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Oh s**t, oh s**t, oh s**t... Tanyeera stiffened at Shyrion's words and apprehensively watched the little girl to see how she'd react. Surely she wouldn't....

"A lesson?" Tanya blinked groggily, several emotions chasing themselves across her features as awareness returned to her. Hurt, bewilderment, confusion... finally though, her features set in anger. She scowled fiercely at Tanyeera, words bursting from her lips with the force of her fury.

"I don't like you any more! You're not nice! Not nice at all! I don't ever wanna see you again!"

She turned away from Tanyeera then and buried her face in Shyrion's chest, hot tears running from her eyes, tears she would not let Tanyeera see. How dare she! How dare Tanyeera... Tanyeera didn't like her... She didn't want to come for the party Shyrion had been so nice to set up... and she didn't like Tanya at all... The child's face contorted in misery and she hugged Shyrion even tighter, her small frame shuddering with silent sobs. At least Shyrion liked her...

Yakato found a small cave near the a village known as Axer. The village wasn't very far, but it was too far to walk in the blizzard. Near the cave was a dying tree and a small pile of rocks. It had looked like others had used this as a rest stop aswell. Yakato took the pile of rocks into the cave and arranged them into a circle. He went back to the dying tree and pulled off some branches he would use as fire wood. He placed the wood in a neat pile in the middle of the rocks and took on rock out of the circle as he pulled off his bow. He placed the rock on the bottom of the top blade and quickly ran the rock to the top giving a small amount of presure to the rock. Sparks flew from the blade. With a large grin across his face, Yakato ran the rock over the bow again and sparks flew off into the fire. Again and again, sparks flew off into the fire. On his fifth try, a fire ignited. Yakato sat infront of the fire to block the wind from blowing it out. He use the rock that he had to sharpen his blades. After a few hours of sharpening and intense thinking about what he'll do after learns anything about the Sacrad crystal in the next town, Yakato decided to practice his ice element. He stood up and placed his hands out infront of his chest. He concentrated on the cold around his and inside his heart, on the burden and the injustice placed upon him by his father, and the hatred toward the most destructive creature he had ever seen; the Ookami. Within seconds, his hands began to glow a cold blew and frost and snow blew out of his hands like a tiny blizzard. He concentrated on reforming the small blizzard and formed a long sword out of ice. The sword melted under Yakato's command and he decided to try something a little more extreme. He focused on making a wolf out of ice. An exact replica began to form a few feet infront of Yakato. When it was finished, he opened his eyes and looked at his work of art. Then, he pushed his powers even farther. He wanted to manipulate it so it acted like a real wolf. Yakato focused again by closing his eyes and putting his hands together as if he were praying. An intense, aggitated look formed across his face. Beads of sweat slide down his face. All of a sudden, Yakato could see. He hadn't opened his eyes, but he could see. He looked to his left, then to his right, and then straight forward. The sight made him jump back and yelp. His yelp. It sounded like that of a wolfs. He looked down to his feet. He had paws, but not just any paws, ice paws! He looked foward again. What he saw was himself in his meditative state. He had telepathicly moved into the ice wolf! But, how does he get out? Yakato began to panic, but he calmed himself down. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, concetrating on getting out. Within minutes, Yakato opened his eye and saw the ice wolf bowing its head to Yakato. He began to laugh in celebration, until he fell to his knees and then flat on his face in exhustion.

Extracting the lamb from the barnyard rubble the shepherdess holds him close and shushes the quivering fuzzball. Her arms have dried blood on them from freeing Synrai from the thorny imprisonment, so much has happened since then. Smelling the blood makes the lamb uncomfortable and he soon begins to bleat, flailing. Allowing the baby down to limp off to his mother, Felda returns to slowly searching the collapsed barn. The only lighting for her family's barn was produced by any lanterns they had. All their lanterns outdoors had been shattered by the fall of the building. Not wanting to hurt herself she continues to feel about slowly, until she feels something sticky, warm and furry. It's a large body, probably that of the old nag's, she's gone cold and unmoving. With a gasp Felda draws back her hand and stumbles to her feet. Jingling her bell-sphere she calls her flock to follow her towards the house. By now her parents have round up the pigs and cows as Vava has crated the clucking hens.
"Oh Felda, we realized you were still in the middle of Rizane and so we fretted...", her mother embraces her tightly, "Not that it was any safer here..."
The girl nods slowly and numbly holds her mother, still rather dazed. She is taken in the house by her grandmother to have her arms examined, the old woman uses some Warmth as well as rub them gently in herbal healing water to help ward off the throbs. Muffled shouts outside alert the girl. While Vava is cooking up some cornbread to soothe everyone, Felda scurries outside in time to hear some angry villagers. Many are gathering to try and overwhelm the shadowmen. The mob, with their hue and cry, have recruited Felda's father. Armed with their Fires and farming gear, Rizane's agriculture go off into their village to confront the shadowmen. Felda tidies up the house a bit to let distance grow between herself and the group in case her father should halt her. Biding her mother and Vava goodbye for now the shepherdess dashes off to the inn. She has to speak with the group of strangers, with Synrai and Link. There is still much light in the village. After a year of not seeing the aftermath of Felda's facial scars, most villagers stumble in their confusion and gawk at her or simply hurry on their way. Brushing off the heat of embarrassment the girl trots upstairs of the inn. Slowing at the bedroom door she knocks delicately but stubbornly, silently hoping that none of them are trying to rest right now. She'd just feel awful.
"I think there's going to be trouble, a group of villagers has set out after those...those things."

~~~

Ardan is struggling with a crowd of angry villagers, there are four guards against nearly half of Rizane. Other guards were outside, helping each other shoo small shadowmen. First the Council decreed they get rid of the dragons since the beasts are so large. Then somebody pointed out the Silverwing is among them and might help, so they said they'll send out rested guard units to attack the shadowmen but that doesn't seem to be working. The villagers are angered and break out of the Hall, pouring out into the streets to gather what they can to go into the woods, or help the guards fight the shadowmen. Ardan is lost in a crowd of angry families and begins to feel as frustrated as he is dizzy.

Show Tanyeera the Funnel Game... Remember how well it worked on Axys...

Tanya remembered... But she didn't want to do that to Tanyeera.... did she? Tanyeera didn't like her anymore... Tanya didn't want anything more to do with Tanyeera. Not even to show her the Funnel Game...

It was supposed to be so awesome! Tanyeera was supposed to watch Tanya play the Funnel Game and she was supposed to realise how cool it was Tanya could do such a thing! Then Tanyeera wouldn't be so uptight about Tanya playing with her pets and she, Tanyeera and Shyrion could all have played and had fun together forever and ever and been always happy...

But Tanyeera didn't like her anymore. She'd abandoned Tanya... and even when she and Tanya had been together, she hadn't let Tanya do anything fun anyway....

So why did her heart feel like there was an empty, aching, hollow spot in it?

Tanya felt Shyrion’s arms around her and looked at her friend’s… her only friend’s… smile. Shyrion was the only friend Tanya had now… The little girl didn’t feel much like doing anything with Tanyeera at the moment, not even using the Funnel Game on her. But… oh, what was the use anyway? She might as well.

Slowly, silently, Tanya nodded and her eyes filled with blackness.


Tanya…

Tanyeera was stricken, her every muscle paralyzed by the icy coldness that had invaded her body and stolen her strength. She watched, silently raging yet outwardly helpless as Tanya turned to Shyrion… hugging her… and believing every one of the Tainted ex-general’s lies… Now, in addition to her feverish chill, the fire mage felt a sick, leaden, roiling of her gut, like the undulations of some monstrous sea serpent…

And the worst part? Tanyeera knew full well that what she experienced was at the hands of none other than herself. If only she’d gotten here sooner… been stronger in the first place…

Tanyeera looked upon Tanya, upon the heart broken child with darkness beginning to fill her eyes… and felt her own heart break, her own soul drowning in icy dark despair.... The constantly flickering fire in her eyes dimmed, began to die...

Darkness rushed in to fill her, strong, sweet darkness, Shyrion's darkness, and Tanya felt blessed relief. Yes... of course, darkness was always there for her, wasn't it? No matter what, always there for her...

She was strongly tempted a moment, to simply bask in the darkness, keep it for herself and simply let it fill up and soothe the empty ache in her heart, but the temptation was banished by a pang of remorse. This was Shyrion's darkness after all, the darkness of the only friend she had left... It'd be horrible of her to just take it and give nothing back.

So, with single-minded determination, she concentrated on swirling the darkness she had, that kept pouring into her. It moved sluggishly at first, a strange thing since Tanya had never known it to happen before. But if it was slower to start up for some reason, it was also.... deeper. There was a strange depth to it now, that had nothing to do with its volume.

While this might once have intrigued and excited Tanya, as anything new about darkness was worth knowing about, at this moment, she couldn't really bring herself to care very much, if at all. All she wanted to do was get the Funnel Game over with, then Tanyeera would be gone and Tanya wouldn't have to have anything more to do with her.

Little did she know, the strange depth in the darkness had come from her own self, from the bottomless reaches of her own despair. It was that which made the darkness so poignant, so strangely concentrated though at first it moved sluggishly.

When finally a black spear burst from her heart to leap into Shyrion, it was the strongest darkness Tanya had ever created... but as she sent the power along; all unwitting, she sent her own emotions, of loss, despair, heartache... with it.


Come on Tanyeera! Do you wanna save your friend or not?

The words snapped the fire mage out of her horrified trance and banished the cold from her body as surely as applying a spark to an oil-soaked rag. Tanyeera gritted her teeth and her eyes seemed to blaze with incandescent heat, the fires leaping about and flashing more colorfully than ever before. She had to get Tanya back, she had to rescue Tanya!

The grass began to smoke under her feet and a white hot blaze of energy started to gather in her hands. With a short, sharp motion, a comet erupted to race directly for the Tainted woman, trailing ribbons of heat and... not a comet at all, but more like a kind of spider. Even if Shyrion stopped the main body, the 'legs' would lance forward to spear her through the head, the sides... anywhere they could reach through her shield but not hit Tanya.