Well, what up, hombre's? The only two or three I actually know read this... sigh... I wish I had other readers! And if you're out there, drop me a review! Hint hint! Here's chapter 3... wrote it while Mattie boy was getting jiggy wid it with his wifey-poo!

In the Summoner's Shadow

Chapter III Part I

Once, together we were happy and we were so very young; sadly now we have been parted- leaving me quite broken hearted. So many love songs still unsung… So many things still left to say. I did not leave without a care and I hope we meet again some day. I turn around to see you there as though I had not gone away. Just listen to me my one and only should you hear a lonely sound. Drifting sweet secrets in the breeze; please feel that I am still around. I leave you sadly, deeply thinking, this is really not too fair… so very proud at having known you, finding such sweet love to share. We must bow to a higher power when He comes to call us home, leaving those we love behind us to join us later when they come. Try to think of me with kindness; try to think of me with Love. One day please do come and join me in a happy home above

(Frank Paylor, Shadow)

Over the next couple years, I delighted in watching my two beautiful little girls grow into tiny, delicate flowers of radiant brilliance… then again, what parent doesn't think these things about his babies? I was so proud of them! I never really worried much… I mean, Sonja always protected Yuna from everything, including the horrible, evil, rabid dust bunnies at cleaning day. Yuna, in her turn, advised Sonja about the battles she picked. Sometimes, if push came to shove, she would run home and get me for help… like the time long ago… the incident that tore our little family apart at the seams…

That day, even as I woke up, I was plagued by a horrible feeling… much like the one I felt the night I found Sonja, except this one was forbidding me instead of compelling me. However, I allowed the two of them to go play outside. The entire time they were out, I kept fighting against this feeling to call them back. What could happen, I asked my self, when they were in the middle of the town? Finally, I could stand it no more, and started to put my shoes on. Just as I slipped my heel into the second one, Yuna came running into the house.

"Daddy! Daddy! Hurry!" she cried, tears filling her eyes. I didn't delay to ask what was wrong, I only grabbed her hand and let her lead me to an empty street at the edge of town where Sonja stood in a fighting stance, staring down the biggest, ugliest fiend I ever laid eyes on. It was huge- larger even than any full grown man, quite near twelve times Sonja's size, placing her deeply in a disadvantage. I watched her as the monster's claws shot towards her.

"Sonja! Move!" I ordered, causing her to jump and land beside me.

"Daddy?" she asked, looking rather surprised. I ran and tackled her out of the way as the fiend lunged at her. I felt a pain surge through my leg when it landed on me. My attempt to restrain my yell of discomfort failed when a small grunt escaped.

"Daddy? Okay?" Sonja asked with her voice full of worry. The monster moved, allowing me to pull my leg out from under its massive body. I ran past Yuna and grabbed her as I did so. I limped towards the center of town, too slow to put distance between the fiend and my family.

The fiend let out a hideous screech and prepared to pounce. I knelt down, hugging my girls beneath me to protect them. I tried to stop her but Sonja leapt from my arms.

"Sonja! No!" I shouted. I turned and watched her.

She stood there, arms out to the side, eyes glaring, facing the evil creature. With a roar, it hefted its giant claws in an upper cut into my baby's lower torso, right below her rib-cage. Blood splurged from her body, splashing over to where I knelt, staining my hand and wrist red with her life essence. With a laughter-like snort, the fiend slung her from his colossal clawed paw and lumbered towards her mangled body while she lay there, hugging herself and bleeding, snarling and growling in pain.

I had to turn my head. It was all I could do to keep myself from running out there and getting her. I wanted to hold her in my arms. I wanted to tell her it would be okay. I wanted her to know I loved her. I wanted to save her from this monstrosity as I saved her from the fatal weather almost exactly three years ago.

Yuna tried to push me away and run to her little sister, but I pulled her back and sat her down before running for the younger child just as a familiar bark stopped me in my tracks.

SkahZev charged in out of nowhere and jumped over to stand above Sonja, snarling protectively. The fiend roared, obviously not even in the least bit intimidated. It slashed out at SkahZev, creating a sudden bright flash of light. All sound ceased… the roaring, growling, barking cacophony became as quiet as the grave.

When the light faded, I opened my eyes and looked around. Blood stains on the ground, a few broken windows here and there, a few clumps of her hair here and there… but no Sonja. Yuna pointed out two sets of tracks in the soft ground. One was the cross-like prints of the fiend while I could easily make out Sonja's tiny barefooted prints. Hers were right behind its, as if she followed it, or chased it out of town. I had a strong feeling it was the latter… knowing her and her aggressive, determined, and competitive nature.

I took Yuna home and laid her down for a nap before returning to the battle scarred area to see if I could find my little baby anywhere. No luck. I found SkahZev, who was whimpering loudly and limping around. No Sonja… I followed the tracks to the grass where they stopped… or continued, but I couldn't see them… I let out a loud sigh and walked back to the pup. He was snarling at me when I tried to pick him up. He would not let me do so, no matter what I tried. All he would do is bark and back away, he even bit my hand to emphasize his point. Maybe he just wanted to do a bit of searching on his own. Maybe he was too heart broken to accept the fact that his favorite person in the world was gone. He would come home when he was hungry, I thought. I walked away from him, letting my feet take me back home where I stood in the door way, just before crossing the threshold.

I tried to keep it inside… but I couldn't. I let out a loud yell and sank to my knees in the middle of view of everyone in town, but I cared not.

"Why! Why!" I shouted, screaming at the sky while holding my hands up as if begging for an answer.

"Why! Oh, Yevon! Why did you do that! Why did you take her away! If it was because I was never meant to raise her, then why did you send me to her in the first place! Why did you wait until now? Why did you wait until I'd forgotten she was adopted! Why did you wait until she drilled her way into our hearts? Why did you wait until she received more love than my own wife? Why did you wait until Yuna was attached like a shadow? Why? Why? WHY!" I shouted, not caring that about thirty eyes were staring at me. I knelt there in the street, crying my eyes out and screaming at my deity.

Those questions haunted me, even as I finished wailing and lay on Yuna's bed beside her, hugging her to my chest and crying in her soft brown hair. Two wet streaks down her face, one on each cheek, betrayed where sleep inducing tears confirmed to me she already knew the news I was prepared to deliver.

I closed my eyes, and sighed. A Sending would need to be performed, but without a body, even a mangled one, Sonja's spirit would have no choice but to wander through our world as an Unsent… something I didn't want her to suffer. I wondered to myself if there was a way to perform a Sending large enough to cover the enormous area of land over which she could have been slaughtered in. I seriously had a doubt about it. With a sigh, I fell asleep.

"Sonja… I'm sorry I couldn't help you… forgive me, please… I love you…"

So, how was that? Good, me hopes... still no inspiration for my Child's Play story... sorry, guys! Maybe I can actually finish this one before I start another one! Hrm... Review time! Love ya!