A loud crash signaled his arrival. People scattered as a terrifying roar ripped through the sky, filled with anger at hatred at what had happened. His bright blue eyes looked around wildly for any sign of her as he raked his claws deep into the stone and mortar holding the buildings together, toppling over towers in his search. Careful not to kill as many shadows as he could manage, he looked into a building and growled angrily when he saw the white figure below, lying on her side in a pool of blood. Rage filled his vision as he picked up the unicorn, her body limp in his gentle claws.
"You will die for this, snake." He growled between bared fangs as he looked around for any sign of Asmarath. Wild with anger he took to the sky, holding the unicorn close to him as he set the city on fire, flames bursting from his mouth and coating the ground below him in his revenge. He flew higher into the clouds, finally able to inspect the unicorn in his hands. She was wounded terribly on her side- a deep gash raking through her snow white fur, some of which had faded to a gray color. Sinto keened sadly and flapped his wings harder to fly as fast as he could back to the one person that could heal her…

Alisha sat up with a gasp, looking around and sighed with relief when she saw she was back in her own tent, Hermes waking up from her gasp beside her.
"Are you alright?" He inspected her for a minute before meeting her eyes again and waiting for an answer.
"Yeah- I just… had another dream." Alisha sighed as she tried to keep her heart from pounding in her chest.
"Was it Asmarath?" Hermes said quietly, moving closer to her when he saw the fear in her eyes.
"No… not this time." Alisha ran a hand through her hair uneasily. "It was about my father- he found my mom."
"Oh." Hermes watched her expectantly. "And?"
"She's in pretty bad shape. But he's heading toward someone who can heal her."
"Well that's good, I suppose." Hermes said, not sure what else to say. "Are you feeling okay? We were planning on traveling again today."
"I'm fine." Alisha smiled, looking toward the tent opening thoughtfully. "Though we should get going before it gets too hot- I'd rather not be trudging through the jungle at high noon."
"Yes, a very good idea." Hermes nodded and stretched with a wide yawn, the tips of his wings touching either side of the tent around him. He relaxed, folding the massive wings back against his back and looked at Alisha curiously when she kept watching him.
"What?" He asked, wondering why she was staring- did his feathers look that bad? He hadn't had a chance to preen last night…
"Nothing… I just… like your wings." Alisha blushed and looked away, grabbing the small bag of sanitary supplies Lili had given her and quickly walked out of the tent as Hermes watched her leave in confusion.

"So then, we're off to head back through the hot steamy forest." Que said in sarcastic enthusiasm.
"it's not that bad." Irtasu raised an eyebrow down at her. "We could be in the desert."
Que groaned in agony at just the thought of traveling through the desert, and looked over to Hermes, who was discussing something with Pirko, Kandor and Gale.
"I still think we should head to the capitol- they should know that the queen is with us." Hermes said, glancing to Alisha as she talked with Lili a few yards away.
"We have to gather people first- I think we should head to the largest population nearest to us." Pirko pointed to a spot on the map between them.
"But if we head that way, we'll be going in the opposite direction of the capitol!" Hermes said in frustration.
"I have an idea- I think we should get Alisha some training with her magic- she's a sorceress, right? She should be able to use her abilities when she meets up with anyone who might want to hurt her." Gale shrugged thoughtfully.
Hermes, Pirko and Kandor looked up at her with wide eyes.
"That's a great idea- and she would be a lot more confident too- I don't think she likes relying on us." Pirko muttered.
"No, she doesn't." Kandor agreed. "So do you guys know where we can find someone to train her?"
"I do!" Que said in excitement from behind them, making them all look at her in surprise.
"There's someone up at my hometown who can train her." The rabbit said happily, smiling eagerly.
"But… you're from the tundra." Pirko said, his nose wrinkling in disgust at the idea of a place so cold.
"Yeah, so? It's the only person we know of that can train her other than her mom and dad and obviously they'll be busy for a while from what Alisha told us."
"I think we should do what she says. It's the best way to make sure Alisha can control her powers in case something goes wrong."
"We don't even know what her powers are though." Pirko protested desperately. "The person in the tundra must only have ice powers or something like that, right? Alisha's the daughter of a fire master."
"Actually, the person I'm talking about is a fire master too." Que sneered at Pirko, who growled slightly in frustration.
"Alright then." Hermes took the map and rolled it up, tying a string around it to keep it closed. "We'll head to the tundra and have Alisha trained in her magic. After that we'll start gathering others to fight the shadows, and then she'll go to the capitol to train to be the queen."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Kandor said happily as Gale nodded as well. Pirko just grumbled, glaring at Que who was giggling in excitement at the idea of going back someplace cold.

"So then when my mom died, I decided to travel around and see the world." Que said as she walked beside Alisha at the back of the group, Hermes leading the way out of the jungle and north toward the forests again.
"Well I'm sorry your mom died- that must have been tough." Alisha said softly.
"Well yeah it was, but she wouldn't have wanted me to be sad forever." Que looked up at the trees around her and wiped the sleeve of her silver dress on her sweat-soaked forehead. "This place is pretty, but it's horribly warm. I can't wait until we're someplace cooler." She sighed.
"You really don't like the heat, do you?" Alisha chuckled.
"Well I was born in the tundra- I guess you could say I'm a snow rabbit." Que laughed as well, but looked up in interest at a large flower to their right.
"Hey- check that out." She pointed to the iridescently vibrant flower peeking out from underneath a large fern.
"Wow, look at the colors on it- I've never seen a flower like that before." Alisha said in wonder as the flower shone from a vibrant red to green depending on the light's reflection on its petals.
"Neither have I. I wonder what it smells like?" Que said curiously, looking at Alisha.
"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to stop for a little bit, right? It's only a flower after all…" Alisha trailed off, wanting to get closer to it as well. They looked up as the group continued walking, making sure no one was watching as they slowly walked off the path they were traveling on, over to the flower.
"What kind of flower is it, do you think?" Que said as she looked down at the iridescent petals which splayed out from a purple stemmed middle.
"I think it's some sort of lily… or something like that." Alisha looked at it curiously as they both leaned in to try and smell it. The flower suddenly widened its petals more, spraying a fine yellow mist at both Alisha and Que, who coughed and moved back quickly.
"What was that?" Alisha looked at Que nervously.
"I don't know, but we should probably catch up with the others." She said uneasily, glancing at the flower as it moved its petals to their normal position. She grabbed Alisha's wrist and ran back over to the others, walking with Alisha at the back of the group again.

"Hey… is Alisha alright?" Pirko muttered to Hermes as he looked over his shoulder, Alisha stumbling slightly as she walked behind them.
"I don't know- what's wrong with her?" Hermes looked behind them as well, his eyebrows furrowing in concern at her strange behavior.
"Kandor, you keep going- we're heading north, just stay straight." Hermes said to Kandor before walking to the back of the group, looking down at Alisha as she wobbled on her feet.
"Well hiiiii there bird boy!" She smiled happily.
Hermes stared in surprise at the greeting, and looked over to Que, who was also acting the same way.
"Um… is something wrong, Alisha?" He asked, looking down at her in surprise as she suddenly leaned against him.
"Nooo, nothing's wrong. I just feel really sleepy. Anyway, I was wondering something- why are the plants here not blue like the grass is? I mean- if the sky is green, why aren't these blue? Makes no sense." She said, as if trying to think of something meaningful.
"Um, I don't know. Alisha- did you eat something strange?" He gripped her by the shoulders as she laughed against his chest at the question.
"Nooo, silly. I wouldn't eat anything weird like that." She laughed, poking his chest. "Quit being so silly."
"Hermes, what's wrong with them?" Irtasu asked as he tried not to wince from Que tugging on his black rabbit ears, laughing giddily.
"Only one thing can make them act this way…" Hermes looked down at Alisha, his blue eyes wide.
"Alisha, did you guys mess with a flower earlier? A really colorful one?"
"Maaaaybe." Alisha giggled. "We wanted to see it closer."
Hermes groaned in frustration, putting his hand up to his face.
"What? What did they get into?"
"It's called the 'Madness flower', but people usually call it the Asila plant. It's a live plant that sprays anyone who gets too close to it with a pollen that makes them go insane."
"For how long?" Irtasu said in horror, crying out in pain as Que tugged at one of his ears.
"A couple hours, at least. They won't be able to walk, so we'll have to carry them." Hermes sighed and picked Alisha up, who laughed in excitement as she was turned so that she leaned against Hermes' wings.
"Hold on, alright Alisha?" He said to her, holding her legs for support.
"Okay." She smiled down at him and rested her head on his shoulder. Hermes waited until Irtasu picked up Que as well before they walked back to the others to explain the situation.