Pink Poogle Toy Forum

[Urgh, the time limit is now worrying me.]

"Say that again."

"J-John was captured by a k-kelpie an' a centuar." The fair-haired man reporting the latest events was quaking in his boots. His master was a force to be reckoned with -- and he would rather not reckon with his master. For a small, frail man with snowy hair, the old man could be quite terrifying.

"A kelpie?" the master repeated, too surprised to throw his usual tantrum. "What's a kelpie doing on their side? Aren't kelpies supposed to be -- what's that word -- unseelie? Unless it's one of those friendly ... What did the kelpie look like, Thomas?"

"Can't say for sure, sir, we were so far away, but I think it musta been at least fourteen hands, mebbe bigger."

"A large kelpie? It can't be one of those, then. I'd better have a word with the king then." So saying, the little old man paced past his servants, muttering his thoughts under his breath as he made for the ocean.

[I need everyone to meet up somewhere -- by the lake or the ocean, but everyone needs to meet up somewhere, and as soon as possible, please.]

[Oh dear, sorry for lack of postage.]

Lavinia awoke the next morning feeling quite odd, as though the events of the night before had merely been some sort of dream. Sunlight was filtering through the knothole high above her in the hollow, warming her bedroom. She yawned lazily and sat up on her tiny bed of moss. It was only then that she realized that there was an enormous racket going on somewhere outside. For a moment Lavinia thought that another explosion was occurring, but then she realized that the loud, low rumble was not the sound of a blast or of trees and brush crackling and burning. It was quite different. That was a voice!

Lavinia gasped and bolted up out of bed and into the kitchen. Looking around frantically, the saw that the rest of the hollow appeared to be completely deserted. Mummy! Daddy! she thought immediately, turning quickly and shooting out the doorway of the hollow and into the now sunlit forest.

Outside, Lavinia listened intently. The voice bellowed again, and Lavinia followed it down the forest pathway and past numerous trees. Then she spotted it. A number of devas, including her own father, were gathered together perhaps ten yards away, standing in the shadow of a very large, fierce looking faerie soldier. Lavinia’s eyes widened as he spoke again.

“We know for a fact that there were two devas out in the forest, away from this village, before the explosion happened. And you can't convince me otherwise, because no scout would be scouting before a disaster happened, unless said scout was aware of the disaster beforehand, which then makes the scout a valuable source of information and a suspect,” he was saying, glaring around at the group of devas. Lavinia clapped a hand to her mouth. It was her and Reya they were talking about! She looked at her father, who was remaining firmly silent. What if they dragged him off to prison because she had been out in the forest the night before? And what was this about the lake being nearly dried up?

Lavinia turned away from the group of devas and the soldier. There was no way that she could tell him that she and Reya were the ones in the forest- or the other devas, for that matter, because there was no doubt that they would be angry at her for getting them into such trouble. And what if her father did end up telling the soldier that it was she and Reya out in the forest? Lavinia doubted he would of his own free will, but… What if they had some way of forcing it out of him? Lavinia trembled at the thought. How had this gotten out of hand so quickly?

I need to get out of here, at any rate, Lavinia thought. For a moment she considered going to Reya’s house and fetching her as well, but decided against it. She wasn’t sure how much trouble Reya was in after the night before, and was sure that regardless of how much trouble she was in, she wouldn’t fancy being dragged along and chance getting into trouble again, even if it was most definitely a better idea than sticking around with an angry soldier in the village- at least, in Lavinia’s opinion. Then again, Lavinia wasn’t even sure if Reya had heard what was going on yet… But she was sure to find out soon enough, with or without Lavinia’s help.

Lavinia took off into the trees, ascending so that she was high enough that no one would see her unless they happened look directly upward at the exact moment she was passing by. She moved the way that she had moved the night before, darting from branch to branch and trying to remain covered by the leaves. She tried not to think about how furious her parents would be when they discovered she had disappeared again, and focused on getting as far away from the village as possible. Oh, if I hadn’t gone out last night, none of this would have happened… she thought.

[Long. And bad. Blah. I tried to come up with some reason for the lake being dried, but I'm having serious writer's block and couldn't come up with anything very reasonable. I'll keep thinking, maybe by tomorrow I'll be able to come up with something.

And I don't really mind wherever we meet up, I can have Lavinia can go wherever from where she's at.

I feel like I'm not making any sense... This is really bothering me.]

[Hope I'm not God-modding, but this will get the ball rolling for gathering a few people and making the plot work for my character.]

Otterbrand swung hard and fast with his water blade. Blue sparks flew each time as it met with the claws of the Jabberwocky with sickening speed and precision. "You die like ancestor, ickle faerie!" the beast roared. The young man who up until recently had called himself Nobody found himself being pushed back as he parried each swing of the creature's claws desperately, until he directed a free hand at it and blasted it back onto its backside with a large bubble. As the echo of the burst rang through the arena, there was the sound of faeries casting magic on each other, set off by the young Alven's spell at last. Otterbrand lunged, only to miss an equally nimble, yet massive Jabberwocky. Saliva oozed from its gaping mouth as it became hungry for its prey. Otterbrand knew he would fall like his father if some didn't change. Just then, he heard the sound of a young female human singing a familiar song.

Each Alven/Human couple always have twins. One is a human male or female. The other is an Alven of the opposite gender. For that moment, Otterbrand remembered his sister, how she sang that same song after their human mother had died in illness before father could rescue her from the Kingdom's seperatists. "Song sang every generation, still Alvens fight war and Jabberwocky eats!" the great beast laughed. His laugh was cut short when a man in a large bubble launched himself into it. The bubble burst, knocking him back again. Otterbrand than summoned another bubble behind himself and leapt off of it, stabbing down with full force as he landed.

The last echoes of the young human's song slowly faded without the sounds of combat. Otterbrand looked up from his victory at the Alven assembled, Adelaine amongst them. Just then, the pattering of a small silky-furred creature on the stone ground prevented total silence from prevailing. It ran up to Otterbrand and whispered something to him. He leaned down and whispered back, then turned to all those gathered as the otter ran back. "Adelaine, I hope you're not afraid heights. My brothers and sisters, prepare to greet the stream-dwellers that remained loyal to my father's Kingdom. Let them know that young Abberwocky was the prince all along. Come now, Adelaine. Let us find your sister." The girl seemed surprised to be treated with such respect, but she seemed ready to follow.

<------------->

Ilmena and Celeste found themselves chained up and being led away as captives. The guards seemed to put a name to the complete digust some faeries had towards humans in this age. As Celeste endured another taunting and a tease from a whip, she saw an otter running along a stream. it looked up to watch her eery so often. "I have eyes," she recalled Nobody saying. He was coming. She looked ahead now to avoid being thrashed by a sharp whip, and saw a huge lake ahead as the captives and captors came over the next hill. It seemed the right tactical place for a seeming water-dog like Nobody to strike.

((that was a bit of god-modding there in the separate bottom paragraph, but don't stress about it. next time if you want someone else's char to have something happen to them, think something, and/or notice something/someone, just PM them and make an agreement so they can post about their char, then there won't be any confusion!))

Celeste felt the little notebook tickle her chest and gnawed on her lip to avoid going crazy from being unable to scratch the itch. Her wrists were already rubbed raw from the handcuffs - she had never been exposed to this kind of roughness in her entire life. Tired and in pain she thought of the stupidity of the whole situation and wondered why she hadn't stayed home like a good noble girl.

But in times like this, she reminded herself scathingly, she had to stay on the positive side. Stay on the positive side. Up ahead she saw a massive lake that stretched out before her. But the water seemed to be draining from the lake, fast. Celeste squinted her eyes in astonishment.

((I'm ba-ack! And loaded with ideas!))

Ilmena rubbed her wrists together slightly, trying to get some feeling back into her hands. The soldiers had twisted the chains around her wrists far too tightly than was necessary, and now it seemed that the blood flow was cut off. Wonderful.

She could faintly see a lake ahead of them, though the water seemed to be draining swiftly, as if the bottom was a giant sponge. Shaking this thought off, thinking she must be seeing a mirage of some sort- she <i>was</i> incredibly tired, after all- Ilmena looked up at the branches of a giant tree, looking at random birds as she returned to her thoughts.

The gypsies were far behind them now; their campfire a mere dot of light in the distance. Or so she assumed, anyway: the last time she'd tried to turn her head back to see, one of the guards had grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back into position.

At first, the girl had thought she might tell them who she was, hopefully getting them to leave her alone, but then she realized that they probably wouldn't know who she was- the blocky, abstract-looking design on the front of the tunics they wore over their chainmail wasn't one she knew, so they couldn't be from Imorna. Even if they were, the servants of some new noble (or someone who'd had their sign changed recently- very recently), for all she knew, they weren't on the side of the Melyanis- after all, they didn't really seem to hold any amount of fondness for humans, did they?

Then she'd thought to get Celeste to knock her out, so that her magic would be unleashed and hopefully get rid of the guards, but as soon as she came up with this plan, she discarded it, knowing that even if the two of them were able to so much as move anything but their feet and eyes- and the feet only forward- it would be far too uncertain what would happen. For all she knew, her magic could burn down the entire forest, or harm Celeste, or- well, enough of the worrying, it was of no use now.

Giving up momentarily, Ilmena sighed and shut out everything outside of her mind- the noise of the two guards behind her talking about the women of the village their formation had passed through last week, the determined look on the soldier next to her, everything.

The water faeries of Imorna were able to harness a sort of scrying magic through meditation and trances. Most prefered to use water, but those whose connections to water were weak- such as Ilmena- prefered to simply use their mind. The most experienced of Seers could see things happening thousands of miles away- it was rumored that some could even see through the veil, into Earth. Ilmena, having been heavily surrounded by Imorna's magic most of her life, had slowly developed the very basic scrying skills- very basic. She could only detect life around her for about ten meters- as a human with magic, her magical skills were more than humans without, obviously, but she wasn't a magical creature, and as such, she struggled with much of the magic that came freely or without much trouble to faeries.

Straining to concentrate, to ignore her aching wrists, Ilmena reached deep within her mind and imagined herself pulling a thin wire of silvery-gold magic out from the tangled mess in some abyss of her brain. Holding it firmly, she let the magic course through her, waiting until she felt her eyes begin to itch slightly. With that, she let go of the magic and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

There! Slowly, but surely, oblong dots of light lit up around her. It was as if she had a bird's-eye view, seeing every living being within her Sight's short range.

There she was, trudging along clumsily, eyes closed. The guards behind her were still looking quite bored, a family of foxes was curled up, sleeping, in their den, off to the side and someone up in a tree next to them was carefully aiming an arrow at the group while another someone sat next to them, blazing with blue-green water magic that was about to be released in one fast burst.

Ilmena's eyes shot open as she swore loudly. Ignoring the soldier in front of her as he tried to slap her, she ducked under his hand and grabbed Celeste's sleeve as she threw herself to the side- under the tree, which, though she knew wasn't the brightest idea, seemed to be a good plan, as the other side of the trail she couldn't get to; two of the guards were standing there, holding very, very sharp swords. And she couldn't actually run; her ankles were chained together, as well.

Praying silently to all the magical Gods she could think of, the redhead huddled under the tree, hoping against hope that these attackers were friendly towards humans.


((Well, I had to move the plot along somehow. Having your character walk along a road in silence while contemplating how much her wrists hurt becomes quite boring. And my head is about to explode with plot bunnies, so I needed to set some free. Free the bunnies!))

The wind bird ruffled its glittery feathers and looked about, craning its elegant neck. It closed its eyes, but suddenly reopened them, as if startled by something invisible. Cocking its head to a random direction, it squinted its deep blue eyes, before taking off into the air, towards the edge of the woods that bordered the clearing. Espoir dashed off after it, calling back to Puk and Artemis to wait for her and that she would be right back.

The wind bird flew until it reached the woods. It was sure, something was near already. It snapped its head sharply to its left, its crest flapping in its sudden movement.

It was coming.

[In case none of you guys get my post, the wind bird was referring to Rissa's character, Lavinia.]

[Welcome back, Alex! We have three days and this is what we need to finish:

- Find out what the humans are there for
- Find out about the collaboration between the humans and Senya's captors
- Find out why the water is being drained from the lake
- Get rid of all those pesky soldiers
- Discover the whole terrible plot in the actual role play
- Do the fight between good and evil

Are we all clear on those points, or any more that may come up? Good!]

When the follower had returned from delivering his message, there had been a change in plans. The leader said, "She comes with us." Before Senya knew what was what, a spell had been thrown at her and she had been frozen and blinded. In a moment, she could feel a cold, slimy substance ooze around her and bind her up with a human rope. When she was well and truly trussed up like a turkey, they had begun to rise to the surface. The other end of the rope was in the hands of the follower, presumably, with Senya dangling at the other end. Perhaps they had thought she was well and truly knocked out, or maybe they had not accounted for selkies' sharp ears. They were very careless in their conversation, though.

"What be seal-girl for?" the follower asked. The leader seemed to consider his words before replying.

"Seal-girl as girl on land charms men," the leader explained. "Make her be girl, man sees her, fall in love. Love makes men blind and fools. We win, he lose, we kill him."

This didn't make any sense to Senya. She struggled hard to understand what he might have meant, then it dawned on her: in her human form, she was supposed to enchant some man and make him fall in love with her. This would put him off-guard and he would be killed. And, if she was right about what she had heard before, this same man thought that these things were his allies. They would turn on him and kill him, apparently for power, but that part she didn't comprehend. What power?

Realizing that she had stopped listening to their conversation, she turned her attention back to them and listened with all her might and main. They had stopped talking about the man, so she didn't know who this man was, and began to talk about faeries instead.

"How goes the drain?" the leader queried.

"It goes well," the follower replied. "That king of land who thinks he is strong, he take lots of fae and put them in cells. He is smart," the follower commented. "He plans to give fae to men at night. He thinks men help him be strong. When lake goes boom, he acts like he not know why. He bring in lots of fae. He give fae to men, men give fae to us." The follower chuckled. "We take magic and men not know."

"Halt." The leader sounded stern. "We are here. Stay." With that, the leader emerged out of the water, quite frightening the little old man. But not enough.

"What do you think you're doing!" the old man screeched, his tiny face red with rage. "Why are you capturing my men? Aren't you supposed to be on my side?"

There was a long silence. "I take your men?" The leader was disgusted at the very idea that he might ever want to take humans captive, and the old man seemed to realize this.

"Y-yes," he stammered. "A kelpie captured one of my men, and it wasn't one of those Whitewater ones you were talking about either!" he insisted quickly.

"Whitepool," the leader corrected.

"Whitewater, Whitepool, Whitepoo, I don't care! It was a kelpie too big to be a friendly one. It -- "

"Did you know," the leader interruppted, dangerously slowly, "that kelpies can change shape for short periods of time?"

The old man stopped his ranting. "Do you mean to say that that was a Whitepool kelpie? That it changed shape?" He seemed astounded. "Well, I'll be!" And it was obvious he couldn't think of anything to say, considering how he had just accused his ally of conning him.

"You have magic. You came to fae-world to find more magic," the leader reminded him. "You want all fae magic for yours. You want be king of man-world with fae-magic. You find way into fae-world with your men. You know not how take magic from fae. We can drain fae-magic. We hate fae so we help you. You leave fae-world, we live here in peace. We trust you bring us fae. We give you fae-magic. But you trust us not. How can I give you a gift now?"

"A gift?" the wizard -- for that was what he was -- said immediately, his greedy eyes glinting. "Forgive me, my friend, but I was hasty. You would be too if you received such a shock as I did. Of course you are on my side. You've already drained the magic out of some faeries and I'm all the more powerful for it. And you've even remembered that I need the power out of one of each kind of faerie to be completely powerful, exactly the way that book said -- you know, the one that helped me get into the Otherworld in the first place. Your help is greatly appreciated. But sometimes I wonder why you do help me. Is it enough for you to take other faeries' power and give it to me, instead of using it yourself? I mean, if you hate faeries so much, why did you not start draining them beforehand?" The wizard eyed the leader suspiciously.

"We die on land," the leader muttered.

"Oh yes, so if you come on land you will die. But why not all the other sea-faeries, then? Why not drain them?"

"All will know it is us. Sea-and-land fae, land fae kill us. You here now, you leave fae-world, no one knows."

"Oh, of course. If you had killed the sea faeries, someone would have found out it was you and the land faeries would kill you," the wizard translated. "Yes, of course. And there would be no point in it, would there? So you've lived without draining the magic from more than the occasional faerie. And now that I've come along, faeries won't know notice at first that both land and sea faeries are disappearing. By the time they do, they won't think it is you, because how can you get land faeries anyway? But it will be me, because I am the one with power and I am a man, after all. Thank you for reminding me. Of course I trust you. Now what's this about a gift?"

Senya could not believe how transparent this wizard was.

"A seal-girl," the leader grinned, and the selkie could feel herself being pulled straight out of the water and landing on the beach.

[Okay, that is one of the worst things I have ever, ever written. Nevertheless, that was the only idea I have come up with to explain my side of the mystery. Since the above post is a terrible narrative, this is what it's supposed to be:

In the human world, this wizard has come across a book that tells him how to get into the Otherworld. It also tells him that if he owns the magic of one of every type of faerie, he will be invicible, live forever, all that good stuff. This idea appeals to him so he enters the Otherworld.

He finds that he does not know how to get the magic that faeries possess. He does know, however, about certain types of faeries that can obtain magic for long or short periods of time. There is one he thinks may help him most. We will call them Things for now (Senya's captives). He goes to make a deal with Things.

Things are a type of faerie that lives in the sea and cannot go on land. They are unseelie, evil type of faeries that hate all seelie, good faeries. They are capable of draining the magic out of faeries but no faeries will go near them and anyway, everyone would know it was them if several sea-faeries disappeared all at once. So Things have not had the opportunity to drain more than a few faeries occasionally.

The wizard wants faerie magic to be transferred to him. He will give the Things the faeries to drain magic from, including land ones. The situation he creates is going to confuse the Otherworld so everyone will be possible suspects, instead of just the Things. Meanwhile, the Things give the wizard the magic they drained. They get rid of the faeries they hate, the wizard becomes as powerful as he wants, the wizard takes over the human world. That is the deal. However, the Things have something up their sleeve because they mention tricking the wizard as well.

And if a faerie's magic is drained from them, they die. Not a brilliant explanation. If you think of a better one, tell me and I'll add the changes.]

[Oh man, I'm unbelievably confused. This is a bad time for it, too, considering there's only two days left. Oh damn. >.< The worst part is that I'm leaving town tomorrow, and I won't be back until Sunday. I'll probably have internet access, but I don't know how often I'll actually be able to get online. I'll try my best to, though. I'm very sorry for the short notice, I meant to say something earlier, but I've been quite out of it lately.]

[Ye-e-es, I was afraid that the storyline might be confusing. I'm thinking of changing it somehow but not sure exactly how.

I'm extending this for a week longer and see if it can be completed then. If not, I'll just finish it, but I want to try and see how much longer it takes.]

((I was awaiting reaction from my group (Ria and Espoir), but anyhow. I know Espoir ran off. So..))

Puk shifted, looking at the gracious faerie girl running away. It wasn't very soon before she was gone, hidden by the trees, bushes and brambles.

"Puk?" Kimils voice sounded, hesitantly. The man on Puks back was quiet. Apparently unconscious again. So Puk moved his concentration to Kimil.

"I know I should have said sooner, but.. but when the lake disappeared.." Kimil stopped, apparently deeply shocked by only thinking about the horrible event.

Puk nodded, trying to comfort Kimil.

"There were others, other faeries," Puk could see that Kimil wasn't sure how to describe them, "they blocked our powers and helped with taking our water. No.. it was more like they drained our powers. It feels awefull."

Puks head jerked up, he had heard... Draining wasn't good. He had heard stories about the Unseelie, being closely related. Besides, it explained certain things.. The forest silent for months.. faeries gone... kelpies being caught.. Yet, it were humans that caught the kelpies.

What was the missing link here? It made no sense. But something had to be done.. or his family would be the next to turn up on the 'missing' list.

Puk looked at the human. He had no use, Puk doubted he would talk.. maybe he would, but he didn't have the time to find out. Puk first had to go and check up what was happening there..

"Kimil, remember that cave? With the pit in the middle, let's go there. Artemis, are you coming? I need to go and see what they are up to. I have some suspitions and they are not good," Puk sounded serious now.

Artemis nodded, thinking over everything that had been happening. "This is definitely related to the Unseelie," she spoke softly, knowing that Puk was probably thinking the same thing.

"But that still doesn't explain why the humans... unless..." Artemis shook her head abruptly, "There's no use hypothesising. We have to find out what's going on for ourselves. Now where is this cave that you were speaking of?"

((Short post, but it clears up the roles I want to fill in the story forthcoming))
[I changed the Alven form into Otters for this story to fit my plot]

While the great lake drained, it seemed an unusual amount of otters were in a hurry to get into it on a far side. Amongst those gathered at the shore to stay was Adelaine sitting on a pillow on the ground, who was talking to a few of the otters. They were hidden in some brush, as if an outpost for the otters in the lake to later gather to. Nobody quietly came from under some nettles and brushed a few thorns off of his strikingly otterskin-like outfit. "These are not the same Alven that held me captive, yet they are," Adelaine mused aloud. "You're coming with me," said Otterbrand. "Isnt... it dangerous?" Adelaine asked, quite wise even in her youth.

"You want to know why we Alven were meant to live amongst humans?" The young Alven recieved no valid response, so he continued, "It is the voice of an innocent human's song that gives us strength in battle. That is why we will live with the humans again, and why you must come with us. Your sister is the captive now, and this is how we will free her and... well... something else. What matters to me is that you and your sister escape with all the other Alven before I do the something else." He turned into an otter with a loud pop and gestured for her to follow him through the undergrowth around the lake. Adelaine followed quietly, obediently asking no questions. She knew that this strange man had befriended her sister if he was willing to spring a trap for her.

While the two crept around the lake, four otters swam through the draining lake and into under water caves before they were drained of their water. They slipped in and crawled through seperate tunnels, investigating them like spies in the gloom. One of them pricked its ears up as it overheard something through the opposite wall it clicked its tongue and all three other otters gathered fashionably quickly to listen with it.

((Toy with this how you like, I want to hear what my "otters" hear. ))

((confused as to who the attackers by Ilmena and Celeste are...help?))

Celeste stifled a yell as she felt a yank on her sleeve and found herself catapulting through the air to the side of the road beneath the tree.

"What do you think you're-" she whispered sharply to Ilmena before shutting her mouth upon the realization that Ilmena was praying or meditating, or something.

She glanced back at the group of soldiers, fully expecting to see several furious ones glaring back at her, running after them. And so what she did she gave her quite a shock. For the soldiers appeared to be moving toward the lake quite steadily, and apparently had not noticed their mad escape. Well, it wasn't much of an escape. They were still chained at the wrists and ankles and to each other.

This didn't make any sense. Celeste looked all around, suspiciously, wondering what on earth was possibly going on. Then again, they weren't exactly on the earth she was used to anymore. Perhaps this was normal behavior? Somehow, she doubted it.

Just then, she felt a familiar itching at her chest. Fumbling clumsily with her chained hands she reached up and pinched the little notebook from her bosom with two nimbly placed fingers. She opened it in her palms, but much to her dismay the book began to grow again, now teetering dangerously in and out of her grasp.

But she soon forgot about this worrisome development, because the familiar happy pictures of the Otherworld suddenly gave way on the open page of the diary to scores of handwritten runes. Almost warping with Celeste's breath, the runes slowly formed themselves into Celeste's native language. Celeste's eyes opened wide. "Ilmena..." she whispered, keeping her eyes glued to the notebook, "Ilmena...!"

For upon the page words to this effect were written:

To the one who in his power finds
The means by which to himself
the magic
of each race of faery bind

No weapon and no disease
shall ever his person mar
And as the ones who this have past achieved
His life shall become a road of immortality
stretching long and far

Ilmena probed carefully at the magic of the creatures above her, using only strands of magic that were as thin as a spider's web for this task. She knew, from experience, that for her magic to not be noticed, she'd not be able to take any risks.

Slowly feeding magical energy into the layer of invisibility covering the strangers, she looked for any holes that could help her get closer to them. Finding just one small tear in their shield, near the taller of the two's feet, she leapt towards it, relieved to have found something.

But when she was less than a foot away, a loud explosion rocked the forest, causing her to be snapped back into her own body.

And, unfortunately, causing the strange creatures to fall out of the tree.

Ilmena shrieked as she tried to leap to her feet, forgetting that she was chained to Celeste, and so only succeeding in falling down again.

Attempting to calm herself down, she glanced at the unconscious archer and his (her?) equally unconscious partner, before looking away as she saw the unmistakable tattoos on their foreheads.

"Bounty hunters," she whispered to herself, half disgusted, half terrified- who were they after? She was the most likely answer, obviously, being the most hated creature in the entirety of Imorna, but they were far from the country by now- the laws of the kingdom were strict about hunting down its citizens outside of its borders. Not that bounty hunters would care, of course, but... What if they were for Celeste? Though that was obviously something to be regarded with a very high amount of doubt.

Or... What if they were just disguised as hunters?! They could be there to free her from the guards, and bring her back home!

Or not. If they were after her, they'd have to get rid of the guards anyway.

Ugh. Who were they after?

Giving up on the answer to that, she shoved her thoughts back to her current predicament- tangled in chains right after something exploded.

Trying to send bursts of magic into the metal of the chains and shackles, hoping to disintegrate them, she looked at Celeste- she'd faintly heard the other girl calling her name (how she knew it was another matter, but right now, who cared?)- and, straining to see her properly (it was quite hard to do so, at the moment, as the mage was upside-down, and her vision quite shoddy after having been using her Sight), snapped, "What? What happened?"



((HURRAH FOR IMMENSELY HORRIBLE WRITING.

Sorry, my creativity is rather lacking when I'm working with only two hours of sleep. Thus the suck-fest that is this post. x_o ))

"Right," Puk said, he felt his powers waning. He would not be able to keep this form for long. "Normally," he paused for a moment, wriggling through a bush, "the entrance of the cave is underwater. With a tunnel leading up."

"But," he saw the edge of the lake come in view, and effectively, like he thought, this part was already gone. The water nibbled away by unknown forces. "It isn't anymore. I don't think he will get out of the pit in the cave anyway."

Puk started to descend to the bottom of the lake, heading towards the entrance. All the sudden he stopped. He had sworn he had heard something.

Looking around quickly he noticed a patch of brown fur in the nearby bushes.