Tegryn slowly got up, half-unaware of what happening behind him. The icy bolt careered towards him, and struck the highly-polished frying pan hanging from his rucksack. The shot bounced off and struck Icy below the knee, encasing her legs in ice. As Stormy tried to help her sister, Darcy confronted Tegryn with a look of pure hatred in her eyes. "Stormy! Get over here!"

"You're gonna pay for that", Darcy snarled as she and her sister prepared to unleash their Psycho Twister attack. Tegryn backed away, but before he could make his escape, the force of the blast slammed into him, sending him crashing straight through the tree behind him.

He lay on the ground writhing in pain as the once mighty tree creaked and toppled over with a loud crash. The left side of his body was well and truly broken. He heard a footstep beside him. Looking up, he could see Darcy standing over him, reaching towards him with her hand. Was it glowing? He couldn't really tell as he lasped in and out of consciousness. He felt her hand on his forehead, and an excrutiating pain shot through the front of his skull. He bellowed in agony... then all was dark.

He could hear voices. "Is he... you know?" "No, I kept him alive. I'm going to have some fun first... IF he survives."

All was silent for a while... then he was aware of a prescence near him. Weakly, he opened his eyes, expecting the end. Another girl briefly came into focus - she wasn't a threat like the others. His vision was blurred, but he could just make some details out. Black hair tied in pigtails... red dress... and... wings?

That was all he saw before blacking out.

A few moments before, Musa had been sitting in a treetop playing a plaintive tune on her favourite flute. She loved being with her friends, but her on-off relationship with Riven had been off for some time and she missed her parents very much, so once in a while she liked to be alone with her thoughts.. This was her favourite spot, high in the trees overlooking the lake and the surrounding forest. Here, she could play her music and sooth her soul in peace.

Her flowing melody was disturbed by a loud crash in the distance. What was that? She strained her ears, trying to hear more. A loud anguished cry echoed through the forest, sending startled flocks of birds flying away.

She flew up and looked around - she could see that a tree had fallen near the lake. That must be it. She flew closer to investigate, spotting a tell-tale patch of frozen ground. She could hear something else though, something very quiet. Groaning. She could hear someone groaning in pain.

Sure enough, there was a man lying behind the foot of the broken tree, barely clinging on. She rushed over to investigate. The man opened his light blue eyes all too briefly, gazed into her eyes, then shut them again.

The pained expression on his face told her all she needed to know. She had to help him.