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Adencia’s vision faded a bit but it didn’t matter for she had her eyes closed anyways. Amidst the numbing pain and dizzying thoughts she could feel Garren’s touch as her lifted her over his shoulder. She didn’t know where he was taking her but felt relieved that she would be away from others and not able to hurt anyone.

“Please, hurry!” She gasped, “I can’t hold back much longer.”

She could feel her features changing in the least and concentrated more getting them to change back but only for the moment.

“Hurry!” She shouted, yet this time her voice was not her own. It was laced with a deep growl showing that the animal was claiming more of her. Her transformation would be starting very soon.

Cerdik listened intently to Aranai and held her gaze firmly, quite an unusual thing for him to manage. When she began to speak of warnings though, his gaze would no longer hold hers. It wandered away, glancing here and there around the rom despite her sudden change of state. Cerdik looked to her again, and despite her response, reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder.

The experience was much similar to the feeling one would experience after working several hours in the numbing cold and then running steaming hot water over your hands. Your skin is too numb to register the pain, leaving the sensation of intense warmth a pleasant one. At least in the beginning. He pulled his hand away after a few moments and examined her worriedly. "You have... an interesting curse about you."

[ There's no need to apologize for length, trust me! wink If anything- I want you writing more. surprised I demand that every bead of sweat on Aranai's face thusly be detailed, even the one under her left nostril. If anything, that is the most important one... o.O O.o ]

Clenching his teeth, the desperate young man turned right into another corridor lined with artistic conversation pieces. Sculptures, exotic flora, and of course paintings cast a refined look outward to impress anyone thought to come down this way. A gallery was the last place anyone would think of to seek a hidden chamber, just as it was intended. Though, perhaps too obviously, the door was masked by a large painting on the left whose flags and revolutionaries marked it as one symbolic to freedom. Garren's heart began to race even faster, made worried by the growl of the animal-woman's last warning, as he began to push one-handedly against the picture's frame to bring it away from the wall. He did not want to risk putting her down, in case she would strike against him. After much struggle the iron-casted and forboding door revealed itself- a momentous stranger to the light of day. All that would be left was to unlock it. After this door was only a stairwell that led down to a lesser, but still formidable, oak entry; yet Garren knew that there was no time to take her to a cell. The two doors would do well to hold whatever beast she turned into, for whatever length. But his eyes shrank as he beheld the lock. He knew this peculiar lock. It was no padlock or anything needing of a key...the lock was wrought within the structure itself, and opened by a twist of certain numbers. Just three. Three simple numbers between zero and twenty...that hopelessly eluded him. But how could he think? The man was rushed over by too many things, the foremost being the fear or time. He knew he hated it so much. Reaching a cautious hand for the etched dial, he strived to recall the code. There was no other way to loosen it, by no pick or force, so if the numbers were forgotten then one was doomed. Shutting his eyes, he almost prayed.

"GARREN! 14 11 17!"

Opening his eyes in a flash, his fingers quickly followed the orders and the mighty door loosened itself enough to be pulled. Grabbing for the edge, Garren inched the entry open as much as he could to have just enough room to toss Adencia in there. He felt bad about being rough, but by the look he caught from her wild eyes Garren figured that she wouldn't mind when she next came to. Quickly, he pushed the door shut behind him and it clicked in tight security. She would be left to be trapped in darkness for her transformation, and using the metal gate as a support, Garren let loose a breath and leaned against it sluggishly. He could only have about one or two minutes left, and he thanked his lucky stars for his successful timing and the help of his dear sister. She sounded heavenly when she said that, and now did not even have to worry about her facing Adencia on the outside. With that, he pushed himself from the wall and began to trudge back towards the others.

All of a sudden, everything went to hell in a handbasket. Adencia was being carried off by Garren and it seemed that the new woman was about to go through a transformation as well. He went to explain what was happening to Adencia but saw that Cerdik and the woman were busy. So he just simply walked to a wall and sat down cross-leeged and crossed his arms. It looked a bit like he was pouting but he was actually thinking. He knew that the road was going to be dangerous, but with Adnecia's transformations that she couldn't control would make it even more dangerous. There is more then likely a rune that could prevent the transformations or make it so that she had more control over her transformations. The only problem was that he didn't know what the runes looked like. I guess that I will have to make one. He thought. It was all too appealing since if he did the rune wrong, then he could possibly to a lot of damage to Adencia's mentallity. He would have to ask her after she transforms back into a human.

(So I didn't post sooner. I was away at a couple of competitions this past weekend.)

[ That's cool, man. cool ]

Garren checked back over his shoulder after hearing the first few clamours inside the stairwell. She sounded to be a very large, and very angry, beast in there that made him pause to lower his head. Well...at least he didn't have to live with that. Perhaps now, though, were she indeed going to accompany them on the journey for Teltayten. In that case, the swordsman wondered if there was anything they could do to perhaps...give her more control?... and speaking of, hmm she only seemed to be lunging at the secondary door in there. Returning to the prison's entrance, Garren pondered what exactly it was again she would face were she to break that oak door down. The chamber beheld six barred cells, with some cases of wine strewn about for the half-hearted illusion of a liquor cellar. And even if she broke those, who knew...maybe the beast would get tipsy and cause her to revert back to normal in a merry stupor? As long as the metal entry held all would be well, to which he did not even second-guess. Although, for no reason at all really, he pushed the painting back against the wall to hide the evidence of Adencia's imprisonment. Perhaps one last paranoid measure. Like canvas cloth were a great last line of defense or something. Now his gait resumed down the hall to the rest, and even as he walked he could feel the hour change and knew that his time was over. He was a bit relieved, actually. In the passing shadows the rest of the party could see the figure approach, slowly shrinking to the feminine form with locks of hair and ruffles of skirts cascading down like a waterfall. The fair skin returned, the large and innocent eyes bloomed, and a nervous smile donned Isarelle's lips as she stopped by the stairway and crossed her hands before her. Cerdik and Aranai probably had never seen that happen before, so she wondered of how accepting this new pair would be. As for her other guests who already knew, well....it did take some getting used to.

"Good....evening."

((Drat those busy weekends! wink ))

As Cerdik spoke in his unusual ways, Aranai lifted her face to the ceiling, catching the first few faint drifts of night air. She closed her eyes and gathered herself, knowing time was short. Perhaps this would be her last conversation with this man, and perhaps she would not come back. Still, even with these thoughts ringing in her mind, she let out bitter and much less hopeful words than she would have liked.

"Harmony in this world? Such a thing is hard to find for any man, but we are the cursed, and for that it seems all the more elusive." Her words were softer as she thought back to times before her curse. Times that were not so different, but could have been.

Cerdik spoke something quietly, and her head snapped down to look at him, both relieved that he suspected and terribly afraid. Her heartbeat quickened, and filled her head with the dreadful pulse that drove hot blood through her veins. Her green eyes widened as she looked at him, and she drew back. Yes, his words rang true. Unbearably true.

Vaguely aware that Garren was coming back down the hall, Aranai's gaze shifted almost frantically, shoved into a sudden alarm brought about by but a few words. Words that should not have shaken her so. Flickering back to the approaching man she realized he was not a man... but a woman. A woman that had many of the same features, but was distinctly different and foreign to her. This made her pause and stare for a few moments, thoughts whispering through her mind too fast for her to catch.

She had to get out, the sun... it was gone. Turning abruptly on her heel, she raced out the doorway as flames began to blaze along her arms and legs, coming quite from nowhere. She stumbled down the steps as her entire body seemed to be consumed by fire, making sure to put as much distance between her and those in the house as possible.

Her transformation took only a few moments, but in those few moments she blazed into a searing heat that could harm those too close. In a way those seconds were the most calming, for nothing could touch her. It was immediately after that she was most vulnerable.

A few paces past the last stair, she stopped. Her body like a funeral pyre, it slowly took another shape. Wings emerging from her back as she shrunk, and a long willowy tail curled about her form. The fire darted around this transformation, anxious to free the firebird.

Then, just like that, it was gone. The fire collapsed upon itself, and no more flames could be seen. Light remained, brightly shining, as the bird of fire was left, her feathers gleaming and shifting like red hot coals. All the burning heat that had emanated so strongly moments before was almost completely gone now. That was what made this form so ungaurded, for the thick down and plumage that covered her severely blocked the heat. One would have to be touching her to feel it, and even then only a comfortable warmth.

Where a flaming woman stood a moment before, now a large and graceful bird stood in the grass, wings ready to fly.

"The Grandest of Feathered Fire..." the voice of Aranai sounded in the remaining silence, more a private thought than a statement.

((Alrighty... so here is a reference picture so you can get a better picture of her physical form as the firebird. Birds are hard to describe...
Firebird Ref Just... imagine that with more yellow and gold and you'll get her. Whoo.))

Several things happened all at once, forcing Cerdik's brain to move even faster. "Harmony still be a strivance of all humanity, willing to accept or not." It was shortly thereafter that Aranai moved out the door, giving off one final burst of heat before leaving Cerdik in the cold again.

He shivered and held himself even tighter, the leather book pressed unbelievably tight against his chest. A new feeling washed over Cerdik; it was a mixture of despair and anger. However, it was quite subtle, and therefore easily repressed.

Cerdik was yearning for the heat, though, and he moved toward the door, only briefly glancing at Khnui as he passed. "Magicks of such caliber be dangerous even with such skill tucked a-firmly beneath thy experienced belt." He smiled wanly. "Proverbs of old be direly informative, sir." Then he moved out the door toward the Phoenix.

Cerdik soon felt the heat and became relaxed once more. His grip on the book lessened some and he continued to approach the bird. It was quite beautiful, though he would never admit such a thing out loud. He could be heard muttering to himself under his breath the word, "Majestic," however.

For those moments, he became completely focused on this one point around him. It was a rare moment in Cerdik's life where awareness of everything around him seemed to fade out. Though the male-to-female transformation had been most unusual, and Khnui's back-firing runes had been devastating, this bird that brought forth a comforting heat held his attention most captive. In fact, Cerdik was much like a bug being lured to the light. The warmth relieved him of any discomfort he normally felt, and he couldn't turn his gaze from the glowering feathers.