A/N

Well, I've updated a lot, but I just realized Comments from the characters has not been updated for awhile, so that will be my next update.

Culture: These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population

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"Danny, you can open your eyes now."

"They don't look so bad."

"Don't look so bad, I bet they don't." I grumbled as I cracked one eye open slowly.

Neat, yet erratic stitches covered my hands. The doctor of the crossroads was about to bandage them back up.

It took us half a day to get to the crossroad town, which, really, wasn't even as much a town as more of a pit stop. Crepuscule told the other girls about my hands and how we need to stop, which was good, because I didn't really want to explain it myself. And it gave them both more of a chance to adjust to my friend. And everything was going good until we met the doc of the crossroads.

When he pulled out that needle, I almost took off. I'm not a sincere fan of pain. And painkillers were out of the question. I don't like any sort of drugs. They make me feel…dirty. And there was the fact that since the wound may still have magical traces, it might give me unwanted side effects. But, I almost rethought the whole thing when I realized the needle was big enough to sew up the stomach of an elephant, but not quite as sharp.

The doctor was squat, hairy, with a big mouth and watery eyes. I didn't like him at all. And I vowed that as soon as he was done bandaging my hands I'd keep as far away from him as possible. The other girls were reacting about the same, and Jean kept on grimacing. As soon as I had my eyes open, Rahne retreated outside to Crepuscule. I think she probably smelled something on the doctor she didn't particularly like.

"Now, too much strenuous exercise will break the thread, so be careful. Now, how will you pay for this?"

I looked at Jean. She shrugged. As an afterthought, I pulled off my bracelet.

"Take this."

"And what's that?"

"It's a very special gift, given to me by people a long way from here."

"It's not enough."

"If I give you another, will that be enough?"

"Depends."

"It's a matching set. Sun and Moon." I coaxed. His whiny voice was getting on my nerves. He may be a good doctor, but I was getting anxious to leave.

"Very well." He huffed. I pulled my anklet off and gave it to him. I hurriedly got up with Jean and we walked out fast.

I was calm and composed until we managed to get beside Crepuscule.

"Yuck. Yuckyuckyuck."

"Danny, he helped you." Jean admonished me.

"Yeah, but he was giving me the creeps." Rahne shuddered. "Did you smell him? He smells like a dead thing!"

"Rahne!"

"You can't sugarcoat the truth." She defended. I tapped the side of Crepuscule's neck with my fingers. He swung his head over to look at me.

"What's to the north?" I asked him as my friends argued.

"To the North this continent wanes, but I have heard that it takes several days to reach the edge. Upon the edge is a small group of port towns. Beyond that, there are several large and small continents, each ruled over by a different culture of magic."

"Culture of magic?" I asked curiously.

"Yes. Different cultures, much like your world. The cultures study different magics, and only a basic knowledge is shared anywhere. Do you wish to leave to the North?"

"…Yes." Bad idea. It's going to be a horrible idea.

He stared at me, then nodded. I think he sensed that I was troubled. But, being the polite creature he is, decided not to interfere. I looked at him for a minute.

"How old are you?"

"Beg pardon?"

"How old are you?" I repeated.

"I…don't know. I am over fifty year."

"You don't know how old you are?" I asked quizzically. "How'd that happen?"

"I'm…" he began pawing the ground nervously, "not quite sure."

"Oh." I let the matter drop. "So, what do you do for fun?"

"What?"

"We barely know anything about each other, and we appear to be in this for the long run, so let's make an attempt to figure stuff out about ourselves, hmm?"

"I see."

"I like music. I'm sixteen, I like animals, I don't like to take medicine, and I like to walk even if I don't know where. My best friend in the entire world is my dog, even though he's not here. I'm clumsy, and I tend to get hurt a lot, but it's usually not too bad, unless you count the car accidents…never mind those. So, what about you?"

"I am over fifty year…I like…to read. Books."

"That's cool."

"Cool?"

"Awesome. Great."

"Ah."

"Go on. You're on a roll, don't stop now." I encouraged shamelessly.

"I don't like being yelled at, or making my Mistress upset." He was starting to warm up to his subject now. "I like to fly across the clouds…ah…."

He started faltering.

"You like to fly across the clouds…" I started, willing him to go on.

"And…I don't have many friends. I am graceful, but sometimes, I grow complacent, and…" He dropped his voice to a really low whisper. I had to lean in to hear it.

"…Sometimes I hit the ground in a most undignified manner."

I stifled a laugh and tried to keep solemn, but the picture of Crepuscule just flying without a care in the world before crashing into the ground was kind of funny. It was so out of character for him.

"Anything else?" I pressed. He looked at me for a moment, then shook his head. "No? Any plans for the future?"

"My future lies with you, Lady Danny."

"It can't lie with me forever."

He turned his head away at that comment, and I stared at him. What was with that dragon creature?

"Are we ready?" Rahne suddenly chirped next to me, scaring me. "Let's go!"

"Don't over exert yourself, Danny." Jean reminded me.

"Okay Mom."

"Don't make me beat some respect into you, girl!" She said mock threateningly.

Rahne gasped. "Oh no! We have to see that Doctor, Jean's been possessed with someone who has a sense of humor!"

"I have a sense of humor! I just can't show it because no one's on my maturity level."

"I'll say."

"What was that, Miss Sinclair?"

"Nothing. Hey Crepuscule, lift your paw and let me step on it, I always get dizzy the other way." She stepped onto Crepuscule's raised paw and used the boost to get on his back.

"Nifty. Why didn't I think of that?" I wondered aloud as I used the same method. Jean just floated up and sat on his back.

"So where to, gang?" Rahne asked. She seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. After all, she sat in the front and got to see all the cool things I got to see when I first started out.

I'm jealous.

"North." Crepuscule said simply.

"Why north?" Jean asked.

"There are towns up north. Several days from now. There we may find more of your group."

"Why don't we search here for clues first."

"We go north." He flicked his wings open and rocketed into the air, scaring all of us, so that we had to cling to each other in order not to fall off.

"My apologies. I will warn you next time."

"That'd be great, thanks." Rahne said shakily. I nodded in agreement. Jean was silent.

For about a minute.

"What is going on with you?" She asked Crepuscule sternly. He laid his ears flat against his skull.

"Nothing. There is nothing here worth the Ladies' time."

Jean was about to say something else, but I elbowed her and shook my head. She gave me a funny look. I pointed to his ears.

Ears are a great indicator of emotion, in everything. When I'm embarrassed, my ears turn red. When animals are sad, the ears droop. When they're happy, the ears are perky and usually standing up. And when they're angry…the ears look like Crepuscule's. And that's a bad thing for something that big. He wasn't baring his teeth yet, but if she kept pushing the matter, it could get to the point. And from my experience, those are some pretty big teeth that I don't want to see anytime soon.

She didn't quite understand why I was gesturing to his ears, but she seemed to trust me enough to keep quiet.

That was certainly a good thing. I don't want to ride an angry animal. Bucking Bronco riders are paid for that. Not me.

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It had been a drag, flying the jet back. He didn't like driving the blasted plane, he was much more close to his bike.

And the flight had not improved his mood.

Logan stomped up the steps to the study, where Xavier was. He swung the door open.

"Chuck!"

"I'm glad you're alright Logan. Did you find anything?"

"Nothing. It's like they disappeared inta thin air."

"This is most curious. I have not been able to pick up any of the X-men on Cerebro. However, I have noticed something odd."

"What? Besides the fact that a whole bunch of our kids were kidnapped by the freakin' munchkin brigade?"

"Patience Logan. I trust them, and you should too. It's true, they do all have their flaws, but they are all strong willed people. They will be alright. We have to remember too that Hank and Ororo are also with them, with any luck at all. We simply have to look for the cause and help them get home."

"Hunh." Logan grunted. "So what's 'odd'?"

"I believe this has something to do with the disappearance of our students. In fact, I'm almost certain of it. It started in South America."

Xavier hit a switch on his desk. A screen lowered itself down next to the wall, and a small hologram projector on his desk switched on, showing a map of the world, slowly turning.

"See here, in South America, the small range of blue dots. Those are the students several days ago. See where the red dots are? Those are representing the creatures you described to me over the phone. Now, notice how the blue and red dots disappear."

"You're tellin' me stuff I already know Chuck. What's the point?"

"This is energy from Cerebro that I'm mapping. I have it turned on for a regular basis, as it monitors the entire world. I tweaked it after your phone call to show the enrgy forms you described. They disappeared not into thin air, but from this world. They may be on another planet, or even another dimension."

"This isn't making me happy."

"Nor I. But look at this." Xavier hit another switch. Suddenly what looked like erratic sonar appeared everywhere on the globe.

"What is that?" He growled. More bad news?

"Those are animal psyche waves."

"Doolittle. But what does that tell us?"

"I'm not quite sure. But I checked Cerebro before the incident, and none of these indicators showed up. Animals do not send out information this way. They must have realized what was happening, and passed the information along. I don't know how this mutation of hers works, but the way it affects the world even in her absence may lead us to some clues. We just need someone that can translate the language into something that we can understand."

"Who—no way. Doolittle's kid?"

"He already had Kurt contact me. I believe that one of the reasons for the animals to react was to inform him of what happened. I suspected this might happen, but I didn't know what to do with the information. Julian's empathic and psychic power isn't nearly as strong as Danielle's."

"Then what can he do to help?"

"If he can focus on one point, say one particular animal, he should be able to understand the language with little difficulty. One of Danielle's dogs should work, but just in case, we may want to pick a few animals from her room to take."

He grunted. He'd have to go up and see what was living in Doolittle's room. He wouldn't be surprised if a deer was up there, he'd seen stranger.

"We may also want to contact the other students. We may need help, if there are worse than these creatures that you described."

"Those little twerps were just lackeys. There's a lot worse skulkin' just around the bend, you can count on it, Chuck."

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Hmm….Sounds interesting, I wonder what will happen?

Anon(girl): Ah yes. I know about the butterflies, but I didn't want to put that in there. You know, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction thing? I didn't want people to double take on that, it wouldn't have been productive to the story line. But the thought of drunk butterflies is kind of amusing, don't you think? Hope you figure out what's happening with the dudes, glad you liked the last chapter!

Asteria: Tut. Have you been reading my mental notes? Anyway, glad you like it!

Chrissy: Herman thanks you. He's been getting lots of compliments. Yes, I like Danny's philosophy too. I think it's a spin off the, 'don't take yourself too seriously' saying. Glad you like the chapter!

PrincessofWildfire: Yes, black robed men are usually cool, but sometimes they are horrifically overdone, I'm going to have to monitor him closely to make sure I don't overdo it. Steven King books are pretty cool, I liked the Green Mile the best. The Shining was pretty good too.

Arin Ross/(not really Anee or Arain Rowan): Yes, I have heard those stories too. Fortunately though, I've heard the good outweighs the bad. Yes, Jean does. I just wonder if Scott does too? Anyway, I hope you like this chapter too!

Herman shall take the reviews! He seems rather attached to that black robe…