Welcome to Gaia! ::

Twisting, curling, bending, weaving. The nagini kept to the rhythm the best she could. It had been so long since her flexibility had been put to this much of a test. A genuine smile appeared on her face. Of course just as she wished the dance would never end, the band began to slow down and stop playing all together. Such an unfitting end for the once fast, upbeat song. What could have caused this?

A strong presence had brought upon the silence. Everyone’s attention was drawn to the winged masked figure, including her’s. This intruder was causing such an uproar. First capturing a defenseless party guest, next fending off what seemed like another bird, then flying through a window only to come back to kidnap a young girl and disappear without a trace.

Tension and sorrow filled the ballroom air. Aruna untangled herself from Ganon, finding it inappropriate to be clinging to the other snake at a time like this. The red-headed woman felt sympathy towards the abducted child’s mother. She disliked seeing such flowing tears.

Suddenly her train of thought went from crying to pain to injuries finally ending on the young man whom the black winged criminal had cut. He must have been bleeding somewhat badly and yet he tried to retaliate against ex-captor. Adrenaline had to have been keeping him going, but soon that pain would catch up to him. Her medical past was creeping back. All kinds of stanching techniques kept coming to mind. Aruna shook her head to rid those thoughts. It was history. She is now a waitress at the hostess club, not some nurse. Besides any moment now a staff wielding healer would fix him up good as new with the power of magic. There was no need to concern herself with this trivial matter.

Ganon

Ganon stopped dancing immediately, but couldn't do much at first until he managed to wind himself out of Aruna's coils, but as soon as she began to move, he reached out to grab her. "Aruna," he said, "Stop." Broken glass from the ceiling littered the floor in front of them, and he led her back slowly so they could navigate around it. A human might howl in pain at stepping on broken glass, but slithering through it with Aruna's soft underbelly would be like rolling in the stuff. "Damnit... I don't have my instruments, I.. If she comes back," he murmured, pulling Aruna close. "Maybe the orchestra has a dondo I can use..." He turned, gently pulling Aruna away from the center of the room, over to where she'd be safer, further from what is generally considered Harm's Way.

Tibarn winced as Ziaram was shoved toward him, and quickly flared his wings to stop as he caught the swordsman and pushed him back and away. He was at least thankful to see that Ziaram wasn't seriously hurt and that the bottle of ginger beer merely soared over the young man's shoulder, but he was more focused on Vika now.

He'd kicked off the floor, flapping hard in pursuit, but he was only halfway to the ceiling when Vika burst through the sky light, and despite a quick roll to the side, he still wound up with sharp bits of glass dragging red gashes in his back and left arm, and a few smaller pieces of glass embedded in his skin. They'd be painful coming out!

He spread his wings wide, ignoring the pain until Vika reappeared outside, and he went after her like a shot, but he was still too slow in the dead air to reach the nimble raven, too late to stop her!

"Abel!" He shouted, flapping hard for an extra burst of speed, then, "Amara!" He straightened out, but Vika was already gone when he got there, and he continued straight out the window, looking desperately in the dark for the winged woman. Suddenly remembering Abel, he flared his wings and turned, then shot back through the shattered doors.

He spotted him on the hard marble and dropped to the floor rapidly, blood dripping off his arm as he reached down to touch Abel's neck. "Abel! Abel, she got Amara... Come on man, say something... don't move, just... do not be dead. I'll be so pissed if that's all it took to kill you, you better be alive..." It was a long drop, well over two stories, but he'd still be alive, right? Nobody ever died from a two-story drop...

Okay, a lot of people died from two-story drops. And he was also bloody from the glass already. "Come on, open your damn eyes..."

Nobody said or did anything for a while, not while the winged girl had a sword to Ziaram's throat. What was there they could do? Crap, crap, Think Ephraim! Nothing, there was nothing anybody here could do unless you were one of the guards or-

His mind was suddenly cut off when the Hawk king, Tibarn, suddenly came toward the girl, bottle in hand in attempt to attack her. It seemed to have failed. Ephraim watched her movement the entire time but did nothing, he watched as she flew higher toward the ceiling then..toward the balcony.

"..She..can't be" something told him to move now, toward the direction Vika was heading. His mind said move but his body said no. Suddenly a scream was heard, one Ephraim knew all too well and once heard, shot his head toward the balcony just in time to see Abel thown through the glass doors that were behind him, her main target.."Amara!" it clicked, slowly but it clicked.

He left Sophia for a moment, giving an atempt to do something..anything! No, too late. By the time he got half-way, Amara was already in the hands of Vika and no sooner then a minute were they gone through a....a swirl... A small black object fell slowly toward the ground. A hat Amara had taken from him..his hat. The object sat a good few feet away from him, though Ephraim was too stunned to even approach it, let alone pick it up.

"Amara... AMARA!!"

His head shifted to his left where Alihi sat, holding her head, sobbing. If there was something he could do to help he would, but right now, calming the tactician was one thing. "Alihi" he called, knowing he was ignored. He tried once more as he slowly made his way toward her, moving away from his hat. "Alihi!" once more, and kneeled in front of her. Blossom was already holding her, trying to comfort her. Hell, anybody who knew how much Alihi loved her daughter at least knows a small amount of what the mother is going through. This may be a little harsh for the prince to say..but he needed to say it. He opened his mouth to say something, then stopped himself. No, perhaps not him. Perhaps Abel may be the only person to calm her down, to talk to her. He's the only person that may truly understand Alihi's feelings

Ephraim paused for a moment and stood up once more, forgetting everything he was going to say to the tactician. He turned toward his hat once more and took a step toward it. Few steps and the hat sat at the tip of his boot. Ephraim stood there for a moment until he reached down and picked it up..but he didn't put it on his head. He curled his hands into a fist, cushing the hat he was now holding.

For a moment he stood there before returning to Sophia. He had, after all, ran from her..but only for a moment. As if hesitant, Ephraim looked up at her.

((Blah X_X ))

It all happened so very quickly. One minute, Sue would have reacted, but Tibarn had long taken the initiative. The force of that punch he gave the mysterious masked laguz should have been enough to knock her out cold, but she flew strong in a flight pattern that the Nomad Trooper finally recognized. No... it can't be...

VIKA?! But... why...

What was worse was that their former ally, at least that's who Sue knew it was released her first hostage, only to take a second one and just vanish before everyone's eyes. Now was not time to despair though, even if Amara had vanished with her. If she were to break down, her mind wouldn't be clear enough to rescue the little girl. Sue had to be stoic again... so with her silver sword, she sheathed her fears and doubts.

"Father..." she looked to Rath, of course finding him after covering from the falling glass. "We can track her... right?"

And in just the blink of an eye, Leon watched the situation go from dangerous to hopeless. The raven was unphased by an attack of the mighty Hawk King, much to the Lieutenant's surprised. Although her first hostage was released, she wasn't about to give up just yet.

He was prepared to strike at her, he really was, but then Vika went and snatched Amara, disappearing with no doubts, the power of magic.

Magic? Ravens didn't have magic, at least not from what he studied in the laguz records, except their King, Naesala, who hadn't yet made it to Learania as of yet. It seemed like his records were in serious need of update.

When he'd come to the party tonight, he was undercover, but since there had been a kidnapping, the Lieutenant was on full duty. There were no Captains present, so he had emergency command until either Dan or Ghis were given a proper briefing. He preferred both as back-up to be honest... Leon had run in to far too much trouble without their might behind him and it wasn't a pretty sight. Looking to Charice and the other undercover Watch whom were hopefully still sober, he gave simple orders.

"Spread out, search for 'em. Few of ya, follow me to th' Watch house. We ain't doin' this 'lone."

He left Charice's decision to where she wanted to go up to her, and headed outside to where Anri was, noticing his steed now agitated by all the tension. "We be havin' hard days 'head o' us, ol' friend..."

Isadora came out of the kitchen with Vaherianslyeri holding onto her hand. She quickly closed the door and latched the sword between the handle, thinking it might keep the Bern General in place. It seemed that the paladin had informed Vaida that she was not allowed to serve her meatballs in the party. That upset the Wyvern Lord and Isadora received a handful of meatballs throwing at her while protecting Vaher from getting hit.

While the paladin made sure that the doors were firmly locked in place, she didn't know that Vah was holding the creature that she tried to remove earlier. It seemed that the creature was happy with Vaher's petting it.

Once the doors were secured, Isadora picked up Vaher, still not noticing the creature in her hands, and looked around. There were thousands of glasses in the center of the room. Some had shards from it. Others had minor injuries from the cut. She saw that Ziaram received an injury on the shoulder. Not far from the swordsman was Alihi crying desperate about Amara.

Curious of what had happened, Isadora asked the guard. The guard informed her that the stranger escaped through the ceiling and later came back to take Amara and disappeared. Isadora let out a sad grim. This was not good. This what not what she had expected the party to end.

Isadora went up to the Chieftain and apologized to him as to what happened. She also informed him that they would take this matter into their business and thanked him for coming to the party despite what had happened. The paladin then looked around to search for Ayra. When she spotted her, she walked toward the True Blade. Handing Vaher to the mother, Isadora spoke.

"I feel sorry for Alihi. Having a child being kidnapped; and on her first holiday to celebrate with us for Halloween. I'm sure you will feel the same way with Vaher too, huh Ayra?"

She had a feeling that once the party was over, they may have to search for Amara and the stranger. But where could they find them?

~meanwhile~

"TOGETHER WE RIDE!"

"NOOO! SOMETHING INTERESTING IS HAPPENING!" Jaren cried louder as he began bashing at the door faster.

"Prrgh!" Jaren exclaimed for the second time that night as the doors suddenly flew open and banged him against the wall he slid down it and sat with his back against it as a women walked out shouting orders and looking scary. They didn't even take notice of him as the marched away. Standing up slowly he looked at the guards he had noticed when he first approached the door one of them was holding a bow despite being dressed as a mage. "Ermm do you know what happened?" He asked the archer as his nose started bleeding again.

"Together we ride? The concept is there but nobodies come up with a plan yet. Unfortunately we just cant wish her back.... I suppose I'll have to get involved." Derrin muttered under his breath. The mage walked towards the man with the monocle and the crying women. Standing above her he looked down at her thinking for a moment before coming up with the most reassuring thing that he thought of.

"There,there."

..... He stood silently as he realized how inadequate it was. "You fool why did you say that?" He scolded himself.

A flash of red covered his face he was actually blushing. "Errr we'll get her back."

Derrin wasn't the best at socializing.

A frantic shout: Amara. Amara. That can't be good, that was Alihi's daughter! The moment the recognition slipped into Rei's mind, his eyes widened in shock, his body instinctively carrying him inside. Past the window he went, a glance given to the masses inside. Past the guards he went, completely ignoring Jaren's retarded antics as much as he was ignoring the presence of the guards themselves. Rei practically skated past the guards, past the partygoers, and to the base of the stairs.

Silently, grimly, he looked up, up towards Alihi, her sobbing frame, her powerless stance. Were this the past, he'd have made haste to the top of the stairs, and began comforting her like the screaming masses seemed to be. But she was being comforted enough. There was no reason to go and smother her with care, especially when she surely needed her time alone. So, he merely stood at the stairs, watching the scene unfold.