P.S. I think I'm officially nocturnal now. Ha ha ha!
P.S.S. Yes, Kirielle's past memory... thingy sucks, I realize this. However, I can't think of anything better... Or rather, I'm too lazy to think of anything better. Heh heh heh...
Kirielle searched the East half of the Elphesia Ruins, still feeling incredibly ashamed of herself for nearly giving away their presence. A few years ago she could sneak into any place, become any person, and steal information with no one the wiser. Now it seemed she couldn't even find a decent hiding spot without leaving something behind.
"Maybe I'm getting rusty," She mumbled, climbing up on top of a stone to look around. The rough edges cut into the tender flesh on her hands, making her wince. By the time she made it to the top her hands ached and she smiled a little. "Shows how much I've toughened up I suppose."
She scanned the area from her new vantage point, taking in the crumbled rocks and dilapidated buildings. She saw, far off, what looking like some sort of tomb. That was as good a place to start as any. She kneeled to hop down, and saw red hair. She stumbled and nearly fell. Which one was it?!
She heard some mumbling and much talk of a relic and world domination. Mint. Now she understood why they had split up, just in case those three did too. She hopped down from the rock and shifted, her muscles stretching and bones popping. A saber tooth stood where she once was. Just in time too.
"Lovely relic, beautiful relic, wonderfu- Whoa!" Mint jumped in surprise at Kirielle's new form. Kirielle sat down and then lowered herself onto the ground like a lazing cat. Mint calmed down a little bit and edged warily around her.
"Nice kitty... Good kitty, pretty kitty," Mint murmured, keeping her eyes on the false feline at all times. Kirielle almost giggled. Mint looked so worried that she'd disturb her, it was almost flattering in some odd way to think she looked so scary and strong. She raised her head and yawned, making Mint squeak and scurry away. Kirielle shifted back to her human form and began to laugh once Mint was a safe distance away.
She stood up, still giggling, and remembering the first time she had met the princess.
Saber Tooth, Bubba, Pollywog, Behemoth, Human. Saber Tooth, Bubba, Pollywog, Behemoth, Human. She went through the rotations faster and faster, trying to keep each form whole and unchanged by the others. Faster. Faster. Faster.
"What are you doing?" Human and Saber Tooth forms clashed together and made a strange looking child with oversized, over sharp teeth, a tail, and fur. She looked up, angry at whoever it was that had decided to interrupt her practice. A man reached over and seized her by her newly acquired tail, pulling her along as he walked. She let out a feral cry and quickly got to her feet to walk. She was slightly hunched.
"I told you not to do that, you unnatural wretch!" The man fumed as Kirielle tried to figure out just how badly mutated she was. Her feet were feline and her fingers short. Her ears had moved up higher on her head and seemed pointed. She probably didn't look all that great. After a moment she began to shift again, trying for human form.
He must have felt her bones shift because the man turned around and hit her in the back of the head. Light seemed to fade and then come rushing back and small pink lights danced before her eyes, like glitter falling from the sky. Kirielle stumbled, but kept on her feet.
"Don't do that! You'll only shift when we tell you to," The man snapped. She growled lowly at him, but he didn't seem to care. He had been excited for a while about being able to see the royal family, or some such nonsense. The man placed her in a cage, like some common animal, and closed the door. As soon as it was safely locked she shifted to human and glared at him.
This man had found her as an infant, shifted into the form of an animal. He had assumed that she was an animal that had some sort of odd shape changing ability, and treated her accordingly. She pulled her knees up to her chest and sighed, watching him walk away talking about 'entertaining' and other such things.
She looked around at the other animals, smiling now that she was alone. A black pollywog chomped at the air several times before sticking out its tongue. A guado began to spin until it collapsed. She knew they were going crazy from their captivity. She was going crazy it seemed. Her thoughts were growing darker as more time passed and she was beginning to feel that she would do anything, anything for her freedom.
She remained in the cage for a long time, feeling movement when she was moved and hoping that soon she would be let out. She passed time by shifting and trying to escape from her cage. She knew that she would fail, but she did it anyways. She was hopeful.
First she tried a small shape, a mouse, and attempted to work her way through the bars. It was useless. The bars were thin and sets close together. They were also incredibly strong, so much so that she no longer attempted to break the cage by shifting into a larger form. It only resulted in her suffocation and then unconsciousness. Instead she took the form of a Guado and blew fire on the bars. Nothing.
She went on like this for hours and eventually fell into an exhausted sleep.
"Wake up!"
The voice was a painful screech the jolted her to consciousness. She sat up, shaking her head slightly. The man pulled her from the cage and began to lead her away to get cleaned up. She washed, dressed in new clothes, and braced herself. She heard the announcements. Heard herself being referred to as a new creature. Heard her opening. She walked out and began to entertain.
'So this is the royal family,' she thought as she shifted from form to form. There was one exceptionally fat man who seemed to be the king. He laughed and pointed with his eldest daughter, who seemed to have inherited his darker skin and robust nature. Beside the eldest daughter was her younger sibling, who more resembled her mother. She had fair skin and smiled delightedly at the display.
Close by was a man in a mask. The mask chilled her to the core and made her hair stand on end. It gave him a permanently maniacal look, like a mad man. Beside him were two boys a little older then she. The younger one seemed bored out of his mind, and the older... the older didn't have a look at all. He may have been sleeping standing up for all she knew.
She shifted to a Saber Tooth and produced a loud, rolling roar that shook the walls and rattled windows. The youngest daughter shrieked and ran to her mother, while the eldest laughed all the louder. How strange that two siblings could be so different. She shifted again, to a Bubba, and each of her steps made the room shiver.
She began shifting faster. Once again it was Saber Tooth, Bubba, Pollywog, Behemoth, Human, Saber Tooth, Bubba, Pollywog, Behemoth, Human. She went faster and faster, slipping smoothly from one form to the next. Her muscles screamed, her bones popped and protested each shift she went through, and she felt a scream try to creep into her throat.
She slowed, and finally shifted to human, exhausted. It was sooner then it should have been, but her body wasn't able to stand up to so much changing yet. She needed practice, which she was being denied. She felt herself being led back out of sight, she heard clapping, and then she felt a faint tingle within her mind. Before she could examine it she was struck for not finishing her performance. Dark thoughts entered her mind again and she bit her lip to keep from snarling at the man.
She wanted to kill him, she wanted desperately to kill him and be free. She went into her cage and sat down, waiting until the man left before she flopped back and cried out in frustration.
"I'm not an animal, I'm a girl! I'm a girl! I'm a girl!" She shrieked, pounding her fists against the bars. She grit her teeth, glaring at the floor, and heard a chuckle. She looked up and saw the two boys standing there, looking at her.
"You know, he might actually believe you if you didn't act like this," the younger one said, looking almost amused. The older one said nothing and continued to watch them. No, that wasn't right, his eyes were closed. Maybe he was blind or something. She turned her back on them both and stared at the bars in front of her, refusing to speak anymore.
"You're not an animal. Your consciousness is too sophisticated," She heard a quieter voice say. That must have been the older boy. She heard someone approach, and then next time she heard the voice it was right behind her.
"If you really want to be free then stay awake tonight. The lock will come off at three A.M. It's up to you what happens from there." She sat still as the two left, the younger one heckling the older, asking what that was all about. She sat in her tiny prison, staring at her toes.
'It's up to you what happens from there.' Oh, she knew what would happen from there. She knew exactly what would happen from there.
The next day the man that had kept her under lock and key was dead and she was a servant under Doll Master. She was free, and she was twelve years old.
'Funny, she looked so innocent back then,' Kirielle thought, heading towards the tombs and smiling a little. She picked up her pace and began to run, hopeful that she might be able to find something relating to whatever relic resided in this place.
'Man this place is big,' Narcius thought, looking around the dank room. He was standing inside of what may have been the remains of an atelier. He said 'may' because there didn't seem to be enough stuff left behind to really tell.
The room was large and circular with only two or three distinguishing features. The first one was the odd, diamond like pattern made up of tiles on the floors and walls. The second was a large, stone desk places squarely in the middle of the room. Behind that, was the third item that made this room stand out from other places in the ruins. A large, moth eaten tapestry hung on one wall. Barely visible was the visage of a girl, holding a book and smiling. The face was vaguely familiar, but from where he wasn't sure.
The eyes were closed, and the girl was smiling. He hair may have been white, it was difficult to tell, and a little bit of her hair hung in her face. She was wearing some kind of dress with long sleeves. He stared at it a moment, trying to place the face, but eventually gave up and began searching the room. Well, maybe ransacking would be more appropriate.
After fifteen minutes of 'searching,' he found some moldy looking books. Narcius opened them and frowned, understanding nothing within the pages. He sighed and set them on the desk. He could remember Ruecian getting after him a lot for shirking off his studies, but he never though he'd be right about any of it coming in handy. Surprise, surprise.
"Well... shoot," Narcius mumbled, looking at the books with an expression of distaste. He grumbled a little more and turned to look at the tapestry again. Why was it so familiar?
It took a long time before it finally came to him. The Ghost Temple had a guardian with two, sometimes three heads. He could remember it from the time he'd gone in to gather puppets. One of the heads looked exactly like this girl, the one that always had its eyes closed. He looked at the tapestry and frowned.
The Ghost Temple was all the way in Carona, so what was a guardian residing there doing with the face of this girl? He puzzled over it a little bit before finally giving up and grabbing the books. He didn't think he'd left anything behind, but he'd come back and check a little later. Just in case.
He cast one last glance back at the tapestry and then headed out, books in hand.
Karwyn could only hope his siblings were doing better then him. He had been searching for a while now, but it seemed like no matter where he went someone else had been there before him. He didn't necessarily believe it was Mint, Maya, or Rue who had been there first, but many places had been stripped bare. It made searching very frustrating.
He headed to a new building, careful to make sure that there was no one near by as he did so. He paused for a moment. He kept thinking he could feel something, as though there were some half awake consciousness somewhere. Every time he tried to examine it though, it vanished. He didn't like it, but at the same time he was relieved it wasn't one of the princesses or Rue that he was sensing.
He began to search, ever cautious of discovery. This place appeared to be a workshop of sorts. The tools used there were long gone, but vials and containers of spoiled ingredients still remained. He pulled open what seemed to be a cabinet and nearly slammed it shut again. It seemed to be filled with human limbs!
He took a closer look and relaxed again. No, it was not human limbs. It was, however, full of doll parts similar to the puppets they had used to distract Mint and Rue so long ago. Reaching in he pulled out one of the arms and studied it.
The arm was slender and sleek, distinctly feminine and graceful. The hand was also slender, and the fingers were long and straight. The joints in the fingers, wrist, and elbow were the only thing that gave away its true nature. He placed the arm back in the cabinet and closed the door. It was somewhat unsettling to hold, even if it wasn't real.
The workshop took on new meaning. It had been used to produce dolls, or maybe puppets. Only a handful of magicians and Aeons had done this, since the finished products normally only worked half of the time. Prima Doll had been, by most standards, an exceptional success in this sense. He had had his own set of emotions and the desire to unseal Valen's Fortress. Most of all though, the fact that the doll was still operating, still living of its own accord that made it such a success. After all, he was a tool that was outliving his original purpose and gaining a new one. It was an amazing thing.
He went to one of the worktables and began searching. Here things had been spilled everywhere, probably from overzealous treasure hunters. He pushed several broken bottle aside and began gathering what he could. Notes, mostly though there were a few books. After a few moments, however, he discovered something a little more interesting.
It was a silver circlet. The silver had been twisted into a knot-like pattern and the middle contained a dream stone. It had been hidden within one of the books, which was probably the only reason it had been left behind. He examined it for a short moment before placing it on top of the notes and continuing his search. Besides a few left over valuables, he found nothing else that was useful. Leaving the valuables behind, he picked up the notes a circlet and headed out.