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The sky was overcast. The mountains were everywhere, and the land was a dull brownish shade, along with instances of rocks of varying color.

The grass, also dull-colored, crunched underfoot; dry and moist at the same time, getting Tanessa's shoes annoyingly wet. The peaks of the distant, many-mile-high mountains were white, but this tended not even to show as the gray clouds covered most everything. A trace of blue was nowhere to be found, not even in the clear stream they had stopped at for the night.

Tanessa wore a plain brown cloak over her tunic; the tunic served to protect her from the rashes leather would induce on her bare skin. Her gloves, also brown, were fine and delicate, and her boots were of an ordinary sort.

Her hair and her eyes - they were purple, however. This identified her to all as a magi - a spellweaver. Tanessa checked her gloves, her boots, her belt, and that her cloak was secure, before walking the fifty yards over to where Cedric was sitting, waiting, and just gazing out over the water and at the sky.

He was a boy of fourteen, only seven years younger than she herself, Tanessa realized. He wore loose, dark clothing, and his brown eyes were so dark and reclusive, in that perfect shade of theirs, that one might get lost just looking into those ever-solemn orbs.

He turned at her approach, but made no move to speak. He was sitting on a tree stump, gazing out at the clouds. Both of them were magi, actually.

Tanessa herself was quite good at what she did - which wasn't much. A fountain of sparks here, a lit candle there, and all for the minimum wage of those who took tips.

She was a traveler by nature, a wanderer; one who could not stay entrapped in civilization for long. But, civilization was the only thing this young noble had known. He might not show it, but he was definitely tired already from their trip, their flight, from Erebus, Baelta's capital.

Ah, Erebus. Already, the memories were rising unbidden into Tanessa's mind of how the screams had echoed throughout the city, as hundreds of the magically-adept were slaughtered. There was no cause for it, no reason; just a sudden and inexplicable fear of magic, out of nowhere. Some magi fought back - only increasing the paranoia and desperation of the Baeltian soldiers that fought against them.

Outnumbered fifty to one, the magi stood no chance. All those who had fought three days prior - had died.

Tanessa and Cedric had been on the run ever since, staying in the wilderness and avoiding all human life.

"We must flee, we must flee!" Tanessa had said in shock as the attack had been induced. But, calm and sensible as ever, Cedric had replied, "Then we must flee after the fighting is over. If we do so now, they'll kill us all, and we won't live to see the light of day, much less in Eopia."

And that was the duo's destination now: Eopia. After some debate and not much convincing on Tanessa's part, they had agreed that it was the logical direction to take. Within Eopia's borders, they would be safe. And then, a ship all the way to the deserts of Rantuinne.

They would not stop by Tanessa's parents, that was one sure thing. If there were any two people in the world she loathed with her entire being, it was those two imps.

Cedric's voice brought her out of her thoughts. "...don't think that there's enough time to make it. Did you hear me?"

Tanessa shook her head as she sat down on a small boulder and pulled two pieces of jerky from her pouch, handing one to Cedric. He repeated his statement.

"The southeastern mountain passes are all being hurried to as we speak," he said again. "I don't think that there is enough time for us to get there before they reach and reinforce it."

Tanessa stared at the boy for a minute. It was so strange, how Gifted he was. Clairvoyant, telepathic, telekinetic, and other strange things. Not, of course, all at once or even at will. But sometimes things that are even yet to be labeled by human words happen to him. Once, he had become a frog for a small duration of time. Another time, a sick relative had become almost immediately healed after months of being bed-ridden, all after Cedric had found and gave her a petrified flower. A third time... no, it could go on forever, the list of his strange accomplishments.

His parents had been extremely proud of their prodigy, and were insisting that he become the prodigal student of a great sage. When the sage had refused to focus his attention on a student, they had turned to Tanessa, who was the closest thing, sadly, that they could find to brilliant.

Cedric would be dead, too, if not for the quick but not-too-bright thinking of his purple-haired cousin. But all that didn't matter now. Now, they were alive, and they were fleeing.

Tanessa often laughed at them when she was alone.

((do you draw all your pictures? if you type in 'anime guy' or 'anime girl' or anything else you want to think of, you'll have plenty of results on photobucket.com))

((Well, suffice to say, I don't believe it is wrong. I could go into all sorts of detail trying to put together an effective debate that would convince you of why just showing others' images isn't wrong, but instead I'm going to go into all sorts of detail trying to tell you why I won't do this. Heheh... XD))

[I finally got a chance to read throught he whole thing o.o ... Took me quite a while... I'd like to be the princess of feava (sp?) and/or her attendant, but I'm not sure I'd do her justice. After all, you've seen my RP style... I may not be serious enough for this kind of thing.]

The wind of the mountains whipped past Irwin, his clothing flapping in the chill wind of the mountains. The snap of the cold was nothing to him. He WAS the cold... He controlled it. He gazed down at the forest below and sighed, walking as the snow crunched under his boots. He didn't know he was so close to other spellweavers, he just knew he loved the wilderness. He loved the mountains. He loved this country.

---

Clem was alone, as always. He had gotten into quite a bind this time. He shrugged nervously as Baeltian soldiers searched him. His green hair would have placed him as a spellweaver, but he was about the least magically-tuned person in the world. He'd devoted his life to science. His hair was green due to an unfortunate accident with his chemicals. Suffice to say, he was still bering searched.

---

Aria zipped along the dunes, her large skiff bouncing in the air from hitting another bar of sand. Vinn was in the back, in the 'house' on the skiff. likely reading on his hammock while Aria steered the sand boat. The sun was beating down, the sky was clear, and the wind was with them. It would have been a perfect day, were they not fleeing the slaughter of their family.

Two young men, equal in size ran through a river bed, trying to evade their persuers by masking their trail. "My feet are freezing. How much farther do you think it is?" one male said to the other in a suspisciously whiny tone. The other male, who was leading the second looked around. "Um... shouldn't be much farther... A mile, maybe? Two miles...?" He walked out of the river, deciding they had walked in it long enough and the soldiers on their tail would be far behind. "Come on Cal..." He reached out his hand and grabbed the hand of the other man, pulling him out of the water.

The one called 'Cal' grabbed his arm and pulled himself out of the river, only to loose his footing and fall onto the other. Both blushed. "Sorry..." Cal said as he lifted himself off of the other. His hat fell off, revieling HER longer purple-ish hair and distinctly female features. Her disguise slipped for only a fraction of a second before her attendant grabbed her hat and slapped it back on her head. "That was a close one..." He panted as he pulled himself up with the princess in hand. "Come on... we can't give up yet." They continued their long, painful journey to Eopia, the only place where the princess would be safe.

[Bael = royal adversary, not royal champion?]

[Ok, just checking. Cause I don't want to fall in love with him. He's scary.]