Book Dragon: "Hello again…I feel like I'm talking to dead air…It probably since none of the past readers know I'm writing this sequel, or some unknown force is trying so hard to torture me…"

Book Dragon: sigh "But, this is my own damn fault isn't it? Here is the next chapter to anyone who cares."

Chapter 5: Purple Capes

Kaede brought her hands to her face, shook her head with an ill look, and told herself this wasn't that bad. She couldn't kick him out of the house, since he was obviously nuts, and yet, her dad had put out in black and white that she shouldn't let anyone in the house. But, given the situation, he probably would've agreed that this was a time that was okay…okay, maybe he wouldn't. She felt like screaming with frustration. The trick was not to panic, if she could keep her head, she could over come this. She closed her eyes, took a breath deep breath, and lowered her hands carefully from her face. The trick was to dwell in the darkness and think calm thoughts for about ten seconds and she'd be okay, take long deep breaths, that's it, calm down…

She opened her eyes and found the stranger gone from the spot she had left him in. Pausing a moment, her eyes rushed over the whole room, and still found no one.

Did I imagine it? She looked to the floor, staring at the puddle of milk left sideways, still pouring and growing in white liquid.

Suddenly someone grabbed her arm and she jumped at least three inches off the ground, heart pumping in anxiety and eyes wide with fright. Her head turned swiftly to the visitor, laughing darkly at her while holding his middle, and letting himself hit the door frame with his eyes clamped shut. Her hands suddenly formed tight fists and she was surprised deep in her head. And horrified as her fist went spiraling toward his face.

In the same instant, her fist stopped with a silent whack, but in his white clenched hand curled around her fingers, instead of his face. His composer was back and he looked no longer amused, but brooding with anger. His brown eyes flashed dangerously for only a moment, then subsided to pure annoyance, and he let her hand go. He swiftly turned, a murky resentment flicking in his movements as he took one step after another out of the room.

"Don't do that again." Was all he said as he departed.

"Wait!" His footsteps stopped and when she walked out of the room she found him standing rigidly in the hall, fists clenched and shoulders up, as if trying to control his form. It was better if she made this quick.

"Who are you?" And abruptly this rage subsided somewhere deep inside of him, where he bottled it, and left it to explode for a later date. His figure turned on heel dexterously with a wide grin spread on his face and turned to face her.

"Finally, you ask an interesting question," he paused, taking a breath with a glee face he began, "I can not tell you that delightful piece of information because I have been forbidden to." He smiled, enjoying the echo of those words and the impression on her face, but to his disappointment, she didn't have much of an impression, just a sort of irritation that flickered for only a moment, and subsided, much to his disappointment.

"Okay, then what would you like to be called?" He blinked, a brief bit of surprise covering his face, before he went back to his apathy state.

"What I would like to be called? …Hmmm…I suppose T.R would do."

"What does T.R mean?"

"Initials for what I was once called."

"Oh…okay, T.R it is…"And then she added seeming to have nothing better to do, she stuck out her hand, "Nice to meet you T.R, I'm Kaede." He took her hand lightly and said with a sarcastic tone of voice.

"Charming, I'm sur-" His curt tone was cut short by the slam of the back door and of Christa's sweet voice ringing around the hall and expanding. It certainly startled Kaede. She jumped almost two inches off the ground.

"I-I-I-I'M H-O-O-M-M-M-E!" She sang in a cheerful tune, beaming with high spirits as she carried two large plastic bags in both her skinny arms. Wearing a short black shirt and a small sized red t-shirt with clogs, she would've been stunning to any male with in sight of her at that moment. But all this changed with a sudden whirlwind of emotion, from complete happy serenity to utter horror. Her face lost all of its rosy brilliance and her eyes widened hugely as she dropped her bags on the floor with a thud.

Kaede expected her to scream, and turned back toward T.R to tell him this was her sister and he should probably run now, but when she turned all she saw was blank wall where he had once stood, completely empty of any stranger. Taken back she took a step away from the spot and noticed Christa but her hands to her face, shock glowing fiercely in her eyes as she approached her.

"…Oh my god. What happened to you?!" Taken off guard, Kaede wrinkled her brow in confusion and suddenly remembered with realization that she hadn't cleaned herself up today due to this whole confusion with the white-haired kid, T.R. She knew she looked atrocious, battered pretty bad if Christa could notice.

"I…I fell when I was in gym today, all the way down the hill. Rolled down it. Bumped into some stuff. Nothing serious." Christa's look didn't change, and instead she tried to move closer to either hug her or take a closer look at her scratches. She retreated from the older sister instinctively, toward the stairs, making Christa stop and just look at her with the same fearful terror in her face.

"God, you're limping…Were you in a fight?"

"I'm fine… really." She replied sheepishly and crept up the stairs backward, keeping a slow retreat and found that Christa wasn't going to drop it. Her expression became a glower and she forcefully took the railing and followed her up the stairs stamping her feet. She was determined, which was also not a good thing; she'd tell Dad.

Kaede finally decided to make a break for her room at the final step. She swung around and leapt into the air, landed on the rug with a thud and a jingle and bolted for the bathroom door. Christa didn't have time to catch her, she wasn't taking Gym class anymore since it wasn't required and it left her sluggish, so it wasn't surprising when she was on the second to last step of the stairs when Kaede slammed the door shut and locked it from the inside, breathing hard and aching all over from that finally attempt. She backed away from it uncertainly as Christa's pounds of her fists and concerned coos started to ring through the door. Kaede wasn't listening. She was keeping away from the door and her soft talk was bouncing off her. It was far away in her buzzing mind, full of uncertainty, surprise, and stress. Her body was in flight or fight mode, and adrenaline was rushing through her veins. She was powered up and ready to run. She turned and looked at the window with certainty, but opened the mirror over the sink first. She took out the small medical kit and stuffed it her pocket before finally throwing the window open and letting the spring breeze flow over her.

It was a long drop to the lawn, a high enough point for her to break her leg if she jumped, and drained all the confidence from her. The distance dizzied her, making her want to bring her eyes back, but couldn't. The side of the red wall was covered in vines and other vegetation, all too far out of her reach to climb down on, and the tree branches were only twigs brushing against the window. It was looking as if she'd have to open the door.

"HEY!" Kaede woke up from her dizzy thinking and looked down toward the voice, ignoring the jiggling handle and Mat's sudden shouting from the hall.

"HOW DID YOU GET OUT SO QUICK?!" She shouted down to him, laughing at the strangeness of this day.

"SNEAKILY! YOU WANT OUT?!" Kaede shook her head vigorously and saw him cup his hands around his mouth again and shout.

"PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE VINES!" Kaede looked down at him with a confused expression and ran a finger through her ear to make sure she could hear right.

"SAY THAT AGAIN?!"

"KAEDE! OPEN THE DOOR!" Mat's voice growled over his answer, making her repeat herself again.

"TOUCH THE DAMN VINE YOU MORONIC FOOL!" Kaede blinked at him, but didn't dare question him further; she could hear Mat starting to pick the lock open. She forced her shaking hand as far down as she could on the wall and briskly brushed the green vine with the tips of her fingers. Its surface was fuzzy yet leathery, looking a very lime green. She was about to ask him what this had to do with anything when something very peculiar happened. The thing lurched an extra couple of feet under her finger tips right up to the window sill and over, like a huge lazy snake coiling up in a jungle tree branch. She started at it wide-eyed with complete utter shock for only a few moments when the banging got back into her ears. It was then she gingerly gripped the plant and whispered dazed thanks as it shortened again, pulling her out the window gently and onto the side of the house.

Unable to comprehend what was happening she clung to the rope-like plant in pure fright and wondering why she didn't just explain what had happened and wanted nothing more than to scream at the dizzying crawling feeling in her stomach, but it didn't last long enough for a shriek. It stopped its snaky journey at where it normally grew and left her clutching to it, like a coward going rock climbing for the first time, holding on to the rope for dear life, as she was now hugging the plant. She ignored the leaves tickling her nose and wanted desperately to get back up into the window and forced herself not to look down, knowing that if she did she'd instantly fall down, down, down, and break her whole body in an instant, just like a-

"CLIMB DOWN!" Her eyes widened in disbelief and turned to T.R. dizzily below.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

"NO! JUST DO IT!" He growled up at her impatiently. She looked down at him and looked at her hands, weighing the possibilities and listening to each of them with fear. The climb down part of the scale tipped down in her favor and she grumbled angrily to her self.

"Why am I doing this?" She asked helplessly, casting her eyes sky ward, as she gingerly adjusted her grip and put her quivering foot on a slim crack between bricks as she lowered herself down an inch and looked for another space for her other foot. She didn't want to bounce off the wall that would rip the plant off its foundation and send her tumbling down as well as breaking and killing it. So, she slowly crept down the side of the wall, taking short gasping breaths until her foot was right above T.R. annoyed looking up face.

"Thank you for your hurry your Highness." He said rudely.

"Hey, give me a break. I'm afraid of heights for crying out loud! I bet you didn't have to climb down walls when you were a kid." She retorted heatedly.

"Every day, sweetheart, every day. Now if you please, we have to get a move on, it will be only moments before your siblings get that door open and find you missing."

"Don't call me that." She snarled as she climbed down a few more feet and let her feet hit the ground with a soft thud, onto the shrieking grass she ignored. She patted the vines tenderly, and noticed that T.R. was watching her. Self consciously she murmured the quietest thank you her voice could handle, before turning back at him and following his anxious manner, by running after him.

"How did you know that the vine would do that?" She asked him, trying to keep up to his form. She had never seen anyone run like that. He ran fast, like deadly cobra strike fast. He seemed to fly and float at every step then actually met the ground with his feet now on the stretching sidewalk. He ran so swiftly it seemed like a second nature, a long learned and used method of travel, some how perfected to the extreme, like a life or death art. Clearly he must take cross country or sprinting sort of sport. He spared a glance at her between the wildly gliding swings of his arms and replied in a few spare breaths.

"How could I not know? You've got your mother's gift. Please, no questions need the extra breath." Kaede wouldn't argue, she was struggling to keep up with him.

For how long they ran like this was uncertain due to the rapid agony the flight was causing her muscles. She wanted to stop, but he clearly wanted her to follow and wasn't going to slow that pace. Besides, she wasn't sure where she was anymore; the city had grown huge in a matter of eternity minutes in her mind, and its maze doors had opened, presenting the challenge. The maze-city wasn't one she wanted to stay in, not with the snatches of blurred memory and the fact that T.R. though this was something to do with her mother. Her curious mind won out over her body's complaints and something broke inside her, making the pain go away, and taking the pace simply like an afternoon walk. Warm she felt on the inside, with the cool wind whistling in her eyes, as the adrenaline subsided in her and left her calm.

After a while T.R. grunted and stopped his pace on a dime, deciding they were far enough away to stop, catching her totally off guard. Needless to say, she tumbled straight into his back and made them both hit the ground. Kaede felt the claws of the pavement ripping at her and laughed at the stinking pain, making her feel better, until T.R. struggling from underneath her, cursing and grunting. That made her scramble to her feet, slightly blushing, as he got up and brushed himself off, his face out of view as she crumbled to her knees, holding the ground for comfort and breathing ragged breaths through her soar throat.

He waited for her to regain her breath intolerantly, tapping his foot and with his arms crossed much like a regular house wife, but manly enough with a blank pissed off look storming all over his face. She ignored him and sucked in huge amounts of air into her shaking weak body. When she felt she could, she wobbled to her feet and glanced at him faintly, and took a look around. They were in an alley way, shadowed immensely from the nearly set sun in the fiery red sky, making the scene seem more hideous and darkly. The perfect place to get jumped. She finally looked back to him, and saw his cool look returning to her.

"You must exercise more; your mortals get weaker and weaker by each generation."

"Yes. I would suppose you'd know that, if what you said was true. Why have you taken me here?"

"I haven't taken you. You followed of your free will."

"But you were leading me." He said nothing to this.

"Right?"

"Of course. You wanted to get away from your siblings. I presume you are the youngest of the lot, only older children that have the job of looking after you talk like that."

"Why are you doing all this?" She finally asked.

"Because I must."

"Why?"

"A slave always does what the master asks." His voice growled but his face remained passive as ever. She looked at him incredulously.

"You're a slave?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I was captured." He said tiredly and lowered himself to the pavement. Kaede could sense he was terribly frustrated.

"Who's your master?" He glared at her.

"You and the rest of your family, congratulations." He replied curtly, a dark temper glowing stronger in his dark eyes. Kaede was taken a back by this, slightly, enough to raise her eyebrows with surprise. This made sense, from all the stuff that was happening. Why he saved her from the girls. Why he helped her out of the house. Why he was talking to her right now.

"You have to do what I ask?"

"Yes." He answered irritably.

"For how long?"

"Your whole life and then the lives of your family's descendants." This was interesting; she had power over another human being. The idea made her want to use it, to use that power; she could do what ever she liked. But after moments of this happy cheery thought she thought it rather wrong and extremely unsettling that she had thought those things. She shook those thoughts away and looked at his hunched form. Yes, he was a bit of an annoying, stubborn, vicious bastard, but no one deserved to be a slave.

"How do I free you?" His head bolted up and looked at her. His eyes were filled with surprise and his lips were curled up evilly into a fang-filled grin, in which a broad laughing pierced the dusky air. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise and felt the icy air on her arms and shivered. T.R. was amusement didn't last long. Moments later his eyes glowed out of the shadow keenly but his voice returned with a morose ring.

"It is forbidden knowledge." He sighed.

"Forbidden? Why?"

"My old contract had quite a few rules, all of which expire when he or she passes on their legacy. I must abide by their rules until they pass away from this world, which doesn't seem to soon." Kaede slowly sat down on the pavement and took out the bright white first aid kit. She wasn't going home for a while; she could see that, so what was the harm of fixing herself up a bit while getting some answers?

"So your old Master is still alive?" She asked him, rolling her pant legs up to her knees, looking at a few black and blue marks on each of her legs, and a bloody gash on the left one.

"You win the gold prize." He replied with the same boredom in his voice.

"Can you tell me who they are?"

"Sorry, no. That is one of their decrees." Kaede nodded as she popped open the lid with a snap. Inside there were an assortment of tubes and cloths. She dug her fingers through the mess until she found the iodine. She gingerly took it out with a cotton swap.

"Okay. This women…or guy sounds pretty smart." He watched her dab the liquid onto the cut with ill interest but smirked at her sudden grimace.

"No matter how many times I do this I never get use to it." She stated irritably as she picked up the ointment and pooled some in her palm, a white thick goop that was cold to the touch. She used her fingers to dap some on the cut and rubbed it in.

"Oh. I don't think I said thank you, by the way, I probably would've been in a lot more pain than now…" She told him gratefully. He snorted at her.

"I was doing my job. That's all. Personally, I would've let you rot." He replied. All the praise she had for him was instantly sucked out of her. She was getting the idea that he was a very selfish person, just by his manner. It's like he hated the world, except himself. Not the best person to hang around with. She bit her lip with growing concentration as she placed the cloth over her injury and noisily wrapped the tape around it.

"Then why didn't you?" She asked as kindly as she could. It turned to a distant murmur.

"I couldn't let any harm befall the ring." She almost dropped her tape as she looked up at him incredulously.

"It's your ring?" He looked at her amused.

"No. My spirit dwells inside the ring. It is now your ring." Kaede finished rolling down her pant legs and had started to check her arms when she stopped again.

"What do you mean? It's not mine, I just found it." T.R. shook his head and looked at her placidly.

"No. You were tested, and you passed. You carry the ring now, it is your responsibility." He told her serenely, and slowly rose to his feet, a look of complete emptiness flooding his face. She looked at him puzzled.

"But-"

"Quiet." He snappily whispered, closing her mouth in an instant, and opening the door further into her puzzlement; until she heard the soft tramp of footsteps.

"Someone's coming." He said calmly and then commandingly, "Hide." She got up as quietly as she could and grabbed the stuff in the same silent manner, trying to move fast but going slow for fear of sound, with her ears straining to pick up the sound again. The noise grew louder and louder with each step, soft and mysterious, bringing the fear to well up insider her.

She finally had all the stuff in the box and cradled into her arms and she looked around franticly for a hiding spot. There seemed to be nothing to hide behind, no dumpsters, no trash cans. Nothing. She turned to him fearful with wide eyes as the foot steps were so loud they almost over came the horrible roar of her beating heart. He rolled his eyes at her and with a look of disgust took her by the arm and shoved her into the shadow, out of the light, where she hit the wall gently and slip down to her knees and froze in place when a tall figure emerged from down the alley way.

It was tall, wearing a deep blackish purple cape, hiding it from head to toe, with its hood drawn and raised over the human-shaped thing's head, also masking the person's identity. The rustle of its following cape stopped at the sight of T.R., and moved its black open hood to face him, just enough time for her to catch a glimpse of a familiar golden eye and a chain.

T.R. stood tall to the right of her, holding his arms to his sides and looking at the thing composed as ever, with his feet slightly spread apart, his shadow splashing hugely against the brick wall on the other side of her. His eyes were bright and he was smiling a small half mouth smirk. He spread his hands out when the thing turned to him and made no move to greet it. But it spoke.

"Ah. Tomb Raider, it has been many moons since we last meet." A deep dark inhuman voice said, but it sounded screwed up because another more human voice said the same words under it simultaneously.

"Indeed. I see you're still in business after all these years…I expected no less from someone so stubborn." T.R. replied, "Whose poor soul did you send to the shadow realm to make it that way?" The figure chuckled at his comment and spoke in a pleased tone.

"That is the beauty of it, Tomb Robber, I didn't…I figured I might as well do as you do. Possess another; it is much easier than having to pretend. Am I right?"

"Yes. You're right. But it does have its flaws…so tell me, what business do you have with me? I know you didn't come here to chat."

"You're right, Thief, I didn't come here to talk with old partners on friendly matters." The twisted voice replied, "I've come for the new bearer."

"So, you've come for my ring? You'll have to duel me for it you know…" The figure slowly shook its hood.

"No, no. I don't want your weak ring. That will be a bonus. I came because I felt a surge of new power from the old library building, a familiar power. I had my men going there at once. They found a boy and a girl running from the house when I felt the power source moving away, so I told them to follow you. I expect the boy was you, Tomb Robber."

"Yes. I was there." T.R. admitted gleefully in his dark darling voice.

"I know your powers, so this new source of magic wasn't you. That only leaves the girl. I remember some years back when you lured a girl back into this world with power you wanted for yourself. I was there when she got away. I feel that same power now; very, very, very close by…tell me…old friend…where is she?"

"She's dead. She died years ago." T.R. told him calmly his eyes flashing. The figure grunted.

"Liar. You've been enslaved by the same source of magic. I can feel it swimming through you; you wouldn't be still caged if that power was gone."

"True, too true. But I tell you that girl grew old and sickly, and died of natural causes. You should know that, all girls grow into women after a certain amount of time. This was about thirty years ago, and she was fifteen then. She'd be older, and far wiser to do such a silly thing as to alert you." T.R. said, now interested in the dirt under his fingernails. The figure was silent for a while. The silence was so deep and complete that Kaede had to stop herself from breathing to remain hidden. The smallest noise would warn that thing, and then T.R's talk would've been for nothing. She could see he was trying to confuse it, and she hoped it was working.

The figure straightened and shifted on its feet ever so slightly, from the natural sway of its body.

"There are three children living in that house now. Her old hide-way. They are hers aren't they? From what you say it seems her power has passed and blossomed in one of them…Hmmm…interesting. Which one, Thief?" T.R. breathed onto his nails and rubbed them into his shirt a final time.

"You know I can't tell you. I'm the family's protector and...servant. It is my duty to keep them safe. Telling you who is who isn't a safe thing to do, now, isn't it?" He glanced up at the figure with a calm but mocking face. The thing shook a little, in small jerks, and a cold laughter poured into the air thickly, making the hairs on the back of her neck leap to the sky and her very marrow feel like ice.

"What is so funny?" T.R. asked him, still embracing that cool nature some how, even though his eyes were sparking with hidden rage.

"You are, Burglar. You've gone from a wild white tiger to a tamed house cat. You've lost the lethalness in all your threats. I know he made you promise never to kill again… I have the upper hand here. Be smart. You want them dead as much as I do. Help me and you'll be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams…" The figure's voice was luring, almost cooing, a sweet talk that made her skin crawl and her heart to betray and pound noisily in her ears. She saw his face. His eyes casted downward, twitching and darting, but his smile wide and devious as his mind savored the sweetness of it. Yes, she could see now he'd probably kill them if ever freed, and almost all hope of him having a freedom in the future was vanishing in her mind. Almost.

"A panther would be a better analogy." The air was suddenly silent.

"What?" The entwined voice asked startled.

"I've gone from a wild panther to a house cat. I'm sorry friend. The magic which binds me is too strong." He said this in a sort of sigh, and held out his arms in an apologetic way but kept a large thin smile on his lips. Kaede gave up deciding on whether or not she was fond or repulsed by him.

"Very well," The figure replied, "It's your funeral. RARE HUNTERS!"

Kaede suddenly heard more footsteps, bouncing off all the walls and weaving in and out of her ears, making it hard to figure out how many there were, until, that is, a whole mob of cloaked men, she assumed them to be men, approached from behind it. She watched with growing panic as about thirty 'men' stopped about three feet behind the first figure, forming a perfect line along the wall.

"My loyal servants," The figure proclaimed, it sounded like a man now, "listen to my request with please. Bring me the children of the Ryou house hold. Kill the father." He turned away, toward the mass of people, and said with more anger.

"And kill him while you're at it." Kaede let out a started breath as the figure suddenly convulsed on the spot, shuddering and yanking at unseen hands until it made a finally jolt and the body fell to the ground with a thump. And so ended the leader, or that's what she thought.

The crowd of purple seemed to have waited for that signal because now they started to approach T.R. head on, drawing closer and closer to him. He just stood there, fighting off the urge to look at where she hid, and didn't try to back away. She knew they were coming from behind as well. He was surrounded.

When a sort of circle gathered around his and her spot he moved from his tense position into a casual light-footed one. He raised his hands above his tilted head and with the biggest 'I'm a bad boy and loving it' he said smoothly.

"I give up." The mob was upon him in that moment. Someone lunged at him from the front of the line in a swift movement, trying to grab him. T.R. twisted from his surrender stance and faster than she could make out grabbed the guy by the arm and yanked him in such a way as to send him sailing into the curved line of purple behind him, knocking about a third of them of their feet. Then a chaotic melee set in.

She didn't know what was happening. Their was just an explosion of sound and knocked all the common sense out of her, screams, bellows, and grunts filled the air, that and the sound of serious thrashing. There was cracking and thumbing, as purple silhouettes tumbled to the ground. Everything was so blurred that Kaede couldn't tell what was happening, let alone who was winning or not, and only could catch glimpses of things, like seeing the world through a whole load of snap shots as everything slowed.

She caught a glance of T.R's elbow meeting straight into someone's face and a small bit of spray. She caught a look as he was grabbed from behind and how he doubled back on them, by bouncing hard into the wall and using the wall as a weapon, dropping the guy off pretty fast. One instant he was on his feet, the next he was suddenly low to the ground and kicking some guy off his feet with a powerful swing of his leg. She started at the whole mess gawking. She had to admit it; he was kicking serious ass.

The crowd seemed to slim down fast. There had been around thirty guys standing and in moments it seemed like a quarter of them were on the ground unconscious. She looked back to T.R. and saw him get punched hard in the face, sending his head whipping to the side, and down again as someone thrusted a fist into his chest. She watched the blood spraying and lost her sense of awe. There were too many of them. They needed to get away.

T.R. must have been thinking this too. He raised his hand over his head suddenly, almost in a flailing swimmer drowning sort of way as the crowd ganged up on him and swallowed him in purple cloth. But it wasn't flailing. The mob blew apart suddenly as a large wave of green bursted from within, tossing everyone out of the way and onto the ground. In a swift motion T.R. drew from the heart of the once circle and ran toward her. She knew what he was gonna do. She ran out of her hiding space into the orange light. He had seen her and turned in mid stride to the opening of the alley, bowling into the only guy standing and sending him to the ground as he hurtled through. Kaede jumped over the body and ran after him, swinging the first aid kit in her arms and trying hard to keep up with him with her cramping muscles.

She could've kept pace with him at any other normal day now. His pace was very slow compared to earlier. Just by seeing this it was apparent that he got the snot beat out of him in the process; he gripped his chest and took large breaths of air as she ran next to him.

"You okay?" He glared up at her.

"Does it look like I'm okay?!" He snapped bitterly.

"What was that whole green firework display?"

"Not now they're gaining on us…Magic." He retorted and sped faster as she turned about found that about ten of them were indeed coming after them. She turned toward him wide-eyed and a jittery and tried to gulp down the hard ball of panic in her mouth, but still found herself on the edge of tranquil sense. She fought back panic with thoughts of other things, as she flung around the corner following T.R, with thoughts of what homework needed to be done or how Mat's newest cat hissing thing he called a song went. She couldn't stay in that door of her mind, she was constantly slipping out, getting thrown out on the door mat of reality where she found her legs burning and the shouting and breathing behind them louder, running down the side walk past skyscrapers, little market shops, and bars wakening to the cool welcome of a full moon to take on another good night of business.

She felt like screaming for help, but it wouldn't work. If someone did come and help them it would be the word of two teenage kids, dirty and filthy with fit aids and lock picks in their pockets against those men behind them, claiming they'd been robbed or something. It was clearly a stupid thing to do. She found herself humming to the weird jingling the ring was making and her hands waving in a sort of pattern, that and T.R looking at her expectantly.

"…What?" She gasped at him. He rolled his eyes and reached out behind him for her hand. She was hesitant; looking at it through all the bobbing up and down from running was doing to her sight and finally grabbed it.

"Listen, child, this will be your very first lesson." T.R wheezed, he wasn't breathing too well, and she suspected he got punched rather more than he was letting on. She didn't interrupt him when he said child or lesson, no point, she realized he had a funny way of just assuming stuff and got angry when she asked questions. Save the questions for later.

His sweaty grip tightened on her hand, making her flinch and turn back to him. He was brushing through his hair madly, fingers leaping and swirling the white locks messily, until he paused and pulled something dark and round out. In a quick swing his hand let go and grabbed again, forcing the hard round object into her grasp before letting go. She opened her mouth to ask what it was because when she opened her palm she found a very small sphere, hard and definitely familiar. It was a seed.

She looked up from it to his turned face startled. His eyes were wild, ablaze with an emotion she couldn't place, something new burned and scorched inside, something desperate. All his calm was gone, all that was left was those untamed dark abyss eyes, glowing and singing a song she knew in her heart and had felt everyday at the end of the day of school. Failure and fear, twisted into one toxic poison of the mind. A poison he now had admitted he drank by the look on his face.

"Make it grow." His voice slithered, and his feet made a finally two stomps, and then stopped abruptly. He wavered, actually swayed on step, and fell forward onto his knees with a thud, and fully down on his stomach in the next second. Kaede had to slide to stop herself and go back to him, kneeing down immediately, hoping he wasn't dead for some weird reason.

But all she could see was the approaching figures, coming, coming, coming, at her like a waterfall of apposing force, coming to take her away and to kill Dad. Probably to kill Mat and Christa when they found it wasn't them they were after. Probably to kill him too.

Everything had slowed down, and her eyes were on the body laid out in front of her crouched position, poised for god knew what as the shouting bellowed into her ears. Death was upon her, laughing mockingly in her mind, until her instincts broke out and her hands rose in a cupped poise, opened toward them, her eyes squinted in aiming, and a woman's voice filling her ears.

"Your hands will know what to do." The serenity-filled calmness of one voice. A voice that she locked away, but now roamed free in her heart for that one moment were all control was lost, and sang joyously in her bounding ears as her hands buzzed and light came pouring out of the opening, large blinding light, as the voice sang on. The voice of her mother.

Something happened. Kaede didn't know what, but her arms felt the surge of it and the powerful recoil, like a rifle knocking back at the hunter's shoulder after a clean shot, flying out. Something green and leafy sprang and coiled, tightly, around the ten men, catching their feet and constricting them, writhing all over their purple caps, weaving their shouts of rage from their bodies to a whole.

And as quick as it came it stopped coming from her hands and let her arms out of its hold, to sag at her sides as she took a deep sputtered breath and forced the voice back. Her body shook, not from stain, but fright, looking at the ten men bounded securely in vines, kicking and muffling, but defiantly bound. She knew she had done that, not sure how but she did it, and the power behind it was potent. She liked the feel of letting it go, having it bend to her every wish; she knew power. She was suddenly scared of herself, at those thoughts, and knew immediately that was why people in those old stories about magic went corrupt in the first place. She quickly shook her head, shoving the thoughts back for later as she cursed and came back to the problem at hand.

She looked down at T.R's form and frowned, watching the dirt of many shoes dancing in front of his turned face, dancing from the small breaths he was taking. He was exhausted, and probably had fainted, but he wasn't dead. The problem was getting him home. She already knew the answer to this, even though she didn't like it, thought of the other possibilities. Nope, none of them would work. She sighed tiredly as she pulled his arms and heaved him up off the ground shakily, and then put him down again as she fell, finding him far too heavy to carry like a baby.

Taking a few breaths, she thought it over again, and decided just to drag him a bit. She hauled on his arm and placed it over her shoulder and grabbed his waist and pulled both of them up with all her might. She stood, muscles in her arms straining, but she would manage. She took the first step forward to a very long walk home.

Book Dragon: "Hopefully, this answered some questions."

Book Dragon: "If there is any live out there are all, please review."