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{I do not know what to put as the tittle. xD;;}

Dragain walked towards the park, feeling that she had to go there now. Ayden and Elana were walking closely behind her. It was only an hour ago had she woke up from a weird dream, one with someone she had never met before... However, she had saw Ayden in the dream as well, and took it as a sign.

"Well, dream or not, you two want to go to the park as well, right?"

Elana clutched her brother's hand, and nodded at her mother's question. She had felt the urge to go, although it was in the middle of the night. Both Ayden and her had woke up at the same time from a dreamless sleep, their hands linked together tightly.

She knew Ayden had felt the urge to go as well. The bond they shared meant that she could almost read her brother's thoughts, and she knew that Ayden could read hers as well. They were so similar, yet so different in their own way... She had a feeling Ayden would not sleep beside her again after tonight.

Ayden did not answer Dragain's question, nor did he want to. He saw no point in going to the park, and he would rather be sleeping at home. However, Elana had insisted that he went along, and there was no way he could refused his sister.

"Nothing's going to happen," Ayden assured Elana, offering her a warm smile. "We'll soon be back at home, sleeping."

"You wanted to come to the park too, right? I could feel it."

"Elana..."

Ayden sighed, looking at Dragain's back view from where he was walking. He knew that Elana was nervous about having him staying with her family, although he knew she was happy to be with him. He winced, thinking of what had happened to his guardian.

He couldn't possibly blame Elana for wanting her to find a new guardian soon...

((I think the title explains itself fine ^.^))

Being the nocturnal type, it wasn't odd for the young woman, Nina, to be prowling about at night. Though tonite felt a little bit different. This wasn't just the urge for some doughnuts as a midnight snack. Her walk tonite seemed purposeful.

As her worn black sneakers found themselves walking through the grass of the local park, something outside of the half feline felt as if it were calling her out. Maybe it was the odd sensation she got from the dream that found her in her sleep just before going out.

Shrugging to herself, the cat type smiles while feeling a bit silly at how caught up in her thoughts she was. Most times after waking, there was barely a thought to fill her head for at least a half hour.

Taking a break to lean up against a nice sturdy oak, the blonde woman pulls her leather looking jacket closer around herself as her sea green eyes noticed each breath she took coming out in tiny white puffs. It was almost beyond her, why she was even out and not curled up in a warm bed, but still that nagging feeling wouldn't set her free.

{That's good. x3}

Dragain paused, stopping a distance away from where she had saw a figure in the park. Turning back to look at the two children behind her, she took Elana's hand and pulled both of them forward. She had a feeling all the answers to the questions swirling around in her head, were contained in this one female.

Striding over, Dragain stopped a metre in front of the woman. She caught sight of her face, and greeted her with a warm smile. Yes, she recognised that face. It was the face of the stranger who had appeared in her dreams just a few hours before this. Was she somehow connected to Ayden?

"I... Uh... You might find it difficult to believe," Dragain spoke with some hesitation as she let out a nervous laugh. "I'm Dragain, and I really need a talk with you. It's of real importance. I hope you don't mind, Miss...?"

Elana and Ayden turned to look at each other, before looking at the two adults before them. Dragain had said that the talk was of 'importance', and since she had took them with her... It must be regarding the twins.

"Elana," Ayden whispered, talking in a language that sounds alien only to others. "Are you thinking, what I am thinking about?"

"Yes, I think so..." Elana replied softly in that same tongue, before biting her lip. "Is that... No, is she going to be your new mum?"

"I don't need a new mum! Besides, I'll rather stay here with you..."

Ayden narrowed his eyes, looking down at his shoes with an almost child-like temper. He don't want a new guardian... Look what he had done to his previous one! However, he knew about Elana's fear of the same thing happening to Dragain.

"How about it, Ayden? I promise to bring Elana over often," Dragain smiled, looking at the boy. She hoped she don't sound like she's rushing things... The whole 'get him a new guardian' thing might prove to be difficult for him to accept.

She turned her eyes to Nina, and gave a silent agreement. She had met Ayden's previous guardian, and even she could see that she was happy to look after him... Until the last minute.

Ayden looked up, his eyes filled with feelings of uncertainty and surprise. He looked into this woman's eyes, wondering if she really meant what she had just said. He knew his mother loved him as much as he cared for her, but when he had found out what had happened to her... Well, to say the truth, he was too afraid to go near anyone.

He had thought long and hard before going to Elana. Even then, he was afraid to go near her family members.

"I... I just don't want to go through losing anyone again." He finally muttered, looking away from Nina. He was frightened of getting attached to her, then going through the process of losing his mother again. Staying silent for a moment, he looked up at the woman.

Giving a small and almost shy smile, he continued, "But if you don't mind me... I won't mind calling you my mother either."

Elana broke into a smile as she looked at Ayden. He had finally started to walk out of his own barrier... All thanks to Nina! She let go of her brother's hand, and gave a nod when he looked at her. It was time for him to have a new family.

{From here, you can RP as Ayden. x3}

((Alright, lets do this thing biggrin ))

"Not only that, but we'll visit them just as much," Nina notes as well. Catching the young boy's gaze, she does her best to tell him everything was going to be alright with her own eyes. The feline barely notices her light hand rising to rub the soft white lockes of Ayden's hair.

Those large ears atop her head slowly rise and fall as the blonde woman listened carefully to his concern but shakes her head promptly with a smile still. "You don't have to worry about me going anywhere. Us felines have nine lives afterall, right?" While she hadn't ever tried or even dared to find out how much truth was in that idea, it would hopefully help them both rest a little easier.

Staring almost intently as the young Tale decided his new fate, the cat type's big smile returned as he gave her permission to take him in. Not wasting a moment, she wrapped him right up in her arms to huggle him up to the cotton shirt she was wearing under her coat.

"I knew you'd make the right choice," she beams, holding onto him for dear life. It almost felt like tears might stream down her cheeks if she didn't do something, so she quickly blurts, "I can't wait to get you home, and put you in a pretty pink dress!"

Not exactly sure what to do once she embraced him, the dark Tale slowly ushers one of his arms around her back until her last sentence. Then he was squirming right in her tight hold to get free. "B- but why?" he asks, almost looking pleading for the rest of his family to give him a hand.

"It's my hobby," she teases further before finally setting the youngster free, but makes sure to catch his hand so he wouldn't scamper away with second thoughts. "But it's late, isn't it everyone? I'm sorry to keep you all out so late."

{*nods* x3}

Dragain laughed, giving a shake of her head. Taking Elana's hand, she gave a smile, "It's no problem! After all, I have a feeling that if I didn't come here to meet you today, fate wouldn't let it go either... I'm sure that you'll have fun with Ayden... And he'll enjoy being with you."

Elana gave a nod of agreement, looking at Ayden with shining eyes. Although part of her was upset to see him go, part of her was happy that he was starting life all over again. Maybe they can visit each other on Christmas Eve to sing carols together.

Giving her brother a wink, the girl giggled, "You'll look pretty in a pink dress, Ayden!"

"I'm sure he will," Dragain chipped in, before turning to face Nina. "It is late, and I'm sure the kids wouldn't mind sleep for the rest of the night... I know that I'm itching to get back in bed!" She gave a pause before continuing, "Well then, Elana and I better head for home... We'll see you again soon."

With that, she turned and walked away, following the path she took when she had first entered the park. Elana looked back, over her shoulder, and gave Ayden a good bye wave. She hoped that 'soon' will come fast.

Sleeping... It felt like he had been sleeping for so very long. The Tale's memory could barely recall what had happened before falling into his lengthy slumber. Or maybe he didn't wish to remember what had happened. However, the time for resting had passed. Ayden's consciousness slowly grew like a tiny ember spreading into a small fire. Though it seemed like someone's words had stirred him. An urgent and terrified voice had referred to he and his sister, and the young boy wanted to speak out to find out more. As he tried to speak, the words failed to escape from his mouth. That is when the fear began to creep inside him as well. Ayden tried to cry out with all his might, but all he could feel was choking air force its way through, like his throat was being held tight.

Finally the small fire erupted in a sudden blaze as his consciousness snapped awake with a violent jolt through his body. "HELP!!" his voice rang out so clearly now in the suffocating emptiness that surrounded him. The boy was awake now, he was sure of it. Though his open eyes could only see darkness and his ears could only hear silence. The air was so thin and stifling around him as he tried to move about, but he was trapped. The young Tale's panic grew more intense as he struggled in his confinement and pleaded for help. "ELANA, NINA, ANYONE! HELP ME!!"

Thud after thud of his balled up fists pound against the invisible wall in front of him until something finally gave. With a loud crack and creak, a doorway seemed to have been jarred open by his efforts. Giving one last shove forward, the sky opened up in front of him as the lid that had trapped him fell to one side. Cool fresh air washed over his form as he quickly sat up to find himself in a dense forest. Ayden could only sit there in wonder for the moment, trying to figure out exactly where he was and how he had gotten there. Finally pulling himself out of his temporary prison, he sits at its edge to find he was encased in an old pine coffin this whole time.

"Elana!" he calls out once more, still too scared and in shock to move from where he woke. "Nina!" he shouts out once more into the silent wood that refused to answer back. Letting his gaze fall to the dusty ground, the dark Tale swallows to the knot that had found its home in the back of his throat. "I'm all alone again..." he mutters lightly on his breath. "...what did I do this time?" While he didn't notice it right away, the young tail wasn't as alone as he thought. Others began to stir in the near distance, and any hopes for being reunited with his family lay with them.

The sea of doubt resting atop the dark Tale's shoulders wasn't given the chance to last for very long. As his pupils quickly shrunk, a shudder ran up Ayden's spine and drags his attention back to his surroundings. However, he couldn't put words to the unexplainable feeling that had rocked his form. It was like he wasn't alone anymore, but it also wasn't comforting at all. Almost as if someone was watching him from a hiding place that he couldn't see with his own eyes.

The woods around the white haired boy seemed to shift a bit as he became more aware of his surroundings. The forest simply seemed frightening in his mind, so upon taking a closer look, it was just an ordinary thicket with the moon hanging overhead. Swallowing to his dry throat, Ayden begins to think, "I promised I wouldn't be such a frady cat anymore. What if Elana's in trouble right now?" That was about all it took for him to find a flicker of courage and drag him up to his feet.

"Sitting alone here won't help. I have to find Elana and get us home again." After the last word, the dark Tale extends his leathery wings out glides off in one direction. His sense of his fellow Tales' energies told him there were some nearby. None of them felt like Elana, but they might have been in contact with her recently. Any little bit of information would help.

Finally there in the distance, Ayden thought he could see someone and the very edge of the forest surrounding him, but the closer he drew, the farther the woods seemed to stretch. It was like someone was playing a cruel game with him, teasing the youth with something just out of his grasp. But this Tale wasn't in the mood for games, and wafted his wings harder against the wind to send him flying forward even faster.

As it seemed that he might reach that gap that bridged his forest world with the next, something landed him right on his feet again. "You shouldn't go near them," a voice echoes lightly to him, though the young Tale can't tell if its from somewhere nearby or from inside his own head. "They don't trust you. They want to hurt you." Looking warrily around him, Ayden doesn't see anyone nearby as he calls out, "Who's there? What is this place?"

"You'll just trouble them if you get too near," it continues to warn without revealing itself.

The sound of the person's voice seemed so familiar but it still made the dark Tale want to shudder. "if- If any of them knows where Elana is, then I have to get to them," he explains and gets ready to sprint off again.

"Then pay close attention as you try to approach them," the mysterious voice advises before the Tale can take his first step. "Their worlds will slowly begin to shrink and converge as you get closer to them." By this point, Ayden was already running towards the other Tales again, all the while, trying to escape the voice that refused to distance itself no matter how hard he ran. "The edges of their worlds will grow darker, and the materials that they are made of will harden into cold stone until you are all trapped together."

The white haired boy did his best to try and ignore the constant babble in his ears but as he watched the nearby island worlds, he could see exactly what the voice had predicted. Slowing his pace to a stop, he couldn't help but wonder if he was really the cause of this. "Once you're trapped with them, they'll turn on you and blame you," the hidden voice continues to whisper into his ear.

"How do you know they'll do that?" Ayden whimpers back as the one chance at finding his sister and home seemed to be slipping through his fingers. The young Tale couldn't just sit there again and just wait to be rescued, but he also couldn't ignore the effect he seemed to have on his surroundings. As his doubt and fear began to creep back in, his forest gradully grows thicker and colder. The voice's words continue to do their job, as bits and pieces of the tiny worlds slowly harden and get eaten away, barely noticable to anyone not paying attention.

Like a dark patch barely noticable from the corner of one's eye, the nightmare Tale had finally fought passed his misgivings and fears to the edge of his world. And while he was closer than ever to the rest of his fellow Tales, he couldn't be further away. From outside his prison you could see his balled up fists pound on an invisible wall and his mouth shouting loudly but no sounds could leak out.

"Everyone - Anyone! Hello!?" his young voice cried desperately to seemingly deaf ears. Ayden had hoped that maybe, just maybe, if he could get close enough to them all then he could get some answers. At least he wouldn't be alone again.

Swallowing to his dry throat, he just rests his forehead to the clear wall, sandwiching his stark white hair in between. It felt like being brushed into someone's crazy painting where you're supposed to be seen and not heard. Giving a half hearted smile to himself, the boy thinks, "at least the voice gave me a rest." The dark skinned Tale continued to watch the other Tales interact with his bright yellow eyes, all be it rather hostile amongst one another.

Perhaps the mysterious other person was as amused with the Tales' antics as much as he was for the time being. Or maybe he had made it up in his head from being so scared about being alone once more. Ayden's train of thought cuts off as he watched one of the Tales brandish his dagger and has it plunge into the space around him. Just then his pupils shrink as it feels like a blow had sunk in just under his ribs to knock him off his feet and drop to his knees.

"Hngh~!" is all he can moan out at the dull ache in his stomach, but the odd thing is that peculiar voice wails out in his ears right along with him. With a tiny thud, the top of his head rests up against the clear wall again and his red tattooed arms wrap around his belly. "wh- what are you cryin' for?" the young one huffs on his labored breath.

No one answers.

"You don't need to cry unless," the nightmare Tale starts to reason to himself. "Unless you're in here with me!" he almost shouts as he presses his palm up to his forehead, feeling it ache lightly as well. "What are you doin' in my head?! Get out!!" he cries and shakes his head about in a childish fit.

The youngster suddenly stops and his lips begin to move beyond his control. "How do you expect me to leave, when I am you?" the strangely familiar voice oozes from his mouth. Rising to his feet once more, the Tale has much more of a sneer on his face with narrowed eyes as he sees the other Tales in their drifting cells.

"Look at them all, just sitting around bickering with one another like there isn't a care in the world." Ayden can feel his lips moves, and these words escape from his throat, but he has almost no control left to do anything to stop it. "If they really want to quarrel then we should give them something to fight about, don't you agree?" His arm begins to rise but tenses and twitches on its way up as the young Tale inside tries his hardest to get control back over his body. Finally it comes up over his head while the trees in the dark forest behind him begin to rustle.

The sound of dry branches creaking and light dripping noises fill the air. A few moments of this pass before a countless number of birds begin to billow out into the night sky. Their gurgling caws and splattering wing flaps can be heard circling all around the dark Tale until he motions his hand forward and a large wave of them begin to fly straight into the barrier. Ayden can only watch helplessy as he feels the intent that this other side of him wishes to do using this murder of crows.

From the dark splotch off in the distance, tiny dots begin to flow out of the small area like bees flying out of a hive. The small swarm appears to grow as they draw in nearer to all of the Tale's island realities. That distinct gurgling caw and spattering wing flaps can gradually be heard from the many gathering birds circling overhead in droves. Smally inky dots fall from their feathers wherever they fly and a foul temper is ready to greet anyone careless enough to get to close to any of them.

Watching with an amused grin as the swarm reached out to envelope their prey, Ayden didn't have the chance to enjoy the spectacle as he had been found out. Clenching his new golden gaze tight, the dark Tale was thrown into a short trip that ended in a hard slam against the stone walls of the expansive tower. Gritting his teeth, the white haired boy struggles but finds himself imprisoned once more, just after it seemed he would be able to escape his last confinements. "Accursed old man," he grunts to himself, knowing that he was probably just talking to himself again. "Don't think I'll just sit here, and let you keep using me."

Calming his senses with a long breath, his two eyes remain closed but begins to imagine a third one in his forehead. Before long, his sight is returned to him through one of the inky black crows. Flying in place high above its breatheren, it takes stock of all the chaos that Ayden had rained down since his absense. "Good, they're weakened and in disaray." His flock was slowly thinning though. The nightmare Tale hadn't created them survive the kind of beating that the older Tales were delivering. But those same Tales had strewn about enough of his dark splotches onto the ground to move forward.

"What's that? What're you doin' now?" a tiny voice inside the boy's head calls out. "Quiet. If you ever want to get out of here, then stop pestering me," Ayden mutters to himself. Its then that his wrist moves a little. True his body was pinned down, but his wrist was still free enough and he had sight of the battlefield. His fingers position themselves as if they're holding a brush and begins stroking this way and that. "Now that I have a gateway between me and the other Tales, then I can borrow some energy and escape this old fool's clutches," the dark Tale thinks silently.

From one of the small pools of black ink and crow remains, a bubble pops. Then slowly, something begins to rise from the darkened mess. A small hand pushes its way into the tiny world made for the captured Tales. As the battle rages all around, a child sized ink covered body drags itself out of the tiny pool. Laying there a moment, its unseeing eyes try to seek out any nearby prey as its nostrils gurgle to suck in any scent that had magic about it. Zeroing in on the nearest Tale, it clumsily rises to its feet like a puppet being pulled up on a string and starts its slow walk to catch its victim. All around, other hands and heads begin to appear from the defeated crow corpses to join in on the slow zombie like march in search of living magic.

"Cut that out!" the young Tale cries out from inside his own head. "I dun wanna get free like this!" he continues to protest. "Quiet down," the golden eyed version snaps back. "You'll break my concentration."