Disclaimer: I am neither Andrew Lloyd Webber nor Gaston Leroux.

Author Note: Hello again! Sorry about the cliffy at the end of the last chapter, that was probably a bit mean, but at least Christine is alive- if she was dead, Erik would probably be reduced to a depressive and probably violent wreck and Nadir would never live a normal life again (not that life with a friend like Erik was ever normal in the first place!)

Thank you so much to those who reviewed; TMara and MarilynKC. Reviews are always appreciated and leave the author with a huge smile on her face! (Oh dear, now I'm talking like Erik!)

So why is Christine hanging around with gypsies? More will be explained when I shut up and start the chapter!

Chapter...commence! :-)

Three- Explaining the Impossible

The night was well past its gothic prime, losing its shadowy grip as the early morning brought the first hints of a glorious sunrise peeking over the horizon. The black void of the sky faded into light blue and streaks of orange that crowned the horizon, the birds warming their voices with sweet trills and chirps. It was these very birds that looked down upon two men; both pacing agitatedly, one with a frenzied look of desperation upon his face and the other seeming to chase him, reaching out in an attempt to calm and to comfort him. The frenzied man froze suddenly in his manic strides, causing the worried companion to crash straight into him. There was no angry response, no shove in return to compensate for the collision- he was too lost in his tortured thoughts to care.

Suddenly, he drew his foot back and sent a powerful kick straight into the nearest tree. The branches wobbled and the leave shook and this vent of anger.

"If that wretched fool doesn't hurry up..." Erik hissed, the pain of kicking the tree not breaking through the spiral of thoughts that clouded his mind as he stood outside a droopy looking tent, with more messy patchwork than a patchwork quilt. He touched the material with his bare fingertips, stroking the coarse sacking and wondering how such a pathetic excuse for a tent ever stayed up- it was rigged into position with wooden stumps and rope, hanging lopsided and miserable. He wanted to kick and rip and obliterate this atrocity, but there was something so very pathetic and failed about it that he could not bring himself to do it.

Again, he started the mad pacing, hoping that the continuous motion of feet traversing the soggy ground again and again might pass the time more quickly. He felt exhausted, as if he might collapse any moment, already put on edge and wary due to the camp and the gypsies around him but now, to find his Christine caught up in this web- Pali would have a lot of explaining to do once he got up from his lazy slumber!

As he muttered another curse under his breath, Erik felt a hand seize his arm and pull him to a stop- Nadir, of course, thinking that some meaningless drivel might calm him down. The Persian looked as stressed as Erik felt, the delirious joy that their mad search was at last over combining with his questions and his fears as to why she had ignored Erik or how she had even ended up in a travelling gypsy fair. It was a lethal mixture of emotion, a poison to his sanity, but if there was anything that would make this hellish predicament worse it would be for Erik to fly into one of his hysterical rages.

"Please, Erik." Nadir wiped the sheen of sweat from his face, his voice even strained. Erik gnashed his teeth, tore his arm away and began to pace with double the ferocity. "Believe me, old friend, I know that you're confused and anxious to resolve things, as I am-"

"Anxious?!" Erik snapped, spinning on his heel in the mud and throwing his arms out, his fingertips brushing the tent again. He fixed his eyes on the Persian, wild with fury. "Khan, you know all too well what I have been like this year, how I have tortured myself with the morbid possibilities- I thought that she might not even be alive! Anxious?! ANXIOUS?! I am being TORTURED with the fears, the questions, the hope again- we've found her, Nadir we've found her and yet...DEAR GOD, PALI, WAKE UP YOU DAMNED FOOL!"

Nadir rolled his eyes; even though he was exhausted and stressed, he was still irritated and mildly amused by Erik's diva act, watching with despair and astonishment as he managed to dissolve all sense into mad hysteria. It would be futile to try and calm his hysterical friend now- he had succumbed to his dramatic roots, and he had to simply let it burn itself out. Poor Pali was bound to suffer an onslaught of Erik's finely tuned wrath, and as he had not experienced this bad tempered Erik before, Nadir knew that it would all end humorously if nothing else. Pali would either grovel, or argue his case, lose that argument and then grovel. Nadir could look upon the heated conversation to come with the air of an old veteran, having tried both responses to Erik's wild accusations in his time spent with him, and he knew from that long and suffering experience that it was impossible to win an argument with Erik.

"Gods teeth, is the fool deaf?!" Erik muttered with considerable venom, finding a loose thread on the side of the tent and fiddling with it. The material was rough, and with the friction of his fingers it rubbed one of his calloused tips raw- he drew his fingers back and found a little blood. "I swear to you, Daroga, if after a minute that lumbering baboon has STILL not roused, I will go in there and bring consciousness to him in a manner he will never forget!"

"Erik, be reasonable." Nadir muttered in return, knowing that Erik's threats were never empty. "It's barely even dawn, and Pali could well be drunk or...or he could have company."

"You think I care about his drunkenness or his female companions?! This is more important than headaches or some woman he hired for the night!" Erik booted the tree again for good measure, and regretted it, for this time he did feel the throb of pain in his toes. "PALI! GET UP, NOW!"

Nadir glared at Erik, and Erik was happy to glare straight back. They both looked terrible, miles from the smart and sensible looking gentlemen who had joined the clan last night- what was left of Nadirs hair was dishevelled from his hands running endlessly through it; Erik's sticking up in all directions from that very same practice. Both had bloodshot eyes and strained faces, their complexion tinged grey and exhausted, the lines of worry and irritation carved into their foreheads and around their mouths. Erik looked even worse, the badly made flesh coloured mask a continual blight on his appearance, but far better than exposing the horror of what lay waiting underneath.

"Why do you even want to speak to Pali so urgently?!" Nadir demanded in exasperation. "Surely we should be seeking out the gypsies who were guarding her last night in the tent-"

"KHAN!" Erik yelled fiercely, his eyes ablaze at his friend's sheer idiocy. "Christine was kidnapped by thugs the night she was taken from me, not by gypsies! Why is she here? How is she here? Why has no one realised that she is Christine Daae, adored soprano and musical angel? AND WHY DID SHE NOT RECOGNISE ME?!"

Nadir did not see how the list of agitated questions had anything to do with harassing Pali so early in the morning. He raised an eyebrow, scathingly, wickedly recalling how Erik had once screamed at him that such patronising acts annoyed him most of all.

"And you think that Pali will hold all the answers to your questions?" Nadir asked, scornfully. He should have known that Erik was going to be stubborn about it. He nodded once, curtly, but then in an act that took Nadir by surprise he charged into Pali's tent, the frayed remains of his patience at last snapped and destroyed.

Nadir waited a few moments, tensing up in anticipation of what was to come. He was right to be wary- a few seconds after Erik strode purposefully into the tent, there was a piercing female shriek and an enraged bellow that sounded as if it came from Erik himself. The sound of a scuffle made Nadir wince and he had the sense to leap back from the tent opening to safer ground, as shortly after he did so, Erik exploded from the tent, dragging a barely clothed and terrified looking Pali with him as, from inside the scruffy sacking, the shrill female cries continued to demand explanation. Nadir would have gone to the woman to comfort her, but his focus was utterly taken up by Erik, grim faced yet pleased, as he dragged his supposed friend into the open and dumped him down upon the muddy floor as if he were a toddler. Nadir found Pali's astonished gaze and smiled sympathetically, though now the ordeal was over he was struggling not to laugh.

"You were never one for patience, were you, Erik." Nadir commented drily, receiving a death glare for his efforts. "I take it you have offered some explanation for your insanity so early in the morning?"

"He has- but Erik, it's barely even light yet!" Pali whinged, bleary eyed and dishevelled from the rude awakening, squinting at even the dull brightness of the early morning, with the sun not yet rising up to spread her golden rays over the countryside. "You've succeeded in scaring my wife and I to death...now, can this not wait a few hours more-"

"NO!" Erik roared, his shoulders slumping shortly after the outburst; now that Pali was here and awake his mind seemed to comprehend that shouting and falling into a raging fit would not answer any questions. Nadir saw how his face fell, the anger in his eyes gone, instead leaving him slumped and gloomy as he found a tree stump and sat heavily down onto it. "I'm sorry Pali, I simply...I simply don't see why she did not recognise me. Has she forgotten me? How could she forget me? Oh God..."

"Has who forgotten you?" Pali asked with a yawn, either too sleepy to recognise that Erik was distraught or simply not a tactful person. The gypsy's casual question did not help matters- Nadir flinched and awaited the outburst as Erik registered Pali's words and the complete lack of urgency in them.

"Pali." Erik was conscious of Nadir's eyes on him, balling his fists and speaking through gritted teeth. Pali looked up, bored. "Tell me this, you ass; why is Christine Daae, Paris' best soprano and nationally renowned star, stuck here in this cheap circus act as a filthy angel gimmick?! HOW DID SHE END UP IN YOUR TRAVELLING PRISON?!"

Pali's brown eyes suddenly widened, his mouth falling open so comically that Nadir had to turn away and splutter into his hands, for fear of Erik's wrath being turned onto him. The gypsy looked honestly confused and astonished, completely oblivious to Erik's wrath in his amazement at what Erik had actually said.

"The Christine Daae?!" he asked, gleeful excitement taking over his face and tone. "Our Angel act is Christine Daae?! Truly?"

"YES, YOU BLOCKHEAD!"

"Well, I must say that this IS an interesting development, if not a little odd." Pali continued, unshaken by Erik's murderous tone, glare or how he was curling his fists and cracking his knuckles. It was as if his carefree attitude were a bubble, enveloping him in blissful stupidity and rendering him fearless. "Because she never mentioned it, you know- never said anything about Paris or opera. But then she doesn't really know much, so I shouldn't be surprised."

"Are you implying, Pali, that Christine is unintelligent?" Erik snarled, and Pali merely shook his head, looking strangely amused by the conversation he was having. Nadir didn't know if he should note Pali's blasé approach to Erik's temper with approval, or if he should be concerned for the man's sanity; either way, he had neither grovelled nor argued yet, so Pali was far more capable than he had assumed. "Then do elaborate, you oaf, before I do something I regret!"

"Ah, Erik, I didn't mean that she was unintelligent- I meant that the girl doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know, or rather cannot remember, a thing about her life- only that she is Swedish and her father, a violin player or musician of some description, is dead." Pali explained in that same casual manner, not seeing how Nadir turned in a flash and gaped at him, or how Erik seemed to freeze and turn a sickly white.

Erik was conscious that Nadir was moving towards him, gripping his arm, murmuring words that he could not focus on to understand them- it felt as if the blood running through his veins had frozen, as if his heart had stopped beating, as if he was supposed to fall dead to the floor. No. Pali must be mistaken- she couldn't have forgotten so much. How was that possible, for the majority of someone's life to wiped from their memories, like chalk on a blackboard; surely memories were more than that, more substantial, records of emotions and occurrences and people-! Erik felt his knees wobble and threaten to throw him to the floor; everything they had shared, all his lessons and conversations and that gradual growth of love and friendship to that final heavenly peak...gone.

"We picked her up- or rather someone in the clan did, I don't know exactly who- from a bar somewhere in France before we left for Eastern Europe about a year ago, perhaps." Pali continued rattling on, and Erik felt Nadir's hand tighten on his arm. He was too numb to speak. "She was in a bad way, pale as you are now Erik and covered in blood- we thought she might be dead to start with. She was dirty too, muddy and wet with rain, and after someone had the sense to lay her down and see if she was alive we found that the blood was from a bad injury on the side of her head. None of us are particularly skilled in doctoring and medicine, just using the natural remedies we know of and common sense, so we bathed the wounds and kept her warm, tried to get her to eat when she woke up...but she was instantly disorientated and confused, deeply upset and crying hysterically about her father, not able to answer any of our questions. She looked at her reflection as if she didn't even know who she was, screamed like a banshee when we came near her. She thought she was in Sweden, didn't know why she could understand our French tongues so well...it was horrid to watch." Pali paused, licking his lips, his eyes troubled. "As I said, none of us in the clan know very much about medicine and injuries. We supposed that her confusion must be from the injury, but we didn't know how much damage it had done- clearly, if she cannot remember much, it is more serious than we thought. "

"Then what happened? What did your gypsy masters do?" Nadir asked in a numb voice, still gripping onto Erik; he did not know if it was more to comfort Erik, or himself.

"They let her recover for a little while, and then put her into a singing act." Pali shrugged. "She never once said anything about singing- perhaps they thought she was pretty and that made her good for the act? I don't know, it was a year ago and my memory is not good...wait. Why do you care so much for these details?"

Erik felt Nadir shift from foot to foot. He wanted to speak, to ask more questions, to tell the Persian that he did not need to be held as if he were a crying child, but the ice that was in his heart and veins had taken his ability to speak. He fought to recall the moment he had first heard her voice in the queue for the tent- she had sounded the same as ever, still perfect and of operatic quality if a little rusty on technique, but still brilliant...could she really have no recollection of all that at all? If she did not remember Paris or her training for the chorus, which had begun as soon as she left Sweden as an orphan, but could remember that her father was dead- Erik gagged as he realised; Christine Daae could remember nothing past her father's death, when she was seven years old.

That meant she knew nothing of eleven years...eleven years! Nothing of lessons, of stories, of how he had stopped her tears! He was nothing to her, erased as easily as a figment of imagination, as good as a Phantom in the real sense- to her, he had never existed!

"How is she now?" Nadir asked quietly, apparently having realised that his friend was incapable of speech and so deciding to ask the questions he knew would be troubling him. Nadir sounded and felt as if someone had bashed his head in with a huge stone club and wanted nothing more than to sit down and let this dreadful turn of events register with his brain. He wanted so much to revive Erik from his shock with his usual assured, logical optimism- but this time, when faced with such an onslaught of terrible happenings, he was not convinced that he would be able to think of anything hopeful to say, logical or not.

"She is fine in health, aside the apparent memory loss. But she is also a loner, avoiding all contact with anyone else and never talking from her own free will." Pali sighed a little, his eyes sad again, not pestering Erik for the answer to his question and for that Nadir was infinitely grateful. "She is a beautiful young woman, as you know, and has a heavenly voice but she is alone, and confused. Not knowing a thing about who you are must be...well, terrible." Nadir felt Erik shudder. "She has awful dreams- nightmares, actually. She is depressed and unhappy, but who would be anything else in her predicament? Despite this, she is one of our greatest attractions...to think, I never knew that she was the great Christine Daae!"

Erik was shaking from the description he had just endured; listening to Pali's words, imagining how lost and alone his poor Christine must feel, how scared she must be... he looked up from his feet and shrugged Nadir's hand away from his arm, trying to make sense of all the information he had been given, trying to find some hidden loophole that must make it all void and false.

But he could find none.

"Nadir..." his voice cracked, his shoulders shaking again as he bent over and closed his eyes tightly, a child trying to contend with great pain. Nadir looked at him sharply, his hand flying out to make contact with his arm again- he could almost see everything caving in on his friend, reality delivering that death blow. "She cannot...she cannot remember me...everything we shared...everything is gone...it cannot be. It cannot be!"

"Now wait one moment, Erik." Pali suddenly demanded, the curiosity back in his tone. Nadir realised, with sinking dread, that Pali was going to demand an explanation after all. Could the fool not see the catastrophic affect that his words had had on Erik? Or him, for that matter?! "Why do you care who Christine Daae does and doesn't remember? And don't try to evade the question or lie this time- I deserve to know, so that I might help you however I can."

Erik turned his face to the sky, seeing that in this shattering conversation he had missed the dramatic sunrise, the orange in the sky already fading out to a clear blue, soft as silk and mingled with wisps of cloud. It would be a glorious day, even to someone who loved the night and darkness, with the birds singing their full chorus in the trees above him. He had often missed the beauty of daytime, and perhaps would have grown to accept it in time- but now, whenever he stood and saw a sunrise, he would be thrown back to this awful moment and he would want to die with the guilt and the pain, always asking that if he had been a little stronger, strong enough to overcome those who had attacked, would Christine be the very same woman he had given his heart and soul to?

He licked his lips and brought his hands to his face, massaging his temples in a time wasting motion, unsure as to how he should tell his old friend such bitter, dark things. He had known and trusted Pali as a child, but in childhood there was innocence, and Erik was far from an innocent child these bitter days.

"There is no clear or believable way to explain my attachment to Christine Daae, angel on Earth and perfect soprano. The simple fact of the matter is that I love her- I love her with all my heart and soul and there was a brief moment, a snatch of bliss, in which she told me that she loved me in return." Erik said in a voice so soft Pali could barely hear it. "She told me this heavenly truth and moments later we were attacked, she was knocked to the floor, she was taken and I failed to stop it." Erik took a deep, shuddering breath. "I should have been stronger; I should have known that something bad would happen!"

"Erik, don't say such ridiculous things!" Nadir exclaimed.

"But I don't understand! Christine Daae was involved with a Vicomte of some sort, a patron at the Populaire!" Pali spoke over Nadir, his voice stained with confusion. "I remember hearing gossips when she disappeared, just before she joined our clan I now realise...wasn't she supposedly abducted that night by a masked madman who was her tutor? The Phantom-"

Pali stopped short, the words suddenly cut off as his eyes widened with disbelief, his gaze flitting from Erik, to Nadir and then back to Erik. As his pallor faded to a ghostly white, Erik felt a misplaced sense of relief that he wasn't going to have to tell his friend himself.

"You must be jesting, surely." Pali whispered, not sounding necessarily displeased. In fact, Nadir noted with an exasperated eye roll, the madman sounded thrilled. "Erik, little Erik, the Phantom?!"

"Yes." He spoke harshly in reply, not wishing to dwell on the matter for any longer than required, wishing to return to the far more pressing issue of Christine and her lack of recollection. "And don't call me 'little Erik'- when have I ever been 'little Erik' to you, you ass?"

"Ha!" Pali erupted into laughter, tears actually springing from his eyes and rolling down his cheeks as his shoulders heaved with the hysterical reaction that neither Erik nor Nadir had anticipated. "Ha ha ha! You were that Opera Ghost who irritated everyone so much? The evil Phantom? The dark composer and skull headed ghoul?! Why, that is utterly brilliant!"

Nadir glanced at Erik, whose face was turning from greenish pale to purple with rage, before turning back to the now hysterical gypsy and raising an eyebrow. Was the man incapable of exerting even a minimal amount of self control? Pali saw Nadir's expression and instantly held both hands up as an apology, his laughter so extreme that he could not find the breath or the pause to actually speak properly.

"I'll not risk asking you to explain what is so 'utterly brilliant' about it, Pali." Nadir commented drily, turning instead to Erik, who had just been dragged through such varying emotions that he looked faint. "Erik, the most important thing that we must do in this situation is remember that we have now located Christine and that she is alive and well."

"But she doesn't-!"

"Wait." Nadir cautioned his friend in a soft voice, seeing that Erik now had tears sparkling in the corner of each golden eye, like jewels. "That doesn't matter for now- the mystery of how she came to lose so much of her past and who her captors were remains, but we can now stop searching all over France like crazed loons!"

Erik nodded sullenly, not really knowing what else he could do. It wasn't as if Nadir, or the insane Pali, could understand how he was feeling- they weren't experiencing the same feelings of heartbreak and bordering insanity as he was. Nadir's calm and logical words, as usual, made an impression on him that took away a little of the gloom to be replaced by sense and realism; Christine was alive and safe, even though she didn't remember him anymore. Her safety was his first concern, no matter what he felt.

"You know, this isn't such a terrible thing. The fact that she's forgotten you entirely means that she's forgotten all the bad things too, all those moments you wish you could return to and turn them into successes rather than failures." Pali mused aloud, and Nadir turned to him sharply as his voice became worryingly wistful. "If it were me and my wife, Rose, in this predicament, I'd try to rewrite all my wrongs- smooth out all the bumps in our relationship, like the time I told her that her sister was prettier than her...or that a horse was prettier than her...yes, I would be the perfect husband, using all my knowledge of what she loves and loathes to my advantage. I don't know why you're complaining Erik- you have been given what most men dream of; the chance to re-write your wrongs with a woman you love!"

"Pali..." Erik spoke slowly, his brain absorbing the gypsy's words as a huge grin broke out on his face, making Nadir want to slap Pali for putting such an awful idea into Erik's head! "That is...that is genius!"

"It's also lying and taking advantage of someone you supposedly care about, Erik!" Nadir cut in hotly, hoping that even a shred of Erik's sense remained to spark up and agree with him, putting an end to this dreadful scheme before it even started. Did Erik not know that nothing good ever came of lying and scheming when those you loved were at risk?!

But by the looks of things, Erik no longer cared.

"She's forgotten me- she's forgotten all about the Phantom and my jealous acts of wrong doing! She's forgotten about my lapse in sanity- she will not recall her little fop!" Erik's grin seemed to widen if it was possible, his eyes glinting as he mentioned Raoul de Chagny, slapping Pali on the back in a manner that made Nadir want to slap him around the head. This was Christine he was discussing- the woman he adored! Surely he could not be so stupid as to imagine that using her injuries as an advantage would ever go in his favour! "I can start afresh, the way I always wanted-! We can sing together, we can talk and laugh and- she will fall in love with me, Erik the human being, the normal man, not some Angel she believed in as a child!"

"Erik..." Nadir warned again in a dark voice, shooting Pali an evil glare that he did not even notice- he was too preoccupied with considering what he would do in Erik's predicament, muttering about his wife's sister again. Nadir could see why this idea would appeal to Erik; the chance to obliterate the Phantom from history, to be normal- it was something he had always wanted, and Nadir knew it. But he had never thought that his friend would be so ruthless and conniving, especially when Christine was involved! "What if her memories come back? What if she remembers more than she has told anyone? Lying and sneaking around never helped anyone and you especially cannot afford to make another stupid mistake where that woman is concerned! Be rational, man!"

Erik rolled his eyes and patted Nadir's arm as if he were a senile old man, spewing nonsense that no-one cared to hear anymore. His eyes were sparkling again, optimism bubbling away under his skin and Nadir could not be unhappy with this change in attitude- he did, however, maintain that uneasy feeling that this brainless idea Pali had unknowingly planted would end badly. Even if it succeeded and ended in happiness for all, it was still wrong to use the poor girl like this- no matter how much Erik loved her, or how much she had loved him, it was no excuse to manipulate and lie, even if the intent was harmless!

Oh God Erik, Nadir thought desperately, please don't do something you'll regret.

"Nadir, I am merely going to be selective in what I tell her in my quest to befriend her." He snorted, entirely carefree. "And besides, I fully intend to help Christine regain every single memory, negative one's included...after she has fallen in love with me. Then we shall return to Paris, to the Populaire, to our home Nadir! This hellish nightmare will end and we will be happy at long last."

"Ummmm...Erik?" Pali spoke up softly, trembling a little with nerves. Nadir realised the problem before the words were out of the gypsy's mouth, and was not sure whether to be thankful or irritated by this further complication that would prove difficult and time consuming to overcome. At least if it took time, Erik might wake up from this feverish state he had wandered blindly into, to see sense and rectify whatever damage he had caused by then! "I hate to bring a negative to your optimism, but Christine Daae is...well, not enslaved, but...you understand that she is our best attraction? No-one in the clan will want to let her go- she is guaranteed income forever with a voice as heavenly as hers..."

"CHRISTINE DAAE IS NOT YOUR SLAVE!" Erik snarled, launching towards Pali and gripping his shoulders, towering over him ominously as he shook him. "I will free her from this damned clan of yours, love or no love, so you had better start preparing for yourself and your barbaric leaders for it."

"You know, as well as I do, that they are lost in their own world- they do as they please."

Pali sounded so sad and full of regret that Erik instantly released him and stepped back, looking at his hands in astonishment. Why had he been so violent? He knew it wasn't Pali's fault- it never had been. Once again it was a matter of whose side you were on, and Pali had been born into the clan, his gypsy lineage a matter of pride and heritage. Really, he should have been fleeing to his masters right away, to tell them that two crazed men were intent on stealing away their greatest attraction...but Pali wouldn't do that, as by some miracle, he seemed to possess more humanity than most of the others in the clan, though his idea of what was good might be a little slanted at times.

"Well, you also know that I do as I please. Your leaders won't stop me from exercising justice for the woman I love." Erik spoke as if in a dream, looking up to the sky again and finding the sun amid the pale blue. It was almost too bright to look up, and he flinched and blinked several times as he looked back at his surroundings, seeing blotches in his vision. He peered back towards the camp, seeing caravans and tents in their endless haphazard rows, like a maze. "Where is Christine's tent, Pali?"

"Erik-" Nadir gasped at his friend's urgency, expecting him to want to formulate a plan rather than charge straight into the matter of befriending her. Pali looked worried.

"Tell me she is in a tent and not a cage!" Erik hissed, taking Pali's expression to mean the worst.

"Oh, calm down Erik! Of course she is in a tent." Pali retorted, starting to find Erik's overreactions aggravating and finding a little sympathy for Nadir. "It is too early to go visiting people- she will still be asleep, and rightly so." He made the last comment icy sharp, referring to his own rude awakening.

"Well tell me now, and I will go to her later, when everyone else is up." He demanded, not fazed by Pali's huffy comments.

"Erik, no! I already told you that she is a recluse!" Pali argued, and Nadir noted with feline satisfaction that his predictions were coming true at last- now, the wait for Pali to grovel. "She won't want to see anyone, especially you as she doesn't even know who you are!"

Erik looked from the red faced Pali to the anxious faced Nadir- the smug expression had faded quickly- deciding that they were both obstinate pigs with no sense of urgency or importance. Instead of using his normal retaliation of arguing or hitting something with great force, he shut his mouth and strode away from them and into the maze of lopsided tents, ignoring Nadir's yell of outrage that echoed after him, turning only to say;

"Fine- I will find her myself."