Welcome to Gaia! ::

Bay'lohved sat bolt upright in his bed, sweat pouring down his face as he tried to give his heart a chance to slow it's frantic beating. Something about himself lately scared him.

Slowly the room faded from an angry misty red to its normal soft, early morning glow as he began to wake up, and the feeling began to return to his legs as he dislodged the blankets which had become all tangled around him in the night... during the nightmare...

He pulled his aching body out of the small bed and headed straight for the teappot. He knew there was a dose of Salnbark powder there on the countertop just waiting to dull all his senses. Raechel had warned him about the overuse of such a drug, but Bay didn't care... He loathed this feeling.

He'd been having the same nightmare for the past three or four months. Every time he closed his eyes... the desire for power, the need to destroy all things... the hunger... so hungry, like he hadn't eaten in years, and nothing could satisfy that need... nothing except the flesh. The flesh... the uncooked meat of a hateful rabbit dog. Good for nothing but eating. It had been so long since he'd had the juicy flesh of a jivvin in his mouth, rolling around on his tongue, through his teeth as the blood flowed unchecked over his muzzle, down his mane... He longer most for a spicy Daewl, or better yet a tender Afya... such power... so much to be gained... so much to...

Bay slapped himself in the face. This was not his dream. These were not his feelings. He didn't have a muzzle or even mane hair anymore, and he most certainly did not EVER thirst for the blood of another jivvin... but lately... Bay shook his head again. This dream was getting worse and worse. Four months ago it had started out as just a twinge here and there every once in a while... but now... even now he could remember the taste... the feel... the power... and even though he was repulsed by the thought itself, Bay couldn't bring himself to say he didn't want the blood... didn't need it.

He dumped two measures of Salnbark powder into his tea that morning. He just wanted all his feelings to go completely numb, and he didn't care if it killed him... perhaps... perhaps he deserved to die.

Gus walked very slowly through the woodlands. Something about the forest itself and the darkness scared him.

He took a deep breath and savored the cool fresh air around him. Every moment of his life lately had been trying and long and full of that very unique brand of casino commercialism. It was just nice to get away from it all. And on top of that, he was going to get to see his sister again in a little while. Despite himself, Gus found that he was quite excited. He hadn't seen Satou in over a year, in fact, the whole family had all about given up hope. His own mother, Keppit, had publicly voiced the opinion that Satou must have died in some battle long long ago. Gus smiled to himself quickly. That was the way Satou would have wanted, really, if it had happened... but apparently Satou was alive and well (despite being 70 years older and having been one of the catalysts for some dramatic event in history) and wanted to see him here in the woods just after dawn.

He watched briefly as a bat flew across the sky, eager to get away from the dawning light. It was exactly the opposite for the blue earred jivvin. He wanted nothing to do with the dark, and prefered the light to make continual appearances in his life. Something about these woods spooked him, but this was where Satou had wanted to meet, and so this is where Gus would be.

Jaspin cowered in the crook of a fallen rotten tree. Something about the light scared him.

He had spent at least an hour mentally calling for Meros (technically the better half of his personality) praying and hoping against all odds that the stronger demon would come out and take control over their shared body... but even that prospect scared him.

He growled to himself. Why did everything scared him? What right did a demon even have to be scared? And not only that, be he was scared all the time... of everything. On top of that he was hungry. He wanted nothing but to eat someone... something... a jivvin... oh gods he was hungry. He didn't even know when the last time Meros had been in control, and even then he didn't know what the other demon did when he was in control. That was the worst part. Jaspin may have actually had a jivvin for dinner in the last week, and didn't know it because it would have been Meros that would have done the eating. He growled again.

There would come a day... there would come a day when the white witch would die... Jaspin would eat her. His mouth began to drool with the thought... he gain her power, and he would watch her die. Then he would be powerful enough to kill Meros, and he would watch Meros scream and writhe in pain. Then he would eat whoever and whatever he wanted... all the power would be his and he'd be in control every day, and would always know where he had been, what he had been doing and who he had eaten...

His head snapped to the side as he heard the telltale crunch of a twig snapping nearby. Somebody was walking through the woodlands, oh so very close. Jaspin flattened himself against the forest floor and allowed the shared body of Meros-Jaspin to fade mostly into a smoky presence. It was a moment of two before he saw the jivvin. Not too tall, black hair, blue ears and tail... he was in the slowest jivvin form, with two legs, and he was blundering his way through the woods making all kinds of noise.

Jaspin's mouth watered... lunchtime.

(( Play Wegs? ))

Bay picked his head up from the brush outside his cabin and wiped the vomit off his face. This was getting bad. He'd never felt that way before.

The sudden urge to eat... to devour another jivvin. The worst part was that this time he could see a jivvin in his head. A youngish jivvin male, blue ears and tail with absolutely no markings and the poor man looked terrified. The feeling had come upon him so quickly that Bay had actually felt like he wasn't quite himself, and that scared him as well.

"I'm losing my mind."

"What?"

Bay spun around, half expecting to find nobody there, but instead saw Hyla's current fling... what was his name... standing not five feet away, staring at him in mild confusion.

"Nothing." Bay wiped his mouth and nose with one of his comically overpuffed sleeves to make sure he'd gotten it all. He glanced up at the other jivvin, and noticed that the man was standing in what could be considered Bay's yard. He had flaming red hair in a tight little mess, and leg braces up his entire leg. "Can I help you friend?"

"huh? ... Oh! I'm sorry, I was just wondering if you'd mind giving me a hand with this ladder. I'm not too steady on good solid ground, so up a ladder I know I need a helping hand." He looked Bay up and down quickly. "But if you're not feeling well..."

"I'm fine..." Bay somehow managed what he felt to be a heartfelt smile.

"Are you sure? You look like you haven't slept in a million years." The red headed jivvin looked genuinely concerned. "You've got puffy eyes, complete with two week baggage and .... not to mention... should... down over there..."

Bay's head began to swim as he tried to focus on what the other man was saying, but somehow he was fading away.... why was the red headed jivvin so far away all of a sudden?

The white jivvin hit the dirt path between his house and Hyla's with a dull thud as he passed out.

(( Now, someone with a woodland jivvin who wants in for a moment can feel free to find Bay and Kamin, or Kamin can come and find your character for help... otherwise I'll feel free to move on by myself again XD ... heart ))

Gus stared warily at the strange looking Jivvin in front of him... tail thin with a blade at the end, hair and mane about as wispy as they could get, brown fur with blue twinges here and there. Somthing about the jivvin repelled him but anytime he moved his leg sent painful shocks up his spine... he was pretty sure that it was something close to broken, but there were no bones sticking out or anything so he couldn't be sure. Maybe he was just a wimp when it came to pain... after all nothing like this hadd ever happened to him before...

I can help you The other jivvin had said... but what did that mean? Did that mean that the other jivvin could take away his pain? Could help him get unlost? Could get him a better job than the one at the casino? That was pushing the wishlist a little, but with that thought Gus realized that he wasn't as frightened as he had believed.

"I'm Gus Kalhoun. Who and what are you?" He shifted slightly and winced as his leg became a firey ball of pain.

Jassssspin. The other jivvin hissed. And I am your friend... I will take the pain away....

Gus sighed. Pain away was a good thing. "How." He found himself surprised at how demanding he was being. "How will you fix my leg?"

I will ssssshow you how. I will show you the powers of Afya and help you fix your own leg. You have power to heal right? All Afya do."

Gus was suddenly dismayed. "No. All Afya do not have healing powers. And I'm about the weakest and wimpiest Afya there ever was. The only good thing I ever did was get a Mage jivvin on my side, and then he had to go and get himself killed or something..." Gus sighed sadly, suddenly lost in his own thoughts. He hadn't seen Fen or Tifa or Kylara or Bruce... He hadn't seen anyone that he used to call friend for over two years. "I don't have anything. Powers first and foremost considering that I've NEVER had those."

The other jivvin smiled. let me try.

"Try all you might, I don't have powers."

Give me PERMISSION! The sudden forcefulness of the other jivvin caught Gus off guard and his original fear returned... why did this other jivvin want to help Gus so very badly? And if Gus said no? I want... I want to show you... I can help. The voice of the other jivvin whined it's way through Gus's head. He sounded desperate... and something in the plea must have appealed to Gus's Afya breeding because he ofund himself nodding his head slightly.

Within a moment of Gus having given Jaspin permission to help him, Jaspin reduced himself to smoke form and invaded Gus's Body.

Gus screeched... or, he would have if he had still been in control.

Jaspin walked confidently across the last field before Keppit's house. Once he had posessed Gus's body and taken all the jivvin's strength and energy, he'd been able to ransack Gus's mind and assemble all the information into helpful little bundles. Every once in a while, he could feel Gus protesting mildly from some corner of the conscious, but the jivvin man was basically just fading in and out of a rational state of mind. Jaspin just grinned and rolled his eyes in his new head. "You'd think that you'd never seen a Valz before. Stupid Jivvin." He glanced down at his hands for about the twentieth time since he'd started this and flexed them exprimentally. There was something familiar about the sensation that he just couldn't put his finger on... finger... fingers... He flexed them again. "Honestly. I never expected to come across a jivvin like you. Quite so weak, quite so stupid, quite so gullible. Even your thoughts were right out there in the open for me to take and use... By the Three Doors! It's like someone left you there in the woods just for me."

Jaspin stopped short suddenly and looked into the clearing in front of him. There was a tall, yet small, cabin with a little yard, a shed, and all the cute little trimmings of everyday human life. It made the Vahlz sick to Gus's stomach.

"Whasss... Noo... please!" Gu's voice rang weakly through Jaspin's new head, but the Valz just dissmissed it with a smile.

"This... little abomination... this, this is the house you grew up in. This is were your mother and your little brothers and sisters live... This is where you keep all your journals and keepsakes, and where I'll be camping out until I can get back to the village. I've got a score to settle with your kind."

As Jaspin spoke, two small jivvin sprites came gallavanting around the corner. A little pink one running at full speed and shouting playfully, followed closely by a little green one with metal coloured front paws. Jaspin smiled horribly.... "But first... I'm hungry."

~~~~

Bay sat blot upright in his bed, for the umptienth time in as many weeks, and grabbed at his throbbing head. He could hear and feel the horrified screams of jivvin sprites, and of jivvins as if they were right here in the room with him... and he could feel the unbridled esctacy of someone causing the pain and screaming. It was horrifying and Bay began to shout to the room for it to stop... Then it did... The screams stopped, and the silence came. But within a split second, Bay knew that this was worse... the feelings were all still there. The panic, the terror, the despair... whoever had been making all the noise before was just too terrified to open their mouths... they were just watching in horror... Bay suddenly found that he could almost see what was going on. In fact, the more he sat there on the bed, clutching at his skull, the images became clearer... more defined... stronger. He began to see through the eyes of the cause of all the terror...

What he saw made him confused, for it caused him to feel too many conflicting feelings... he saw what appeared to be his hands... no, not his hands, the hands that belonged to this other creature... human hands... Jivvin hands... he saw his tail, long and blue... the tips of his ears sticking out beside his own head, also blue... he saw a small green sprite huddling in terror at the base of a glass patio table... but worst....

worst of all was the motionless form of a small pink jivvin lying dead in his hands, being torn to shreds... the sheer despair of a voice far away crying 'it's not me, this isn't me, please forgive me, Shade` I'm so sorry, this isn't me' over and over again... and Bay's own complete satisfaction at having finally gotten something decent to consume.

Bay shook his head and launched himself off of the covers, over to the countertop that was covered in Salnbark tea leaves. Somehow he knew that the image was too strong to be able to banish it with the tea leaves, but he scrambled through them anyway. He felt like he was seeing double... the things that were in front of him here, and at the same time, somewhere decently far away, where some little sprite was getting torn to shreds and devoured peice by peice...

That's right... and now... now I'm even more powerful! Bay raised his head... the voice wasn't talking to him... didn't know he was there... but he could hear it.... it was almost...

almost as if he'd said it himself.

"What kind of a deal?" The blue earred jivvin man almost hissed the words. Something in his mannerisims told Bay thay he was very interested in hearing what the taller jivvin had to offer... but what did he have to offer?

"I'm not sure." He sighed inwardly. This really wasn't as smooth as it could be, but Bay was no vhaid, no Uuthli, and he certainly was no sargtlin... he was just a stupid cripple afya who most of the village ignored. What was he supposed to offer this other jivvin. He knew the man was currently being possessed by a Valzhin, that much was obvious to someone who'd dealt with the creatures before... but what did the demon jivvins want out of life? Besides the normal death, destruction and power, none of which Bay was capable of offering. So he decided to be honest. "I don't know what you want. Why don't you tell me?"

~~~~

Jaspin wiggled and danced around uncomfortably inside Gus's body. What did he want. What did he want? What kind of deal was that? He was too confused and heady with power right now to know anything about what he wanted... all he could think about was killing this tall afya in front of him. Tearing the man into shreads so small that they'd never be able to tell him apart from the sand on the ground. His lips, Gus's lips, curled into a snarl not natural to Quen faces, and he growled. This Afya had.... had... DAMMIT! Why couldn't he remember what it was that this jivvin had done to him? He'd taken... something... but all Jaspin knew was that he wanted to kill this other man, and he wanted to kill him now...

But how could he kill him AND know what he had done? He either had to get information for the Jivvin, or he had to have the jivvin himself. "your name."

"Bay'lohved." He replied without hestation. But for Jaspin it just wasn't enough. Suddenly the same image of the woman's face that had appeared earlier came back, unbidden. She had the hollowed out appearance of a jivvin allowed themselves to be possessed... and then in the vision she faded off to the left and lovingly embraced another jivvin... at first the other jivvin was just a blur, but within seconds it slowly cleared and became a tall blonde man with white ears...

"Naya!" Jaspin shook his head to clear the image, and as he was doing so, he became aware that he wasn't the one who had spoken... the white earred jivvin in front of him had. With the spoken name, more of the memory came flodding back to him... there was a woman, He, Jaspin, had possessed her with her permission... something about healing... something about deception... and then... this man, this Bay, whoever he was... he'd killed Naya. But how had he known to speak that name? Was it possible that the man could see what he'd seen? As Jaspin came back out of the vision and into the real world again he looked the other man up and down. Yes, it was deffitely the same jivvin from the memory, only this one had more of that hollowed out look to him... was he posessed? Anything was possible at this point, Jaspin figured...

"I think I know who you are..." Jaspin nodded.

Bay looked over at the Jaspin in confusion... "And I think I know who you are."

"You killed her. I watched you."

~~~~~

Bay has gasped as he suddenly saw Naya through the eyes of the Valz. This must be the same demon who had possessed her, and thus ruined both thier lives... He was completely prepared to launch himself onto the Valz, until he heard that horrible sentance.... 'You... killed... her.'

The man dropped his head, and took his gaze off the Valz for the first time since he'd stood up. He had. He had killed Naya. It was not only the worst thing an Afya could do... it was the worst thing anyone could have ever done to him or another person. And he'd done it. It was probably the only sentance that the Valz could have spoken to completely break Bay's spirit... and so he raised his head up to the other man with shame writing stories in his features.

"What do you want?"

"You..." The Valz hissed.... "I want you."

Bay didn't even sigh. He was well beyond that. He didn't deserve to be spared over this other jivvin, no matter how rotten or dispicable the man might be. "Done. Me in exchange for whoever it is that you currently are." He held his hand out to the other man as if to shake on the deal...

And Jaspin/Gus reached out and took it.

It was several hours later that Gus found himself staring down into their campfire, watching one particular strand of flame that had gotten separated from the main fire. It seemed to burn with an intensity more vallient than the rest, because it was fighting to live. It didn't have any other fire left around it to lend it heat and keep it going... it had to do all that on it's own.

Gus let his vision shift up over the fire to where the Bay creature lay snoring fitfully in the leaves and dirt. They hadn't even left the place where Gus had woken hours earlier. At first, when he'd seen the other jivvin standing over him, he'd been oiverjoyed that he'd been rescued... and now? Well now, except for the fact that he was oh so glad to not be posessed anymore, he wasn't sure he was much better off. He couldn't feel anything from the thighs down. Split seconds after Bay had grabbed his leg in a hand... that hand... he'd never seen healing powers like that. And if it was true? If Bay could use them badly, such as stopping a heart, or things like that? Gus shuddered. Of course it was true! The other jivvin had as much proved it with what he'd done to Gus. The second Bay had grabbed his leg with that healed hand, Gus had gone numb from the thighs down. Then Bay had mumbled something about needing to warm up, and had quickly built this fire with some flint from his belt pouch. And now the other jivvin was laying passed out across the way, while Gus lay here wishing he had the courage to do something.

He'd seen movies about war where one soldier would get wounded in the legs and then comando crawl his way to safety, sometimes even taking other wounded soldiers with him. He'd read books where someone who had been kidnapped suddenly amassed so much courage that they were able to dispose of whoever was doing the kidnapping once thier back was turned. He'd even written a story once about a young jivvin who had the courage to stand up to evil by being it's only friend... Oh god, how he wished that Fen were here right now... What good was a promise to never let anything bad happen to him when the jivvin doing all the promising had to go and get killed, or whatever had happened to Fen.

Gus sighed and shifted uncomfortably. He had to pee... badly. As bay was taking away all the feeling and motion in his legs, he'd explained the process to Gus. It was horrifying, to say the least, but he could remember Bay saying something about not wanting to carry around a jivvin who'd wet himself... something about leaving feeling where Gus would really need feeling.

He turned over once more and stared into the slowly dying fire. He wished that it would catch the other jivvin's stupid white shirt, or pants or something and burn this whole mess away. But if that happened, then how would Gus ever get feeling back? He returned his eyes to the one, small flame that was struggling still, and as he tried to conjure up metaphors for braveness in his head, and take and example of courage from the little flame, the wind picked up slightly and blew it out. There was nothing left of Gus's courage, other than a quickly fading wisp of black smoke.

Gus felt like crying. He didn't know which was worse... wetting himself... or having a completely full bladder and having to suffer through it becuase he couldn't get up...

He could think about things like Shade` later... that was too much right now.

(( Jaspin and Silthran :: Nov 11 2007 ))

The forest was, well...the forest. It really didn't change much day to day for Silthran. The weather was fairly consistent, if growing colder, and the trees knew her to be safe and treated her accordingly. There were never any attempts to confuse or trick the young Uuthli, and, though Sil was as aware as anyone of the movement of the trees, their moves were typically to benefit her in whatever her goal was for the day.

Today was really no different, save that today she had no real goal to guide her. She had already hunted earlier in the day and was feeling quite content in that respect, and was now wandering lazily in search of something to capture her attention. Life could grow lonely for a Drada on her own, but the forest usually offered some way of keeping her spirits up. Today, spirals of brightly colored leaves spilled from the trees ahead of her, guiding her along her path.

The leaves rustled with the wind as it blew undaunted through them. This was no different from any other day, since the wind and leaves all had agendas of their own... Save the leaves of one particular shrub. They blew slightly in the opposite direction of the other leaves, propelled by the semi bored nature of the 'creature' laying in their shelter.

Jaspin was never quite sure where he was or what he had jsut been doing... unless of course he had just been doing it. That was the problem. He shared this 'body' *if it could even be called such* with another... his worst enemy, and the one creature that he would never be able to see again... He glanced down at his forearm and frowned. there was a gash there that he was sure he didn't inflict. That must mean that Meros had done it.

Damn him...

Damn him for being so much stronger, and wiser, and... damnit, just for being better. He huffed out his displeasure with himself... and with Meros, then he shifted from his position and stood. He strode out with as much valour as he could muster and began to serach for something to punish.... After all, seeing other creatures squirm always made him feel so much better...

And there she was. Messing around with Jivvins was ALWAYS a bad idea. That's what his past experiences had told him, but he wasn't the most patient of Vals... and this one was right here, right now.

He slunk down, trying to be inconspicuous, ghosting towards her until the last moment, and then he intended to reveal himself...

Jaspin may have been carefully hiding, and Silthran may have been blissfully oblivious, but the young Jivvin had one thing on her side. The forest warned her--or tried to--, guiding her with a swirl of leaves off in the opposite direction of Jaspin. Nevermind that the wind had been flowing towards the Valz'hin only seconds earlier. The trees in this forest needn't obey the laws of the wind when lives were potentially at stake, especially not the life of one of their favorite guests.

He was no stranger to the woodlands, and he knew what they were doing... and it only fueled his anger. He growled at the world in general and flung himself forward with a vengance, only to find hismelf facing the opposite direction only a moment later. He spat out his disgust, and silently cursed up a little storm...

Then he turned and watched as the Jivvin began to leave his sight... this was his last chance... "Jivvvvviiiiin"

Look at that, it's a jivvin... haven't seen a jivvin since... He shuddered involountarily suddenly, not with the cold but with fear... Not for a while anyway. He hoped that she'd be able to hear him... surely the wind and forest couldn't tresspass into thoughts.... He glared at the tree beside him. But he wouldn't put it past mother nature... medling woman.

His call did reach her, despite the trees' best efforts to muffle the call. The distance was too short between the two to properly disperse the sound. The barest whisper of Jaspin's call reached the young Uuthli; her ears perked and she glanced curiously around for the source of the sound, finally peeking back the way she had come.

Sure enough, there was one who looked...something like herself. Silthran perked up immediately, turning and trotting towards him. The effort of the trees had done the opposite of the intended effect--by muffling the sound, if had become friendly, instead of the furious cry of an irritable Valz'hin. "I am one, yes, I am told. Are not you as well?"

AS she turned and began to make her way towards him, his spirits soared with hunger... he got images of him tearing her to little bits, and flinging her own spirit around recklessly until it was properly defeated... the thoughts brought a smile to his face, and he forced himself to be calm as she spoke to him. He simply raised a brow as if he found her fascinating, instead of a disgusting monster.

"Not as such, no." The words were lisped slightly, him being unused to normal speech. But that was how he had been addressed. "I'm not sure that I have a name you'd know... but I've been called many things in my past." Many, many things... he sighed. "I've been called Jivvin, I've been called creature... I've been called angel... but my name is Jaspin..."

He smiled down at her... "Yours?"

"Angel, are you?" She offered a laugh, pausing several feet from him and sinking down on her haunches to sit. "You are certainly not my angel, you look nothing like him. But I suppose there must be other angels, one could not possibly play guardian to everyone."

"My name is Silthran," she continued after a beat, with a dip of her head in greeting. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Jaspin. I do not have the chance to speak often with only the trees for company."

"Company can be both a..." Oh what was the word? "Blessing... and a bad thing." He smirked over at her and sank down onto his own haunches. "After all, you can never really know who you're talking to unless you become them... not recomended." Then he rose and began to pace back and forth, still keeping his distance from her. "Take me for instance... those who've called me angel, do not really know me." And then never would... they'd never know anyone ever again...

"But you say that you yourself know an angel..." He sat againg and stared at her. "What type of angel."

"That is quite true," she admitted with a slow nod. "Why, once, I had an entire conversation with a Ba'rra Ssan before my angel showed up and told me the silly snake planned to eat me. Can you imagine that?" She laughed once more, shaking her head. "I probably should have figured it out myself. I could hardly understand what he was saying. My poor angel, I do keep him busy..."

"There are different types of angels?" She quirked a brow, peering curiously over at the Valz'hin. "I suppose that makes sense, if you are an angel too . You are quite different from him, you know. He is my guardian angel. He turns up now and again when I am in trouble to help me."

Fear leapt up at him as she stated that she'd most certianly have been eaten by a Ssan, except this 'angel' had stopped it. Surely this angel couldn't really be an... an angel... there was no such thing, as far as he knew. And why should this little runt have a guardian when so many others had fallen without so much as a tear from someone else. But his current dilema... would this 'angel' be able to see what Jaspin wanted to do more than anything else right now? Was Silthran's guardian right now getting images of her broken and battered in the jaws of the Valz'hin? ... He shuddered and surpressed a sneer.

"I suppose that there must be many different types of everything, angels included. Especially if yours looks nothing like me." But that meant that her angel wasn't a Valz'hin. But somehow he already knew that. It just didn't make sense.

"How many times has this angel of yours been to save you?" He was pressing his luck staying here... but he had to know... he was attracted to power. That was how he had gotten here in the first place.

"Hmm." Silthran took a moment to think over the question, staring thoughtfully up at nothing in particular. "Well, there have been several incidents with the Ssan... Then once when I fell through the ice and he fished me out, then that bad storm a few months ago... A few less significant things here and there. And then he just drops by every so often to check on me. I think he gets bored," she admitted with a little laugh.

"Ah... ... ... Do you know his name?" He was staring at her now, head tilted slightly to one side, genuinely interested and memorizing everything she said. "And what kind of magics he has?"

He paused, then... "And why... why he follows you." Why this jivvin, and this jivvin alone out of all the jivvins he had ever met, seemed to believe that she had a guardian angel.

"I...do not," she admitted, smile faltering and giving way to a faint frown. "He would never tell me. He says that his name is unimportant. I really do not know much about him at all, I am afraid." Sighing, she shook her head.

"He glows. And changes thing. But I am not sure how he does it. He says that he is bound to protect me, but he does not say why. Only that he has to." She shrugged. "But I suppose that is what guardian angels do, is it not?"

"I don't know..." his canine head shook slowly from side to side. "I'm not the one with a guardian angel." He toyed with a few ideas in his head quickly... he wanted to see this 'angel' ... something compelled him to. And perhaps if he did rip into her then the angel would come... But then of course he'd be on the recieving end of the punishment that the angel would wish to inflict.... he sighed to himself. Why was the world so unfair. He never got anything he wanted.

"Do you like seeing him?" Maybe he could convince the jivvin child to call for her angel or something similar... then he could hide and see the angel for himself.

"Oh, I do," she assured him with a bright nod. "But I do not see him often, and only for brief periods of time when I do... He comes and goes as he pleases. I can never convince him to stay for very long." She sighed. "It is a shame. He is very interesting to talk to."

"Perhaps... perhaps if the danger were more unknown he'd be forced to stay longer to find out what it was, and how to stop it." He was just talking now. He didn't really see any way to see the angel and not be hurt, punished, or sent back to the house... and none of those options were desirable... none at all. He would try to make an effort to follow her once the conversation were over, but he doubted... no, he knew that the forest wouldn't let him.

"Has there ever been a time when you thought that he should come, but didn't?" maybe the angel didn't always watch her.


"Perhaps," she agreed thoughtfully, nodding. "There has never really been anything perplexing about any of my situations... They have all been fairly straightforward, I would think. But then, I am not the guardian angel."

She shrugged, thinking over his question for a moment longer before shaking her head. "Never, even for the less significant things. He will even show up sometimes when I am upset to cheer me up. He is quite reliable."

"ah... " He pursed his lips together in thought. That meant that the second he showed this child the slightest sign of his previous intentions there would be a guardian angel here to stop him. Just great.

"He sounds quite powerful." It made Jaspin sick to his stomach to think of such power, power useful enough to hold storms and send Ssan running, such power used only for the protection of something as worthless as a Jivvin. Who would do such a thing? Only the white witch... His eyes went wide as a thought occured to him.

"What does he look like? Can you tell me?"

"Oh, he is." Of that much, Silthran was sure. She wasn't entirely sure how his powers worked, but she didn't question them. She assumed guardian angels would have such abilities.

"He is...hard to describe," she admitted, frowning with concentration as she summoned up the memory of her angel. "He walks upon two legs and glows with a bright white light... Sometimes he has wings, sometimes he does not. And it is very hard to make out his face for the light, or any of his features, for that matter. Sometimes I think that he may be a Jivvin...And then others I am quite sure that he is not."

Damn! He stood suddenly as a torrent of different emotions ran through him. This child was describing the white witch! He was sure of it. He wanted to destroy Slithran if only just to thwart the witch that much. If only to destory something that she wanted to keep... but who's to say the Witch couldn't bring the child back from the dead... He paced back and forth surveying the child's appearance. He'd killed Jivvins before and the Witch hadn't shown up... why this kid... She looked like she could be offspring of that hatred creature... What better way to show his hatred of the witch than to destroy it's kin. He began to sneer without realizing it. She wasn't pure white... so she was probabbly accidentaly related to the witch... that's why the witch hadn't told the child who it was... He stopped pacing and just stood staring at her. She had little wings... and in his past experiences, Jivvins with wings didn't have magic, or didn't do magic at the very least...

He sat down and frowned at her, unsure of what to do, but no wanting to spook her too much. "The... angel... that you describe sounds like a creature that I know... my 'people' talk of it... but not with the same fondness that you seem to." He stopped and licked his lips... This was bad. Very bad. If he did anything the witch would come and kill him... or WORSE! Put him back in the house... but if he didn't do anything...

If he didn't do anything, how could he call himself Valz'hhin...

His sudden movement startled her and she jumped slightly, but otherwise remained seated, watching him with more curiosity than fear as he began to pace. However, his mannerisms seemed less than friendly, and his sneer only echoed that fact. Perhaps...perhaps his intentions were less than good? Perhaps this was a situation similar to the one with the Ssan? Had that been why he had been questioning her so about her angel? Did the prospect of the angel intrigue or frighten him?

The Valz'hin began to calm, and Silthran too began to relax. However, his words provoked a frown from the young Uuthli. "Creature? My angel is...an angel! He is not some beast."

He shook his head and shifted his front legs impatiently. "Beast doesn't always mean a bad thing you know." This wasn't good. The witch would be here soon enough whether or not he was ready, so he needed to calm down, or he'd be sorry.

And then a thought occured to him, and he had to laugh out loud. If the witch threw him back in the house, then she also threw Meros back into the house... and that would certainly serve the Valz'hin right. ... but the house... His face became somber again as he saw Silthran staring at him... "mmm. You may be right there." He'd deal with this. "If you say your angel is kind, then it can't be the same as the creature from the stories... I was only talking about how sometimes it's jivvin and sometimes it's not, and you can't look at it for all it's brightness." He tried to shrug his shoulders, which was something that he'd seen a fourther Daewl do once... but he wasn't very good at it, and he came across as uncomfortable. "I'm just intrigued by this angel of yours... I've never heard of one before..."

No Valz'hin would ever call the witch an angel... the witch was the simgle most feared thing to every Valz'hin that had lived long enough to come face to face with her.

Silthran seemed skeptical, but relaxed slightly nonetheless. Jaspin had been upset with this...angel impostor, not with her. He was no threat to her. "Most I have spoken with have not heard of them, actually... Which I find odd. Surely others have guardian angels too, right?"

She quirked a brow, then peered closely at the Valz'hin. "I find it odd than a 'angel' would not know of another type of angel, too. Are you sure that you are an angel? You really do not seem like one."

He wanted to spit at her for daring to compare him with her 'angel' . "I never said I was an angel... I said that others have called me angel." He frowned at her...

"Besides... do you know everything about jivvins?"

"Oh." She frowned right back at him, not at all thrilled by his tone, and even less so by his question. "...No," she admitted reluctantly, then snapped back. "But I bet you do not either. You are not like any Jivvin I have seen."

His brow knitted itself, showing his distaste for the subject. "I am not a Jivvin... I am not like you." He gave his tail a violent flick behind him, letting it stike into the dirt in order to calm himself. "And before you ask the question, No... I don't know all there is to know about what I am either. When there is more that one single creature in a species, then there is no way of one creature knowing all there is to know about what it is and what it can do." He snorted at her.

Silthran frowned. She didn't like this Jaspin's tone, and she didn't like not knowing what he was. Rising to her feet, she gave him a curious stare for a moment longer before turning away with a swish of her tail. "I think I will just be going. I would rather not sit here and be lectured."

The second she turned her back to him, his fury overtook him and he leapt to his feet. He growled and roared at the world in general, struck out with his tail, putting several gashes in a nearby tree, and then turned to Silthran, snarling. This was the last chance... he'd never get close to this Jivvin again once it walked away... and he didn't care what happened now...

"You and all your kind are filthy..." He grinned a terrible grin and leaned in towards her, saliva driping from the back corners of his gaping maw. "Death to the White witch..." And then he leapt at her, aiming for her back.

His roar startled her, and, after only a brief glance back, she broke into a run, scurrying away just ahead of his leap. Even as she stepped out of his reach and was swept away by the trees, however, her 'angel' appeared in her defense, materializing between the Uuthli and the Valz'hin while Jaspin was still mid-leap. He was exactly as she had said, a towering figure whose features were masked by brilliant, flame-like white light.

A sweep of his arm had Jaspin cast back several feet, earning a momentary lull. The figure seemed to double-take here, and the light only grew, gaining a sharp, furious red-orange edge. "VALZ'HIN!" a voice boomed, echoing about the trees and enveloping the unfortunate attacker. "You dare to hunt in this forest? To hunt my protected?"

Jaspin flung himself backwards at the appearance of the Witch, accidentally slamming himself into a tree. As he turned again to face the creature he realized that this wasn't the witch he'd seen before... but it was the same type of creature... his snarl deepend and his grin widened as he laughed at the tragicness of his circustances. There were two of them.. at least two of them. What hope did the Valz'hins have now... not that he really cared about anyone but himself.

"I dare whatever, Warlock!" He watched the Orange light brighten and could almost feel the fury of the creature in front of him. He put as much strength as he could into his stance and bellowed back at the flaming man. "I steal only what was stolen from me! I steal the life, and the strength that got taken from me!"

He was afraid. In fact he was shaking more from terror than from rage, and even as he realized that he could hear a voice deep inside him you have no right to be afraid. But he was.

"Spare me your excuses, demon!" The being snarled, and the area immediately surrounding Jaspin burst into flaming light similar to that emitting from the 'angel'. Light races up the trees, but only made them seem healthier; light erupted from the earth, crackling and burning at the Valz'hin's feet.

"You forfeited any chance of life when you left your prison, Valz'hin! We showed you mercy in sealing you away, but no more!" The flames swept inward, spilling from the trees and the being to envelope the Valz'hin, crackling and burning and, quite suddenly, erupting into pure darkness. There was no sight, there was no sound, no glimmer of light or smell or even a sensation of standing upon the ground. Jaspin existed in emptiness.

To the 'angel', however, the clearing appeared perfectly the same as always. The being calmed somewhat to stare down at the Valz'hin, folding his arms and glaring down at the demon from the Fifth Floor. He should have known those fools in the Village wouldn't have found all of them.

The fire poured in, and suddenly all Jaspin knew was the ragged sound of his snorts. He wasn't breathing, persay, but the ragged breaths that racked his body inspired pain in him as he realized where he was... this was the way that the house felt...

He panic'd.

It was once said by a Jivvin that he'd harmed, that a panic'd Valz'hin was something to avoid at all costs... but Jaspin had never been a strong Valz'hin, and even now he was nowhere near his original levels of magic and impressiveness. His first thought was to run, so he did... as fast and quickly as he could away from wherever it was that he had found himself... but the darkness, the nothingness follwed him relentlessly. He wasn't even sure that he was moving. then he called out, but if the words ever left his mouth, they never materialized in front of him... When he tried to mentally project his curses, the darkness flung them back at him, compounding them painfully back in his own mind. He tried to fling a spell out into the darkness, but that resulted in even more pain then speaking....

All he knew was pain... so he flung that out. He thought about the last place he'd seen the white warlock, and he flung all of his pain out in that direction... which of course brought on more pain, so he flung that too.


The 'angel' watched the writhing Valz'hin for a bit longer, debating what exactly to do with him. He didn't have the power to send him back into the Fifth floor, not without risking releasing several more. He didn't have the ability to actually 'kill' him, not without one of the cursed weapons from the House. The most he could do was torment him for a while... Which was rather tempting.

Instead, however, Scion let the illusion of the angel fade and stepped from around a tree, frowning over at the fallen Valz'hin. He would let Jaspin be. The wretch was of no concern to him; he could have cared less if there was a demon picking off Village Jivvins. Only that damned oath kept him coming back to help Sil, stupid girl. Turning, the white Jivvin started away, lazily following after Silthran to resume the illusion and have her 'angel' convince her that she was safe now. Once he was a fair distance away, the illusion surrounding Jaspin would fade, and the Valz'hin would be free to hunt once more.

It seemed like an eternity to Jaspin as he lay in the nothingness, not seeing or hearing anything. He'd long since given up doing anything at all and simply lay there in his misery, convinced that he was dead. In fact he was so intent on being miserable at this point that it took him a moment to realize that he could see again... albeit barely.

The grass around him was blurry and a faded browny green, and the trees and leaves were the wrong colour as well... but to his pain striken brain, any tree was better than no tree. And so he dug in his claws and pulled himself up enough to slink off into the trees...

Away from the warlock.