Because really, how could RPG survive without this literary masterpiece?

PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
The BEGINING
I: Jane sat on the bed; a layer of blood soaked into the sheets and stained them red. It ran into her clothes and her hair and gathered in a pool around her apart from the few drops that got though the mattress and dripped onto the floor. The blood was caused by her but the reason behind it was her father, a small pudgy man who was scared of the world and made himself feel big by beating up his daughters and his wife. He did not tell anyone about this however because it was not exactly a thing you bragged about, but it still gave him the satisfaction.

Jane shivered, she felt cold as the blood from her wrists ran out in a plentiful amount but it was not just the loss of blood that made her feel cold. An unnaturally cold bite was in the air, one that belonged to the heart of winter, not the eve of summer as it was. Jane thought it was an important point-if summer didn't come, the plants would die and the bees would not come and if there were no plants and then there would be less oxygen and more Carbon in the air, which would be bad for people as a whole. She laughed softly and then cringed in pain as her wrists protested against the movement by shooting fiery pain all across her body, it was amazing what things she thought of when lying half dead on her bed, but then she had had even more abstract thought patterns.

Tears escaped her deep green eyes, not that she wanted them to; they simply appeared and ran down her face, like small, salty drops of water. Which, thinking about it for a second, was exactly what they were. Not that Jane could think properly right now, she didn't have enough blood to think properly and so things that were meant to be obvious where not really such. She wondered if this sort of thing would happen if she had a Familiar to protect her, but then, with the way Shadow could be, she doubted it.

The reason she had cut her wrists - again, it was a regular thing for her- was a result of her father's actions and Jane knew he was going to punish her for trying to kill herself but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. She was too busy bleeding and worrying about the weather. It annoyed her that no matter how she cut her wrists or how much blood came out she never passed on, there was several times when she bled so much that a normal person would not have a drop left in their body but she still awoke the next day. She would still collapse from blood loss and still feel the great amount of pain that was associated with slashing any part of your body open with a sharp Implement, but never die, a fact that irked her a lot - what was the point of not dying if you were still going to collapse and shiver from the other side effects of slashing your wrists wide open and watching the red river run out onto whatever you happened to be around at the time?

She never knew why she had such a thin frame either, it was not like she was underfed - her father tried but she always got plenty of food to eat, mainly though Eliot's adventures in the kitchen - but no matter how much she ate she always stayed thin and weak, it was like the world was taunting her with a combination of weakness and an inability to die and she did not like being taunted in the slightest, it was one of her peeves, along with her dad's continued existence and broccoli, whoever invented broccoli must have really hated everyone with a taste-bud. But then, Mr Broccoli Inventor might not have had taste buds.

The things the mind thinks of when laid in a pool of blood and nearly in the grasp of unconsciousness are far beyond the control of the person whose mind it is - not that Jane had much control over her mind to begin with. She just had to go along with the ride and hope it was not too bad. This time she thought of her second father - not an official father but one who had adopted the mantle none the less - and his Familiar. She thought of Eliot and Silverfang’s tomfoolery. She thought of times when Eliot cooked a plethora of different foods. She thought of times when she watched a movie, using Silverfang or Eliot as a cushion to lay her head on. She also thought of times when her sisters, Beth and Nehvna, would come round and they would have a party. These were the happy days away from this drab and dreary household. It was better than thinking about where she was. She also remembered - too much lesser delight, not that she had the energy to complain about it right now, being so far into the grip of unconsciousness- days with her mother, they were nice but she had left Jane all alone with her father and for that Jane eternally disliked her mother. Or at least wished to, but she knew if her mother turned up tomorrow, she would throw her arms around her and leave with her.

The blood had managed to get though the mattress in a much larger amount and was now pooling on the ground, despite her strange inability to die she was in no way immune to unconsciousness, something that happened to her in the middle of her memory of happy days.


II: Jane woke the following day, and sat up, her body ached from last night, and her wrists still had ugly slashes on them, but they had stopped bleeding at least. Jane ran her fingers though her hair, matted and marred by blood, sweat and dirt. However, despite the blood she had leaked out earlier, her hair was not as stained as she thought it would be.
"Heh, so I got blood-proof hair now" she muttered to herself, before stripping out of her blood stained clothes. "Good job there's no P.E today" She further commented. Jane then looked over at the wardrobe, and sighed. Another day of school was not necessarily a good thing. Sure it got her away from the house, but the kids at her school where assholes all the same. She did have a few friends there, but they were few and held no sway over the popular kids, and where basically friends to have friends rather than any meshing of personalities. Throughout the course of dressing, Jane wondered how the school day was going to turn out, until she came to the skirt. She always thought that the skirt was far too small to be practical, since it barely covered her ass, and any stray gust of wind made it reveal everything. But then that was probably why her dad had bought it, for that amusing thought. Never the less, it was the only skirt she had, and so she put it on, and finished with a set of socks, and her shoes. All the clothing she had was tatty and ragged, since her dad never replaced anything, even when it was falling apart, and there where holes in it. Jane tried not to think about it, since it was pointless to complain or moan about it. Jane then looped the tie around her muggy white shirt and wondered who thought it was a good idea to tie a noose around their neck for whatever reason.

Lacking a better option, and without the ability to jump out of the window - something she had thought about, but they were stiff and she couldn't get them open however hard she tried - Jane headed down stairs, and immediately saw her father, Mark. He was all fat and no brain, but that wasn't why Jane hated him. He was dressed smart, as if he was going out to a high class work, or probably just to taunt Jane, which was his favourite pass time. Jane flicked her eyes to the clock, which read just past eight, plenty of time to get to school.
"What are you doing in that getup?" Mark asked, his tone slurred as if he had been drinking already, which would not be surprising.
"I am going to school, dad." She told him, politely and formal, but with a distinct monotone; something that always irritated Mark. Probably because it was how her mother talked to him
"What'tha 'ell you going there for on a Sunday?" He asked, or rather demanded. Mark never asked anything of Jane.
"It's Monday, dad" she replied, in the same tone, picking up her school bag, if the dilapidated mass of fabric she was using could be called that. When she turned back, however, Mark was right in front of her, which made her flinch and then he slapped her, a rough crack across her face.
"Dun ya call me a liar, ya lil bitch" He ordered, before grabbing her chin and dragging it to meet his eyes. "Na ya get 'ome time-like today. Got summat ta do" he slurred, the smell of his breath making Jane want throw up, or at least grimace, but that would just have gotten her into more trouble.

"Yes, dad" she told him, and got slapped again, more roughly this time, the blow leaving a harsh red mark on her face.
"An’ don ya be usin' that tone!" he growled. Jane lowered her head, keeping her eyes to the ground and kept silent, but the drunken Mark took offensive even to that.
"An’ don ya be lookin' so bad!" He exclaimed, raising his hand to slap her, however, it never came, and the only sound that Jane heard was Mark's confused grunt, and then an acknowledging grunt, before waddling back off to the kitchen. Jane looked up, and met the soft smile of Shadow, Mark's Familiar. Somehow, he managed to make that smile look warm, and menacing at the same time. Jane would have preferred to be slapped by Mark all day, than be saved by Shadow. He was wearing his usual black over-coat, frayed at the edges, and looking much in the same condition as Jane's clothing. She wondered if it was Mark's idiocy, or constant inebriation that made Shadow appear, scruffy, but she was too scared to ask, the implication of Shadow being scruffy would not be well received.
"I hate it when he does that to you. Nothing worse that bruised fruit" He muttered. The scar down one eye moved softly as he spoke, and Shadow absently raised a finger to scratch it, before moving to stroke Jane's slapped face.
"Shadow, I...” she started, before the black-clad Familiar placed a finger on her lips.
"Save your words, dear. They are not needed here. Now go to your place of learning, and return as Mark ordered, he is taking you to work again tonight" Shadow told Jane, his tone soft, and his words harsh. Jane knew exactly what he meant, and knew that it entitled, but somehow she just didn't care.
"Ok. I’m going now" she muttered, in her standard tone. There was no reason to use anything else for Shadow.
"Learn well, and save your energy, you know how he hates it when you drop to soon" Shadow told Jane, opening the door for her with that weird smile of his, and then shutting it behind her, not even mentioning her lack of words as she walked down the path to the gate.

It took Jane a good half-hour to get to the school, mainly because of the cold - she always shuffled when it was cold - but also because she was pondering why she didn't see anyone else, walking towards the school. When she arrived, however, the question was answered by the large clock. It read '7:32am' or there about. Analogue hands where hard to read precisely. But it was clear the clocks at her house where set forward an hour, another one of Mark's schemes - Shadow was never so childish and surreptitious, when he did something, it was out in the open - just to get her out of the house. Or even just so she had an hour to wait at school for things to start. Seeing no reason in standing around in the cold, Jane headed inside, and was greeted with the noise of a Buffer, polishing the floors before the children came in, stomping their boots all over the floor. The Caretaker at the helm of the Buffer seemed as if Jane knew him, and not in a 'seen him around school' kind of way. But, Jane could not put a name to the face, before he turned around, letting out a soft sound of surprise.

"Ahh, didn't expect to see anyone else here so soon. You really that eager?" he asked, switching off the Buffer to have a conversation.
"No, my clocks where just set forward an hour, something else my dad thought would be funny, or some such. Never really been able to keep up with him." She replied, causing the man to lean on the buffer. His clothes looked rather expensive -if well worn - for a Caretaker, but she didn't bring it up.
"Sounds like you and your dad don't get along" He commented, a fatherly tone, as if he had raised more than one child in his time. Jane laughed at his comment, and took a breath.
"Well, put it this way. You don't randomly hand out super powers that let me pull peoples arms off, do you?" She asked. The man stroked his chin a few times in a classical thinking pose.
"Hmm, I did. But then I got in trouble for it, and so I am currently suspended from randomly handing out super powers that let people pull off other peoples arms." He told Jane, which made her smile in amusement. "Hehay. A smile, we are getting somewhere" The Caretaker continued, fluidly moving from behind the Buffer and appearing in front of Jane. "So, this odd red mark that is rather out of place with the rest of your cold-flushed cheeks. Did your father think that would be funny?" He asked, his tone suddenly turning icy, and deadly serious. Jane knew there was no point trying to avoid the subject, and so she shook her head.

"No, that was because I told him it was Monday, when he claimed it was Sunday. And then because I sound like my mother. My mum and being told he is wrong are two things that he really doesn't like" Jane told the Caretaker, with a sad, but relegated tone. The Caretaker, who had been listening intently, nodded.
“Right. So, kind of guy you’d wish would fall down the stairs into a pool of acid, with acid-breathing piranhas in it?” he offered, to which Jane laughed, it was a very amusing idea.
“Where are you going to find acid-breathing piranhas?” She asked.
“Hmm, possibly Generia. They have some great tea, and some weird wildlife” He commented.
“Right….So, what’s your name? I feel bad calling you ‘The Caretaker’ all the time.” Jane admitted.
“Ohh, names. Right. I’m Kaban Saal, nice to meet ya” He said, holding out a hand, rather well-manicured, considering he was pushing a Buffer all day.
“Lovely to meet you, Mr Saal. My name is Jane, Jane Everwood” She told Kaben, shaking his hand, before shivering. She hadn’t really noticed the temperature before, but now it was really getting to her. “Do they not switch on the heater or something?” She asked, rubbing her arms.
“Na, they don’t do that till about eight or so. Saves money. If you want, I can show ya a place I like, when the school is being all cold and shit” He told Jane, who contemplated it for a while. It couldn’t exactly be any worse than being in here, so she nodded, and followed Kaben to this ‘place’.

She was led down a few hallways, and took a couple of turns to a part of the school she had never been to before. It was old, there wasn’t any classrooms around, and there was a basic feel of neglect. However, viewable though the window was a beautiful, luscious garden. It was amazing that the garden could florish in such cold, there where even a few tropical trees, where the country never got hot enough to grow. Jane stared at the garden in wonder, and Kaben picked up on this.
"Lovely place, no?" He asked, grinning as they approched the door.
"Yea, it is. How do you even get it like that?" she asked, expecting some sort of greenhouse idea.
"Ahh, i just ask it nicely" he replied, to which Jane scoffed.
"Yea, like that ever worked" she said skeptically.
"Well, maybe they just didn't ask the right questions" He told her, before opening the door to the garden. It was very warm, warm enough to make Jane forget about the bitting cold of a few seconds ago. "Ok, i'm impressed" She exclaimed, sitting down on a chair, fashioned in the shape of a log stump. It had a high back, enough for Jane to lean back comfortably.
"Yep, it's pretty cool. So, just chill here for a while, I gotta get back to work" He said before waving. "Don't be late for class" He coo'd on the way out.
"Tsk, how could I be late? I got nearly an hour" she muttered, before leaning back. It was very relaxing, and didn't take long for Jane to fall asleep.

Nearly an hour later, Jane was woken by a loud bell echoing though the school. It always rang ten minutes before the start of every class, to give students enough time to get where they where going, but it was still a shock.
"Sleep?" she asked herself, still not quite beleving that she had pulled it off. Most nights took her hours to drift off, and other nights it never happened at all. So, to be taken so quickly, in such a short time, was a miricle. As the sound of the bell died away, Jane could hear...whispers around her. Mostly incoherent muttering, but there was one thing she heard, repeated thoughout the entire garden, by whatever it was that was talking. 'She's here'. Suddenly the garden felt a lot less relaxing and comfortable, taking on a more ominous aura to it, which made Jane very uneasy. Hastily wiping away the drool from her sleep, Jane made a quick departure from the garden, with the whispers following her down the hall, and until she got to the main part of the school. There, she saw people milling about, getting to their classes and groaning about the day ahead. Jane didn't recognize must of them, and some she wished she hadn't made eye-contact with, because that would lead to some problems later on in the day. However, one girl - rather down cast, with her eyes on the floor - did spark a slight smile in Jane, and so she walked over to the down-cast girl.
"Hey Emily! Good to see you" She said, snaffling the girl in a hug before she could react. It let to a sharp 'eep' before Emily relaxed, and returned the hug.
"O..ohh, h-hi Jane" Emily stammered, always being a shy, retiring sort of girl.
"So, crappy weekend?" She asked, to which Emily nodded.
"H-how many?" she asked, a question vague, but Jane got it right away.
"Three" she replied, adding a sad atmosphere to the convosation, before grinning again. "But, can't let that bother us. We got class to get to. So, lets get to it" She exclaimed, Emily gave her a look - that look that wondered if the person was all there, or even there at all - but followed her down the hall way, talking about the girls of today, and how they look as if they put on make-up with a shovel, about guys who have more fingernails than brain-cells, and about general life. Eventually they got to the tutor room, and there they all had an annoying twenty minutes before school actually began to see who was in and who wasn't. Both Jane and Emily had the same opnion of it, and that opnion would have been used to allow the garden Jane was briefly in to grow more than it already had.

Entering the room, Jane saw that her and Emily where the last ones in, the tutor was giving them the look of annoyance, since they where so late - not late exactly, but they where the last - but it was ignored. Jane found her place and Emily sat next to her, prompting the tutor to start blathering about stuff that was suposably important. However, ten minutes into this, when the tutor was realling off up-coming events that no one was going to go to, something clattered into the room. Of course, everyone leant over to see what it was, and where all blinded by the onsuing flash that emmitted from it. There where many cries of suprise, some of pain, and then sight began to clear again, but, there where two men, big and ugly looking in the room as well.
"Glad I got your attention. Now, we are looking for someone. Someone special. Shouldn't be to hard to find her, but I do need your attention here" The man in the front said, before pulling a pistol - with silencer - from his jacket and killing the tutor, spilling her brains all over the wall. The ensuing pandamoniumdid not hider either man, as they grinned and headed though the sea of students, pushing over whoever got it there way, until they made it to Jane's seat. "Well hidden" he muttered, ignoring Jane's look of confusion - her and Emily didn't seem to be running around screaming like the others, just staring - before pointing the gun at Jane and pulling the trigger, but the gun never fired. "A jam, now?!" He asked generally, but clearly annoyed. The click seemed to bring Jane out of her haze, and so she flipped her desk in the man's direction, who made an inchoerent curse as the desk flew towards him. She then turned to Emily, so they could run together. Emily was the one person in this school Jane wanted to protect, and she would do anything for that oppertunity. However, behind her, there was the muffled sound of two silenced gunshots, and then Emily was covered in blood. Jane's first thought was that Emily had been shot, and this made her extremely angry, but her vision started to gray, and her legs felt so weak. Realization dawned on her, just as she fell foward, into Emily's lap, to die.


II: "Going to sleep the day away, or something?" A voice asked, to which Jane slowly opened her eyes, and frowned. She was, in the reception, Silverfang's grinning face looking down at her. All she could do was stare, and mutter 'wha' a lot, so Silverfang took the initative.
"Apparently you and a few of your classmates just suddenly collapsed in Tutor, so they brought you down here, and called the people listed to come get you - of which I am very happy it was me and not him." Silver explained, the last word dripping with venom. "I was at home when the call came in, Eliot had gone to do some Eliot stuff, so I had a free to come get you" he explained, but Jane simply shook her head softly some more.
"But..no..Emily, she.." Jane said, trying to explain what she had just seen.
"Ohh, Emily is fine, she wasn't one of the ones that took an unplanned nap" Silverfang joked, but Jane was still shaking her head.
"I..died in her lap.." Jane uttered softly, plastering a confused, but rather worried look onto Silverfang's face.
"Sound's like one 'ell of a vivid dream" a man said from behind them, as Jane looked around, she saw it was the Head Teacher, rather exotically named 'Laas Nebak'. A very friendly tone, but also a great disdain for the letter 'h'. She wondered how this man had ever gotten such a high position with his informal tone, but maybe he had a different tone for more important stuff. He was, amazingly, making a prestine suit, perfectly ironed, look scruffy. "But, don't worry, no matter what you saw there, it didn't 'appen" he explained, before looking to Silverfang. "So, your 'er guardian, right?" he asked, to which Silverfang nodded. Silverfang had a look on their face, like He knew him from somewhere, but couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Well, take 'er 'ome then. Don't do anything to rough for a while. Just, chill" He suggested.
"Ok." Jane replied, still groggy but awake enough to stand. "Right, then lets get back to the house" she exclaimed, slurring a word or two but remaining steady. Silverfang stayed at her side to keep her stable. Jant still had a strange, confused look plastered on her face, but she managed to keep her thoughts on the road ahead, instead of on her very confused mind.

It took them a lot less than she though to amble back to Eliot's place, but that was probably the cold giving them a great nudge. But then, the cold always gave people nudges when it came to getting somewhere. Once Silverfang had opened the door and escorted Jane to the couch, he then took off into the kitchen to get her a drink. Jane closed her eyes for a second as Silver potted around, she was so sure it had happened, unlike any other dream, it wasn't fading from memory. She could clearly see Emily's face, so terrofied.
"Here you go" Silverfang announced, snapping Jane out of her not-quiter-asleep state. Jane smiled and took the drink, sipping it a few times before placing it on the nearby table.
"Thanks by the way" she said to Silver with a shy smile.
"Thanks for what?" He asked.
"Bringing me here, being supportive. Helping with my confusion and -you haven't done this one yet, but I hope you will - not telling Eliot the details." She said, reeling off each reason for thanks.
"Ohh, sure, espeically the last one. You can count on me" He told Jane, who smiled and moved in close, planting her lips on Silver's. He seemed a bit shocked at first, but then let himself relax. It was a warm kiss, different from anything she had ever had before. With a hint of dog breath. She could feel her heart pounding against her chest as they locked their lips together. This was one of the best feelings she had ever felt and knew it must be that strange emotion she never thought she would feel. Love.

Howver, it was cut short by a key entering into a lock, which swiftly broke up the kiss.

"Anyone home?" Eliot shouted, opening the door.
"Yea I'm here and I got a carry-on as well" Silverfang told Eliot, who laughed a bit.
"Aren't you meant to be at school?" Eliot asked Jane, keeping the door open for another girl to walk in.
"Ohh, I got this bug thing along with several other people, and so they let me go" She explained, smiling at the new girl. "Morning Beth" she said, waving rather groggily at her.

Eliot stood at an average height with an average build and average length hair. He was very average to look at but it was his heart that set him aside from everyone else, he never turned down anyone who needed help and never hesitated extend his hand to any who needed it. Beth, however, was physically Eliot's opposite; she stood a foot taller than most people in the street and had a wide chest - with equally big breasts - and broader shoulders than most girls had. She seemed to have the physique to handle herself in a fight, but Jane never found out if she had the mentality for a fight either.
"Hello Beth, how are you?" Silver asked, also grinning like a goof. Beth made everyone grin like a good.
"I've been good thanks, work has been rather nice lately as we are fully staffed" She told him, before walking over to were Jane sat and hugging her. As much as Jane tried to hide it Beth always knew how her baby sister was feeling without her ever saying a word and right now there was something seriously bothering her but she decided not to press the point just yet.
"Where are Nehvna and Satyr?" Silverfang asked Beth as they followed Eliot into the kitchen as standby in case something he was cooking blew up, it was not easy cooking for seven people on your own especially when Eliot had a habit of experimenting with the cooking ingredients.

"Nehvna is trying to convince her little angel to come outside when we left, she told us she would catch up but she hasn't yet. Satyr is somewhere else, probably reading a book or something" Beth told Silverfang as Eliot started telling them what he was going to cook and read out the ingredients needed for the dish, he always liked help in the kitchen.

III: "Sorry I was a pain to everyone I really didn't mean to be" Avrion said with a sad face that looked like it was about to cry, but then every face Avrion pulled looked like it was going to cry. That and the fact that her frame was more akin to a stick than an actual person made Avrion look very weedy but that was not the case. For the most part, Nehvna would usually tell Avrion - in several different ways - to stop being so depressive and smile more. Then she would follow it with a compliment about how nice Avrion's smile was and how she would love to see it more often. However, this particular time, she was more interested in - and worried about - Jane's arms, who had gotten up from the couch and was milling around randomly. As luck would have it, Nevhna happened to glance over just as Jane was brushing some hair behind her ear, who had shown off the top part of her wrist, and looked like it carried on a lot longer than just her wrist.
"What the bloody hell happened to your arms?!" Nehvna demanded, nearly screaming as she saw how far they went up her arms, to the elbow.

"Oh nothing to worry about it" Jane said with a nervous smile, Nehvna was always kicking off about every little scrape or bruise so cuts running all the way up her arms would not put her in a good mood.
"That is some cutting Jane, what do you mean there is nothing to worry about?!" she screeched again before grabbing Jane by the hand and dragging her upstairs.
"Ow, that hurts you know" Jane said, being yanked upstairs.

Once upstairs Nehvna sat Jane down on a stool - despite her protests - and simply stared wide-eyed at the cuts for a few seconds before muttering to herself and turning to a box labelled 'Jane's Box'. Something that Eliot had been keeping around since she often came - or was brought by Silver - sporting a myriad of wounds. She picked out some disinfectant and poured it onto a cotton bud, then began to dap at the cut, ignoring Jane's sharp intake of breath that signalled it was hurting. She dapped it all the way up her arm, and then the other arm, and showed no interest in the glares she was getting as the treatment hurt, a lot.

"First I need to get you some clothes while you get a shower" She told Jane, who noticed her school outfit was now rather bloody from her wrists, and messed up with some sort of mud, from when she had leant to far on SIlver without him expecting it, and fallen over. "I have been a bit preoccupied to notice my clothing" she told Nehvna, who shook her head softly.
"Into the shower with you, I'll pick something out" she told Jane, walking into the bathroom and fiddling with the shower before getting it to a good temperature. Emily stripped off to her nude, and pretended not to see Nehvna's look of horror as she saw all the caked blood on her back, but did move more quickly to get into the Shower.

She let the water run on her body for a while before turning to the shampoo. She reached out for the bottle and squeezed some onto her hand before working it into her hair and washing it off, the soap came off a odd red with brown as the water cleaned off the tinges of blood that had soaked into her hair, as well as all the dirt that had come from months of not washing.
It took her a while to actually get some semblance of cleanliness due to her lack of being able to have a shower at her own house; her father didn't like her having any sort of luxuries that might make her life in the slightest bit easier. She repeated the lathering a few more times, cleaning her back in the process, until the water returned to its natural colour, she then grabbed the conditioner from the shelf and began to rub it into her mass of now pink hair.
When she was finished Jane turned the shower off and stepped out, rubbing herself dry with a towel before wrapping one round all the hair she could manage to fit in it. It was a good feeling to be clean and she did not get the feeling very often so every time she did she cherished it because it would be a long time before she got another chance.

Jane then headed into the bedroom to check what Nehvna was pulling out of the wardrobe.
"You are one serious mess" Nehvna said as she took off Jane's towel and began to blow dry her hair, Nehvna was not bothered in the slightest by the total lack of clothes that Jane was currently showing since she had been around her and other naked women a lot so she was comfortable with female nakedness. "Come here, your arms need bandaging" She told Jane, who sat down on a stool - the same stool she had sat down on before - and waited patiently while Nehvna rubbed a cream into both cuts and all the way up her arm before wrapping the entire length up in bandage once again. Nehvna brooked no arguement when it came to Jane's well-being, and so sometimes used a less than friendly tone on her, but Jane never really took offense to it. When it came to knowing Jane, everyone had a certain amount of skill in First - aid; it was required when you lived around a girl such as her.
After that was done, Nehvna ran a comb though Jane's hair as she dried it, making sure that each part was properly dried and combed before moving onto the next part and working on that.

"You could defiantly be a hair dresser or something to that extent you know" Jane told Nehvna who blushed at the complement.
"I am not that good Jane" She told her, it was not true since Nehvna was amazing with all things hair, Jane's hair was originally brown but it was Nehvna who dyed the whole length of it pink.
It was extremely hard work considering how much there was but Nehvna managed to do it perfectly.
"You are better than good Nehvna, you are amazing" she said as Nehvna finished combing through Jane's hair and switched the blow dryer off, she then picked up two sets of clothes from the bed and held them up so that Jane could see them, Jane picked the plainer set of clothes - a simple t - shirt and jeans - and put them on. Nehvna preferred the brighter, flashier style of clothes and so she always wore a long dress that complimented her tall frame. After Jane had finished putting the new clothes on, being careful of her wrist and - with the help of Nehvna - gotten all her hair out of the back of her t - shirt she and Nehvna headed down the stairs, Jane's layered mass of hair swaying slightly as she walked.

IV. Back at Jane's house, her father was very drunk, and doing his usual drunken blathering about what he was going to do when Jane came home from School. However, one of his many friends/henchmen had called him up to say he had seen Jane leaving the school early with someone else, and that he would have chased her down if he wasn't doing his job at the moment he saw her. Mark let out a few drunken mumblings, before cursing. He then turned to Shadow, and slurred drunkly.
"Were'd ya go 'f you'd leave?" He asked, criptically, but Shadow got it.

"Well you can always try the Library, she seems to frequent that place a lot. Failing that, I don't really know for certain where she could be, there are a lot of places around for her to be. She could even be hiding in one of the houses" He explained, sighing slightly as he spun such a tale that even someone that was not a complete idiot like Mark was might believe him. Mark grumbled for a bit about not having a definite address then headed downstairs to get his coat and shoes. His mind was filled will all the nasty things he would do when he finally got his ungrateful daughter back. He thought them just punishment for running away rather than spiteful - and pointless - violence. Even Shadow was getting bored of it and he loved to fight things. But what Mark did to Jane was not fighting and as such, he was glad that the time had finally come. It had taken a while, but it was here, at last and was well worth the wait.

Shadow nodded as Mark headed out of the door and down the road, waking at a pace that was brisk but not hurried. Shadow then left though the back door and headed down the opposite road, he knew exactly where he was going and his pace was casual. He arrived when he wanted to arrive, even if he did not want to arrive at that time he changed the time he wanted to arrive to the time he had arrived. It was a principle thing and he wouldn't let anyone change it, not even Mark, whose hold over Shadow was a lot more tenuous than what he thought it was. Shadow couldn't help smiling as he walked down the road, he was about to do all the things he enjoyed, all in one day. It was a good day. But then, all days when he got to break into somewhere, beat people up, kidnap someone, break stuff and even bring much needed pain and subsequent death to the obnoxious, nasty dislikeable man he had been forced to spent a good deal of time with was a good day. Little could ruin this day. Except the weather, Shadow's smile disappeared in a grumble and he wished it would hurry up and warm up, all this cold was not something he liked, but then he cheered himself up again by realizing he didn't have to put up with it for much longer. He didn't have to put up with much more here for much longer. Shadow's smile returned as he continued down the street. Today was going to be the best of days.

V. Jane sniffed the air as she walked down the stairs, Eliot had obviously gone to the kitchen and was adding the finishing touches to his cooking as it made the air smell rather nice, this does not mean the actual food was nice however, simply that it smelt good. "What you got cooking Eliot?" Nehvna asked as she walked into the Kitchen, leaving Jane to go to the front room where she quickly snuggled up against Silverfang, feeling very close to him now. She was still a bit embarrassed but tried not to make it show.
"Food. It will be done soon" Eliot said, he never gave a definite answer of what he was cooking before it was done.
"Well I hope you are not going to try that puke flavoured risotto again." Nehvna joked as she got out a collection of glasses and began filling them up with different drinks.
"Don't worry about that, I am making meat this time" he said, throwing a few more herbs in to the pan.

"Ahhhh, it has been a rough today" Jane said, not caring about proper speech as she snuggled into Silverfang who starred at her.
"Rough today? I think you need speaking lessons" Silverfang joked, earning him a punch in the arm from Jane.
"I am allowed to have crappy speaking." She told him as Eliot came into the room with a massive plate piled high with nose - caressing meat.
"Grubs up" he said setting the large plate down and putting some smaller plates next to it.
Everyone attacked the pile of meat and piled their plates high with it before sitting back, despite the large amount everyone had taken there was still a fair bit left. Jane bit into one of the chicken pieces and the flavour exploded in her mouth, the herbs went perfectly with the meat and made the whole thing beautiful.

"This is great Eliot; you really can cook well sometimes can’t you?" Jane announced loudly, backed by agreements from everyone else.
"Well I just got lucky that's all. I threw a load of leftover meat into a pot and chucked in a ton of herbs. The result was not too bad" he said with a big head, popping a piece of beef into his mouth before there was a knock at the door.
"Who are we missing?" Eliot asked himself, heading to the door and opening it. As he opened it, however, he was greeted by the sight of a fist, which quickly connected with Eliot's face, knocking him back from the door and sprawling him out on the carpet. His tattered, pitch black overcoat swaying slightly in the breeze and his one eye - the other had a large scar over it and the eyelid was shut - scanned the room, taking in each person in it calmly. Shadow then shut the door as if he had just entered a room full of friends rather than a room full of people trying to cause him serious harm.

"Hello" He said casually actually greeting the room like he wasn't about to fight half the room's inhabitants as Silverfang growled. He had gotten up from his seat and his fists where clenched, ready to fight. Nehvna, Jane and Beth had all gotten off the couch and backed against the wall, as if it would do anything when Shadow took out the Familiars and walked over as he obviously would.

Silverfang had sprouted fur and his fingers grew into claws, his teeth grew longer and sharper, till they resembled a set of wolf teeth rather than human teeth. "Sit down, pup, I have just come for Jane, you don't need to get involved" He told Silver obviously highly confident of his skills and the inevitable victory he would have if Silver tried to fight him. However, a plate of meat flew at his face and showered the room with bits of food. The plate itself was a problem though, so he battered it away, shattering it into shards as an angry Silver punched Shadow in the kidney.

As Shadow was recovering from the blow, an arrow penetrated Shadow's shoulder and forced him back, reeling in pain from the combine assault. Shadow let out a grunt of pain as Silverfang moved in to take advantage of the long - shafted distraction, dropping another powerful punch into the open side. However, Shadow was not going to let himself get beaten by some half - arsed wolf and a bow wielding whatever Avrion was. He blocked the incoming strike with his left hand - grimacing as the arrow in his shoulder painfully reminded him that it was still there. Then, with his right fist he sunk a vicious punch into Silverfang's gut, and the followed up with a cross to his jaw from the left hand. The arrow was really irritating him now, but from the way Silverfang collapsed onto the floor, it wouldn’t be a problem for much longer.

He then turned to see who had shot an arrow at him as a second arrow - obviously waiting for a clear shot - grazed his cheek. Avrion hastily drew a third arrow but Shadow was no longer there to shoot when she had nocked the arrow. Avrion frowned for a second before Shadow - who had re - appeared behind her - punched her in the side, cracking her ribs. Avrion's face contorted in pain as she collapsed, her bow clattering to the ground, now useless.

With both Familiars out of action Shadow sighed and gripped the arrow shaft, he then pulled it out with something that was a mix between a growl and a cry of pain as he realized the arrow was barbed and had caused more damage coming out than going in.
"Dam, that is sore" he muttered casually, not hurrying since the other two that could do anything against him where on the floor in rather large amounts of pain. He rolled his shoulder a few times and wiped away the blood before stepping over Avrion's body and turning to look at the three girls. Nehvna was looking at Avrion with a look of concern and fear, but she couldn't move with Shadow in front of her. Beth looked distracted, cursing silently for some reason but Shadow didn't bother finding out what. She also appeared to have a small look of fear, as if unsure what Shadow was going to do now, but not nearly as much as Nehvna, who was on the verge of tears. Jane, in contrast to her two sisters, was glaring at Shadow determinedly, as if she could stop his advance with a glare.
"Well, you're coming with me now Jane" Shadow said, equally as casual as he had been since entering the house and fighting the two Familiars.

"Like hell I am" she growled, swinging a rather inexperienced punch at Shadow who, a lot more experienced that Jane, swatted the punch away and returned one of his own, punching her the same way he had punched Silver. The effects were also similar, as Jane creased up, gasping for air. Shadow did not deliver a second punch though, instead he picked Jane up and there her over his shoulder before heading for the door.
"Good day" He said generally to the house hold as he reached the door, his tone was polite and had no trace of sarcasm in it. Shadow then opened the door and stepped through it; still remaining as casual as the moment he had walked in.

CHAPTER TWO: THE KIDNAPPING
I. Jane thrashed, kicking and punching and screaming as Shadow carried her down the road, Shadow however, was rather bored at the fact that she was still resisting. After several minutes he decided to say something about it, not that what he said was very nice, but then he had just kidnapped her from the house and carried her over his shoulder like a package down the road - the few cars that passed ignored him, which he was grateful for - and that was not very nice, so he was not going to start being nice now.

"Please stop them butterfly farts you call punches, it's getting slightly annoying now." He said, huffing at the effort it required to kidnap one girl. Not that it was a very tactful kidnapping, but then he was not a very tactful person. As he walked down the pavement - Jane did not give up her punches despite how ineffective they were - he saw someone, stood in the middle of the pavement, clearly waiting for Shadow. The most peculiar thing was that he had a sword in his hand, but from this distance he could not make much of the sword's details out. Nor anything about the person, which he did not really like the idea of. He huffed again, wondering who this person was. The man appeared serious however, so he dropped Jane - she let out a short scream before she hit the pavement and was knocked breathless - and dropped down next to her.

"Don't move, I got to deal with this" he said, clipping on some pitch black handcuffs , the same the same colour as his coat, around her wrists. Jane didn't see where they had come from, but then he could have an entire utility vest under his coat for all she could see. Shadow then stood up and faced the man, who was closer now and walking towards him slowly. From this distance Shadow could make out the blade was sheathed, the man had not drawn it yet, which was odd. With a sigh this time rather than a huff, he drew his own sword, its blade so black it stole light from the surroundings and it made his coat seem a much lighter colour in comparison.

The man had significant muscles and his stance showed that he was obviously experienced with the blade despite not drawing it yet, so Shadow adopted his Familiar Form, the tattered overcoat he wore grew darker, till it matched his sword in contrast and the frayed edges of it turned into a pristine, fully buttoned version of itself. His face changed as well, the area where his eye was scared and shut turned skeletal, which made his calm look all the more menacing.
"Such hassle" he muttered to himself, striding towards the man who was completely unfazed by the sudden change and - from what he could see - was wearing a fox mask.



Beth punched the floor in anger, Nehvna was trying to take care of Avrion and had diagnosed that Shadow had broken three ribs with his punch.
"He didn't even switch, Two Familiar in their forms and he took them both out while still in his Human form." She growled, slapping Silverfang to get him to wake up, a method a lot less refined than what Nehvna would have done, but then Beth was a lot less refined than Nehvna when it came to medical stuff. Silverfang woke up with a groan and stood up, stumbling for the door.
"Got….to save…Jane" he said, opening the door and stumbling out of it, despite Nehvna's protests - and Beth's, but less enthusiastically - which caused Beth to simply sigh and move on, slapping Eliot now rather than Silverfang.
Silverfang stumbled down the road, clutching his side from the pain, his jaw also hurt, but he would have looked rather stupid clutching his jaw and Silver didn't want to look any more stupid. He already did that enough as it was. Silver stumbled down the road, holding onto a garden wall at one point and taking a breather for several seconds, he hadn't been in this much pain for a while, that Shadow really packed a punch, he saw now what Jane meant by he couldn't get past her father's Familiar.

After several minutes of stumbling and leaning on wall to keep himself standing he reached Jane, who was lying in the middle of the road, he quickened his pace from amble to quick stumble, gritting his teeth at the increase in pain. He arrived and got down on his knees next to her. She was shivering from the cold and so he took off his jacket and wrapped around her, hoping to warm her up slightly. With that done, he scouted the surrounding area and found a few, rather interesting things. Half an immensely black blade - so black it made darkness seem light - was laying on the ground, scrap marks leading up to it showed that it had landed at an angle and at some speed as well. Oddly, there was no blood around, but then Jane's whole body shivered quite violently and Silverfang was beginning to feel the bite of the cold as well, so he put the questions to the back of his mind and picked Jane up, immediately putting him down again as his side roared in pain.

He had ignored it before but it had now come back with a vengeance. He clutched it and cursed a few times, then looked down at Jane again. There were some shards scattered around Jane, black as the blade shard but in many, finer pieces. However, Jane herself was more important at the moment. She must have been frozen, the clothing she was wearing was thin enough, made for comfort not warmth and even with Silver's coat it was cold enough out to cut though that with little effort, making Silverfang worried about Jane's health.

He growled in vexation and he was so fixated on Jane and her predicament that he did not notice the man with the Fox mask approach until the man spoke.
"Do you need a hand?" He asked, causing Silverfang to jump, let out a strangled yelp of surprise and then take a sharp intake of breath as pain ran though his body again. The Fox - mask hid the man's features and his emotions, and but that didn't stop Silverfang glaring suspiciously. Masked people didn't simply appear next to a fur lined man standing in front of an unconscious girl and offer to help without so much as a question of the situation.
Things like that just did not happen; the man's sudden arrival was too precise to be Happenstance, or even coincidence. It had to be planned. The man must have read Silverfang's wariness as he offered an explanation.

"I came here at the request of his Sister, it was quite a rush, but I managed to get here on time, however, I could not see to the girl as I had to make sure Shadow was properly gone and not just hiding somewhere close by" He explained, his voice sounded odd, as if the mask had a voice - box in it that changed the tone of his voice. However odd that was and the phrase 'his sister' was also rather odd, but Silverfang was more interested with the fact that the fox - mask man had fought Shadow.
"You fought Shadow? How, he is like, seriously strong" Silver said in disbelief, trying to save his own ego.

"Yes, he is quite a monster in strength, but there is always a bigger fish" the Fox masked man told Silver and though the voice - box distorted it slightly, the tone sounded as casual as when Shadow had broken into the house. "Now, we should see to that side of yours" he said, pulling his scabbard out of its resting place in his belt. For some reason, Silverfang knew he wasn't going to try anything with the sword and so didn't move to stop him. The man then tapped the handle against Silver's side and he suddenly felt an indescribable feeling. After a few seconds he was left with a mild case of pins - and - needles but his side did not feel as if had Shadow caused a large amount of pain there barely half an hour previously, his jaw felt a lot better as well.
"Err, thank…." Silver started, but the fox - masked man was no longer there; Silver frowned but then realized that Jane was shivering and so picked her up and headed back to the house at a much greater speed than he had headed out at.

II: For the second time in so many hours Jane found herself resting in bed, the key difference this time was that everyone was in the room rather than just Silverfang and everyone looked worried. Also, Beth's beautiful, perfectly curvy - bodied Familiar Satyr was also there, looking on with a slightly worried look. Avrion looked as if she was a bit doped and so when she opened her eyes the first thing she asked was if Avrion was feeling alright.
"I’m fine, Shadow broke a few ribs, but Satyr managed to fix me up." Avrion replied rather slowly, but her smile never faded. Jane nodded and then turned to Silverfang, who seemed the most relieved that she had woken up.
"Thank you for finding me Silver" Jane said, blushing slightly as she looked at him. His fur had retracted and his face - and the rest of his body - was now smooth. "I'm sure your all curious as to what happened, so gather round and I will recite it the best I can" Jane said, everyone then moved around, sitting on the bed at different angles so they were in a semi - circle around Jane, who cleared her throat and began.
"As Shadow was carrying me down the road, a guy stood in the way, he was an odd sort of guy, with a strange, fox mask on" She told them before Silverfang piped up.
"I met him, he used a voice box to hide his real voice for some reason and his sword thing was really odd. He tapped my side with the handle and the pain just vanished, I tried to thank him but he had vanished as quickly as the pain did" Silverfang told everyone, before nodding towards Jane, signalling her to continue.

"He was definitely an odd guy. He even made Shadow go into his Familiar form just by standing there with this sheathed sword. Anyway, Shadow dropped me from his shoulder - which really hurt by the way - and then clipped these things on my wrists and as soon as they locked, my arms went dead. All the feeling vanished in that moment and they flopped uselessly. I think I'll call them the Arm - Deadeners" Jane mused, going off on a tangent before Beth coughed, causing Jane to snap back, if slightly slowly.
"What? Ohh yes, Shadow. Anyway, after those Arm-Deadeners got clipped on, Shadow moved towards the Fox - mask guy. I was interested in what was going to happen, so I tried to pull myself into a better position to see. However, it was awkward, and by the time I had, Shadow's sword had been severed and he had a narrow, but long - and clearly deep, from what I could see - opening caused by a sword on his coat. The odd thing was that despite the wound underneath the coat there was no blood and the fox guy's sword was still sheathed.

Shadow then backed up and fell into the shadow he was casting on the ground - which was amazing by the way, I never knew he could do that - and as he did that the Arm - Deadeners crumbled into tiny shards, which I was grateful for. But, as I moved to get up, I suddenly felt a bit off balance. It was like getting out of a swimming pool after being in there for a good while.

Then, a couple of seconds later I closed my eyes, to see if it would help abate the odd feeling, then I must have fallen unconscious because the next thing I remember was waking up on this bed." Jane finished. Beth - and pretty much anyone who wasn't Satyr - appeared rather enthralled by the story, as if they were getting into it.
Satyr, however, was thinking - as usual, she was always the smartest person of the group and always the thinker - about the story.

"To be able to stand toe to toe with Shadow you would need a Powerful Familiar at the very least, but from Jane's story the man didn't have a Familiar with him, just a sword that remained sheathed for the parts Jane saw. And the time - frame for drawing his sword, severing Shadow's and delivering a blow to his chest, then replacing the sword is not big, only a few seconds at most. Combine that with what seems like a blood - drinking sword and I can think of only one person that would do that. Sean Woodhouse." Satyr said, speaking her thoughts to the group.

"But why the hell would he be around here? Isn't he busy being rich and famous?" Silverfang asked. The town they were in was far away from any kind of famous place so it was not like he was simply going slightly out of his way.
"Why don't we ask him?" Jane said to everyone, smiling at them as if she had not just woken up from being dragged down the road by a far - to - calm familiar for what he was doing then saved by one of the most famous people on the planet, a man with a name no one would not immediately recognize. However, with the looks she was getting Jane quickly continued. "I mean, he has to still be in the area right? So we could contact him" She tried to explain, but Satyr shook her head.

"No, there are only a few Teleporting tricks, known to the stronger, older Familiars but most of them have quite a long range. Shadow's shadow trick is known as one of the shorter ones and even that has a maximum range of 40 miles" Satyr told Jane. Silverfang snapped his fingers as if he had just remembered something.
"The Fox - mask man said that he had come at the request of 'his Sister' not 'my Sister' which means it was someone else's Sister that had called him here, to this exactly spot, at this exact time to rescue Jane." Silverfang told everyone.
"Going off the assumption that the man is Sean Woodhouse - "Satyr started, but Silverfang stopped her.

"No, I don't think it is Sean. For one, he has a reputation for completely lacking any amount of seriousness despite the situation and an obsession with making as many people know that it is him doing the thing in question and not someone else. I don't think Sean would have worn a mask, or kept such a level head. You know, I would not be surprised if the fox - masked man was Balance, he had the build for it and from what I have heard he had the skill as well" Silverfang told Satyr, putting his point across. Satyr looked vexed at being interrupted but took a breath to start again; however before she even got anything out Eliot spoke out.
"Still does not explain why he is here, he is meant to be somewhere else, doing famous things" this caused Satyr to look really rather annoyed. Jane picked up on this mood and moved to get out of the bed.

"Well while you are doing the smart stuff I am hungry" She announced. Silverfang, also picking up on Satyr's vexation and decided that - being one of the reasons - , he would remove himself as well.
"There is some meat left in the kitchen" he said, helping Jane out of the bed and following her downstairs.
When they reached the kitchen Silverfang reached out to the microwave and opened it, a plate of meat was sat in the middle and so he took it out and handing it to Jane, who pouted.

"I can take food out of the microwave you know" she snapped, putting her fists on her hips. Silverfang hated it when girls did that, it made them seem scary.
"I was just trying to help" he told Jane with a half cheeky, half loving smile, holding the plate of meat out for her. Jane laughed and took the plate.
"I know, but I'm stressed, with good reason. Sorry I snapped." She apologized.
"Don't worry about it, if I was in your shoes I'd be stressed as well. And my snapping hurts a lot more, sharp teeth and all" Silver said, gnashing his teeth softly and doing what he did best; making a joke to ease the tension that was building up. His ploy worked and he was rewarded by the soft giggle from Jane.

She and Silverfang stood in the kitchen for the next minute, eat meat and complaining about how it was going to give them bad wind the next day. Then Beth and Satyr came down the stairs and headed straight for the coat rack, pulling on their shoes and coats rather quickly and heading for the door.
"We are going out, we won't be long, just need to pick something up" She said before exiting the house without another word.
"Err, I feel like I missed something" Jane said, Silverfang - who had taken a piece of meat from Jane's plate and was now chewing it - nodded in agreement. Fortunately, Eliot and the two remaining girls came down the stairs at a slower rate. They saw the bemused looks on Silverfang and Jane's faces and decided to explain.

"Satyr and Beth started to talk about a book when you left; we quickly got left begin in the dust. I have no idea where they are going, only that they won't be long" Eliot explained as best he could, not that it was much of an explanation. But then, not many people could explain the winding, Labyrinth - like train of thought that Beth and Satyr followed nearly every day. Jane simply shrugged and returned to get plate of meat.
"Well, if they are not going to be long then maybe we should do what we were planning on doing in the first place." Silverfang suggested, but Avrion yawned, quickly followed by Nehvna, then everyone else caught up in the infectious wave that yawning always brought. It was odd how one yawn could make a whole room yawn, but then - Jane thought abstractly - it was like a smile, if you smiled then chances where someone else would start smiling and that would make another person smile. She liked to share her smile with as many people as she could when her father let her out, which was not often and nearly all the situations that he dragged her to where no places for smiles, most where a place for the complete opposite of smiling, which crashed Jane's happy train of thought. Avrion brought Jane back to reality by speaking to the group, which was a nice distraction.
"I'm tired, I'm going to catch some Zs while they are out, I'll come back down later" She told everyone, Nehvna nodded and sleepily followed her Familiar up the stairs.
"Fair enough, just don't break anything" Eliot told them with a playful smile.

CHAPTER THREE: THE VISIT
I: Satyr looked at Beth as they walked down the road. She couldn't believe that, after all this waiting, it was finally time. The shackles would be thrown off and they would ascend, away from here, something Satyr had been waiting to do for quite a while now.
"It is glorious that it is finally time, don't you think?" Satyr asked Beth, who shook her head.
"It is simply the first step on a long road, Satyr; plenty of work is required before we can bear fruit" Beth replied, Satyr sighed and nodded.
"I know, I know. But still, we are setting out on the long road after such a time of waiting, there is just something about that start that...Just...Mmm" Satyr ended with a noise, rather than a word since she didn't have a word for it.

"That is true dear and I am rather ecstatic, but it is not like anything we have faced before. Three walls - that we know of and there might be more. The first has already been broken and the second has a plan in place, but the third…" Beth trailed off, staring at the sky. After a while she shook her head. "But, we are at the start and that is something. Better than what was before" She finished. Satyr nodded in agreement. The two girls then began to speak about more mundane things, like the weather and how much they liked Eliot's newest Kitchen experiment, until they arrived at a rather large house. It stood out from all the others with its ornately carved statues of a woman wearing a dress made from leaves and holding a globe that, on further inspection, looked very similar to the Earth. The way the statue's eyes where carved made it seem as if the holder owned, or had created the orb.

Satyr had seen it a few times and knew what it represented, but little other people did. The rest of the house was made from equally large - both in length and width - quarry stones that looked distinctively fresher than the rest of the street, which made it stand out from the rest of the red - brick houses even more. There was a feeling that this house had not existed for very long, or at least not as long as the other houses on the street.
"Never could blend in, could he?" Satyr asked rhetorically as they opened the gate and walked up to the door, pushing it open without so much as a knock.

The Inside of the house was devoid of practically everything, there were no tables, or clocks, or chandeliers that someone would have expected, seeing the outside. There was not even any boxes that would explain the bareness, it was simply an empty hallway, stretching on until it reached a set of stairs, the stairs then went up to another bare hallway, this one dotted with several, unpainted doors. Beth had seen it before, it was obvious considering the owners favourite pass - time. As she walked through the hallway, her footfalls light and hard to hear, she heard a thudding sound, as if something very heavy was moving on the second floor. She smiled and looked up as a bare - chested mountain of a man - easily thirty stone and topping six and a half foot - his muscles where so large that his bare - chested appearance was justified, since there was no shirt or jacket he could wear without his monstrous girth ripping it in half.

His muscles where mainly around the top half of his body, but his leg muscles where well developed as well, if not to a clothes - ripping extent. To most people, the man would be terrifying to an extent that they would probably run and hide from him. Beth, however, had grown used to the bulk of the man and was not bothered by it, much. There was still a wariness of him, but it was suppressed.
"Hello Glee, is Niall in?" She asked, Satyr stayed close to Beth's side, she was considerably more wary of Glee, as she was to everyone or everything that could crush her skull with a single hand and little effort.

"It's Mr. Glee, not just Glee. And yes, he is in, what do you want with him?" Mr. Glee asked.
"I want a book" She replied, obviously not planning on giving much - if any - more than that.
"Fine, follow me" Mr. Glee said with a sigh. Beth and Satyr headed up the stairs and followed Mr. Glee along the hallway and into a room, as bare as the rest. Niall was sat on the floor with two women who were standing, the man was tall, six foot easily and has well - toned muscles, or though they were nowhere near the size of Mr. Glee's. Beth explained it to Satyr the first time she asked as concentrated strength, the muscles could exert as much strength as Mr. Glee's, but where a lot smaller. Niall wore a t - shirt and had hair that reached the middle of his back which was the opposite of Mr. Glee's bald, bare - chested look.

The two standing women were vastly different to Mr. Glee and Niall, one of them had blonde hair that was in two ponytails at either side of her head and each tail was platted, however both tails where so long that the sprawled down to the bottom of the girl's back. The dress that the girl with the extremely long hair was wearing was one of amazing detail and Beth couldn't help smiling as she saw it.

The long haired girl had a ribbon wrapped around her neck and the top part of her chest was bare, it also had very short arms, not even coming down to her elbows before cutting off with a frilly pattern. The top of her breasts had a frilly fabric look to it but this just made the dress all the better. It then carried on down to the stomach area where it was plain and fitted tightly to her, it looked to be offering support for the rest of the dress by the way it hugged her. The actual light brown dress started around her waist and the sides had the same light brown fabric that with overlapping layers that the rest of the dress was made out of but the front appeared to be a separate part of the dress and was made of silk rather the taffeta the rest of the dress was made out of. Roughly ten tiers of this pink silk ran down her waist part of the dress, each tier getting wider until it reached the floor.

The dress was so long it covered her feet but from the sound she made when the girl came in she was probably wearing some sort of flat shoes with the small but wide heel on them. Such work must have gone into the making of that dress that Beth wondered how much it would have cost. It looked very expensive, the extensive use of silk alone would have made the dress expensive, but the rest of the material, the design and the needlework that was required would make the dress something with such a large price tag that most people could not even think to afford it. Beth smiled, she had seen this girl before, her name was Chiyo and she had lived in this house with Niall since it was built, but what she never knew was why.

The second girl however was significantly taller that Chiyo, possibly a foot taller and her hair was a lot shorter as well, while Chiyo's hair ran down her back and stopped at the edge of her spine the girls hair barely reached her shoulders.
The clothing she was wearing was not as flashy as Chiyo's dress but it was still rather grand. The headdress she wore was a dark black and it, like the rest of her uniform, seemed to mesmerize the observer with the sheer depth of the darkness.

She had a frilly collar that ran from her chin to her collarbone. The bare opening was a lot smaller than Chiyo's dress as it was only a short a small portion of the chest area as opposed to Chiyo's completely naked upper chest area. The opening was decorated in a frilly pattern and just below it was the same look as Chiyo's dress, a crinkly look to the uniform made it look good but it did not seem to offer much support, that came from the two dozen laces that kept a corset like thing closed.

The arm sleeves where plain and short, cutting off just above the elbow, but they ended in the same frilly pattern the chest opening was made from. She was also wearing frilly cuffs tied with a single lace to keep them from falling off, one of the laces was pointing outwards but the other one was pointing inwards. She had a pure white apron over the bottom half of her uniform that ended in the same frilly pattern that was predominant in the rest of the uniform.

"Well now, I have seen you wear some fancy things before, Lady Chiyo, but that one has to be the most fancy" Beth told Chiyo, the use of the honorific made Mr. Glee rather annoyed.
"So you get hers perfectly good on the first try, but you miss out mine completely?" Mr. Glee looked like he was going to saw more and it looked like it was going to be rather unfriendly as well, but the woman in the maid's uniform looked over and spoke softly.
"Do use such a tone with my Mistress, Mr. Glee" She told him, Mr. Glee looked as wary of the maid as Beth did of him, which was slightly confusing for Beth. She had not seen him wary of anything. A man that size didn’t need to be wary of a herd of stampeding rhinos.
"Sorry, Lilly, I just was annoyed" he said, straightening himself up as much as a person of his size could. Niall took advantage of the lull and speak, in a very strong, but not bass - deep, voice.

"Beth, what brings you here?" He asked, it had to have settled the situation somewhat, but there was still a tense atmosphere.
"I need a book. A very specific book. It is time" She told him and Niall needed no more. Mr. Glee looked more alert than he had before and even Lilly had a rather pleased look on her face. The only one that was confused was Chiyo, but she didn't let anyone see it, because she didn't like someone knowing that she didn't know something.
"Finally. Been a while, eh?" Niall asked, getting up and heading for the door. "Sorry Lady Chiyo, this is immensely important, I will assist you further when I am finished with this" he apologized, before exiting the room, followed closely by Beth and Satyr, leaving Mr. Glee to explain.

"It is part of his - “ Mr. Glee stumbled over the word for a while before picking on out that suited him “ - religion, the one they have been waiting for is finally here and now they must prepare against the ones that would not want her to reach her full potential. It's all very complicated and I stay out of it as much as I can, so that is really all I know" Mr. Glee explained, to the best of his knowledge at least.
"I never knew Niall was religious, he doesn't seem the type" Chiyo said, before shrugging. "Well then, Lilly and I shall retire to my room until Niall returns. Thank you for the explanation Mr. Glee" Chiyo said, before heading to the door herself, Lilly followed with an odd smile, the same smile that a child has on Christmas when he knows presents wait for him downstairs.

Mr. Glee sat in the room for a few more minutes, not really sure what to do until Beth and Satyr returned, Satyr had a large book under her arm and Niall was rather more hyped than he had been for a long time, it was rather odd to see Niall being so…cheery.
"Goodbye Niall, I will see you later" Beth told him, waving and heading down the stairs.
"Goodbye, Beth." He replied, smiling and then heading back to Chiyo's room to continue their rather interesting discussion.

II. When the girls got back to the house Eliot was playing cushion to Avrion and Nehvna, it was so cute to see him being a cushion but it was ruined a second later by Beth and Satyr barging though the door, jolting the two girls awake.
"I'm up" Nehvna squeaked as she sat up, Beth and Satyr went upstairs without saying anything to anyone and ignored all the curious looks. However, everybody followed the two up the stairs after only a few seconds of debating. But when they arrived at the bedroom that had been used to keep Jane's unconscious form - twice - in there was nothing understandable to be nosey at when, Satyr was sat reading the book and Beth was looking at her, the book had a lot of names followed by strange symbols that Jane had never seen, Satyr did not seem to pay them any mind so Jane simply ignored them, passing them off as unimportant.

Satyr flicked though the book for a few minutes before pointing to one of the names, Jane did not see it before the book was passed to Beth.
It was at this point that Jane noticed a paint pot next to Beth, a few seconds where spent wondering what she was going to do with it or even where she got it from before she took the brush out and began painting the symbols Jane saw on the book. When Beth had finished painting the last symbol they glowed with a bright light before a holographic woman appeared, but it was a fuzzy quality and Jane couldn't make out any details other than she was a woman.

Satyr however didn't seem to need any detail and said something in a rather confusing tongue that Jane had never heard of. The woman nodded and the symbols stopped glowing, then the woman disappeared.
"You see? Nothing to worry about" Satyr told Beth, Beth looked rather on edge about the whole thing but relaxed when Satyr comforted her.
"I was worried that we would get the wrong one" she told Satyr before standing up and seeing the confused looks on everyone's faces.
"We made a phone call" she said simply before heading past them. Jane and Silverfang looked at Eliot who simply shrugged.
"You expect me to know what she means?" he asked so they all followed Beth and Satyr down the stairs like a game of follow - the - leader. When Jane asked Beth what she meant Beth stared looking rather annoyed.
"You use phones to call people. That is why it is called a phone call" She said, annoying Jane.
"Fine, keep your secrets" Jane said in a huff, returning to Silverfang who had sat on the couch.
"Sorry about your party idea" she said, snuggling into Silverfang.
"Don't worry about it, today has been much more exciting" He told Jane, relaxing so that he would be a more comfortable pillow.
"Yea and much more painful" she said, looking at the bruise on his chin from her vantage point.

While Jane and Silverfang where snuggling Eliot had not given up on finding out what Satyr and Beth had been doing.
"Tell me who you were calling" He said, giving up on asking for the content.
"Rose, I assumed that since she was the one in use then she would be the one handing things around here" Satyr told Eliot, ignoring his gormless look.
"Rose? You mean Scarlet Rose? How can you just call her?" Eliot asked, throwing several questions at Satyr who was beginning to look annoyed.
"Yes I mean Scarlet Rose and I can just call her because I got the phone book from Niall and that allows me to call any Familiar registered." Satyr said to him, shedding light on what she had just done.

"So you are saying that with that book you can call any Familiar in the world?" He asked to which Satyr simply shook her head.
"No, only the ones registered, Familiars are registered by default but people can opt to unregister them so people can't contact them, don't ask why though." She said before heading into the kitchen, an obvious sign that the conversation was over.
"This day keeps getting weirder." Eliot said, scratching his head.
"Give it time, the best is yet to come" Beth told him before following Satyr and leaving Eliot with a befuddled look.

After a minute Eliot gave up and walked back into the front room, flopping down on one of the chairs. "What is with Satyr being so cryptic?" he asked, rhetorically but Jane answered all the same. "Because she has a secret and you know how she is with secrets". Eliot was not expecting an answer so it took him a second to realize that Jane was talking to her.
"But she has never been so…secretive" Eliot told her, sighing heavily, Jane - for her part - simply shrugged.

"Satyr and Beth, are extremely greedy for knowledge, they are the kind of people that would destroy half the world if they thought it would give them the secrets of the other half" Silverfang told Eliot like he did not already know.
"I know but that does not mean I am not annoyed about it" Eliot replied.
Jane looked at Eliot and Silverfang before smiling, she had no plans to return after what her father did to her. "So do you want to retry your night or do you think someone is going to interrupt it again?" she asked, the cheeky grin giving more weight to her words
"Well since we are expecting Satyr's guest whenever I guess we should just wait and not try anything that is going to get interrupted in an hour or so" Eliot explained so Jane simply shrugged and snuggled into Silverfang again.

III - 2 Shadow's face screwed up as his last wound was stitched up.
"I can't believe you got beat" the man who was stitching him up said with a slight amused tone. "Watch it Doc or you will be your next patient" Shadow growled but this did not stop the man from chuckling slightly.
"I believe we have not given this man the attention he deserves" the doctor said, cleaning the blood off his hands and leaving for the door. He opened it and turned back to Shadow.
"I think you are going to need a better sword, or a new partner, before you go up against him again" the doctor told Shadow who smiled an evil smile.
"I was thinking both actually and it has already been taken care of" his voice had taken on a dark undertone to it.

"So I am to expect an addition soon then?" The doctor asked to which Shadow nodded.
"Always good" the doctor said, leaving the room.
Shadow stood up and rubbed the large shoulder stitching before picking up his tattered coat. "Working for a runaway to chase down a legend. How far can I fall?" he asked himself before leaving the room. This place was a nice haven for the unwanted people of the universe, the only question ever asked around here was 'how much will it cost' and even that one was not really asked that much, questions around here tended to get you on one of the beds, or in the morgue. Shadow liked that about here. As he walked down the hallway he saw the man he was going to be working with now, he had that same feel, that same aura around him as the man that had cut his chest open and that was one of the reasons Shadow was working with him, but not the only reason. He wanted revenge and power and the opportunity to kill people. With this man, he would have all that.
"Any leads?" Shadow asked, putting his coat on.
"One...you shall investigate" The man - Shadow was not sure it was really a man, just had the look of a man - growled. Shadow nodded and headed towards the main entrance, he wasn't treated with the respect he wanted, but it was better than being with Mark. Here he wasn't underestimated and here he had freedom, to an extent.

CHAPTER FOUR: THE ARRIVAL
I. Jane woke up. She didn't know that she had fallen asleep but she must have done, you rarely wake up without falling to sleep. Upon waking up she saw a new person in the front room, the hole in the wall had been fixed over the course of her sleep which made her ask how long she had been snoozing.
"About an hour" Silverfang informed her before catching the questioning look. "That's Scarlet, she came down about ten minutes ago and has been talking quietly with Beth and Satyr for the past nine and a half" he told her, glaring at them, it was so bumming to be left out of a secret conversation. Jane looked at the new girl for a few seconds before she remembered something.
"Where's Nehvna and Avrion?" she asked Silverfang scratched his head.
"They are asleep somewhere, they told Eliot they were tired and so probably crashed on one of the beds, not sure which one though" Silverfang told Jane. She was satisfied with this answer as she laid back down on Silver's lap.
"So this Rose? She isn't Scarlet Rose is she, Sean's Familiar?" Jane asked rather sceptically, not believing that she would come here. However, she did seem similar to that hazy woman Satyr and Beth where talking to.

"Probably, I don't know. It was just 'Scarlet' so it could be Rose, or it could not be." Silverfang replied so Jane simply shrugged and snuggled back into him.
"Wake me up when they let us in on the conversation." Jane said with an underlying grumpiness before going back to sleep.
Jane was awoken half an hour after she went back to sleep.
"They are involving us now" Silverfang told her, Jane was groggy but interested.
"I have talked with Satyr and she tells me that you are the one Shadow tried to kidnap" Scarlet said, looking at Jane.
"Yea, he is my dad's Familiar and so he tried to drag me back home" Jane explained, Scarlet simply shook her head.
"No, I'm afraid Shadow is no longer your father's Familiar because your father no longer is. And he did not take you for your father, he took you for himself" Scarlet said in a neutral voice, but with a slight tone of pity.
"Ohh, well then he was my father's Familiar" Jane reiterated, seemingly unperturbed by the announcement of her father's death, she was a bit confused as to what she meant by 'for himself' but she didn't really care to know the answer. "So, who offed the old….can't find a good word for him really." Jane admitted.
"Actually it was Shadow that killed him" Rose informed them casually, as if it was common knowledge that Familiars could kill their partners. The look of confusion on everyone but Beth and Satyr's faces however, told Scarlet it was not.
"But I thought Familiars couldn't be here without a partner, so killing their partner would immediately cause them to disappear" Jane said, stating everyone's question.
"They can if they have a new master before killing the old one" Rose replied, this did nothing for the confusion however.

"Familiars can change partners?" Silverfang asked before Jane could.
"Ahh, I forgot that humans and their Familiars where largely ignorant of the way in which Familiars work" Rose said with a slight smile, she looked as if she was going to speak but was interrupted by Silverfang.
"You make it sound like humans aren't the only people that have Familiars" He said sceptically, unsure if this Rose was trying to trick him or actually though that people where really stupid.
"You're an idiot" Rose told him, unintentionally answering his question. "The Orion–Cygnus Arm holds a lot more than just this system. And then there is the rest of the galaxy and then the other galaxies beyond that. The universe is a big place, so incomprehensibly large that only a half dozen beings have true omnipotence within it and you are trying to say that you are the only race to reside in it? Humans really are some of the densest sentient beings around" Rose told everyone, sighing slightly with vexation, she then spoke quietly to Satyr for a while, ignoring everyone else, before leaving.
"He's coming soon" Silverfang heard before Rose left. Silverfang then approached Beth and Satyr with a rather un-amused look. "I have a few questions for you" He said with a strained voice, dragging both of them upstairs despite Satyr's protests that she needed to wait downstairs.

"Right, stand there a second while I work out where to start" Silverfang told Beth as he dragged her into the guest room.
"Start on what?" Beth asked, genuinely confused for one of the first times.
"Probing you for answers" he replied, but before he could think of a question a voice came from the doorway.
"Is there a problem?" it asked in a rather calm voice that had an underlying tone of such seriousness it would make the most prude man's voice seem silly.
"No thank you Eliot, we are fine" Beth said before noticing that the voice was completely different to Eliot's, however when she looked over at the doorway there was no one there. Forgetting Silverfang for the moment - and he did not seem to mind being forgotten as he followed Beth - she walked over to the door and looked around. There was no one in the hallway or on the stairs. With her curiosity now at extreme levels Beth headed downstairs.
"Has anyone come in yet?" Beth asked with a confusing scanning of the room.
"Your Rose friend left only a minute ago, why would anyone be here yet?" Eliot said, answering her question with a question of his own and looking at Beth's confused face with his own face of confusion.
"He has a point; it's not like Rose is even where she is going yet. And people can't just appear in houses with such a large group without anyone seeing them." The calm, serious voice said, but the speaker was gone by the time Beth had looked around.
"This is not just me going nuts it is?" Beth asked but the looks on everyone else's face indicated that was not the case.

"It wouldn't be the first time you have gone nuts" The bodiless voice said, a hint of amusement entering its voice. This time the voice spoke, a look of recognition crossed over Beth's face, quickly followed by a look of extreme annoyance.
"I'm going to feed you to some dogs, kill the dogs and then feed them to some bigger dogs. Then kill them dogs and burn their remains" Beth threatened.
"Scary" The voice replied with no deviation from its normal tone. "You don't mind if I draw on these walls do you?" It asked and obviously didn't wait for a reply because a second later a very realistic drawing of a Giraffe appeared on the walls. "Giraffe is such a strange name, but then so is Hippopotamus" the voice mused in a tone that was getting increasingly amused. Beth had already walked over to the cutlery drawer and was currently picking out a dozen knives.
"I like Dobermen, them massive dog - bear - things, the only problem is that things tend to get really hairy around them" the voice said, laughing at its own joke. Jane and Avrion also forgot the strange events for a second and laughed while the boys just stood with confused looked on their faces.

Beth then stormed over to the spot she was standing on and threw the dozen knives in the direction of the drawing. Several of the knives thudded into something and the knife part turned red quickly, a sharp "Ow, that hurt" rang out, the only one without a look of shock and confusion was Beth, who simply had an annoyed look on her face. "Et tu Bethee?" The voice asked before a thud rang out and the knives moved downwards, near the floor, but floating in the invisible man.

Beth waited for a second before walking over to the area where the knives was and looking down. "Now stop pissing about" she said in a commanding sort of voice.
"Trust you to ruin my fun" The voice said as the knives flew up again and pulled themselves out of whatever it was lodged in. The knife spun one and then it was devoid of any blood that stained it, however the blood was not on the carpet or the surrounding walls, it had simply vanished.

"You're not seeing me though, I need to make my dramatic entrance, talking of which, is nearly here. Put the kettle on, I want a cuppa tea" The voice said and a couple of seconds later the knives lost their fight with gravity and plummeted to the floor. Beth then proceeded to pick up the rest of the knives and did her best to ignore all the confused looks she was getting from Eliot and the rest of them.

"Wha?" Jane asked as Beth gathered the last of the knives and began to wipe them one by one and put them back in the drawer. She then filled the kettle up with hot water and started waiting for it to boil. Seeing that she would not get an answer out of Beth she turned to Silverfang. Nehvna and Avrion came down the stairs, yawning and stretching.
"What was with all the noise?" Nehvna asked, but whatever reply she would have gotten was cut off by an extremely loud roar of an exceptionally powerful engine that came from outside, it was so powerful that things in the house started vibrating from the intensity of the noise. The noise sustained for a few more seconds, and then cut off.
“Bloody ‘ell, he could wake the Kabals with that racket” Beth muttered as there was a knock at the door.

"I’m not getting that, I remember what happened last time I answered the door" Eliot said, making Beth chuckle a bit as she opened the door.
"Hello" the man at the door said with a smile before Beth punched him in the face.
"Somehow that looks familiar" Eliot said, watching her punch the man.
"You have a very strange way of showing your affection, you know" he said, rubbing his nose.

"Yes well you are just very strange Sean, so I am allowed to have very strange ways" Beth told him before letting him inside to the ogling people. Nehvna gasped as she saw who was at the door, and moved close to Jane's ear to whisper in it, not wanting the others to hear.
"I've got a crush on him, he is so scruffy in hair and clothes but he pulls it off so well he looks better than he would in a suit. He devilishly charming and the most chivalrous person I have ever seen, there is just something about him that makes me feel all gooey when I see him, even on the T.V, so him being here in person is...It's just...Ohh" Nehvna devolved into a squeal and was a hairs breadth away from jumping up and down. Jane looked at Nehvna with a smile before whispering back.

"Nehvy, that just makes you like every other girl on the planet" then adding with thought 'except me, I can't fathom what the others see in him' she thought. Sean had walked into the middle of the room in the time between Nehvna and Jane's conversation; he then looked around at the people and bathed in the awed looks.
"Everyone loves me, everyone thinks I am awesome, everyone - "he began but Beth cut him off sharply.

"Don't make he have to stab you again you egotistic maniac" She said handing a cup of tea to Sean and sitting down, ignoring the scowl she was getting from Nehvna.
"Well it seems I have won over the women around here, now all I need to do is win over you" Sean told Beth who scowled at him.
"I seriously will stab you if you carry on" she said, taking one of the knives out of her sleeve to prove it. Then she thought for a second on what he had just said. "Does that mean you don't think I am a woman?" she asked, brandishing the knife rather dangerously for Sean's liking.

"I’m just saying you're the only one not won over" He told Beth, pacifying her, as the knife vanished back up her sleeve. Sean took a sip from his cup of tea and then looked over at Jane, smiling like he was going to cause some mischief.
"Awww, I want her as my sister, we could have so much fun" Sean said, causing Beth to throw the knife at him. It sunk into Sean's head and forced it to roll back before it returned to its original position. However, he didn't slop any of his tea and the rest of his body was unaffected by the knife.

"Dammit woman, stop throwing knives at me. It’s a party trick only “he said, pulling the knife out of his head.
"How..? How..?" Jane asked, her questions just trailed off to nothing.
"Well this is a book, so I can do anything I want" he told Jane with an "I know more than you" type of smile before holding up a book.
"How does that help you pull knives out of your head?" Jane asked again.
"It doesn't. I wasn't even talking about this, I just thought it was a good book and decided to show it to you all" Sean told them before lowering the book, it disappeared from his hand after a few seconds.
"Then what book are you referring to?" Jane asked, Beth was right; this day was getting weirder and weirder. Sean looked like he was about to say more but a very stern glare from Beth made him silent.
"Well enough about that, I guess I should get down to why I am here. And to help me I have brought someone you might know" he said, nodding his head to a man stood with a good posture. He was the polar opposite of Sean with straightened hair and a posh suit. Even his body language was different, the new man was standing serious and looked "to the point" sort of person while Sean's stance was a lot more chill and, as he had just demonstrated, looked to be the person to have some humorous banter before getting down to business.

"Balance, stop being a stiff" Sean said, taking another - this time larger - sip from his cup, Nehvna made a slight squeal as she found out who the new person was.
"I am, by nature, a stiff. I am the serious person, you are the bantering person. Together we make the team" Balance told him, there was the memory of his words but no memory of him actually having spoken.
"Stop showing off Balance, we can all do that, we just don't because showing off is only good if the crowd will appreciate it." Sean told Balance, his words made it appear that he was annoyed but his tone and body language showed that he was not.
"My apologies" Balance told Sean, this time it was a normal way of speaking. He then looked at the people in the room. Five of them where looking bewildered, one of them was looking annoyed and one of them was looking bored.
"Are we going to get to the Shadow problem yet?" Beth asked, she had heard then banter a hundred times and it was highly annoying.

"Ohh yea, the Shadow problem. He took out Mark so he must have a new master, Shadow is not the kind of person to do such a thing unless he thinks it will get him further that staying with Mark but then let's face it, Mark is a dweeb and there is a billion people on this planet alone that could get him further than staying with Mark, so it is a bit of a redundant statement" Sean said, stroking his chin to make himself look like his thoughts where more deep. Silverfang picked up on the stance and smiled.

"I do that as well" Silverfang said, which caused Sean to smile as well.
"It is an awesome thinking pose" Sean replied, draining his cup before catching Nehvna's eye. "Why is there some shy looking beauty staring at me?" He asked. Nehvna's face quickly turned bright red and soft squeaks escaped her as she clung to Jane for support. She had never been called a beauty before and it was Sean calling her that as well, she couldn't handle this pressure, it was all too much. She wanted to stop the embarrassing squeaks coming out of her mouth but she had no control over them at all. Jane spotted how Nehvna was feeling and so decided to step in, to salvage the situation while she still could.
"She is my sister and she can be shy at times, so please be nice" Jane told him, giving Nehvna a hug to comfort her.

"Hmm, If I marry her then I could be Jane's brother in law" Sean said with a scheming smile, Nehvna's squeaking doubled as the prospect of marriage entered it and she buried herself in Jane's chest, not wanting to be seen by anyone, now that her cheeks rivalled the sun for brightness.
"Sean. Focus" Beth told him, making two separate words and adding a large amount of emphasis to both of them. He spun round and spoke in single words.

"Yes. Shadow. Right." He then returned to the use of proper sentences "From what I have seen already jumped ship, took him long enough as well. I'd head to Klass directly but I need to pick up a very important someone and such a jump would be hard to do undetected" Sean told Beth, plastering the over used look of confusion on everyone's faces.
"Who is Klass" Eliot asked, Jane had apparently let him do the speaking this time.
"Ahh, Klass, an old friend. He used to be a planet hopper, going from one planet to the next gathering holidays and festivals while spreading the holidays and festivals from the last planet; he takes about two, gives about two and then leaves for the next planet. He does this because he is a Thaui, a being that draws strength from being known. It is similar to Celestial style but require simple knowledge rather than prayer. I met him after one of his visits to a new planet and invited him into a…." Sean failed on the word and simply repeated "a" until Beth spoke.

"You are simply making more questions with your explanation" Beth told Sean.
"Yea that sort of happens a lot" he replied, looking at all the gormless faces, the only one that didn't look like their brain had jumped ship was Beth, but she had heard it all before.
"He is a friend" Sean said simply, he disliked such simplicity but it was necessary for these people.
"Try keeping on track, Shadow is bad, tell us your plan" Beth told him, he glared at her before speaking again and keeping it simple.

"He has gone, I'm going to find out what he is up to and I want you to take them to Klass' place, that is why I brought him up" Sean told Beth, but Jane piped up with a question.
"If Klass if a planet hopper" Jane spoke the word strangely, as if it was hard to comprehend herself saying it "Then where would his 'place' be?" She asked, fully expecting an answer she couldn't properly understand. Sean nodded, rather impressed, Jane had taken the knowledge rather well and was thinking laterally as well. He decided to voice his approval, because he was like that.

"That is a very good question. He settled down after a while, I could tell you where but you would not understand where it was" Sean told her, it was not as confusing a reply as usual but it still shocked everyone.
"So, this off planet is…actually leaving the planet. That…sounds…unique" Silverfang said eventually, finally managing to get the words out. "So, how are we going to get there?" He asked.

"That is also a good question, as I don't have a space - ship stuffed down my pants, despite what people might think" He said, a rather lewd smile spread across his face before Beth glared at him.
"Umm, sorry about that, well just watch the birdy for a second" Sean then lifted up his empty cup of tea and everyone was drawn to it, as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. It was Jane that first noticed the different surroundings. He then dropped the cup on the floor and it vanished as soon as it touched the carpet.

"Why have the walls changed?" She asked, causing Sean to smile, he looked like he was going to go into a massive explanation when Beth starred at him and made him give the simple one.
"We changed houses. And islands, we are now in Ireland, I moved with a certain amount of subtlety since I want to stay relatively under the radar for now." Sean explained.
"And what radar is this?" Jane asked, she didn't know there was radar for people instantly changing islands.
"The Radar. Explanation would be confusing." Sean replied, hating how he had to keep so brief.

"Is that how we are going to go 'off planet' then?" Jane asked, it was not in any way how she though planet travelling would be like. The others had made Jane the 'Question Asker' as everyone else was staying silent.
"No, same planet travel is nice and quick but going to other planets requires a bit more, especially when you move with the subtlety that I am moving with" He explained again, he was doing a lot of explaining but then he liked explaining so it was all good.
"So what does this 'bit more' look like then?" Jane asked, the only person not completely stunned by the change of surroundings, but then she was a lot like Beth in that respect, she liked to know what was going on all the time.
"Well it is going to look like the insides of your eyelids, since you are all going to take a nice nap while I set it up" Sean replied, as he finished Jane yawned, she had not felt tired a minute ago but now her eyelids where so heavy and hard to keep open. Everyone around her started yawning as well, Jane was uncertain if they looked more confused or tired but she herself was too tired to think about that.

"What's happening?" Jane asked in a slurred voice, hardly pronouncing the words. She felt like she hadn't slept for a week and would like nothing better than to lie down and close her eyes but she kept them open with sheer force of will to at least get the answer from Sean before she crashed.
"I simply suggested that you should take a nice nap while I sorted the whole planet thing out. You are the ones who are now heeding my suggestion and taking a nap." Sean said, his smile made it blatantly obvious that he was lying though his teeth but Jane could not stay away any longer stay awake. Several thuds where heard in rapid succession as everyone collapsed from extreme exhaustion. Beth, Sean and their respective familiars where the only people left standing at the end of it, he smiled in a satisfied manner and turned to his sister.

"Mind giving me a hand? Planet travel is easy enough but when you have to cart such a large group of people around it gets slightly more difficult to move subtly" Sean told her, she shrugged and got up.
"You know you didn't have to be so forceful with them, it was even affecting me with the force you put into that." Beth replied. The feeling of tiredness had gone from her body but everyone else was sleeping soundly, it would be nearly impossible to wake them up with the fatigue they were feeling.

"Well I don't really have a guide to tell me what her resistance is, so I erred on the side of caution" Sean explained, kicking the carpet. A small obelisk, roughly 5 foot, rose out of the ground with four sides; each side had a space carved specifically for a person's hand. Beth, Satyr, Sean and Balance all put their hands on the obelisk and it glowed two different colours, A deep, lush green for Sean and Balance and a shocking violet for Satyr and Beth, The obelisk shone the two colours for about a minute and then the walls changed again and the whole atmosphere felt different, even the air smelt different and flowed down your throat in a different way to the air on Earth.
"Well, now that that is done I'm going out. Watch the kids" Sean said, heading to the door. The obelisk sank back into the ground, its job done.