Welcome to Gaia! ::

Even as Terrion gasped for breath, she reached out to Zoe, combining her strength with hers. She felt the drainage and she struggled to stay awake. Elia was too busy helping Zoe engulf the giant brute in rough tree bark. She slumped forward and her eyes rolled into her head. She heard a faint scream and felt gentle, but strong arms ease her to the ground. She recognized Cayleigh's voice screaming above the battle to Dante to help in any way possible. Ben's voice was barely audible. "It's okay, you two are going to be alright. ELIA! Get your butt over here! It's going to be fine." Darkness enclosed her, leaving her floating in blank nothingness and gasping for breath. Aun's laugh echoed in her head. "Such heroics, my daughter! I'm surprised you haven't killed yourself just to become a valiant rescuer." She could suddenly see, without seeing, to be exact. The image invaded her mind, magnified by her phsycic abilities. It was a dark room, black floor, obsidian walls and ceiling... Aun was standing and clapping, as if to congratulate her. She snarled. "Get out of my head. You are dead to me." Aun gave a short laugh and clenched his cold, pale skinned hand. He smiled wickedly. "Oh, I'm as alive as you are, darling." He raised his hand and gripped her shoulder. Terrion flinched. He laughed again. "Let's see how well you fight back with that wound of yours... You'll be much more liable to come begging for my love when you are alive with pain..." With each word, sparks shot inside her, originating from the wound. At first, she didn't whimper, but as the shock grew stronger, a scream teared from her lips. Aun showed the white of his teeth in a ghastly grin. Wings erupted from his back and his eyes almost glowed with triumph. "I'd love another family reunion, don't you think? And this time, things will be different." Terrion sank deeper into unconciousness, gasping for breath in between screams.

Elia dropped what he was doing and dashed to Terrion's side. She was jerking as if being electricuted. He wrapped his arms around her, pushing the cold, sweat encrusted hair from her face. Her mouth was open in a now silent scream, tears flowing from her closed eyes. Elia cringed as he saw his daughter standing by Dante, tears flowing from her eyes as well, terror stamped clearly on her face, and staring at her mother as she writhed in Elia's arms.

"You are not going to die... You're safe. He can't hurt you now... He can't..." An image of Terrion's stiff, cold, lifeless body in a casket, his friends silent and hard faced sitting on the pews and Cayleigh crumpled on the floor, holding a knife to her own throat flashed in front of Elia's eyes. Terrion was sometimes the most joyful of the group in hard times. She had joked when they struggled against Aun, and she made Elia laugh with the teasing way she had skipped from limb to limb of a tree when he was working for the enemy. The emerald eyes hardened with determination. YOU FIEND! he screamed at Aun's distant, crackling laughter. Tears rolled from his eyes as Terr's jerks started to quiet. He check for a heartbeat. It was there, but weak. He hugged her tight in his arms. His ear against her breast, willing her to live. He wiped the tears from her eyes and felt her forehead. It was cold and clamy, like the rest of her. Her heartbeat was still weak, and her breaths short and choppy. We can't take her to a hospital... It's not anything they can fix, unless they can make Aun disappear altogether...

Terrion sucked in a large breath, and her eyes cracked open. She found Elia watching with concern. She sucked in another shuddering breath. Her entire left side of her torso felt numb and her crushed lungs once again refilled with air. Elia breathed out a relieved sigh. Terrion smiled weakly.

"You think I'd die that easily?" she croaked, her voice hoarse and raw. "Thank you..." she whispered. Elia clasped her in a hug. She blinked and sighed. She saw Cay collapse with a sigh of great relief, Dante struggling to help her stand. She was shaking all over, her legs weak with relief.

Elia pulled Terr's arm around his neck and placed his hand around her waist to support her. He approached the group and called Eve, Chio, Rogue, and Nova into the group hug. He smiled weakly. "Whew, we need to practice."

"No, we fight fine," Terrion whispered, "It's defending ourselves against Aun that hurts us."

((We have a cat too. She's tied up right now because we moved a couple of weeks ago. Poor thing! But we can't let her go yet unless we want to loose her. A year ago we lost a cat that way and it was just horrible.
Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days... I cought a nice little cold and spent the last 3 days sleeping. XD On top of that, I seem to have writer's block! Yay!))

Eve looked around. She had had another black out and all she could remember was that something had happened to Zoe and Terr. "Is everyone alright?"
Cecilio stood over her protectively but was talking to the others. "No, I don't think he knows my weaknesses yet, but I don't think it'll take him too long to find them out, or yours for that matter."
Eve smiled and stood up as Elia and Terrion approached them. "It's good to know you're ok. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to help you."
"Eve..." Eve was swaying a little and was still weak from Aun's mental attack.
"It's ok, Chio. I'm fine."
Cecilio sighed but nodded. "We definitely need practice," he agreed.
Eve gasped and closed her eyes. "We have to go! Now! Five more ogres are coming this way! They're still far enough away that if we hurry, we can escape them!"

Zoe nodded in agreement. "Zoe, you could give us a ride." Ben suggested, and Zoe turned to him, a tear on the edge of her eye. "I promised to myself I would never use that form again." She said, and Ben hugged her. "Its alright, youve broken promises for the greater good before." He said. "I broke every bone in my body, and was frozen in my place, and delivered to Aun." She said, and Owen cringed. He hated having Zoe in pain. "Yes, he wll know our weaknesses soon Chio." Owen agreed. Zoe pulled away from Ben, and pushed everyone to the edge of the clearing. "This isnt going to end well..." She muttered, and started to shift to her dragon form. This time, it looked much different form last time. She was white, with scaley belly, and a long mohak like web of scales going down from her forhead to her tail. Her eyes where a clear blue, cleared then the ocea on a good day. Owen stared in awe at her beauty. Zoe bent her head back, and roared, billowing a pillar of now green flames. She falpped her wings testingly, and sighed heavily. She shook her head, and realized she had huge white horns on either side. Ben watched in amazment, and walked forward. Zoe turned to face him, and a big tear fell from her face. en wiped it away tenderly, and climbed onto her back. Owen stood by her side, and motioned everyone over, so he could lift them onto Zoe's back. Zoe falltened the spikes on her back for them to sit, and lifted her head high. The ogre's where close.

(That's and aweosme pic Sapph!! I love it!
That sux Soknardalr, I hate getting sick! )

Terrion frowned. "Crap... I missed them," she hissed. A sigh escaped her lips. "They won't be able to do this on their own. They'll need our help." She stumbled. Elia caught her and held her steady.

"Wow, you really are in spitfire mode, aren't you? Look, Terr, you are in no condition to go fighting whatever it is that we're going up against." Terrion gave him a fierce glare, but he continued. "In fact, I should send you home with Cayleigh and Dante, so you can rest." Terrion tried to push past him, but he blocked her way. She took another step forward, but vines snaked from the ground and wrapped around her ankles.

"ELIA! Get these off of me!" Terrion struggled against them, but to no avail. Cayleigh watched from her spot beside Dante, an expression of amusement on her face, but with a hint of sadness.

"No. It's for your own good, sweetie." Elia shook his head when Terrion continued to struggle. He easily snatched her up and set her over his shoulder. "My goodness! This is worse than when I was working for Aun! Now I'm trying to take you out of danger instead of into it..." He glanced over at the others. "Ummm..." He was a little embarrassed with a glowering woman on his shoulder. At least she isn't screaming and attracting attention...

((The banner is awesome Sapph! 3nodding You know what would be really cool? If they made an anime out of this and they put the banner up at the end of the intro song, one character at a time. bam...Rogue...bam... Terrion...Bam...Zoe...Bam...Eve...Bam...Elia....Bam...Ben...Bam...Nova. xd
Thanks, everyone.))

"Are you sure?" Eve asked Zoe hestantly, but no one heard her. There was now a beautiful dragon standing in front of her.
Cecilio crossed his arms. "You're not telling me we're going to be flying on a dragon right?"
Eve gave him a cold look. "It's hard enough for her to transform into that form without people making rude remarks like that," she snapped.
"I didn't mean it that way..."
Eve turned away from him and looked off in the distance at Dante and smiled. If this actually works, he'll follow us at a safe distance. She admired the kid's persistence. She turned back to Cecilio. "Come on, we have a long way to go." She said and got on Zoe's back.