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((*Gasp* I watched this awesome Western the other day! XD))

Elistral opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again, thinking better of it. It would be hard to explain. "Mm-hm. A good friend wrote it, but that's about all that I know." She felt a breeze start to pick up and looked in the direction it came from. The sky was starting to darken, thunderclouds hanging low in the distance. They were fast closing the miles of the forests, and soon the plains. "It's going to rain soon, would you like to go inside instead?" She smiled at Silvia.

Rore saw himself try to calm down his horse, who was getting more frightened and whinny fearfully. "What is it?" He heard the words float out in the peaceful air. It suddenly pushed past him, making him stumble back a few steps. "What--" He started to ask again, but his breath caught in his throat and he coughed. An acrid smell took the place of the springtime flowers, and smoke burned at his eyes. He rubbed them confusedly, then staggered, coughing, after his horse further into the dream.

Crow acted like he ignored Oni and called out to the gathering of Ravagers. "Start making preparations. As soon as the sun sets, we're moving out for some fun and excitement." They let out yells of delight and began to exit through multiple openings in the cave sides. Crow went with some of the crowd going the way Reaper was going, still feigning ignorance. When he began to push past him though, he used the crowd as cover and tripped Oni, watching him fall flat on his face. He paused for a moment to return the sneer and continued to follow Reaper, Marie, and George. He didn't like Oni much either.

"I wouldn't either." Fenrir muttered quietly, and felt the ghost woman turn around to look at the now empty chair where Strider had been before. "Well, he was polite." She said, drying off the dripping wet plants. He nodded and yawned tiredly. "Too polite, sometimes, if you ask me. He should loosen up his speech." The ghost woman smiled and shook her head ruefully. "Sounds like someone I know, huh?" Fenrir felt heat rise to his face and poked moodily at one of the vegetables. "That was when I was younger, Sel..." He saw the look on her face out of the corner of his eyes and grinned. "Okay, you're right. But I should be going soon. I wish you could come with me to meet everyone else." The woman turned to put the plants in the fridge silently. "I do too, but you see how I am..." "Oh, why did I have to fall in love with such a sarcastic, dead woman?" Fenrir groaned dramatically, taking Selena into a big hug. "I wasn't always dead, if you remember right, you senile, old joker." She mumbled back at him humorously. Fenrir nodded and smiled at her.

"Metal scales? I didn't think dragon scales were made of metal." Elistral said, looking at Demios curiously. She shrugged and pointed to a couple of places. "We could go to a few. There's small library here, a church, a bakery, or the Protector's little base." She'd left the Protectors to their own devices nowadays. Even though they still thought of her as their leader. "The bakery is a nice place to spend a rainy day in."

Rore rubbed at his eyes a long time until he noticed that his horse, who he'd been following, had disappeared. He stopped and looked around in the thick smoke, waving it away. When it cleared, he found that he was on a blood soaked battlefield. Bonfires were spread here and there, and bodies littered the ground. Plenty of them he recognized, from Salim, but others were from when he was a boy. He heard something above him and looked up, immediately wishing he hadn't. Pikes had been placed in the ground, and the heads of his friends were stuck on them. Hearing a noise to the side of him, he glanced over to see his wife and daughter standing there, injured. "Ellie! Maria!" He heard himself call out and rushed towards them, grateful they were there. They dissolved into nothingness as a massive blade sliced through them, and he jumped back. A black armored man only half an inch shorter than him was staring at him. "Doom awaits you if you don't flee, my friend." He intoned darkly, sounding oddly familiar, then swept his weapon at him again. Rore woke up then, sober, and rolled off the bed, still imagining the blade coming after him. "Ah, s**t that hurt!" He cried out when he hit the wooden floor. Then he covered his mouth after his outburst and sat up, seeing Jake wide awake.

Gorash stopped his blade's momentum by angling downward into the ground. He breathed lightly for a moment, eying Reaper cautiously, then tore the great sword out of the earth, taking a fair sized chunk with it. He calmed himself and nodded, directing his gaze to a thicket of trees not too far off. "That would be the best place to get materials, or make a campsite." He said, standing up straight and wiping his blade off on the tall grass.

"Interesting. I would guess that if they were completely made out of metal, it would be hard trying to fly with the weight." Elistral said, going after the three ahead of her at the back of the group.

"Or when you're drunk." Rore said jokingly. He stood and went to the window next to Jake, lowering his hands. "Sure does. Pretty big one at that." He rubbed his sore back from hitting the floor too hard and bent back to stretch. "Sounds like a good idea. I have to go back to the square first though. Ellen'll kill me if I don't get the glass I left there back."

Gorash allowed himself a small smile. Out of Reaper's little group, excluding the man himself, he liked George the best. Oni was too self-involved and Marie was...was too intolerant of any race but hers. George's silences were oddly comforting, he concluded. Gorash shook his head and went to find a suitable fallen tree, hooking his helmet to his belt. When he found a big enough log he swapped his great sword for his halberd, thinking with grim satisfaction that the axe-like blade made a great woodcutter. He brought it over his head and swung it down, a loud cracking sound echoing as it split the dry tree.

Fenrir let Selena go so she could return to the garden outside. He gazed blankly out the window to the plain landscape. The lack of color always seemed to give a bright affect to everything. Even the sun, or could it be called that?, he wondered briefly, didn't make much of a difference. "Well, atleast it's not black, huh?" He mumbled amusedly to himself. "White's the true color of death, after all."

((Ouch, Strider, that burns my eyes, lol. Try using , it's easier to see. It looks like this.))

"I'd be honored." Elistral said, then took an appreciative sniff of the bakery's air. The place wasn't crowded, but it wasn't empty either. She gestured to some of the empty tables. "Find a table, I'll go and get something to eat. It's hard to come into here and not buy something."

Rore nodded and went off back to the fountain in the square. It was still sitting on the edge where he'd left it. A gust of wind started to knock it off, but he grabbed it before it fell and shattered. Then he retraced his steps to where Jake was, looking up at the swinging sign.

Crow had stopped down by the ladder and was talking to Grollu's watch post replacement, Taki, about the level of their supplies. He found out that they were running low on pine-resin torches, which made excellent firestarters. They also needed more rations for the Ravagers. Then he climbed up the ladder and left the trapdoor open, holding it with his foot so that the wind wouldn't blow it off until it was closed and locked.

Gorash finished hacking away at the tree, leaving slightly uneven logs. He glanced up at the approaching storm. He'd have to move them to a dry, sheltered place so that they didn't get too wet to set fire to. He noticed that George had reappered and was creating barriers. He went over to him and took an extra canvas that would be used as a tent and went back to the wood. After placing them on the canvas, he dragged them slowly to the other materials.

Fenrir repressed a shiver at the mention of being handed over to Death. "Ugh, he's such a morose being. But I think I prefer that then to him being provoked." He said, supporting his cheek in one hand and looking at the gray shadow form of Fate. It was more like a cloud of smoke than a shadow, he thought. "Of course I haven't forgotten my promise. I was actually getting bored lately. Lazing around is fun for a while, but I don't like to be still when I know there's something I need to do soon. I get so antsy." He gave a sigh, then chuckled ironically. "Just tell me when I should be going, and I'll leave." He went over to the fridge and started to rummage through it again, pulling out a small chunk of cooked steak. Then he made a sandwich out of two pieces of bread and began to eat, still hungry.

((It's okay, lol. The brightness of the color just kind of popped out at me. *pats you on the shoulder*))

Elistral had tried to buy only enough for the smallish group to eat, including Jake and Rore when she heard the bakery's door bell tinkle. But the baker who owned the shop was a close friend, and she ended up getting more than she intended. Then when she went to pay extra, the other woman feigned an angry tone and pretended to shoo her off. She chuckled and thanked her, turning back to make her way to the table, hearing the baker call after her that the food included drinks. Elistral put the load on the table and took a seat down, smiling a little.

Rore went with Jake to the table that Strider, Demios, and Silvia were sitting at, and now Elistral was. He pulled up an extra chair from an emtpy table nearby and turned it around so that he could sit and rest his arms on the back of it. "I'm kind of glad that you didn't use a powerful one..." He set the glass on the table and gave a shudder as a chill passed through him. Thunder boomed loudly outside, the storm closer now, and he apprecaited the fact that he was inside with his friends. And not in the dream world.

Crow had decided to stay with the Ravagers, hopping back down the hole and letting Taki close the trapdoor above. If Reaper needed him, he could get George to come and get him. Ezekiel took off from his shoulder, stretching it's wings in the wide cave that subsituted for a sky. Crow supervised the raiding supplies being placed near the bottom of the ladder so that they didn't get in the way. They'd be taking a few torches and lighting them under cover. The rain wouldn't allow them to set fire to the town, they would only be used for light purposes only.

Gorash took it upon himself to make the campfire. He placed a few logs in a cleared out spot lined with large rocks and using the tinder he'd gathered to start the fire. He rummaged in his pocket, slipping his hand under a section of his armor, and pulled out a matchbox. He was about to strike the match and light the tinder under the firewood when he glanced suspiciously to the materials George had brought back. "Is there any of that black powder over there, Reaper?" He indicated the pile with a nod of his head.

((Lol, sorry, no inspiration whatsoever right now. XD))

Elistral was struck silent. "I, uh, have not done so in public too often. It's something I'm still getting used to." She said, averting her attention from Jake's innocent look to a pastry. "I've also left my lute with the Protectors."

Rore reached for a piece of pie, sliding it onto a plate and grabbing a fork. He felt ravenous and it smelled great. "Your singing can't be that bad." He chuckled. "Atleast better than mine. Plus it'll help pass the time."

Elistral nodded reluctantly, her face growing warm. "I suppose you're right there."

Gorash struck the match, glad that he could light a fire without having to worry about it exploding something. The powder tickled his nose and made him sneeze whenever he smelled it. Holding a match near it, and possibly dropping it, wouldn't be a good thing. He nudged it into the tinder and let it catch on the dry grass and leaves. After a minute of blowing on the small flicker of flame, it grew bigger, smoke floating upwards. Soon the fire was crackling nicely in the already dismal day.

"Soooo," Fenrir addressed Fate after what seemed like a long pause. "What's up with you?" He looked over at the gray smoke/cloud. "How's it been having your errand boy take a time off? I'd guess it would bug you, no being able to do these things yourself. Unless you like manipulating people, of course."

Elistral couldn't help but let a smile come across her face too. "I said that I can try. If boredom will not kill you first." She reached over and took the lute-turned staff from Strider. It had been a long time since he, or Silvia, had heard her play the instrument. The strings let out a soft sound as she started to play. I just hope I still remember the tune, she thought more to herself, not quite sure if Strider had retained his mind-reading ability from when he wasn't mortal. She chose an easy tale that went with the lute's music. First it started with a hermit and his apprentice in the mountains, but as she sang, it went on that that the hermit was killed by an assassin and the apprentice went to find him for revenge. The assassin told the apprentice that a great beast had hired him to kill the old man, and the closets link was on the sea. So the apprentice found a captain who had knowledge of the beast, called a kraken. The kraken had once been a wizard until jealousy of the hermit's sweetheart had tunred him to cast a spell. It had backfired on the wizard, turning him into the sea beast who now terrorized ships and coast towns. The apprentice went with the sympathizing captain to where the beast lived, valiantly killing him. The apprentice went back to where the hermit's grave and hut was, glad his quest was over, and lived peacefully there. Years later, though, he simply disappeared into thin air, never seen again.

"Modest." Fenrir chuckled, shaking his head, done eating again. His hunger had went down to a reasonable level for now. He took out his pocket watch and flipped it open, yellow eyes following the second hand as he thought. "What have I forgotten to do...?" He asked himself. "What have--Oh!" A gleam came into his eyes and he went over to a drawer in one of the counters. Opening it, he started to rummage through what looked like junk or odd knick knacks. Shiny colored marbles, round acorns, different forms of currency including a silver coin with a man's face on one side and a bird of prey on the other, blackened volcanic rocks, even a sea shell or two could be found. Finally he found what he was looking for, a thin rectangle, box-like electronic. A strap was attached to one end, and the backside of the device had a darkened plastic screen. He held it up, pressed a button until a green light flashed briefly, and waited for the screen to take an image of the counter in front of him. He moved the device around, the screen's picture changing as the surroundings changed. "Ah, good ol' Sony. Always reliable when you need 'em!" He focused on Selena outside and zoomed in, pressing another button to freeze the picture before saving it. "I think this about sums up what I forgot to do."