[h2][b][color=f26522]Adelaide[/color][/b][/h2]

It didn't take the girls long to wish they hadn't left the warm confines of The Smiling Goose, the streets of Macaron were every bit as chilly as they looked through the inn's large, recently cracked window. The people here seemed erratic and confused too; charging into one another to get about and half of the populace seemed to be in hiding. As the pair witnessed an elderly shopkeeper flip a board outside 'Felicia's Flowers' from open to closed, making the last open shop on the street now equally as inaccessible as the rest, they quickly came to the conclusion that they wouldn't be getting much shopping done today. 

'I told you we should've stayed in! This place is strange...' Adelaide warned her sister before attempting to catch the attention of the shopkeeper but the woman just ignored her and scurried to what must of been her home. Now that she thought about it the lady seemed to be in a panic, ravaging her key chain menacingly and missing the keyhole a few times before finally unlocking the door, eventually squeezing through and slamming it shut.

'Surely it can't always be like this' Ciara responded, 'I reckon something's happened and that's why everybody's being weird, if we never slept in so late we might know what's going  on.' 

'Well whatever's going on I think we should just find Volak and get back to the inn before father.' Adelaide rarely got in trouble with her father but whenever she did Ciara was always right there next to her and the idea of wandering about didn't bode well in her gut. 

'Yes, ma'am!' came her sister's rather sarcastic response.

During their search for the vulture the severity of the situation started to become increasingly more apparent. The first passerby that mentioned a siege failed to catch the girl's attention but the next three did and by the fifth Adelaide knew that the duo were wandering around a city that was about to go to war. After searching most of the city Ciara suggested that Volak had already returned to the inn but Adelaide knew he was out there somewhere, after-all the bird rarely made a quiet entrance and Adelaide had a strange feeling he'd be enjoying himself in the midst of the unfolding chaos.

'ADELAIDE!!' She eventually heared her sister cry out. The girls had decided to split up in an effort to cover more ground. Ciara sounded as though she was in trouble and Adelaide found herself darting through the alleys faster than she'd ever moved. Thoughts of her younger sister being hurt raced through her mind, neither had been involved in a siege before and Adelaide didn't know what to expect, what could happen. As she dashed around another corner she knew her sister was close, now she was almost at the perimeter of Macaron and with the last corner came a horrendous sight.

Ciara stood bleary-eyed looking helplessly at her sister as Volak stomped around violently, pacing up and down before the tall outside wall of Macaron. The vulture had one wing flapping  ferociously into the air whilst the other rested limp at its side, Adelaide immediately noticed the trickle of blood turning a dark, dry colour on the pitch black feathers of the bird's injured wing.

'I tried to help him' her sister explained, almost sobbing 'but he wouldn't let me near him...'

'Its okay, it's okay, he'll be okay...' Adelaide assured her sister, and herself. 'He's just hurt, he's scared. Volak!' The bird immediately stopped his stomping when he noticed Adelaide, he turned his head to let her see the pain in his eyes, he WAS scared. She quickly moved to pick the bird up, 'it's okay boy, I know. I know it hurts, we're going to get you looked at I just need you to trust me, okay?' She asked whilst picking up the unusual docile creature.

As she comforted the injured vulture and started to look around for someone who could help everything that Adelaide saw and felt seemed to disappear into an obscure nothingness. The once foreboding castle wall felt like a small farm fence that felt homely and welcoming. The grey buildings and floor of the city changed to a pale orange colour and would whizz by turning into smoke as she passed them. She looked behind to see Ciara disappear from sight peacefully into the sky that was behind her now. 

She turned forward again to notice Volak limply resting in her arms, bloodied but calmly and curiously gazing into her eyes. It felt like hours that she spent exploring the vulture's mysterious eyes; darker than it's darkest feather they seemed to be studying Adelaide back, darting back and forth quicker than light but they weren't looking at her, they were looking into her. When she finally looked up it was too late and a large black mass quickly began devouring both her and Volak.

'AAaueeueeauua..' Adelaide made a nasally, gasping noise as she came to, panicked. The grey buildings and foreboding wall were back, Volak lay quietly next to her on the floor, thoughts and ideas filled her head once again and she noticed that she too was on the floor. She looked up to see a gigantic figure darker than Volak surrounded by people that seemed to be upset. As she wiped her eyes thoughts of the injured vulture seemed to take over once again and whatever situation she'd just bumped into couldn't be more important than saving the bird's life.

Adelaide looked up once again, this time she saw just how pissed off everyone was and quickly realised the gigantic figure was actually a fully armoured centaur. She figured that she must of run into the back of him somehow and judging by how far away Volak ended up it must of been pretty hard. [i] What just happened to me? [/i] but before she could remember anything else she thought of the injured bird.

'He's hurt somebody help him please!' she begged to an audience including a thin, bright-haired human man with an overweight cat, another human with shining blonde hair and an aura of nobility and the same hulking black centaur that she just smashed into the back of. Adelaide got to her feet and offered the only thing she knew she could, 'I've got money, please! Lots of money just do something one of you! Please?!'