Alrighty then! Here we are, at long last. A new chapter. I've been a bit slack in my writing, but I've been busy having a life for once. SO.

In our last episode, our young heroine was hit by an unknow force that knocked her head over heels. That is supposed to be love, but for this story, being knocked about is a Bad Thing. Mmkay?

FFX-2 isnt' mine, though I'd like to think that it was.

"Uhhhghhhh…owies…."

I'm awake again. I wish I wasn't awake again. I want to go back to La La Land and play on puffy pink clouds with Moombas. And eat an entire island made of ice cream. That sounds good. Doesn't it?

No? But why? Don't you like ice cream? Or moombas?

Fine. I'm awake. But that doesn't mean that I am going to move. I'm quite comfy where I am, thanks. Rocks for pillows are comfy when you're in a bind for a sleeping surface. I'm partial to the granite one my head is laying on. The one on my chest I could do with out though.

Wait a minute…rocks aren't furry. Mossy maybe, but not furry. Especially if it was a non-rolling rock. Those tend to get mossy. Or is that lichen? I can never tell the difference. I wonder if they are the same thing. They look a like. They probably taste a like, too. Except for that purple glowing mossy stuff. I bet that doesn't taste like anything but fire-fly butt.

A tiny wet nose made itself know against my cheek. I'm guessing the tiny wet nose belongs to the furry not-a-rock thing on my chest. There's nothing down here alive but me and the fox…DAMON!

I sat up fast, and regretted it. My whole body aches like it had been put through a gauntlet of angry midgets weilding meat hammers. One is still hanging around, apparently, cause my head is throbbing.

"Owie…" I tried to ease the throbbing with a hand on my forhead, but that didn't help out one iota. Un-willingly, I opened my eyes, and I found Damon in front of me, front paws on my thigh and looking up at me with those dew-drop eyes. He didn't look hurt. I sure did though.

I now have the record breaking amount of bruises and injuries ever accumulated on a single human being in the span of…however long I've been down here. I'm sticky all over too. It's REALLY gross to have your arms stick to your stomach because of half dried blood.

I don't' think I would have minded so much if I hadn't found all of my potion vials broken and scattered on the floor. This is just wonderful. I have NO clue where I am, and now I have nothing to make the pain go away. Or at least lessen. Just wonderful.

Damon hopped off of my leg after a minute, and trotted a few paces to my right. There he stopped and looked at me. That little nothing wants me to follow him when I can't' even sit up straight? What's he on? I want some, whatever it is. He doesn't seem to be any worse for wear.

It took about five tries for me to get up and stay standing. Even then I couldn't make the world stop spinning and tilting. I experimented and took a baby step forward. Ok, that worked out well. If I fall down, then I won't get up again, I swear. I'll just make sure not to fall down again.

Right. And I'm the Queen of Senobia.

"Damon, wha…" I swallowed and choked on the dust my steps kicked up. Funny how that light didn't bother the dust at all, yet it throws me bodily against a nearby wall. "What was that?"

I could barely recognise my voice. It was harsh and scratchy. Damon didn't respond. All he did was start walking again. I didn't have anything better to do than to follow him. Damon is the only friend I have down here. I'd rather stumble around than be alone in this place.

Nothing was ever easy. Rocks made sure to get in my way and try to trip me up, while a few ruts in the path we were on did the same thing. It's like this place has in in for me or something. The purple glow from the moss was still there, but it was sporadically placed now instead of in neat rows like before. Most of the crevices it grew in were destroyed, so there was no place for it to cling to. I guess it died or something. If it's still alive and in the places they began with, then maybe being moved out of those crevices would kill it.

Meh. It just made it harder to walk. I like to see where I'm going. Although I don't want to know what this place looks like in full light. Its creepy enough as it is in the dark. I think it would be worse in the light for some reason. At least in the semi-darkness, it could pretend to be what it once was.

All of the skeletons of the buildings were whispering to me. Still those whispers. It's maddening. I want to scream and sob at the same time. I could feel the anguish of this place seep into my bones. It makes the cracks in them ache with renewed passion. It would be so easy just to let that anguish take me, make me a part of it. To suck the life force out of me and add it to the little collection of tortured souls trapped here.

There was the tiniest of breezes now. I'm positive all those whispers are a part of that breeze. I wanted to shy away from its touch. It felt…dirty. Oily almost. Tainted. That's the word. Tainted. I bet there are smudges of it against my skin, lurking and waiting for a chance to sink in and attack.

The whispers were coherent now. No longer just a mumbling, it escalated into an insane babbling. 'Come, come with us, come with us, us…take her, her, take…the reaper's waiting…waiting for screams, she must scream…NOOOOO…the screams…delicious they are, they wait for freedom…for your screams…' Ye gods…not even the Den of Woe is as bad as this. I'm whimpering now, I know I am. I can't hear it really, but it feels like I'm whimpering.

A shadow moved.

People appeared out of thin air. No pyre-flys. Just snap and there they are.

Every last one of them is oblivious to what's to come. What's to come again.

"No…not again…I can't take it again…."

Pathetic, yeah. But I don't give a lupin's right rear pinky claw. All of these people were walking around me, not seeing me, miming life as they knew it. All those shadows moving over me like waves, pulling that horrid babbling wind along with them.

They stopped movin again. They looked towards to center of the broken city again. The flash of light came again, and the wave of hot air came rushing over me. I looked to, but something changed. A kid was looking at me. Me. Not the light. Not him impending doom.

I could see his mouth move, like he was talking. I didn't hear what he said, cause there was no sound. I heard it in my head though.

'Make it stop.'

And then that light came again.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeell, what did you think of that? Short I know, but to continue it would make it UBER long, so I cut it off here. Gotta make it so you wonderful reviewer type people keep coming back for more, right? heh.

Review please! Thanks a heap!