[quote=Anise]Where is the lake? Which direction do I follow the river? Upstream? Down?

She faced Reus and focused her attention on him. She attempted to make mental contact with the large wolf. Reus. What is so important down there? [/quote]

Wendetae tipped her head and opened one eye wide, glaring hard at Anise. [i]You can speak, child, I can hear you just fine without that telepathy nonsense,[/i] she snapped. [i]Downstream. You know where the pirate ship is, don't you? The mask will show you the way.[/i]

And then, the connection with the owl was shut by the princess, and Wendetae fluffed with an irritable squawk.

Reus reeled back at the feel of Anise's voice in his head; his ears flattened and he snarled. A cold, icy block of refusal hit Anise in response, but within it was a fragile thread of an answer: [i]Help.[/i] Help was down below.

[quote=Simon]He could feel it right next to him, an extremely uneasy feeling and his made his body thrashed around eventually giving the owl a boot in the process, right before his body stopped he subconsciously sputtered  “Doooont trust the owwwwwl” 

Simon noticed that he could half see now, when he closed his right eye and everything was clear as crystal, he looked around and seen Anise, a new guy and that giant dog that the old lady knew. Simon closed his left eye and opened his right and everything was back to Shadows, even though he knew what everything looked like. Simon looked Reus dead in the eyes without saying anything to either of the four entities that were around him.[/quote]

The owl squawked and fumble-fluttered painfully along the ground in a desperate effort to get away from Simon's flying feet.

Reus lifted his head high, and he stared intently at Simon while Simon stared back through his right eye -- the eye that saw the spirit world.

The three entities that stood around Simon were spirits that had been touched by the Lord of Shadow; their wills were not their own, and they obeyed the Lord of Shadow completely. Their forms were dark as smoke, the same as those that had appeared around Anise.

Simon would see a bright white spirit within Anise, and another within Chris. These were living souls, pure and unscathed.

Within Reus and Wendetae, Simon would see bluish-gray spirits. These were dead spirits, but they were untouched by the Lord of Shadow and in control of their own wills. They appeared much the same as Tyaelaem's spirit after his death.

Simon would also see a thin red symbol on Reus' forehead, and another on the owl's forehead, only visible in the spirit world. He had seen the same mark before, at the witch's house.

[quote=Chris]Curious he reached down to brush more of the dirt off and get a better look. Seemed there was a hatch of some kind there. Giving it a tug it opened slightly. Putting more effort into it he pulled it open.[/quote]

The hatch was barely open when a long thin hand snatched out, grabbed Chris by the collar, and dragged him forcibly into the darkness. The hatch snapped shut behind him.

Reus whirled around, but Chris was suddenly gone.

Chris dropped a short distance onto a dusty cold floor in the dark.

A thin hand wrapped around his wrist, and another patted him on the cheek.

[b]"Oh d-dear, oh no, I'm s-sorry, did I hurt you? There's no time, come on, hurry, you're in much danger, we have to-to run now, I'm s-saving you, hurry, come on, d-down the stairs quickly, there's a-a passage just here to s-safety."[/b] The voice was slightly rasping but quite possibly female. As she stuttered nervously she helped Chris to his feet, then yanked him fearfully down the stairs as if hellhounds were on their heels. She was strong for being so much shorter than Chris.

Suddenly she stopped, and pushed Chris back to keep him from falling farther down the stairs. [b]"Th-this way!"[/b] Even though they were standing in the middle of a pitch-black staircase, she yanked him to the side and into a narrow passage in the root-tangled wall. As soon as they were through the entrance, Chris would hear the hiss and rub of the roots closing up the opening behind them. Anyone following behind would never know there was a passage here at all.

Fireflies flashed up ahead. Then, Chris would see a soft yellow glow lighting up a room at the end of the passage.

As the light drew nearer, Chris could finally see who it was that was leading him. The girl was barefoot, with a dusty mane of blond hair, and she wore the same gray weathered clothes as the dead boy, Tyaelaem. She wore a white wooden mask in the shape of a mouse's face.

She pulled him along the passage, and they stepped out into a wide vaulted room full of trees with glowing yellow fruit. The squishy, head-sized fruits and the swarms of fireflies above afforded the room a nice ambient glow to see by.

At the center of the huge room was a bigger tree that was full of clock faces, gears and sprockets. It was silent; the clocks were dead and cold.

More people were here. A dozen of them stood curiously as Chris approached, and they stared at him through the eyes of white masks: a boar, a bear, a cat, a frog. All of them were barefoot, and all of them wore the same pale threadbare clothes. They looked almost like spirits, themselves, but the hand on Chris' wrist was definitely warm and human.

The mouse-girl let go and faced him with a relieved sigh. [b]"You're s-safe now,"[/b] she assured him. [b]"Are you hurt? Can I-I get you anything?"[/b]

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