok wasn't much appreciating how he was being treated... And so Dash gave him an apologetic look. After all, he'd TRIED.

After settling down a bit, and Amleth explained the basics of what was going on, Dash took the hint and spoke up, "Why not? Aren't you tired of the monotony? The same thing, day in and day out... Someone wrote these stories, and its not fair that we're trapped in them... And I know that we, at least, feel trapped. I could see where you might feel safe... But we don't. We feel trapped... And the freedom of an empty path in front of us..." he trailed off, thinking, "For me, that wasn't something I could pass up." He did leave out, however, the thought of what ramifications them leaving their stories would have. Especially his own. He was the Hero... And now, that hero had deserted.

"Not to mention, there's a Sorceress after us, and we don't know why." He flexed his injured hand - it hadn't started feeling any better. "This might be a mistake, but if we can get this new story done, I think we'll be free to do as we please from then on."

That said, he leaned back in the chair he'd been offered, a contemplative look crossing his handsome features. If anyone else wanted to speak up, there was now time.

((OMG IT SUCKS SO BADLY. I'm sorry -_- *runs off to eat something*))

((OKAY MY TURN AND I'M SORRY I HAVE NOT POSTED, COS I SUCK... THE END <3))

When Lok arrived in the small home he felt very closed in. It felt strange, being invited into the home and incredibly unfamillar. Or maybe it just felt wrong to him. The wary looks that Amleth's older brother were casting Lok's way did not help the situation. He sneered, but otherwise behaved. He was too on edge to feel irratated with the pigman and after the first few glances, ignored him completely.

While the others spoke Lok remained quiet, looking about the house with his sharp gaze. The only thing that made him feel somewhat comfortable in the house was the familarity of Sally nearby, and the confidence Percy seemed to have in his voice.

Though, he spoke after a bit. He fixed his eyes sharply on Niles' face. "To be free from fate." He glanced at Sally for a moment. "Life IS a story, but WE are strung along like some mad puppet show by fate." His face darkened with a snarl. "I want..." He cast his eyes away and back and shook his head. "Amleth could build a thousand brick houses if he pleased! No more sticks! And the Hero could be the rescued and anyone could be... anyone could be a hero if they wanted." He tossed a nod at Sally. "Give the stupid Prince a break."

"To be free from fate." He repeated. "Would mean we'd be the writers for a change." He looked at Niles sqaurely and then smirked a bitter smile. "Maybe then I wouldn't be such a gluttonous monster, hm?"

Lok then fell rather quiet, having said more than he felt he really should have.

((AND OMG I'M GOING TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN COS EVERYONE IS RUNNING OUT OF IDEASSSSS!!!... GO GO GO!))

Though then, the wolfish man stirred uncomfortably, casting a look at Sally, then to the Prince, and then to Amleth. A shiver ran up his back and the hackles along his spine stood on end. His yellow eyes rolled in his head and his mouth lolled open. He jerked violently and fell forward onto his hands and knees. A ravenous growl was rumbling low in his chest, and his clawed fingers gripped hard at the sturdy floor beneath him. The wood slowly gave way to splinters beneath his claws and where Lok was once human, erupted the figure of dark beast.

The Wolf howled an earth qauking wail, mad with pain. His golden eyes rolled about the room unseeing and violent and his brain was consumed with nothing but story.

He howled again, an agonized sound that ended in a yelp and began to claw at his face. He ran about the house biting and chomping at his own legs and tail, ripping out clumps of dark fur after dark fur. The Wolf was driven by his own madness and in his crazed attempts to be rid of the man within him there was a great ripping sound, like a great hand had ripped a page out of the book itself, and there was a man, and there was a beast.

Lok was sprawled on the floor, green, brown eyes that had once been golden looking up at the towering monster that was the Wolf: A viciously black creature with starkly yellow eyes and a a great snarling face. And Lok was nothing but a man, a man with shaggy brown hair and dark skin, lost of everything beast that had once been his to control.

Lok looked on, shocked, startled, and entirely helpless with the creature that had once been a part of himself.

The Wolf snarled, a sound that rumbled through the entire house. His eyes fixed upon all the inhabitants hungirly.

((hhahha, okay... READY GO! D: ))

Sally sighed softly as Neils couldn't comprehend why they were doing what they were doing. She opened her eyes when Amleth lost his cool again, a slight smirk on her face at his anger. It was nice to see the man act in charge once in a while, instead of in the back worrying and fretting about what THEY did.

"We just want to be free. Do what we want. What's not to get?" Sally added after Amleth began to water up. She knew tears when she saw them, and she wanted to help him...she hated when people cried...because somehow she always found a way to link it to her, make it her fault.

She was about to go up and hug Amleth a bit before she notice the air around Lok start to change. She was prone to anything about him now that it was like a sixth sense. But this...this felt sickening...it made her stomach spasm and she cringe, gagging up invisible vomit...seeing as how she had nothing in her stomach left to heave up.

Her eyes widened as they opened to look at Lok, shifting into the wolf she was so used to...but then something else...it looked like it was trying to escape. She screamed. She didn't scream from terror or fright...bur for concern of her best friend. This never happened before...not even the first time the wolf came to eat her. It was never this...bad.

Before she knew what she was doing she scrambled towards Lok as he fell to floor. The tears that had filled Amleth's eyes now filled her own, cheeks burning red. "Are you okay? Are you okay? What happened? What's going on? Why. Are you okay?" She stumbled over her words as she grabbed onto his shoulders. Her heart thudded tremendously, stomach still feeling the need to heave out dry spit. The pain was replaced with intense fear for the man before her and all of her friends though that she forgot about herself.

Tears dripped down her face as she gasped, wide eyed, still watching Lok with that look a mother would while her child played with needles or knives. Finally she ripped her eyes from his face, hands clamped still on his shoulders and looked towards the wolf. This was exactly what the witch had shown her, this was what that woman wanted to happen.

Her eyes narrowed, feeling a sudden rage in her chest towards this...creature...this thing. She wanted to kill it. Kill it for hurting her friend. What was she to do? She had no special magic, amazing strength, or even good charming looks, she was a simple girl, with a simple body...nothing else. "GO AWAY!" She finally screamed, voice hoarse, but still shrill. She choked back her tears as she glared at the monster, as if looks would send it running. It was all her defense had...scream...glare...cry. "GO AWAY!" She pulled closer to Lok as if to protect him from any harm, not that it would do much but maybe make him uncomfortable.

((HAHA OH MY GOD SORRY I HAD TO POST. I AM ALSO HIGH ON SUGAR! SORRY LALA! I didn't do much but make Sally fret and worry and cry...anyways...so you still have a plethora of options...I think...plethora...I had to use that word.))

((OMG POSTINESSSS.... ready goes! *typie*... Hahaha, and Neils is the best. *rubs his head* and ooomgg.... Lok is NAKED!!!! naaaaaked... *cracks up*))

The Wolf had been boring down upon Lok with his own merciless nature with that touch of death in his every movement. His muzzle was level with the man's throat and at any moment he could have killed him. Lok hardly dared to breathe frozen in place like he was sure so many of his prey had frozen before him time and time again. Though, his eyes remained locked with the Wolf's own, defiant and fearless.

The Wolf growled low. Lok felt the sound work through him like an electric shock, but he remained still. He could feel it coiling to finish him, gathering his violence to destroy him almost as if he had been doing it himself, but Neils let out a shout.

The Wolf set his glowing eyes upon him. He pulled back its upper lip to reveal all of his teeth in an irratated growl. Story distracted him from his purpose.

The beast reared back and then crouched as though to pounce. Lok sat up and quickly pushed himself up and away only to find himself in Sally's grasp. He looked to her in mild surprise. She was grasping his shoulders and shouting. She was crying and upset. Lok's mouth opened and closed.

He was naked. What the hell was she doing?

That didn't seem the thing to say at the moment. In fact, he could find nothing to say at all. His words seemed to have been scared out of him, and he had no answers as to why any of this was happening. He was dimly aware of being pulled closer to Sally and her shouting, protecting him. It seemed horribly backwards.


The dark creature shook his great head and ceased in his prowling towards the two pigs. He swung around and glared at Sally. He looked annoyed and angry and in a single leap was before her snarling in her face, but somehow held at bay. His hackles shot up along his back to show his irratation and he seemed suddenly so big in the small house.

Lok raised his face and could only stare himself in the face. The wolf was showing all his teeth, but his large ears twitched at Pery's whistle.

He barked and swung around his eyes fixed on the prince, and then the two pigs. The story gripped him again. He gave a howl and his tognue lolled hungrily from his jaws. The great beast leapt across the room and towards the two pigs, his claws out stretched and his teeth lined maw wide open.

((hahaha, THAT KINDA SUCKS BUT THAT'S OKAY... I'm done <3))

Sally looked back to Lok silently as he was about to speak. She smiled reassuringly to him. "Maybe...maybe this will end up being a good thing...maybe...now you'll...you...maybe..." she stopped and furrowed her brows in annoyance. She seemed to be in the same predicament as her friend, unable to say anything right.

When the creature leaped towards her she pulled back, pushing Lok and herself against the brick wall. Her eyes blurred her vision of the monster, tears liquefying the scene before her. She had faced this so many times before, able to outsmart it. But this wasn't what she had faced. This wasn't in control of someone else, someone who had a mind of it's own. This was all...wrong.

When it snarled she flinched and pulled close to Lok, this time as if to protect both of them. "This isn't the forest...you can't eat me...this isn't Grandma's house...this isn't my story...this isn't..." she kept repeating herself, like her chant would send it away. Well her words didn't, but something else did. She opened her closed eyes and watched as it landed in the pot of water and somehow, she didn't catch it, ended up outside.

She bit her lower lip, unsure why she still felt sympathy for that thing. Slowly, she looked back to Lok and unsnapped her cloak carefully. She finally let her death grip off of his shoulders. After taking a step back so it didn't look strangely awkward, began to put the cloak over his shoulders and around his body. "Here...we...I'm not sure...we want to see that." She cracked him a soft smile, her free hand rubbing at her tear stained cheeks.

"Who knew a man could be so small." She clasped the cloak closed and continued to watch the man infront of her. Eyes remained full of concern and worry, and her stomach still twisted with pain. "But...are you...are you really okay? I...I really thought I'd lose you..." She laughed weakly and rubbed the palms of her hands against her eyes. "I'm so stupid. How could any of us die before we're free? That'd go against everything we're doing this for. Right?"

---

Funny how things worked just exactly as she wanted. Not that they wouldn't. Still a smile found a place on her gorgeous features. The sun outside made her skin feel hot. The little shade the brick house provided didn't do much good. Her pale hand lifted her dress up to her thighs to cool her legs off as she waited for the events to finish taking place.

She didn't have to wait long for the wolf to be falling onto the ground infront of her. Perfect, it was upset. Smiling coyly, the tall, slender, woman lifted from the bricks and walked gracefully to the beast, violet eyes glowing bright pink in the sunlight. "Poor creature." She tutted as she looked at it. "You never get your way. All the stories work against you. I know how you feel, I always tend to lose too." She frowned, full lips pulling downward on her dark, yet beautiful features. "We are always frowned upon, seen as the outcasts, never getting a chance to have what we want."

Her black, sharp heeled boots stood still as they came against the wolf's fur. Her long blue-white hair whipped about in the breeze. "How about we work together? I have a feeling if we join up, we'll be able to beat those disgusting good ones. We'll finally have the light shone on US for once." Placing her hands to her hips, long dark purple dress falling over her legs once more, she raised a brow. "We'll be stronger together. I with my magic and brain, and you with your physical strength. We'd be able to knock down anyone who gets in our way. Oh, not that it matters, the name's Bedelia. Or Mistress to you. "

This was all just too perfect. Things were looking up.

((Haha there we go.))

((Hahah, okay... I won't even make an excuse and just post....

And just so you guys know this now.. I start classes next week... and I'm gonna warn you now... I'm going to be hella busy... like for serious. I'm not even over exaggerating... I'm just going to be REALLY busy... so hopefully I'll still find to post to thissss... but we'll see.

ANYWAY! ONWARDS!))

When the wolf was spat from the house he gave a miserable howl. There was a loud crack. He had landed snout first into the dirt outside. He twisted about in a moment of confusion and wild anger only just managing to thrash himself upright and see that he was no longer inside the house. His snout was steadidly bleeding. He licked it away. Through the window he caught side of Amleth.

He growled low and deep, full of deep loathing and humiliation. His fur was singed and in places his flesh was red and inflamed;burned. His eyes glowed with primal light.

When the sorceress appeared he couldn't have known what she was saying, no, he was too much animal and monster to understand spoken words, but her tone... the way she looked. There was a cold there, an epmitness that matched his own heart.

They were the same, he knew it and she took pity on him. He snarled in pleasure and half wagged his tail like a duitiful dog to his master.

This was right. When she left, he was gone with her, a beast at her whim, but he still remained, prowling through the woods. A wind of hot breath, a blur of dark claws and fur, and a pair of eyes staring out through the dark of the wood.

~~~Oh, how FANCY.

Lok was aware of only one thing when the wolf had towered over them, and that had been Sally fighting so fiercely to protect them. It made him rather at a loss for words. Even when the wolf was thrust from the little brick house he found his eyes on her and all the while wondering why.

What was he worth to her?

But he'd done the same for her. It was an exchange: a life for a life.

That made sense. Lok jerked his gaze away and chose then to feel uncomfortable for the lack of clothing on his person. He was briefly startled when she stepped away and pulled her cloak over him. He grasped at it carefully in attempts to cover things that were important to cover.

He gave a half hearted snarl, an expression that seemed to always look right, even when he was just a man. "I always thought someone would buy me dinner first." He added on to her remark and then glowered at her, comfortable again to feel annoyed even if he felt as if he was in the wrong skin.

"Who you calling SMALL?" He barked and then fell suddenly quiet. His hard face grew soft and oddly confused. "I'm just naked, it's not like... I'm not going anywhere fast without even a decent pair of pants." He put in quickly, almost too quickly.

It made him feel uncomfortable when she was upset. He frowned and crossed his arms, only to feel the cloak slide a little and once again grasp at it's edges.

He averted his gaze and looked to Amleth instead. "I didn't know you had it in you." He remarked in his harsh voice, a compliment in disguise of an insult.

He was then grateful for what he thought was a safer conversation from Percy. It was an excuse to avoid Sally being upset, and he leapt at the chance readily. He accepted his cloak greatfully and settled on the ground, hunkered down in the warm fabric. He looked comically sulky beneath the hood he had created with a fold.

"I don't know what it was." He replied evenly, glowering at the floor. "But he's gone... all of him. I can't feel him anymore." He shifted a little. "It's like a part of me is gone... but I know he's still there... out there, of course." He made an odd face and looked at this fingers. They were perfectly human. A hand went unconciously to his face and he frowned in disgust as his finertips brushed the rounded tops of his new ears.

"It must have been this DAMNED house!" He shouted. "Or what we're doing!" He snarled. "... But I won't go back. I didn't come this far to quit now."

Lok glanced at Sally at once, held it for a moment and looked back to Percy. "We need to find where stories end." He said suddenly. "There was a place where even I came from when stories were first told... and somewhere from there there is an end, isn't there? Or a place were stories overflow into... into..." Lok grasped for words, grappling with his own tongue. "There is a place where stories end and that's where we have to go... beyond the happily ever after there has to be more."

((.. whaaat? OMG A GENERAL PLOT?! SIMPLE YET EFFECTIVE. BRILLANT I SAY! PAT ON THE BACK, MY GOOD MAN!))