[hider=In which I rip off Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead]
Midnight. Haste. Planned haste, yes, but there was ground to cover.

Coming within sight of the willowy thickets that line the river, Flux sights a lumpy greenish figure just about where he expected her to be. Signalling for his guide to go on ahead, the once-djinn swerves slightly upon the sedgy plainsgrowth and catches Yulosi in a broad film of a palm just as she turns to see him coming. Wraps up the goblin and drags her along behind him. Too slow, otherwise.

It was a lopsided arrangement, to send her ahead and catch up on the way. Yulosi wanted to go. She had more than a fair portion of that vexing goblin instinct to fiddle with things, prod them to see what would happen, damned be consequences. So he let her puzzle out her own way to the site on what directions could be given. Flux kept her leash short, but there was really no place to hide in this area, and his guide only had so much time before the sun rose. 

Besides, she could be useful. Sometimes.

The blood angel hovered over the anomaly, a mauve sphere of light suspended from his fingertips. It marked the place, and yet even in this almost moonless night the site was clearly visible to Yulosi's cave-eyes. When he saw the forge glow of Flux near the zone the vampire let himself fall, feet first.

They exchanged some words as Yulosi was promptly unwrapped and discarded. Nothing they hadn't already yakked about at length. The deformed zombie scuttled off, the only one, it seemed, who was determined to get some use out of her god-given and worm-eaten brain.

She did not go unnoticed. As soon as the vampire was requested to make another investigative circuit, a faint shadow was cast from behind her. Yulosi chose not to comment.

[color=00a99d]"No Djinni constructed this, nor any Yivvinite. It is too artificial for the former, who are of nature. The latter lack the strength to construct so quickly, and I perceive no life in this monument, besides. Who, then, is our culprit?"[/color]

[color=c4df9b]"Point. Shit question. Dontcha spit that rhet'ric at me, we both know 'o did this. Real question is why."[/color]

[color=00a99d]"Point. [i]Begging[/i] the question. We cannot assume that we know-"[/color] 

[color=c4df9b]"-Godssake, Flux, these tracks're six inches deep-"[/color]

[color=00a99d]"-What [i]creed[/i] these Urtelem belonged to. You, in particular, should know that the rigours of Chaos can seize any soul."[/color] There was no reprobation in that statement. What is, is. Chaos is no shameful thing. [colour=00a99d]"No Stonemen that I have yet seen migrate with such pace and direction, and I have lived sixty times your years. To construct such a monument of their own accord is, in the meanest term, bizarre."[/colour]

[color=c4df9b]"...'sthat mean I can put bets on which god is fuckin' wit' us this time? Day's labour says it's the Great Chippa."[/color]

[color=00a99d]"I concede that divine intervention is not an unreasonable assumption in this case. Urtelem do recognise the Chipper; I believe his sign is Callused Hands. A wise enough mortal, even a non-Yivvinite, could have inspired their hearts to unite and build also. Perhaps one of their own number."[/color] The peaked liquid scaffold Flux wore for a face momentarily dissolved and reformed in a different alignment, and Yulosi's eyes followed what she thought was his gaze. [color=00a99d]"We may know soon enough."[/color]

The vampire was gliding back, a pinkish star in the distance until he grew close enough for his illuminated wings to be discerned. By that time Yulosi had already wandered off again. She had seen enough of angels, alive or dead.

There was a monolith by the near end of the bridge. Yulosi ran her hand over it, already used to the gaps left since she had chewed off the fingers infected by lens. [color=c4df9b][i]A map. Milestone too, probably... A shrine?[/i][/color] The upper surface of the small obelisk had been queerly distorted, broadened and flattened like putty and pinched delicately into the shape of simple mountains, forests. A line ran straight through the middle. No doubt the very river she could hear now.

Its sides and base were covered in engraved markings, mostly interlocking arcs and angles. The two largest bore uncanny resemblance to the signed names of Callused Hands and Spiral Palms. Yulosi turned and stepped onto the bridge.

A peaceful moment. The river was nearly silent, and Yulosi sat cross-legged in the night, watching stars. No railing on the bridge, nor any need for one. It was rather wide. The stones were rough-hewn, if they had been hewn at all. They were packed thick, and crystallised together, fused the same way the earth closes behind an Urtelem as she tunnels. No doubt the river, narrow though it be, was of the deceptively deep kind with an undertow. Urtelem can't swim, and struggle in mud.

[color=00a99d]"Yulosi!"[/color]

And back to the chatter again.

[color=00a99d]"I presume I'll have to repeat what I just heard- Or did those bat-wings you call ears finally serve a purpose?"[/color]

Yulosi cackled, refusing to be riled. She dug a filthy sharpened nail into her ear, pulled out an impaled maggot, and flung it at him. Flux dodged effortlessly, his fluid body stretching a perfect tunnel for the missile to pass through.

[color=00a99d]"You,"[/color] he mused, genially, [color=00a99d]"are disgusting."[/color]

[color=c4df9b]"Point! [i]Ad zombinem.[/i]"[/color]

If nothing else, he was proud of her burgeoning vocabulary.

The blood angel had sighted the bridge's builders from above. They hadn't gotten far yet, and there was nowhere to hide on the plain. Yulosi had a feeling she was about to learn something interesting.
[/hider]