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The hood of his cloak flipped wildly in the hot desert wind as Brass made his through the burning hot sands. Sweat clung to his body in places he wished not to think about. The full glaze of the blazing Sun burned down upon his face and neck, the ash from the erupted volcano had drifted off quite quickly since he began to walk on. The gems in his pocket annoyed his soft skin by rubbing their jagged edge up against him. But, right now, everything was annoying him. He couldn't even allow his weary mind the time to wander as the constant heat, and unstable footing of the sand kept him busy enough.

Oh, how foolish he had been to go in search of these damned gems. What good were they if he died out here, far away from any merchant that may give him a large sum of gold. Now he wondered if there were better ways of obtaining the gold he needed to survive, this travel should have been a last ditch effort, not first choice.

In a way though, he was thankful that the volcano had cause him to land in such a, out-of-the-way area of the desert. Here there was less of a chance that he may be attacked by any number of the fauna that lived here or nomandic tribes that travelled the lands in search of desprate traveller. He had heard many stories of people being kidnappy and brutally murder after they obtained the gem. "Great. Now I'm a target." he whispered to himself as he began to climb another sand dune.

To say that Brass almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the sand underneath his boot talk, would be considered the understatement of the year. The divine sage felt as though his soul almost left his body as he jumped, stumbled, and tripped backwards falling onto his butt in the sand. He coughed and gagged loudly on the sand that had entered his mouth when he fell. As he began to wipe his eyes as well, he knew that he's be in trouble when he heard a rather angry voice call out. "You...are dead meat!"

Already thinking of defending himself right off the bat, Brass quickly got to his feet and jumped backwards, skillfully this time, as the man broke free of the sand Brass' boot had pushed him into. He didn't look to happy.

"What the hell is wrong with you!? It was only an accident!"

"I'd really prefer if we'd not fight for no good reason. But, man. If you're gonna get all pissy about this. Then you got it coming." Brass replied back as he took a few steps backwards. He decided it best to make space between him and the point of the Rapier the man held. It wasn't that he wasn't a fighter, quite wrong really, Brass was as strong as they come when it comes down to his skills and whatnot. But, he was a person of divine calling, so down out-right killing of people was something he was against. Yet, at the same time he wasn't going to act like a cow being led to its' slaughter. He was gonna defend himself, even if it meant to had to put a serious hurting on this guy.

"Now you see me..." He said humorously and within the blink of an eye, his form vanished into the sands below. It was as though the sand dune itself had opened up its' mouth and shallowed the sage whole.

"What a mouth you have on you young man. I think it's time we washed it out with sand!"

The words seemed to echo out from the sand itself. As though some powerful magical force had given the sand human-like properties and gave it the skill to speak. But, no, that obiviously wasn't the case. For that voice belonged to the man that had hidden himself in the sand just before. But, now he figured it was time to get things moving along. The longer he stayed under the sand, the more power he used up.

Then, as if summoned by some unseen force, the sands around the man shot up towards the skies in a cylinder-like shape, it surrounded him on all sides. Standing atop of this sand was Brass and a smug-like look upon his face.

"Fill'er up!" He called out to no one really as he clapped his hands together the sand began to fill the cylinder at and fast rate of speed. Brass then jumped off the top, which covered itself in the layer of sand, thus trapping the man inside.

Younglings... I have been here since your ancestors first erected me. Eternally watching over all who wished to enter this gateway to the heavens.

The door's voice boomed outwards now, the face sneering as it gathered all the might it had left in it, to become intimidating.

None who are unworthy may not enter without my say.

!

"Are you saying you have the power to bar people from entering...?"

Yes, young one. I am the steward of this tower.

How the hell did...

"Didn't see that one coming." The divine sage grumbled to himself as he watched the man turn the sand into glass, thanks to instense heat. So this guy used fire, that would make Brass' earth magic nearly useless thanks to this sea of sand. However, Brass wasn't one to give up easily just because one attack failed. He still had a large bag of tricks to pull out on this guy.

With the the flutter of both eyelids, Brass' eye color shifted from his normal, calm pine green tone to a lighter bright yellow color. With a mighty roar opower he balled up his fists tightly and swung them downward towards the seas of sand as though that was his true enemy. "Terra Force!" He roared called upon his earth magic once again. This time it would be different.

As he annouced his attack, he stopped his fists just before they hit the sand. Then he opened them, palm up, and lifted his hand back up towards the clear skies above. Suddenly the sand began to rumble, bright yellow earth magic erupted from Brass' very fingertips into the sand. As if being summoned, which it was, three towers of sand rose from the sand dune. The sand flowed around these formations oddly, as though they were trying to form something. Within a matter of seconds sand statues that look quite like Brass himself stared at the man.

The only problem was, statues didn't move.

The eyes of the statues glowed that familar bright yellow color of earth magic. Their fists were made of a collection of very small rocks, if it not were this fact, they'd be made entirely of sand. Attached to their backs were magical lines of magic that seemed to keep them going. "Have some fun." Brass laughed as he snapped his fingers together and the three sand statues took off at amazing speed. Each one took a side to attack, one attacking his front, another his back, and the third disappeared under the sand.

((OMG...Nooooooo!!! Luuuuuu!! *cries and clings* gonk crying ))

Nice voice...elven girl...

Even before Lucind saw her, she knew which race the other 'bird' belonged to.
The Half-Siren's shields evaluated Ra'kar's song, testing its power from the distance.

With her face still veiled by the cloak's cowl and her arms loosely hanging by her sides, Lucind finally stepped onto the open place where the red haired did her performance.

Oh, it's you...I've seen you before, she thought and came to the result that it could've only been in the stadium and that this woman had even been her guest in the old book-cafe. But everything about her told Lucind this actually wasn't the same elf she'd once met.
Now she only had to wait and see if the other one was attached to old tellings and tradition - then it could be quite funny once Lucind revealed herself. Her race, that is. Elfs and Sirens. Long story full of misunderstanding, disagreements, intrigues and even more stupid misunderstandings. The simple result: both races had been refusing to give aid in times of warfare and in general tried to avoid meeting each other in 'political' or economical affairs for ages. True enough, younger generations didn't give a damn for those old stories but you could never be sure.

The other question of significance was, of course, why the elf was here and what kind of position she occupied here.

Lucind didn't speak for now but just watched the other woman.