I'm back! Muhahahahahahaha. To make up for the lack of updates here's a really long chapter, ten pages infact. Major thanks to Elfie for typing and editing this chapter for me. I love ya Elfie (in a friends way.)

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Nissa awoke with a groan, her dark grey eyes opened slowly, labouredly. Her heightened hearing picked up the muffled bang of Freja leaving for work. Her sleepy eyes saw the time on the clock. 8:15. She sighed and snuggled back down into the blanket. Nissa's eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright in bed, a massive grin on her face.

"Chrissie comes back today," she murmured joyfully and tried to leap out of bed. Unfortunately her legs became entangled in her blanket causing her crash rather painfully to the floor. From downstairs came a communal yell of:

"Shut up, Nis!" Dragonissa was surprised to hear two male voices in the yell. This caused her grin to widen.

"PETER!" She grabbed her pale blue bathrobe and dashed downstairs. Sure enough, there he was, leaning against the cooker. He smiled as she entered the kitchen.

"Morning sleepy," he greeted and Nissa threw her arms round his neck.

"When did you get back?" she demanded. Peter grinned.

"About 7:30. We bumped into Noo on her way to work. Late again."

"Boy is she gonna be in trouble," uttered a voice from the breakfast bar. Nissa turned to see a blonde Elf dressed in biker leathers, sitting down, eating toast.

"Hey Simon. So did you boys have fun?"

"Duh! The bikes, the massive cars, those Elf hunnies in hotpants that-"

"That I'm sure you ignored," a female voice interrupted. Blaise came in, dressed for work carrying two tins of dog food, two tins of cat food and some bird seed. "Short's been giving me lip again. He started going on about how I can prove the bird seed doesn't exist." Short, real name Short Bob Silver, was a parrot. A very clever parrot. Cleverer than most people, though being cleverer than most people isn't hard. He had once belonged to the infamous pirate Long John Silver. Short had been the brains of the operation but, due to creative differences, Short left and took up Philosophy, eventually gaining a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Psychology and Theology. Then he moved in with the girls and drove everyone up the wall.

"What did you do to him?" Nissa asked, leaning her head on Peter's shoulder.

"Taped his beak shut."

"BLAISE!"

"What? It shut him up!" Blaise dumped the tins on the table and seated herself on Simon's lap. What she didn't realise was that Simon was in the middle of eating a piece of toast, so she ended up sitting on it.

"B," scolded Nissa, "you'll have the animal rights people swarming over the place, if you're not careful." She left the kitchen in order to de-tape the bird. She went into the back room and tripped over her sausage dog, Ducky Bert, as he waddled into the kitchen. Nissa couldn't help but snigger when she saw the ex-pirate's pet, his muffled complaints barely audible. She carefully peeled the tape off his beak.

"Thank you so much for that, you have no idea how infuriating that is. Who's a pretty polly, then? Ahem, I do apologise." Short still had a rather embarrassing habit of slipping back into pirate speech whilst talking. This caused great amusement in the girls and confusion in everyone else when, whilst engaging in a discussion about the alternations of war, Short yelled at the top of his little bird lungs:

"SLIT OPEN HIS BELLY TO SEE THE COLOUR OF HIS INSIDES!!"

"I know what it's like, I've had my snout belted shut or muzzled on several occasions." Nissa heard a floorboard creak but she'd already caught his scent. Peter came up behind her and slipped his arm around her waist. She could feel his warm breath tingling the hairs on her neck.

"And what do you want?" she asked archly. He chuckled deep in his throat.

"I think you can guess." He undid the knot of her belt.

"You dirty perv!" Nissa scolded mildly.

"So?" His lips brushed her neck. "It'll be a full moon in a few days."

"I know." Nissa turned to face him. Peter brought his lips crashing down onto hers. He opened her robe and slid his hands underneath the old t-shirt she wore to sleep in. Nissa broke the kiss and giggled.

"My, my, we are keen, aren't we? You were only gone for three days."

"Three days without you is like three eternities without moonlight and stars."

"That was so corny ev-" but he cut her off with another kiss, more passionate than the first. Nissa's hands slid up his chest to undo the zip of his leathers, which she peeled off his torso. Peter pushed the bathrobe of her shoulders and grabbed the hem of her top, making to pull it over her head, when they were rather rudely interrupted.

"There are some things I do not want to see mammals doing, thank you very much! Shiver me timbers, matey!" screeched Short from behind Nissa. This prompted two reactions from the kitchen.

"WAHEY!! You go, Nis! Get in there, girl!!" Blaise yelled and Simon burst into song.

"You and me, baby, ain't nothing but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the discovery channel!" Peter grinned in an embarrassed sort of way.

"Think we should wait, hmmm?" he said.

"Might be a good idea." Peter laughed and kissed Nissa on the cheek.

"I love you," he said softly. Nissa snuggle into his chest.

"Love you too." The Kodak moment was then spoilt by a loud exclamation of:

"Flippin', flappin' FUCK!!!"

"You're late, Blaise," called Nissa in a sing song voice.

"Eek! Don't remind me! Ah bugger!" As the couple came to the door they beheld a women in red tottering down the hall on impossibly high and very painful looking stiletto shoes, yelping: "I'm gonna be late! I'm gonna be late!" over and over again. She tripped over a loose fold in the carpet and collapsed into a sad pile of clothes and flesh to Nissa's cry of:

"TIMBER!!!" Blaise moaned pitifully and screwed up all her courage to ask for the final resort.

"Nissie? Can I have lift?" In the kitchen, Simon froze during his fourteenth piece of toast.

"SHIT! She's gonna die!" He yelped but, due to his mouth being full of toast, it sounded more like: "MIFT! Me's morra guy!" Blaise looked fearfully at the expression of demonic delight on her best friend's face. Nissa rubbed her hands together gleefully and cackled.

"Just give me a second to get dressed."

~*~

"DRAGONISSA!!! SLOW DOWN!!!"

"You wanna get to work on time, don't ya? WOO HOO!!!"

"YEAH! BUT I DON'T WANT TO DIE! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!" The reason for Blaise's distress was, as you may have guessed, Nissa's driving. For Nissa's 21st birthday, her very wealthy grandparents had bought her a Jeep because she'd asked for one. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for Nissa's views on the Highway Code ie. it happened to everyone else.

"Gods! Look at that traffic up ahead!" The black clad woman next to Blaise pointed with one long finger. "We can't get stuck in that now, can we?" She gave the wheel a hard pull to the right. The Jeep leapt onto the pavement and Nissa shifted gears, going from 40 mph to 60 mph.

"NISSA! YOU CAN'T DRIVE ON THE PAVEMENT! SLOW DOWN!!!"

"Come on! Where's your sense of adventure?" She then pulled off an impressive two wheeler, bringing Blaise's skull inches from the cement speeding past. When Nissa righted the car, Blaise was distinctly greener.

Nissa drove the car over a roundabout and swung round a corner.

"How is it that you've never had an accident?" Blaise wondered out loud as there was a lull in the insanity as Nissa sped down an empty street.

As strange as it may sound, Nissa had yet to have a car accident. The reason for this was thus. At first, the Police had tried to arrest Dragonissa for dangerous driving, however it is very difficult to arrest someone with a predatory smile and very white teeth, who can also control towering infernos, has a great capacity for magic and can, quite literally, bite your head off. After about the fifteenth casualty (the victims of her impatience, not driving), they had decided that perhaps another course of action was in order. So, they set up "Nissa Watch'. Whenever Nissa got behind the wheel, a helicopter would take off and shadow her throughout her whole journey, broadcasting her current location to every radio station within a ten mile radius, giving motorists a chance to clear the roads. "After all," they said, "there was no knowing where she might be going at such a speed. Good old Nis could be speeding along to stop an army of approaching Zombies."

Nissa sped round yet another corner and spotted a group of pedestrians about to cross the road. Blaise saw the glint her friend's eye as she took one hand from the wheel and raised it over her head, golden flames licking the cool morning sky.

"No! Nissie! DON'T! NIS! NIS! NIS! NIS! NIS! ARR-EEK!!!" The flames left her fingers and blasted the pedestrians out of the way so she didn't have to slow down. "NISSA?!?!?!"

"Awww, come on, they were only slightly scorched."

"ONLY SLIGHTLY SCORCHED?!?!?!" Nissa let out a joyful laugh and belted towards the bridge. Fear clutched Blaise's heart. "Nis, this isn't the way to my work."

"This is a short cut!" Nissa yanked the gear stick and went full throttle. Blaise let out an ear piercing shriek as Nissa drove off the bridge.
The Jeep rolled to a halt in front of an office block. She consulted her watch.

"Hey, B, you're five minutes early." She got out of the Jeep and walked round to Blaise's door. Blaise remained frozen stiff with eyes wide in horror. "That's nice! Not even a thank you." Nissa opened the door and Blaise fell out, maintaining her frozen seated position. "Didn't you have your set belt on? Silly girl!"

"Muwahamenah." Blaise rose unsteadily to her feet and wobbled into the building, swaying blearily. Nissa watched her go in.

"Does she know she's got butter all over her arse?" She wondered out loud.

~*~

Peter gave a content and kissed Nissa's forehead gently.

"So you did miss me then?"

"Of course." Nissa snuggled up to her boyfriend. "You're lovely and warm," she said. Peter laughed.

When Nissa had got back, Simon had already left for work, so it was just Nissa and Peter, who had conveniently booked an extra day off work, since then they had been, as Peter put it, 'making up for lost time'.

"I suppose we had better start getting ready for Chrissie to come home," said Nissa after a moment. Peter groaned and rolled off the bed, grabbing his jeans and pulled them on. Nissa followed suit, pulling on her black flares and leather top. The pair then set out to prepare for the winged Elf's return. They cleared that remains of breakfast, let the cats out, took the dogs for a walk and used a blow torch to clear some fungi growing on the wall of the bathroom. They were about to do the same to some fuzzy green stuff that was growing behind the radiator when Peter pointed out that for all they knew, they could be relations of Noo.

By the time they had finished and had sat down for a refreshing cup of tea, it was midday. Chrissie was due back any time now and Nissa was very excited. Nissa smiled to herself as she thought about her friend. Tall, dark hair with dark eyes and tanned skin. Chrissie was a flying Elf, her wings were those of a butterfly and pink in colour. Chrissie was an accomplished warrior. Nissa recalled the times that they had fought side by side against great odds. Chrissie dealt out bloody judgment to all enemies and to anyone who was stupid enough to call her a faerie. Nissa leaned against Peter's shoulder as he sat next to her on the sofa and she closed her eyes. She didn't get much sleep the night before because of those funny dreams. What was her name again? Lyncorath? She curled herself around an already asleep Peter and let sleep take her.

~*~

Nissa awoke to the sound of a panic-stricken Peter.

"Nissie! Nissie! Get up! Chrissie's two hours late!"

"WHAT?!" Nissa sat up straight, smacking her forehead against Peter's jaw rather painfully.

Once ice had been placed upon Nissa's aching head and the pain was beginning to subside, her own panic set began to set in.

"She's two hours late?!"

"We've been asleep for two hours and she isn't back yet!"

"Maybe she came but couldn't get in because we were asleep and she couldn't wake us up," reasoned Nissa.

"She's got a key, remember,"

"Do you think something has happened?"

"To Chrissie? Nah, she could beat the living crap out of me." However, Peter did not look certain. Nissa still pondered for a moment.

"Didn't Ebony say she was going to see Chrissie off?" she wondered out loud.

"Why don't you call her and see if anything weird happened?" Peter answered.

"She'll be at work by now." Peter pulled a face.

"This ought to be fun."

~*~

"Hey there, big boy," breathed a husky voice, panting heavily. "This is the Faerie Lovers Sizzling Hotline and I'm Ebony, your little pet. I suck, I swallow, I'll turn you hollow, inside out, let's do hokey pokey, I'll turn your mind about." The voice suddenly became bored and uninterested. "Right, you got two minutes, bub, I've got five other guys waiting. Okay, wait a second." The husky, breathy voice returned. "I'm holding my bra, it's pink and lacy-"

"Shut up, Ebony, it's Nissa!"

"Nissa? What the hell are you doing phoning me here? I didn't know you were into this sort of thing. Come out of the closet, have we?" On the other end of the phone, Nissa slapped Peter to stop him sniggering.

"Look! I DO NOT swing that way. I've just phoned you up to ask about Chrissie." In her chair, Ebony adjusted her tartan micro skirt.

"Why? What's up with Chrissie?"

"She isn't back yet. Did anything happen, you know, something strange, when you saw her off, Eb?"

"Nah, not that I can remember. Come on, Nis, this is Chrissie we're talking about. She probably stopped to beat the shit out of someone. AH BUGGER! The boss is coming!" Ebony let out a shriek down the phone, followed by a couple of moans.

At her home a look of complete disgust crossed Nissa's face and with a loud "EWWW!" she held the phone out at arm's length. Curious Peter put his ear to the phone to hear what Ebony was saying. He looked confused and then winced.

"OUCH! I didn't know you could do that? Is that legal?"

"No, its probably not and you probably can't do whatever it is in real life. That's why it's on the phone, so you can fantasise," Nissa told him, looking slightly sick. A few minutes later, Ebony's voice returned to normal.

"Okay, he's gone," she whispered. Despite her concerns about Chrissie, Nissa still felt compelled to ask:

"Eb, you've got loads of qualifications and you're a talented girl. So why oh why are you doing this job that's only one very small step from negotiable affection?"

"Coz it's more fun," she replied. "Anyway, Chrissie got off alright, seemed quite happy to be going back home. You don't think anything has happened to her, do you Nissie?"

"Are you talking to a woman, Ebony?" asked a male voice from behind her. Ebony turned her head sharply. It was her boss.

"Errr………… um…………… ahh……………" Ebony hung her head. "Yes, Mr. Lason." If Ebony said she was talking to a friend, she'd get in even more trouble. The line was supposed to be for business only. However, Mr. Lason's shrewd business mind was already working. 'Maybe we should start branching out to lesbians?' he thought.

"Good job, Eb, there'll be a nice little bonus in your wage packet for you at the end of the week," he said aloud. Down the phone, Ebony let out a small shriek and a yell of "THANK YOU!"

Nissa sighed and put down the phone, rightly thinking that she wouldn't get anything else but praise and glory from the half pixie, half faerie. Not that she didn't like praise and glory, but it wasn't what she needed to hear at that moment. She needed to know where Chrissie was.

"Well, that was a complete waste of time," she grumbled. Peter tutted and came to massage her shoulders.

"Don't worry, Nissie, I'm sure Chris is fine."

"But what is she isn't?" whispered Nissa. Before Peter could answer, the hone rang. Nissa picked it up thinking it was going to be Ebony.

"Look, Eb, I'm really not in the mood for this at the moment, okay?" The person on the other end of the phone let out a chuckle.

"I assure you I'm not the faerie," they said. Nissa's brow knotted.

"Who is this?" There was another chuckle.

"Don't you remember me, Dragonissa?" This was getting creepy now. Peter mouthed 'who is it?' to her but she waved her free hand at him, indicating for him to not distract her.

"Nope. Not a lot of remembering going on here." She tried to make her voice sound as uncaring, as heedless as possible, but she was uncomfortable.

"Hasn't your friend come home yet?" The voice sounded like it was smirking. Nissa's fingers tightened round the phone.

"Where's Chrissie?" she demanded.

"Oh, your little faerie can't come to the phone right now." There was a pause. "Those wings of hers are very beautiful, aren't they?" Nissa growled deep in her throat.

"It you hurt her, I'll-"

"You'll what?" The voice took on a malevolent tone. "Now listen, gatekeeper, your friend isn't hurt……… too badly. If you want her pretty little head returned whilst it's still attached to her body, I suggest you do exactly what I tell you to do."

"Go on," said Nissa, struggling to keep her voice normal.

"Go to the mall in the Elven quarter of Alden. Outside the coffee shop on the third floor is a waste bin. Inside that bin will be your instructions. Don't try anything. I will be watching." The caller hung up. Nissa put the phone down her end, stunned………

Chrissie was being held to ransom.

~*~

"So, where did this person say they were leaving the instructions?" Peter asked, looking around.

"In the bin outside the third floor coffee shop," replied Nissa. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Peter wrinkled his nose.

"Actually in the bin?" he asked, incredulously. Nissa frowned.

"And I'm sure you've never rummaged through a bin before."

"But that was different. That was on a full moon and I didn't have anything to eat at all that day." Nissa sighed and looked around. The mall was heaving, packed from wall to wall with many different forms of life. The walls and floor were a sterile white and the light was garish and unnatural. As they made their way through the masses, Nissa kept looking about her. Any one of those people could be the one who had Chrissie.

Once they had reached the designated place, Nissa kept watch whilst a decidedly unhappy Peter searched through the bin, looking for anything unusual. He eventually pulled out a large brown envelope and distastefully picked a banana skin off it and flung into back into the bin, wiping his fingers on his shirt. Nissa snatched the envelope out of his hand and tore it open. Out of it slipped a blue crystal on a silver chain. Nissa looked at it.

"I gave Chrissie this necklace," she said, quietly. She then pulled out a sheet of paper. The words were typed in bold.

'If you want your friend back, Dragonissa must go to the Pass of the Eternal Scream at sunset tomorrow, alone. If she can survive the trials therein, I will contact you again. Make sure she is completely alone, for I shall be watching. If you do not ensure this, I shall return then neck that this pretty jewel hung from. And only the neck.'

"The Pass of the Eternal Scream?" Peter read over Nissa's shoulder. "Does this freak want to kill you?"

The Pass of the Eternal Scream was a canyon located just outside of Alden, the capital city of Andomen. Long ago, a mad wizard had filled the canyon with treacherous traps and devious magic that only a handful of people had managed to get through and come out again alive. But even those that did come out had gone mad. And no one ever said what was in the Pass. The hellish place had earned its name from its worst aspect. Those who had perished while attempting to cross were frozen in time, their dying screams forever echoing around the canyon, their souls unable to escape the plain of non-existence.

Peter caught the oh-so familiar glint in his lover's eye.

"Dragonissa, NO!" He grabbed both her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Nissa. Nissie. It's a fool's errand. If you try that pass, you will die."

"And if I don't Chrissie will die too!" she argued back.

"The dude that has got her will probably kill her anyway, even if you do succeed. What good would you both be being dead do?"

"I may not die," she said. She jerked away from Peter. "Do you have such little faith in me?"

"It's not you. It's just…………… I don't think I could bear to lose you."

"I know but," she turned away so Peter would not see the starting of her tears, "I've already lost so many people. I'm not going to lose Chrissie, too." Peter was about to say something he saw her whole body go rigid.

"Nis?"

She could hear the screaming, one shrill, unbroken note, like wind rushing down a tunnel. Then the world seemed to shift around her. She was outside in windy, clean, cold air. It was dark, just after sunset. The shrieking was getting louder until it almost deafened her. 'Why does the freaky stuff always happen to me?' she had just about enough time to think before darkness overtook her. She didn't even feel her body connect with the ground as she fell.

~*~

Chrissie opened her eyes. The floor she lay on was cold and damp. She tried to lift her head but, when she did, pain like a thousand demons tap dancing on her cranium coursed through her. Her lips were swollen and she could feel a warm, sticky substance on them. Her dry tongue licked her lips, she could taste the saltiness of her own blood. She tried in vain to rise onto all fours, but she was too weak. Her arms gave way under her and she collapsed into a pool of her own blood. She silently raged at her own insufficiency, a warrior Elf such as herself unable to climb to her feet. Where was she? She remember saying goodbye to Ebony and then………… nothing.

"Does it bring back memories?" a harsh voice asked. Chrissie looked up blearily. Far above her, there was a patch of light from a door. Silhouetted against the light was a figure whom Chrissie was unable to make out.

"What?" Chrissie's voice was cracked and hard to hear.

"I didn't you'd remember," the person continued. "Your lizard friend didn't either. But you will." The person descended some stairs and grabbed Chrissie by her hair. "Kneel before me, faerie!" they hissed. "Soon everyone will kneel to me! All the fools in this soft world! Once I have all five………" the voice trailed off.

Then it returned, cold and malicious.

"Is the poor ickle faerie tired?" the voice said, mimicking a small child. Chrissie could feel the anger rise inside her, caused by this disrespect and mockery, and the sheer frustration of not being able to express it. "Perhaps I should help." It sounded like the voice was grinning. One booted foot lashed out, kicking Chrissie in the stomach. The flying Elf coughed up some more blood that seemed to burn her raw throat and gurgled as she slipped into unconsciousness. The last thing she remembered was hearing the sadistic laughter of her captor.

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Please review, I need to feed my brainchildren.