Chapter 2:

"Regular Talking"
:Telepathic:
Flashback

Author's Note: Please review at the end and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!

Labamba – yes I continue to write this out all the way. I am just in the middle of finishing up school and going on vacation next week. But here's the next chapter, so I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for the review!

"It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations."

-Kahlil Gibran

Scorpius slid down a tree trunk gasping slightly for breath in his exhaustion from carrying Celiane for a long period of time.

He looked down suddenly as she squirmed out of his arms.

"Scorpius?" She looked around at their surroundings, "Where are we?"

Scorpius held up a hand while he recovered his normal breathing and heart rates.

"Deep in the forest as far away from the base as I could get us," he explained.

Celiane looked at him in confusion. "Away from the base? But..." she remembered what had happened. "Right...Never mind."

She looked at her friend and took in his appearance while he sat in thought in front of her.

His short black hair was messed up giving him a scruffy appearance. His body was extremely toned and despite the battles he has been in, there wasn't a scratch to be found on his lightly tanned skin. His eyes were a glistening green that appeared to go deeper than the surface with knowledge and wisdom.

"We need some kind of shelter for the night while we wait the attack out."

Celiane nodded in agreement.

"Scorpius, why do you think we weren't affected?"

Scorpius shook his head pulling the spear off his back. "I don't know, Celiane. I honestly don't know, but I want to find out.

"Well, I will go get some firewood if you take care of the shelter," she suggested.

He nodded in agreement. She picked herself up off the ground and began to explore the area they were in.

The forest had been explored, but she had always preferred to stay out on the beach where she could see for miles off the coastline.

Others had disagreed with her liking for the beach as they felt it gave them no cover. Cover was all and good when you could think properly, but as the creatures had demonstrated, they had some kind of hypnosis they used, but exactly where the hypnosis originated from was a complete mystery. Not to mention why it didn't affect the two of them.

She gathered an armful of branches ranging in size and weight and dumped it all down next to the shelter that Scorpius had erected while she had been gathering.

Scorpius was writing in the journal adding the new information and speculations that had arisen from their recent encounter with the creatures.

While he was writing, she was kneeling next to the pile of wooding sorting it into different piles and started to place the wood together in such a way that it could kindle a flame.

A strangled shout startled her and she nearly lost her balance catching the wood pile in front of her.

When there were no obvious threats near them she looked over to Scorpius in confusion.

"What's wrong?"

Scorpius glared at the journal in his hand. "It's all contradictory! There's got to be something in all this! Something we can use! Something that makes sense! Something that doesn't defy all of the laws of reality!"

"Getting mad about it isn't going to help us any, Scorpius. It will just make it harder to find a reasonable solution."

Scorpius sighed and nodded, "I know, but it's just frustrating when I'm writing it all down. Nothing really connects. It's like I'm working on a jigsaw puzzle, but I'm missing pieces."

"Well, we will just have to find those pieces." Celiane smiled cheerfully. "Now won't we?"

Scorpius smiled in return. He set the journal to the side and brought his hands up to cover his face with a groan.

Celiane set down the wood in her hand. She went to Scorpius and sank down next to him. Wrapping her arms around him she placed her head on his shoulder hoping to comfort him.

A floating circular image showed two wingless ones within the forest. One had their arms around the other and it appeared that the two were resting against each other.

The flaming red haired man appeared next to the feathery white haired man with a white winged dog angel nestled in his arms. :Why are you watching those two wingless ones, Toma?:

:I'm curious as to why these two were unaffected by the song of hypnosis:

Apollonius looked back to the image an idea blossoming in his mind. :Shall we have a little fun?:

The sun was high above in the middle of the sky shining through the canopy of the trees.

Celiane still rested alongside Scorpius enjoying his warm presence.

Scorpius looked up at the angle of the sun.

"Hey, Celiane." He gently readjusted her on his shoulder, so that he could look at her face. "We should find some food before it gets too late or we will go hungry for tonight."

Celiane nodded and stood up using a hand on his shoulder as leverage. She offered her hand to Scorpius. He took it and she pulled him up onto his feet.

"You forage and I'll hunt?" Celiane suggested.

"Sure."

Celiane grabbed her spear pulling it from where Scorpius had shoved it into the ground earlier. She flipped it in her hand to turn the spear head to pointing in front of her.

Leaving the sheltered area she quietly walked into the forest with no sound from her feet or breathing as she stalked away looking for signs of prey. Gazing around she finally noticed some deer pellets and tracks leading away from where she stood.

About fifteen minutes walk from their campsite she spotted the young buck feeding on a berry bush with its back facing her.

Carefully she pulled herself up onto a branch of a nearby tree watching the buck's ears flap around listening for hostile sounds. Climbing quickly and carefully to a better vantage point, she positioned the spear into an adequate throwing position just over her right shoulder in her right hand.

She took a moment to sight her target, then drew back and threw the spear forward towards the unsuspecting buck.

The spear flew through the air with a whistle of air and hit with a thunk in the flesh of the buck in a killing blow with a crunch of leaves and sticks underneath the fallen buck.

She jumped down from branch to branch landing on the ground crouched to absorb the shock through her legs rather than just her feet. Rising she walked over to her kill.

She kneeled next to the buck clasping her hands together she closed her eyes in a silent prayer over it, then reached over and grasped the spear as far down the shaft as she could. She placed her other hand on one side of the buck's body next to the spear head. She pulled the spear from the body.

She pulled a cloth from a pocket and wiped the blood from the spear head. She stood and looked around searching for a stream. Listening carefully she heard gurgling coming a little further in the forest.

She grabbed the bucks hind legs. Turning around she hauled it up onto her back to make the body easier to carry.

She trudged through the forest following the sounds of gurgling water, searching with her eyes for the best path to reach it.

Celiane passed between trees and brush shoving her way through and catching stray branches until she broke through into a clearing.

She lowered the buck down to the ground a few feet away from the water and sat on a rock next to the water washing her hands in the stream.

The flapping of wings from farther ahead into the forest drew her attention to a flock of birds taking flight from the trees signaling an intruder coming among them besides her. She rose from her seat holding the spear steadily in hand and looked around suddenly wary of her surroundings.

The slightest sound from behind alerted her. She instantly whirled on the balls of her feet to block a blade on the metal shaft of her spear. Her brown eyes widened in surprise when they met crimson red eyes.

The flaming red hair swirled around her attackers face like a wild fire. A gust of wind blew across the two of them. The fiery hair blew from his face uncovering his maniacal smile and hard crazed eyes.

"Who are you?" Celiane asked astonished by the stranger's expression.

He was about a foot taller than her and his body was magnificently toned with a tanned hue to it. He wore what looked like a purple and green faded sheet wrapped around his waist with a strange leather belt that wrapped around his waist and traveled over his shoulder and disappearing down his back. The lower portion of the outfit flapped around his legs rustling in the wind, but she could clearly see the swirl like pattern on the fabric.

Celiane stared at him in surprise. Something seemed familiar about him and yet she felt that she had never before met this strange man. A memory flashed before her eyes reminding her of why he was so familiar.

The sky was brightening with the rising sun. Everyone had disappeared except...there was still another person. A person with flaming red hair and brilliant white wings reflecting the crimson reds and oranges coming from the rising sunlight.

"It's you!" Celiane exclaimed. "No, it can't be...You don't...You don't have wings."

The man smirked and leaped upwards pushing her back with a thrust of his sword. Celiane's eyes followed him. She couldn't break them away, almost as if she were hypnotized. Wings unfurled from his back flashing out to either side catching the wind and ruffling the feathers.

"What...What are you?" she asked.

:I am a Shadow Angel and your end:

"Shadow Angel?"

He struck at her with his blade, but hesitated at the pain that flashed across her features when the blade bit into her side. He pulled back confused by his moment of hesitation.

"W..Why?" she gasped, awakening him from his confusion as to why he had originally come to the surface of the Earth. "Why are you attacking me? Why are you attacking all of us?"

His grin twisted into an even more maniacal grin than before if that was at all possible.

He answered her :Because...It's fun: