[h2]Simon[/h2]
[quote=Simon]. . . he could hear a voice that sounded familiar to Simon. He hasn't heard that in years since her accident but there no mistake that it was his sister . . . Simon made an executive decision to himself that he was going into the gully without notifying since he was behind everyone else and it was his own personal matter. . . . he would just take one [mask] for himself and return the wolf to Talan. . . . Simon walked over to the tree with the fox attached to it . . . Simon took the whole flower and placed it directly into the base of the torches flame.

"Hello, can you hear me! I can't see you yet but I can hear you. I don't want to be alone anymore!" Simon whispered quietly in the gully. [/quote]
The flames devoured the flower, and the torchlight popped and burned bright blue. The flowers at Simon's feet glimmered and reflected the blue light; their white petals shone like ghosts.

[i]"Lonely boy . . ."[/i] the voice whispered, weak and unearthly. It surrounded him, coming from all around, from the shadows and from the shimmering flowers themselves, and the blue-tinted darkness. [i]"I want you to see me. Take me away. I trust you."[/i] The voice was soft and soothing. [i]"Under your feet. Look."[/i]

Indeed, if Simon only looked down and moved his foot away, he would see a glimmer of blue stone; it was a blue diamond set in a black metal necklace, buried in the ground among the shining white flowers, where no animal dared to tread.

[i]"Take me to the river. I am the water to the fox's flame. You and I, my dear lonely boy. You and I."[/i]

The flames were coming close, fast. Within minutes they would overtake the flowers and turn them all to ash.

In the opposite direction, the green light moved on ahead.

[h2]Talan[/h2]
[quote=Talan]The bloodrats' bites left bruises and small punctures all about his arms and torso with some trickling blood down his body. . . . As the woman released him from his bindings Tala suddenly felt empowered, his life was in his hands once more and he was going to make this forest, and any who opposed him, feel his wrath. . . . With all this going on Talan didn't notice the woman put around his neck until it was resting around his neck. He jumped slightly in surprise but quickly understood the look she gave him. He'd play along for now, at least until the current crises is ended.[/quote]
The roots beneath them writhed and shifted. The ground buckled, fell out beneath them, turned to mud then to quicksand in a blink. Vines and branches seized Talan's leg and waist, bound the woman beside him and yanked them down into the sand -- the other pirates wore the iron armor, and thus the trees could not touch them, but the armor itself made them sink all the faster.

"Rhea!" one of them screamed, flailing helplessly. "Rhea, hurry!"

Fireflies swarmed above them, almost mocking, illuminating the undulation of deadly sand. In their flashing light, several black shadowy figures loomed over the pirates as they sank.

Randold -- still bound -- slipped silently beneath the sand.

The woman -- named Rhea -- took hold of the pendant around Talan's neck, tangling the monkeybat skulls in her grasp. She gave the chain a painful yank just as the quicksand closed around his head.

Talan's mind was suddenly spinning, his stomach in knots and nauseous, his body strained as if he were being stretched on a rack. Lights flashed behind his eyes where everything else was darkness, and a piercing pain exploded in his head. And then, vertigo: suddenly he was lying on a slick metal surface with the roar of rushing water thundering below. It was dark. Too dark to see.

Rhea was beside him, choking and coughing and leaning over the rail of the damp metal bridge, gasping for air. They'd nearly suffocated in the quicksand. None of the other pirates had made it out.

The bridge itself was not simple: through touch, Talan might discern the cogs and gears lining the outside of the rail, and poles that held up strings of lights. Just beside the place where Rhea and Talan had appeared was a handle and a crank.

Upstream, an inferno burned brightly, rushing closer, devouring the trees.

On one side of the bridge, a violet light approached.

From the other side glowed a familiar green light.

[h2]Eveline, Robin, MC[/h2]
[quote=Eveline]. . . as her hand curled around the stem of the flower the world went dark for a brief second. . . . she tilted her head in a slight bow towards the [owl] before skipping forward leaning down to examine the lantern, tapping the glass like a curious child . . .[/quote]
The violet egg within the glass flashed ever so slightly with each tap, just the minutest of response to the invisible girl's touch.

And Eveline was even now fading from existence.

The light of the lantern passed through her, leaving only her dress and the garland of flowers untouched. Within minutes she would be completely unseen, and even the light of the lantern could not reveal her.

[quote=Eveline]Deciding to give the strange woman a flower after all, she reached up to untangle another red one from her crown while seamlessly slipping the bright white flower into the mix.[/quote]
[quote=Robin]Robin nudged at the owl, letting it know that it would have to fly off for her to jump.[/quote]
The owl shifted, eyeing her curiously, but it spread its injured wings and with a tilted flutter soared off to light on another branch, leaving drops of its blood on Robin's shoulder. It paused there on the branch to look over them all, as if to ensure they made it across the gap safely.

MC would feel the owl's concern -- but at the same time it was confident that the rumbling at the top of the hill would take care of the problem of the feathered arrows. The injured bird did not expect the archer to survive.

[quote=Eveline]. . . she bounced down lightly on the ground next to the blue flowers instantly reaching out to pick a few of them braiding them into her crown. . . . Looking up at the strange woman she offered out on of her own flowers with a bright smile . . .[/quote]
[quote=MC]MC reached neath her poncho and pulled out a dark feather that still held its rainbow sheen . . . she held the gift out to the fading flower girl.[/quote]
[quote=Robin]Robin put the lantern under her shirt, dimming it’s light to avoid attracting any unwanted attention, and pressed forwards, mapping out a path for the others to follow.[/quote]
[quote=MC]. . . MC reached out in front of her to grasp the hand of one girl with her left hand and the other with her right hand.[/quote]
[quote=Eveline]just as quickly did the feather dissappear into the pocket of the girl's dress, did she welcome the warm hand of this strange woman. . . . Unaware that the pretty blue flowers she had picked where still glowing and had attracted fireflies that started to circle around her, she giggled at the sight of them. Offering them a slight bow, she grinned further as they started to light up the area around them even more beckoning them forward. . . . Giggling softly she slipped her hand from the strange woman before spinning lightly in circles admit the fireflies.[/quote]
[quote=Robin]She grabbed the girl’s wrist and gently tugged her forwards. Robin looked at her with steady eyes and urged her to continue with them.[/quote]
[quote=Eveline]. . . too heavy with brush and bramble for their hidden light source to break through the heavy darkness as it seemed to absorb the light rather then dispel at the touch of it. Perhaps this forest was wrong, but it held an air of magic and time, as if it was the first. . . . The smell of fire still hung heavy in the air, but it was slowly replaced with the smell of water and iron . . .[/quote]
Eveline would hear a whisper in her ear -- the quiet voice of an older boy, quivering slightly: [i]"Hello, can you hear me! I can't see you yet but I can hear you. I don't want to be alone anymore!"[/i]

The owl swooped down from above and snatched the flower garland from Eveline's disappearing head, its claws curled tight among the blue glowing flowers, the shimmering white flower, the black glossy feather and the red blossoms woven together. The whispering voice was suddenly gone, taken away with the garland as the owl flapped higher and ahead to lead the way -- though a tremendous effort was put into the work of injured flight, and it flapped low and hard just above their heads, the flower garland dangling from its talons.

Fireflies swarmed them and flowed ahead, pulsing little yellow lights, lining a path through the woods that the owl quietly followed -- toward the sound of water and a bright green light that moved in and out of the shadows of the forest.

[quote=MC]. . . the brilliant red flower tucked behind her right ear. . . . MC found the smells launched in her memory the old metal of a bridge that rose high above swift moving, frothy liquid rushing past large, slippery rocks neath it. MC slowed down a bit and tried to impress such images upon the owl, and in those thoughts she tried to emote concern and trepidation, but all the while she kept her mind and aura open to any thoughts or images that Senior Buho might impress upon her. But just trailing those thoughts and images, sliding in and out were questions about who was shooting at them and why... and of course, what exactly was emitting the violet light from the lantern tucked away in Robin's possession.[/quote]
The owl was suspicious of MC's thoughts in its head; it peered at her as it flew, with Eveline's garland dangling in its grasp and the blood on its tattered wing drying. Its mind closed off to her immediately, like a door being slammed in her face -- but then it very purposefully gave her snaps of information: The spores of the mushrooms were the cause of the flower-girl's condition, of MC's [i]annoying[/i] power (the owl's personality had an elderly aura, like a bitter old man prone to sarcasm) and of Robin's ability (which he had seen and scoffed that no one else had noticed), all of which would eventually fade as the effect wore off. [i]Pirates[/i] would shoot them, keen on stealing the lantern for themselves. And the lantern was alive, and imprisoned.

The owl flapped on, and MC would sense flashes of its increasing pain. Bloodrats skittered in their wake, lapping up the trail of blood.

Ahead, the rush of water grew louder. Soon the glint of metal shone in the light of the violet lantern, and the end of a metal bridge could be discerned. Rhea and Talan stood at its center. Deep rushing rapids roared beneath it.

The owl finally succumbed to its pain. It dropped the garland on the ground and a tree branch dipped under the bird's tired weight. The fire that they had been fleeing from was indeed behind them, but here it became clear that the inferno burned on the other side of the water. It ravaged closer to the swinging green light at the other end of the bridge, which illuminated Kituo and Anise.

The fireflies stopped, and did not venture any closer.

[h2]Anise, Kituo[/h2]
[quote=Anise]She rushed forward and grabbed at Kituo's arm intent to pull him towards the purple light. "Come on," she eagerly urged. "We can get out of here if we gather all the lanterns together! Come on! We'll be free of this hell."[/quote]
[quote=Kituo]His skin blistered as the heat's intensity rubbed against him.  . . . Not only was the heat pounding him, but the smoke from the fire was beginning to choke Kituo. It was becoming increasingly harder to breath and as he hacked and choked, Kituo staggered on his feet.  . . . While he didn't register it at first, he was actually being guided through the inferno by the shine of the purple lantern in the distance. . . . Hurrying along, he pushed the lantern back against his chest and gritted his teeth to endure the heat. . . . The smoke was weighing his lungs down and he was becoming feint headed. Kituo panted and fought to catch as much oxygen as he could salvage. As he nodded in and out of darkness he swore he caught a glimpse of something looming near him. Whatever. If there indeed was something there, Kituo figured it unwise for it attack him giving the circumstances. The voice of the girl seeped life back into Kituo as she held onto his arm. Did she say that they could get home if they gathered all the lanterns? That was a symphony to Kituo's ears.

"A-alright," he chucked, forcing another step.

He had nothing to lose by resisting his own demise. [/quote]
Shadows moved at the edges of the green light, backed by the glow of hot flames -- and then they were gone. After a few minutes of running, as if they had lost interest the dark figures no longer appeared -- only the ghastly twists of old trees and the sprint of fleeing animals that passed them. Occasionally an old carved statue appeared and withdrew in the light of the lantern -- but all this would be engulfed by fire before long.

The trees moved all around Kituo. Their roots and branches bowed away from him, as if the light of the lantern willed the forest to let him pass. Even the ground smoothed before Kituo's feet, allowing him to move as quickly as he was able while the flames rose fast and hot behind him and the valiant princess at his side.

Ahead was the sound of rushing water.

He would see in the light of the lantern the glint of metal. Water seethed across his path, rapids that were impassable on their own -- but a narrow metal bridge spanned them. At the center of the bridge stood Rhea and Talan. At the other end was the purple light, which softly illuminated the figures of Robin, Eveline and MC.

The fire was almost upon him.

Anise suddenly dropped unconscious to the ground. A sharp wooden blow-dart quivered in the side of her neck.

Just at the edge of the green lantern's light, the high white ears of a rabbit mask ducked into some high weeds and were gone.