[quote=Talan]Arriving at the stream he fell to his knees and collapsed on his back into the water.[/quote]

Within moments, the gurgling gold-flecked water filled Talan's wounds with a cool relief. Throughout the next minutes, his injuries would slowly heal themselves, tingling and only slightly painful.

[quote=Anise]"I am Princess Anise Sinclair. This is my friend, Tyaelaem."[/quote]

The boy in the rabbit mask bowed awkwardly, his eyes still fixed on Talan with a wary stare. "I am honored to be counted among your friends, Your Highness." He sloshed barefoot through the water until he stood next to Anise, and he shifted from foot to foot as if he might bolt.

"Your Highness," he whispered to her delicately, gesturing to Talan as the wolf-masked man skinned and stuffed the dead monkey-bats, "please be wary of the wolf, he doesn't seem entirely sound of mind, I think, Your Highness, and he makes weapons. Wolves should run in packs but he seems very alone, you see, Your Highness. He might attract pirates if he doesn't turn on you himself. I've seen it, Your Highness."

As he spoke, the fireflies above continued to disperse and disappear. The forest around them grew darker, and darker. The only light came from the torch, and a faint green glow deep in the woods where Kituo had gone. Anise would continue to be able to see just fine, though, as was the power of the nightstick.

[quote=Simon]He did manage to pick up the torch with his right hand.[/quote]

"Ack!" Tyaelaem yelped, as he saw Simon draw the burning purple torch out of the water. Like a rabbit he bounded and splashed through the water, just as the thick smoke of the torch began to mold itself into the form of a person again, and shimmers of ghosts began to form around Simon.

The boy in the rabbit mask grabbed Simon's wrist, and with long fingers of the other hand yanked the golden leaves off of the torch. Immediately the fire became a normal and familiar, hot red and orange, and the leaves blackened and crumbled in the boy's hand; the ashes washed away in the stream, and the ghosts disappeared.

"Spirit weeds are nothing to play with," Tyaelaem admonished Simon, letting go of his wrist. "Unless there's a dead person you'd like to speak to. I don't think there was, was there? I mean, it's very hard to summon spirits, I've never seen so many at once, but you did it, I don't know how, how? Are you a soothsayer?" Tyaelaem stared at Simon through the dark holes of his rabbit mask -- and he suddenly stood up straight and looked out toward the green glow deep in the woods, where Kituo had run. He'd heard something.

The woods were black all around them, and the yellow light of Simon's torch was the only thing that kept the shadows at bay.

[quote=Kituo][i]Bing![/i]
"Ouch!"[/quote]

Something moved in the bushes behind a tree ahead. Leaves rustled, branches broke. "Sssshh!" a voice hushed. In the light of the lantern, a gaunt old man stepped halfway out from behind the tree, his eyes wide and a finger to his lips. He wore weathered, rusty old armor that had been patched and beaten back into shape a hundred times over, and his white hair was bedraggled in a crazed halo around his head. "I'm hunting monkeybats!" he whispered loudly.

The little bell flashed and shimmered as it swung on its thread from the branches.