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Eiry shifted uncomfortably in the car, wedging his waist closer to the seat of the car. Soething shifted at his shoulder and he realized that he hadn't put on his seat belt. Well. He debated it silently in his mind for a moment, whether or not it was worth it to put on the seat belt. He could go intangible at will, so what would be the point of wearing a seat belt? Eiry reached back into his mental memory banks, recalling that Rivener would always put the seat belt around his waist and click it into place regardless of Eiry's squirming. It was kind of routine, even though it didn't really have anything to do with keeping them in place since they were only so much of a body. The minty sigel sighed and reached back, pulling the seat belt around his torso and clicking it into place. At the very least, he figured he could do what was right.

It was about that point that, Lucia began expelling quivering words of worry as she tucked herself back down into the small compact area of the car. Eiry shifteed to allow her room and gave a weak smile in her direction. He could understand why she was so nervous, even more so than him, but he couldn't help freaking out at her.

"Precisely, the speed, Lady Black," Eiry said encouragingly, turning the wheel ever so slightly as they left the cobblestone driveway and turned onto the road. He gulped. They were able to make it this far, they could find their way to Isi!

"Lady Black," he said again, keeping his hands firmly on the wheel, "Faster, now, we are on the main road."

Eiry nodded, his head bouncing on his chest to more of a panicked tabor than a reassuring "yes". He couldn't believe that he was asking her to go faster. In fact, he couldn't believe that he was at the head of a car, within the belly of the beast he so feared, driving down the road at....What did that gauge say? 30 miles per hour, to get Isi who was probably going to rip his head off when they got there if not congratulate him on overcoming his fears and then tear him a new one for borrowing Old Maasi's car. The sigel gulped and firmed his grip on the steering wheel, watching his knuckles grew white underneath his already pale skin. Then, realizing that he should be watching the road instead of his knuckles, the sigel yanked his head back up and locked his eyes on the faint faded out tick of white paint lines on the road.

They were going at a pretty decent pace, he thought, and the scenery was whipping by at an increasing rate. He felt his newly formed stomach churn and clench at the sight and he tried to tunnel sight himself into just staring at the road. The quicker they could get to Isi, slam him into the driver's seat, and speed back home, the better off Eiry would be, he decided. The quicker he would be out of this car to go and hug onto the willow tree and bury himself into its depths until his heart stopped beating.

Lucia started talking then, and Eiry glanced down briefly to give her an incredulous and offended roll of his brows. "Ghosty? Pardon me, Lady Black, but you do not call a spirit of my caliber "ghosty". It's like...referring to a blanket ghost costume or a paper cut out doll of a ghost. No spirit like me! I-" Eiry paused in his defense, glancing to the window. "Open the..."

Well, she did have a point. He had been flying through the air before, many times, actually, with Rivener as his guide. His imagination was more than abundant for the task of picturing himself flying through the air, his brother at his side, so it didn't seem like too bad of an idea. Sacrificing one of his firm handed grips on the steering wheel, Eiry fumbled his hand across the door until he came to the old fashion crank windows. This wasn't the kind of window that he was hoping for. In all honesty, Eiry thought that it was a mechanical push the button kind of deal for opening this window, like Aphi's car, but Old Maasi's car was far older than that. Sighing heavily, the sigel, making sure that the car was following the street, cranked the window, pulling it down, inch by inch, until there was a great wind bustling about the small car compartment.

....Okay, so he had to agree. It did feel a bit more natural like this.

"Great addition to our adventure, Lady Black!" Eiry commented with a somewhat more relaxed face.

"Ghosty," Eiry said indignantly in response to Lucia's explanation, "Is hardly a nickname befitting to the eloquent terror that is myself. Prithee, think up another trinket title, not something that would be named to a blanket with two holes cut out from it, like I've said before."

After a while of thinking though, he sniffed, his whipping bangs tickling his nose. He thought about the raevan beneath his ribbon, how she so blindingly offered her help to his cause, even though they had nary met but once before. She was kind. Eiry smiled and said, "Thank you," but it was torn away by the wind. Noticing her lack of reaction, Eiry mustered his voice louder, "Thank you very much, Lady Black, for all of this. I like you, as well."

For a while then, they admired the whip of the wind as it wailed through the car. Eiry kept his eyes firmly on the road, studying the scenery for familiar shapes and landmarks that would reaffirm their place and where they should go. He recognized the road that they took to Durem, where Rivener and Aphismet worked. It was a newly paved road, a larger road, that connected from the big city to the smaller town of Barton. That wasn't the road they were looking for, Eiry knew, because Isi was coming back from the Lab, which was in the opposite direction towards the coast. That would require them to take the lesser road, a dirty well worn road that snaked off towards the smoother hills. With any luck, Isi would be somewhere along that stretch of road, angry and sitting next to his broken moped.

Carefully crawling his hands along the steering wheel so that the old vehicle rolled towards the left onto the appropriate road, Eiry bit his lip as the fast car tilted to the side as they turned. They took the corner way too fast and he jumped as their wheels skidded off the road momentarily onto the dirt. Wrestling with the steering wheel so that they jumped back onto the road, Eiry stiffened up again until they were speeding along the next bumpy stretch of pavement.

"Great scott, that was dreadfully close, now wasn't it?" Eiry stammered, giving a poor laugh, "A bit fast on the turn there. A tad bit slower, I think we should go, not only for the road, but for viewing poor Isi. Anywhere along this sodden stretch, he could be, we daren't miss him." With that, he began to scour the sides of the road with the squint of his red eyes, trying to juggle his sight between following the line of the road and searching the dirt sides of the road for his guardian.

"Heathcliff?"

The name struck a chord somewhere within Eiry. The name itself was uncharacteristic to anything he had heard before, but such a name carried the same flavor as those used in the stories of Edgar Allen Poe. This, Eiry slowly came to realize, was alright with him, tremendously more so that being called "Ghosty". In all his wildest dreams and whimsical notions, not once did Eiry think he would be given a name so analogous and yet...casual...while still catering to his nature. He decided that he was okay with this.

"Heathcliff it is," Eiry agreed at length, the tickle of a smile pulling up at the corner of his lips. He would have to do research on this character, discover him somewhere, from whatever place he came from. He was curious now.

But all that happened before the rambunctious turn of the car.

Breathing hard now, Eiry tried to keep his cool. It was difficult, trying to keep his grin plastered onto a face that was more prone to shaping a terrified gasp considering the current situation, but Eiry struggled nonetheless. He nodded viciously towards Lucia, his brows knitting tightly into one another with sincerity.

"Oh, but of course," the raevan agreed, his voice giving a boyish crack, "I know not what happened, but my mind drifted and the turn approached for more quickly than I could remember!"

She mentioned then the reason for this crazy adventure, and Eiry's gut did a flip. That's right! Isikoro! Gulping and setting his brows in a determined downward "v", Eiry widened his eyes, looking out like a hawk for the missing boy. If his memory was correct, Isi would have to be somewhere on this road. Near the middle, probably, from what Eiry could guess. That vast stretch of road was the place where nothing could be seen, a place where hopelessness was the default state of being. The fields there seemed to go on forever and the mountains in the distance seemed to walk away whenever you moved towards them. It was there that Eiry could imagine Isi propped up on the fallen vespa, his head in his hands, and his eyes trained despairingly on the darkening sky.

It wasn't long that Eiry had to imagine this, because, just five minutes into the long stretch, did he see a small shape crouched low under the heavy bow of sky. On the side of the road, leaning out of a ditch, was the boy's vespa, and perched upon it was the boy with his crutches hugged tight between his legs and arms. On the road was the remains of his cellphone, which, Eiry could only imagine, was thrown against the pavement in a burst of fury once the batteries died.

"There!" Eiry shouted, forgetting the volume of his voice, "Stop the car! Break! Weigh yourself on the break, slowly, Lady Black! Smoothly, smoothly! Young master Delaran is there along the road, right where I imagined he would be!"

Isi, on the other hand, was quite sure that what he was seeing was a ghost. He was quite used to the paranormal now, having lived for years in a haunted plantation home, not to mention his ghostly ward, and now, as he watched the dead lights of the old car lurch awkwardly forward along the road, he was sure he was seeing some form of paranormal activity.

...In fact...As he squinted his eyes at the shape and color of the car, what little details he could make out in the setting light...He could swear that it was Old Massi's old automobile.

...Was it? It couldn't be...

"What the ********> Isi caught himself whispering beneath his breath, his head helplessly falling to the side in a curious tilt.

The sudden stop wasn't something Eiry had expected, so with a sudden loss of air from his lungs from the sharp snap of the seat belt across his chest, he lurched forward onto the steering wheel, giving it a bit of a wobble as they came to a less than comfortable halt. Instinct drove his body into intangibility, allowing the seat belt to slap back against the seat and he released his death grip on the steering wheel.

"Perk your ears when I tell you something," Eiry reminded the cat beneath him, his voice exasperated and stiff. He leaned over, forcing his hand into momentary tangibility to do as he was advised, he moved the lever towards the "P". The old hunk of a car gave a relieved sigh and twitch, proof that it wasn't going to go anywhere if they left it.

It was at this point that he could no longer stay in the car. Eiry had ENOUGH of being in the belly of the monster. With a struggle and a twist, as if he were wrenching himself free from a tangled net, Eiry pushed himself through the car door and out into the dark evening air where his wings and rune gave a natural glow. He twisted about for a bit, trembling and shaking off the feeling of the seat belt across his chest before he realized that Isi had gotten onto his feet and was walking his way. Feigning his best smile, the wisp floated over to Isi, and, trying to keep his nervousness from showing or clashing with his excitement, he allowed his chest to puff with pride.

"Isikoro!" Eiry bleeted happily, "Our quest ends in delicious success, we have discovered you here, withall!"

The crippled boy, standing without his crutches stood on shaking legs, leaning forward onto the balls of his feet as he fought to keep himself still, was having a hard time believing the sight before him. There, just a few yards of wary pacing away from him and his demolished wreck of a scooter, was Old Maasi's junk heap of a car. He could hardly believe it. For a moment, he thought that it was Aphi, but he knew, after a smart deduction, that it simply couldn't be. The man was probably still in Durem, bustling away in his hot work kitchen. Besides, why would he be driving Old Maasi's car?

But still, rational deduction aside, he never expected his minty green sigel to burst free out of the door.

"Eirdirsceol!" Isi barked in surprise, his eyes wide with disbelief, "What the...Did you...Did you DRIVE? Eiry, you hate cars!"

The sigel nodded excitedly, before he opened the door of the driver's seat, allowing the cat frei to finally slip free. "Not alone, good Isi, not alone! This is Lady Black, by her ample advice and discretion did we, together, venture forth in the monster to your aid!"

"But you HATE cars," Isi said again, still unable to believe that the raevan that used to cower and press himself to Rivener's chest had, up until a few moments ago, had his hands attached to the driving wheel.

"True, true, it is all true," Eiry nodded, "But in desperate aid you were when you did call me on the mini monster cellular, we had little time to discuss fears or ability. Lady Black and I rushed to your aid as quickly as Hermes himself! Now here, we have come. Together we shall return."

Still blinking, Isi carefully moved himself forward. He gave an pleased nod at Lucia and ran his hand through his hair as he placed his hand on the car door, readying himself to step into the driver's seat. "Eiry, you are ridiculous; Lucia, you are sweet to have come and helped. And I am going to drive the rest of the way back, you got it?" He paused and clapped his hand on Eiry's shoulder in a proud pat. "Thank you both. I thought I would've been stuck out here in the middle of ******** nowhere until Aphi got off his shift. Thank you."

Eiry, with his chest swelling for pride, did a little spin of glee. Such words of praise from Isi were rare and far between, especially when most of everything said between the two was in some form of reprimand, command, or insult. Holding his hand out for Lucia, he guided her like a gentleman to the back seat, and opened the door with an eloquent bow.

"Yes, thank you, Lady Black." Eiry said, looking at her with a relieved red gaze, "You have my sincerest gratitude."