I'm sorry it took me so long to get back! I was working on my novel. Okay, and the little muse-voices shut themselves up about Letters and I was highly reluctant to touch a computer for a while and I broke all the bones in my foot. See? Perfectly logical explanation(s).

Next chapter will contain a disclaimer. Why? Because it'll be chapter 6. ;)

After a few days, Kieru felt that she could be up and about. Not that she had minded being stuck in a room with Elazul all that much, but the lack of scenic variation was driving her mad slowly but surely. Danatoth was now in the act of watching his sister sway her way unsteadily along the pathways of the lower tiers, making sure she didn't go tumbling down into a heap like she'd done twice already.

She went on, flexing and stretching muscles that were feeling atrophied after those six days she'd been bedridden. Her hands were still feeling weak, a result of jarring herself up before she could eat or be properly allowed to regain consciousness. What she did now she did on a subconscious level. It was almost able to be compared to sleep-walking.

As Danatoth watched she stumbled again. She staggered back to her feet and continued until; at length, two curious youths joined her brother in watching her on the ledge. Sirea and Seadran never seemed to go anywhere without one another and today was no exception. The tall boy had his hand resting protectively on the top of her head.

"She's modest and insane." The warrior murmured to himself, watching as she settled against a wall and ceased moving. Once assured that she had finally given up and was resting herself, he turned his attention to the duo who was regarding her with mild interest. The boy, too, was muttering under his breath.

"I take it you didn't just come for a chat." He said, and the little girl giggled. She had taken to giving Danatoth and Kieru something akin to hero worship, but she still knew he was as…human…as the rest of them and had his own problems to contend with. Certainly, she shot a worried glance at the woman before resuming her cheery exterior.

"We were sent for you by the Ronso. They're starting to get impatient; they want you to leave so you can reach the holy mountain." Seadran explained with a far more mature tone to his voice. He, unlike the little girl who followed him around, was calm and simply respected the Nivare as elders and superiors. At the moment he held respect for the Ronso too, which made him fit better around them, since most Jumi had some sort of fear for the inhuman race.

"Tell them we need to wait until Kieru's better." Danatoth said, glancing down at his sister. Once more she was on her feet, staggering doggedly around in search of something or another. Or, so it seemed. The one thing was that she never went far from the entrance to the room where she'd been stuck for so long already. She probably knew that she was directly defying the healer's orders, and it made her uncomfortable.

"They said that you would say that." Sirea pipped up, though Seadran silenced her with a look.

"They said that Lan would be glad to carry her for a while." He said, locking eyes with the superior. "They were almost insistant."

"Tell them that I will ask Kieru and we will go on what she says." This, he knew fully well, would be that she wanted to stay for another few days at the very least. He knew his sister very well, and since she had a great love of the Jumi and their city, she never left willingly from Etansel.

"Very well." The boy said with good grace and left, his 'shadow' following close on his heels. Danatoth shook his head and started towards his sister, resolute that he'd go with whatever choice she made. After all, she generally made good choices, right?

Remember that she went to the underworld without a second thought. His inner-voice of brotherliness said sharply, reminding him that his sister would do anything for money or a good fight or, generally, anything short of prostitution or related perverse acts. She was generally as sturdy as a rock while he was a sentimental little sap.

He wandered off to see what the day was gonna hurl at him.

"I'd give you a medal for lack of sanity, but I have the feeling you're only relating a question." The girl said, making it painstakingly clear what she thought of the question her brother had addressed to her after finding her on the lower tier. "No."

Danatoth shook his head, sighing. "I knew that'd be a no." He looked actually a tiny bit smug, though, and he couldn't hide that from miss 'hey-look-my-face-is-made-of-stone-and-ha-ha-you-can't-read-it-but-I-can-read-yours'.No wait. Where had that thought come from? That was just plain silly.

"I'll go with you and threaten to out-drink Ryo if they get pissed off." She said, shortly. He knew why as well as she, though he'd had different experiences with it. Ryo had hangovers that could last a full day, and the most times he'd gotten them of late were trying to out-drink the mana heroine.

Danatoth sighed and then decided aww, what the hell, and they started off, towards their rooms. Though the others had been in the for the last few days, Kieru had a little trouble remember where her temporary quarters were. Danatoth had no such lapse of memory, however, and had them at the door soon enough.

They didn't have to know before Lan practically threw it open. "She came to her senses?" He asked, hopeful, looking at the two siblings who he absolutely dwarfed. Kieru, undaunted, shook her head and an exaggerated, sarcastic grin split her face.

The Ronso seemed to deflate. He knew that she'd only do that if she'd said no and he wasn't about to just up and sling this lady over his shoulder for refusing. "How much longer?" He inquired, trying not to reach out and give the female a nice minor concussion.

"Two more days." She said shortly before whirling unsteadily and staggering off to go find food. Danatoth watched her go with a shrug and a confused look. He hated it when she did that, but, then again, she was the adult he'd learned to live with, the one who could out-drink just about anyone. Hell, some day she was going to die of some obscure disease of the liver.

The man wandered off, leaving Lan to grumble to himself however he pleased. Let him know that, though these two were heroes, they were the unique sort who didn't follow the general 'undaunted kindness, bold trust, and chivalry'. Hell, not a single word of that compared to Kieru!

At length, his wanderings found him in a strange place, indeed. She stood at the top of the second-highest flight of stares and gaze up to the top tier. The strange, bulbous room at the top of the city was quiet, a few hushed murmurs managing to penetrate the thick walls. Quiet suddenly there was a lot of yelling from behind the doors, and, curious, he pushed them open a tiny crack.

Inside, the peach-haired girl was standing in front of Flourina. The two women were looking a bit pale and, for a moment he wondered what it had been about. Then, quite suddenly, he didn't need to think because something came crashing into him, sending him flying right over the precipice of the tier and plummeting to the ocean.

He panicked, shouting and calling wildly, the cries torn from his lips the moment he uttered them. So he was going to break his neck on impact and that would be that? No more Danatoth Nivare? It wasn't a pretty thought so he tried to think of the upside.

There wasn't one. If he died Taayx and Reia would go insane. What a pleasant thought. The water was only feet away, rapidly shortening. He had roughly four seconds to live.

Three seconds:

He wondered if there was anything he'd forgotten to do that had caused someone trouble and thus given them a good reason to kill him.

Two seconds:

He couldn't think of one! Why would anyone not totally evil want to kill him? Was it that he was just so damn famous people didn't like him?

One second:

He was about to utter a few words that no one'd heard him utter before. However, just as he felt his arms, which he had outstretched in hopes of breaking the water only breaking them, touched water, a pair of bitter-cold claws snatched onto the back of his vest, jerking him to a stop efficiently.

He looked up to see Taayx, glimmering a pale acrid orange under his plumage. Dan-mine! You're not supposed to die! There was a very determined note in the little beast's voice as he hauled the man whose mind he could see into upwards, his large wings struggling under the weight which was more than the little creature's by far.

People had gathered on the lower tiers and he was struggling to fight off the attentions of his sister, Reia, Pearl, and Flourina all at the same time. People were in a babbling semi-circle, and he was beginning to feel slightly claustrophobic. His sister finally grabbed his arm and hauled him up.

"What the hell happened?" She asked sharply, glaring at her brother irately. Ah, there was her sisterly love, making her all pissed off at him for almost dying. How utterly kind and considerate of her. He shook his head, his own confusion evident as he staggered through the crowd and pushed his way towards the guest quarters, Reia and Taayx hard on his heels. The plumed dragon-creature nuzzled his side, his large eyes burning a doleful, unvoiced question.

"Did you see who it was?" He asked the little beast, his head now swarmed with thoughts of caution. Why had someone tried to kill him?

"No." Reia and Taayx intoned in unison; looking curiously at him .There appeared to be no marks on him, except the sort of look on his face that cried of bruised egos and certain parts of his anatomy. He was sure whatever had hit him had hit him square in the rear! It mystified him.

"Uhh…I saw…" A timid voice piped up behind him, causing the man to twist wildly on the spot and glare down at Sirea. "It was a really strange creature! It looked like a wooding, 'cept we know we don't have wooding up here in the city! It was tall and willowy and after kicking you off it faded into the air!" This said she blinked several times and looked at the mana hero, curious.

"And every word of that is true?" He asked quietly, clearly confused.

"Yessir!" She said brightly.

Seadran appeared in view and began to babble something in an incomprehensible foreign language to the little girl. She grinned widely and said something in return, and he mumbled something in the back of his throat before turning to regard Danatoth brightly.

"What was that about?" He asked the boy, trying to decide where that language was from and, even more curiously, what language it actually was.

"Oh, it's nothing!" He said brightly. After a moment, he shook his head and added, sheepishly, "it's nothing important. We're from a different region. It's got a language of its own and we're used to it." Indeed, it seemed to be the case for Sirea beamed and added a few phrases of the language. They didn't even seem familiar in any way to those which he was accustomed to.

Shaking his head, Danatoth stalked off to think.

Kieru was indeed, quite ready to leave after two days. She had recovered adequately, and had even engaged in a good-spirited drinking contest with Ryo, which she had won with ease. She'd been quite glad to have her alcohol, despite the fact that some of it was quite expensive and all of it came at the expense of Etansel. Still, she'd been a lot more agreeable the next morning, though a touch subdued.

She and Danatoth made their obligatory good byes and then they started off, weighed down by generous ration packs provided by the formerly-impoverished people. Esmeralda had given each of them a flying tackle sort of hug, her chattering quite cheerfully and making them promise that they'd visit on their way home after destroying the seedlings.

And now they were on the march. Taayx was wandering between his two mind-chosens and Kieru, obviously curious about the lady. Danatoth, in a rare show of skill, had figured out a away to lend his voice to the beast and now he was quite eager and full of questions for the lot of them.

"Why do you drink so much? It worries Danatoth!" This, coming from her brother's mouth, made her a bit annoyed, since it felt more like Danatoth was talking from the third person and she hated it when people did that. Heaven forbid, she remembered one incident when she'd been younger that she'd been so drunk she'd spoken like that, but Danatoth didn't drink, not enough to do that.

"I drink however I please, damn it." She said sourly, ignoring the seconds half the statement entirely. She knew that her ability and love of consuming alcohol was something that scared her brother, who knew that her liver wouldn't last forever. At times it seemed she was going to drink herself to death, even to her, but she didn't give a damn.

The next few questions pertained to too many things to number and quickly grew out of hand until Danatoth closed off the link and regained control of his mouth. "S'got good intention, Ru. Why'd you have to snap at him?" It was certainly the sort of thing he seemed likely to ask. Damn, her brother was going soft.

"Because I have my reasons for drinking, not all of which would pass by you without unsettling you, so you don't need to know them." She said, very softly and acidly, and thus was the topic dropped and forgotten as the group fell into an uncomfortable silence.

That evening they set up camp, not minding to use tents, settling for blankets under the open sky since it seemed that the night would be clear. Indeed, as Ryo brooded over first watch, the sky was a blanket of dusky stars and there were no clouds.

However, as Lan took over watch, a slight humidity crept into the air and constricted his throat some. He could see no clouds, but there was something steamy brewing, maybe a fog. He didn't know, nor particularly care as he tended the fire and made sure none of the grotesque, strange creatures were going to attack.

Danatoth took last watch, around the same time the ominous, coal-black thunderheads made their appearance on the horizon. This perturbed him a little. They weren't prone to rain in this region, and yet, there was a second major storm in the last two weeks brewing. It didn't make any sense to him, and he pondered it until they departed in the morning.

Their progress was fairly swift, and by midday, though the skies were dark like dusk, they could see the white-capped mountains looming on the horizon, though they were still quite a way off. One stood out from the rest in that it reached high into the clouds, the very top indistinguishable in the mists that enwrapped it.

The midday meal was taken under a silence more gloomy than uneasy. The Ronso we beginning to act strange; Reia was starting to seem tense, and the two males were beginning to seem very uneasy. Though she wasn't sure why, Kieru was fairly sure that Taayx had a lot to do with their moods. Probably the fact that a human had one wasn't going to help them too much.

After a while, the human female began to hum out an old and obnoxious tune, quite a feat for her. Her gravely voice wasn't entirely due to effort, and seeing as the main melody of the voice she picked out was carried on a flute, she sounded like she was ill, gargling for a moment, before she went back, started over and tried again.

The second time, she scared those around her, since it was strong and melodic and perfect. Danatoth looked at her, slightly bewildered, Reia was curious, Lan dubious, and Ryo just a bit freaked out. Ladies who fought with halberds and out-drank Ronso men did not hum such things, but at least it broke the silence. After a moment, when she hit a repetitive bit, the whole group was startled to hear Taayx join her.

After a while, Danatoth recognized the tune and couldn't help but join in himself. The trio sounded quite odd, but the gloominess left and the tension of the pseudo-Jumi slacked some. They couldn't stay tense when the usually quite woman broke into light song, despite the softness and foreignness of the words. To her the meanings were as unknown as it was to they, but her singing wasn't something they'd hear much and Danatoth reveled in it, recognizing it as the tune their aunt had crooned to them.

The humming healed their spirits and even increased their pace. They were at a light, comfortable trot, the lion-like people leading the humans by a few feet, as their legs are meant for covering ground quickly. However, Kieru and Taayx weren't far behind, with Danatoth bringing up the rear, but also watching that end of them. He was taken completely unaware when a lanky wooding-like being appeared.

Now that he had a good look at it, he realized that Sirea had been fairly accurate. It had the build of a slender human, with some feminine proportions to its structure, though there was nothing defined. It had wild-looking, bark-gray eyes and a wild, tousled mane of moss-mottled golden-green hair. No clothes adorned the figure, save a close interweaving of vines around where there would have been bindings and a breechclout. It's whole body seemed armored in thick treebark.

Screaming a war cry, he dove at the creature, drawing his sword and continuing the motion until the creature was suitably sliced across the stomach. Regardless of the wound, it swung a heavy limb and caught him across the cheek, throwing his head so painfully that stars exploded in his vision and he could swear his head rotated fully. He shouted again, catching the attention of the others.

Kieru was about to enter the fray when Taayx, in a sudden burst of needing to do something, blew a large cloud of something at the beast. It smelled like corroded metal, like old dried blood, and, most disturbingly, like a touch of something sickly-sweet. The cloud came into contact with the thing's skin and the beast wailed in agony as bark-skin was dissolved into a sickly semi-liquid that fell away and left big, green-bleeding strips.

Kieru landed a hefty blow with her spear, slicing from its temple, across its cheek, and down the neck and chest to around six inches from the navel. The creature wailed in agony this time, flailing blindly and managing to land several blows on Kieru's hands. She nearly dropped her halberd when one particularly nasty blow knocked across her knuckles and wrists.

At length, they subdued the creature, though they didn't kill it. It seemed sentient, regarding them from behing huge, doleful eyes. At length, it finally spoke.

"Kill me." It said, plaintively. Obviously it wasn't too happy about losing. However, around the same time it demanded an end to its life, Kieru felt an unusual wave of pity sweep over her. That is to say, she didn't behead it on the spot.

"Who sent you, and why are you trying to kill me?" Danatoth asked irately. He was now unusually cross, as if acts to end his life were unusual. They weren't, considering he wasn't liked by so many people, though there was still a majority that grudgingly accepted the fact that this man had it in him to kill the goddess.

The thing growled until Kieru's halberd-butt found its way to the creature's chest and she smacked it down forcefully until it gurgled and gasped out a string of mild curses. And then a strangled word that sounded like a Rattle Boa trying to speak common. "Sarrangaru sent me. Assassination, fifty thousand lucre…" The first word, they reasoned, was a name. But the name of what, they didn't know.

Kieru stopped when it started speaking and then Danatoth backed away as well and watched as the creature staggered to unsteady legs. "Tell this Sarrangaru,"-he had trouble with the name-"that he'd better damned well shove off. Never heard of him in my life. Never done anything to him, either. Now, go and tell him. We don't want to see any of you ever again unless it's dead."

That was quite a vile speech, until Kieru realized that it was Taayx influenced. She wasn't sure she liked the change that the creature was eliciting in her brother. It wasn't like him, and she wanted to be the only one in the group to be pointlessly callous. He had no reason to be, he hadn't survived killing the crimson dragon after becoming dead, hadn't watched Daena, Escad and Irwin die. None of that only killed a goddess. He had no reason to be sour.

The creature gurgled and cursed some more, fading into the air as it did so, leaving the five travelers alone. The Ronso were gaping at the two humans as if they had both sprouted wings and were flying and singing gaily. Obviously, as they learned later, Ronso had no term for assassination, and couldn't fathom why someone would so dishonorably attempt another's life.

They continued the day in silence and managed to make the foot of the mountain but eveningfall. They camped at the foot, ready to face what the next day brought with a steely air.

Sorry it took me so damned long. .Here are some review responces:

Shadow Neko: Heh, I didn't know either. XD By any chance, are you on neopets? Don't have to answer, just a thought, seeing as I know someone who goes by that nickname on Neo. I will keep writing, but slowly.

Seonaid Mist: Thanks. I will keep writing. ;) You, on the other hand...work on Tears for the One! I wanna read more! More, damn it! XDD

DreamerOfSin: -hides- Uhh...fwee? Ionno whether to be scared or not. XD