[color=gray][quote=Talan]With his spear in hand he crouched through the foliage and towards the silhouettes. He hid in the bushes nearby but he still could not see them clear enough. "Wait, the mask!", he thought to himself before putting on the wolf mask.[/quote][/color]

Ahead of Talan, the green and violet lanterns shone brightly together, illuminating the princess he had first and last seen at the attack of the monkeybats. She held the green lantern in her fist. Beside her, a huge armored man held the violet lantern aloft.

Rhea stood at the edge of the light's reach, silent and wary.

But when Talan placed the mask of the wolf over his face, he saw a very different picture.

Still there in front of him were Anise, Rhea and the unknown armored knight -- but now their forms were sharper, their features clearer, the lights less glaring and the darkness less consuming. Inside the green and violet lanterns, Talan would perceive something alive and perhaps moving, twitching at the heart of the lights. He would have a distinct sense that the creatures inside the lanterns were trapped and powerful, that the woods themselves were somehow connected to them.

Through the eyes of the mask, Talan would see a multitude of dark shapes and bright eyes clinging to the bark and branches all around; they appeared to be little more than shapeless living globs of black matter, ranging in size from as big as a human to as small as a fist; the globulous critters blinked with round white eyes that were not hostile nor intelligent by any means. The trees were thick with these formless creatures, attached like fungus to the bark, and might have been overlooked as such if they weren't breathing and blinking.

Only Talan could see them, as long as he was wearing the mask.

[quote=Simon][color=gray]As he made it towards the group he could make out a new figure that was standing there, he was a giant of a man by his standards much taller than any person that he had encountered since he has been in this mysterious land.[/color][/quote]

"Aack, pah, pah!" Tyaelaem huffed, and he leaped to his feet and snuffed out the campfire with armfuls of damp dirt, angry that it should be left so meaninglessly unattended. "Eager to start [i]another[/i] inferno, I see! Burn the [i]entire[/i] forest down, I see! Not satisfied with the [i]massacre[/i] you've caused already, I see!" He was, in fact, as fond of Simon as Simon was of him, and every moment confirmed he was justified in his dislike. The boy stood when the fire was out and smoldering, smacked his hands clean, and deftly skittered after Talan and Simon, darting silently between the trees and bushes.

[quote=Anise][color=gray]Her eyes settled on Rhea with a wary glare. "I intend to gather all of the lanterns and free the eggs from their cages, so we can leave this awful place. Are you going to try and stop me or will you help?"  With a little bit of work tearing the bottom of her dress she cut enough length of it to use to tie the green lantern to her belt. She then yelled out. "Tyaelaem! Where are you?!"[/color][/quote]
[quote=Fyair][color=gray]Fyair’s grip tightened over the handle of his violent lantern, but found it hard to imagine that the thing was a magical item, let alone held an egg. Obediently, the mountainous man placed himself at Anise’s side, looking in all directions when she called out a name unknown to him.[/color][/quote]

Rhea -- once she had got over the shock of being suddenly deprived of a house and met with a rather dangerous looking armored man -- stood coolly, wary of the two strangely-dressed tourists who held weapons of more worth than they realized.

"Gather them and [i]free[/i] them?!" she sputtered, horrified at the princess' words, and she stared with wide eyes and a slackened jaw. "You're [i]mad![/i] It took twenty generations to [i]contain[/i] the monster before it devoured the stars as well as the sun!" She clenched her teeth and her fists, then opened her tattooed palm toward Anise again. "Separate them immediately, you don't know what you're doing. I will kill you if I have to."

At that moment, a rock flung out out of the bushes and smacked Rhea in the back of the head. She stumbled and spun around, but another rock struck her from another direction.

Tyaelaem darted out from behind Anise and attached himself to her, crouching at her skirts. "Lies, she lies, Your Highness," he hissed angrily. He had been the one to throw the stones. He chucked another at Rhea with surprising force and dexterity, and it clocked the pirate upside the head. Tyaelaem was momentarily distracted by something shiny, and picked up a pair of spectacles which he hung on the neck of his grimy white shirt.

The iron pendant around Talan's neck began to tug slightly toward Rhea, and he felt a coursing power flowing through his veins, like magnetism. He would find he could lift small stones and branches without touching them, should he have the desire to do so.

In Simon's head, the voice he had heard in the valley of white flowers was singing softly.