Welcome to Gaia! ::

The dragon squeaked in delight and flew back over to Ialo changing into a mechiveous hue of red as it landed on his shoulder. Shintero chuckled a bit as he saw it change. "Looks like the flames its made of change with its mood." Shintero stepped to the side to get out of the duos way, and was also amused at the thought of what might happen next.

"Oh I can't wait. I have to get my little girl now!" Ella turned and then teleported to where she could sence Valrie. "Valrie! Oh thank you a thousand times over, Mr. Collens." Valrie smiled as she saw teleport in to the room. She ran over to Ella and hugged her. "Oh Val... I'm so glade your ok." She patted Valries head. Valrie looked at her mothers tummy and put her hands on it. "Yep. Your going to have a little brother." She turned her head to Mr. Collens. "Thank you once again." She and Valrie waved good bye and Ella teleported them back to the school. "Take a seat and relax." She smiled. "Are you hungry?" Valrie nodded her head and Ella gave her part of her lunch. Valrie ate her food slowly as to make it last. "Those people where mean..." Ella said looking at the condition Valrie was in. "They need to get the Child Care Serves down there..."

Ventrus was entering the school as he read a scroll he held in his hand the scroll entitled a request of his presence as a teacher. His face was plain as he looked around for a individual he could ask for assistance to finding the head master he perked his head and smiled as he patted his satchel with one of his free hand. "hmhmhm yes yes I do believe we are in the correct place my little companion."

"Oh, you know," Ialo shrugged. "Set and Horus are at it again, I think. In fact, I heard they went running through the kitchen earlier. I was going to chase after them, but I don't feel like it, quite honestly." Something in his mind snapped, and his eyes widened. "Luna is here, I was talking to her... Augh..." he groaned. "Will there ever be a day when life isn't a frikkin' soap opera?"

Ella left her classroom and finial senced Ophi. "He's here." 'Oh, but where?' She thought as she dashed around the halls as fast as her body would let her. 'I have to tell him...' She stopped to catch her breath as the baby gave up a fuss. "Hey... that hurts..." She said as she started to walk again. She stood up straight. 'Valrie...' She tried to teleport but the baby wanted her to say grounded. "Fine silly." She headed for the exit to the main court yard. She spotted Valrie under a tree with people surrounding her. "Oh dear..." She walked over to her the fastest she could.

Valrie stopped as people stopped and asked if she was ok. Her fear of crowds quickly set in and she back up against a tree. 'Mom. Help.' She thought closing her eyes and covering her ears after she sat down. After a while she felt some one touch her. Openning one eye she looked at the person. "Mom." She said happily as she stood up. She quickly took hold of Ella's arm and staied close to her.

"Come on. Let's got to the nurse's office." She started to walk with Valrie clinging tight on her arm. 'I guess talking to Ophi will have to wait.'

Ella and Valrie made it to the nurses office. She cleaned up Valrie and gave her a clean dress. It was a long, white, gothic style dress. Then she put up Valries hair into teo high set ponytails. She put a ruffled head band on the little girl, roses were hung from her right ponytail, and her left ponytail had bows. "There we go. Much better." Ella smiled. "Ok, now maybe people won't crowd around you so much." Valrie smiled at Ella. "Alright go on."

Valrie said. "Thank you mama." She stopped at the door way to look at the map of the school. She quickly memorized the map and left the nurses office. She romed the halls. Her ears perked and twiched. 'Who's that?' She followed her sences she stopped at the librarys doors. She pushed a door open and stepped in. Walking she scanned the area. 'This place is big.' She stopped once she reached the center. Her pupiles became slits, but she did not realize it. 'Hm. There.' She looked right a Ophiuchus.

As dark fell, Danni finished up the last of the dinner dishes, then patted Cook on the shoulder. "I'm out of here, love. See you in the morning." Just then, however, they both heard the gunshot, and King put a restraining arm on Danni's shoulder when she moved forward. "Now little one, don't be going out there when there's gun shots going on." He warned, and she raised a brow.

"Come on, Cook. Do you think I can be killed by something as simple as a bullet? I can't miss this storm, especially not with the full moon coming around tonight. I'll be careful, and turn any suspicious characters I see into worms." She promised, and before he could stop her, she was out the window and already disappearing into the shadows.

He sighed, wiping his hands on a dish cloth as he looked out the window, though he couldn't see her anymore. "Be careful, little one. I don't want to be the one to have to send out a search party for you." He said, then returned to cleaning up his stove.

Meanwhile, Danni was racing across the school grounds, into the woods towards the clearing she'd discovered at the beginning of the month. Tonight was a night for dark magic, she thought, even as the first rain drops began to fall. She reached the clearing, where her stones, cauldron, and herbs were already set up. She pulled down the hood of her black cloak, and raised her hands to the heavens. On cue, thunder rolled, and a bolt of lightening flashed, striking a few feet in front of her and singing the ground.

She moved around the circle, chanting in the language of the ancients, lighting candles whose flames burnt despite the driving rain. She chanted her way over to her cauldron, where, with a wave of her hand, it was filled with a boiling dark red liquid. From out of one of many jars, she pulled out a dark blue powder, chanting and sprinkling it into the liquid. She did this with several other jars and vials as well, the mixture in the cauldron snapping and bubbling.

With the mixture of strange ingredients complete, she stood with her palms raised to the bruised ky, her head lowered and eyes closed as she muttered a spell that, when translated, went roughly like this:

I call this night, during this storm, amongst the rain and wet: The creatures dwelling in the shadows, that none shall soon forget. I draw the power of the moon, the lightning and the rain: To raise once more the demons who shall bring about fear and disdain. Creatures of the dark and creatures of the night; I call them now to come to me. as is my eternal right. The devil is my master, the snake his symbol here. And if he so wishes it, his minions shall now appear."

It was with this spell that the full moon was suddenly blocked out, and there was nothing but darkness and the roll of thunder. But then, from the eternal shadows, came the foulest creatures imaginable, stalking and praying about, moving in a circle around her. This was her time, her place. Her responsibility.

The demons surrounded her, circling, until only a few feet seperated them. "You've picked an interesting night for our ceremony, Shadow Runner." One of the demons said, his features taking on that of a human man. But it couldn't rid itself of the fangs, or the blood red eyes. That's who Danni was in the demon world. Shadow Runner, the dark magic sorceress of the Underworld.

"Why do you say that, Arzol?" She asked in the language of the demons, which sounded more like hissing sounds and threatening snarls rather than words. "Well, do you not have a fear of the thunder?" He asked, and didn't see the well concealed flash in her eyes before she raised her chin, staring him down though many went mad from looking a devil's minion in the eye. "That is false, Arzol. Fear is for the weak. Which I am not. A storm and a full moon at the same time result in an increase in all of our powers." She said, and Arzol was silent for a moment before nodding.

"Very well. Carry on with the spells we were brought to supervise." He said, and she nodded, knowing the drill. Any spell copied from the book of the ancients had to be supervised and approved by the head minions before the sorceror or sorceress was allowed to use it regularly.

"Very well. Stand back then, I have three for you tonight." She said, and Arzol raised a brow as mutters went up in the crowd. "Mastered three in just two weeks time? So far into the book of Ancients?" He asked, and she nodded. "Very well then. Proceed." He said, and the group stepped back.

Danni rolled her neck, cracked her knuckles, and held up her palms, controlling an instinctive shudder as thunder rolled once more. She began her first chant, the voice of the ancients rolling easily off her tongue. Suddenly, flames seemed to envelope the clearing. They were suddenly in a place very familiar to the minions, the dark caves that surrounded them with the flames all too famliar. Then suddenly the view switched, and they were in the middle of the school's kitchen. The food could be smelled cooking, they could feel the counters at their backs. And then, quite abruptly, they were back in the clearing. But in reality, they had never left.

"Image and sense distortion." She said, and Arzol nodded, his red eyes wide. "Very well, permission granted. Next." He said, and as always, Danni felt the tension and danger in the air increasing as the other minions became impatient, slightly fearful of her as her energy let loose.

Her second chant was long and her voice was filled with power as she spoke in the foreign tongue. Her fingers convulsed slightly, and there was a sudden shaking of the ground. A huge wall of rock rose up out of it, surrounding the group and towering over them. It held for a few minutes, with Danni just staring at Arzol. "Very well, permission granted on earth element control as well. That will make all four elements for you, Shadow Runner. Now, your final spell, if you would." There was a hint of danger in his voice that Danni knew well, but she kept her eyes hard and her voice cool.

She began her final chant, and even the demons felt the power in the air as the wind picked up, whistling through the tree branches. She spoke the final part of the chant, and this time a large sword appeared in her palms. The minions gasped, stepping back. The hilt was wrapped in blood stained cloth, the blade itself stained as well but gleaming in the moonlight. There were strange inscriptions on the hilt, and the whole sword seemed to glow in the darkness.

"Th-that's." Arzol stuttered, and Danni nodded. "The sword of the Ancients. It has presented itself to me, and is mine to wield. I need not your approval, but give fair warning. I have been chosen as the bearer of this sword, and shall handle the position accordingly. That is all for tonight." She said, but did not turn her back.

There was a glint in Arzol's eyes now, but he smiled a fanged smile. "Very well," He said, gesturing for the other demons to follow him, "But rest assured, Shadow Runner, our master will be very interested to know what has happened with you this night. We will be back." With those final words, the demons disappeared into the shadows, and she was alone, holding the sword of the Ancients amd shuddering at the sound of the thunder.

She made quick work of making the sword disappear, and then of cleansing the area and barring the demons until she summoned them back. That particular precaution probably wouldn't work, seeing as she was now asking for trouble. The sword of the Ancients had the power to destroy anything and everything. Even the master of Darkness himself. No one had possessed the sword in centuries, and now it was in her hands. She was in some serious trouble.