"Deadwind Pass, I havne't been here in ages, but this time, I can tell things will go much better."

Starshield hadn't been to Deadwind pass for ages, but the last time he did, a warlock, Caitie, had took him prisoner and put him in her dungeon. She eventually did let him go and the two became friends. He wanted to pay her a visit, as he was feeling, lonely.

He soon arrived at her obsure house, but when he came to the door, he found a note.

To whom it may concern,

Caitie is not home. She is doing some business with an old coworker, and it may take a while...

Right away, he knew she was in trouble, and ran inside to find some clues. Instead, he found a veiled figure.

"You again?" he gasped, "Weren't you wandering the ruins of the City of Miracles?"

The figure simply responded, "I get around. And anyway, I know where the girl is."

He raised his staff, and it emitted a blue glow, and a blue screen appeared in front of them. It showed them the front of a crypt in a dark forest.

"Oh no, not again." Star groaned.

"You know this place?"

"Yeah, and the one there has had her way with me more than once."

"I see, but why do you not simply kill her instead and take the key?"

"Good idea, I'll be back, you can be on your way stranger."

He mounted his drake and flew of to Duskwood once again.

The crypt in front of him seemed to have been decorated with demonic looking sculpting. He knew who was responsible, and such bizarre artwork only assured his fears.

He bashed the door in and ran inside, right at the bottom of a flight of stairs, he came face to face with a succubus he was never happy to see.

"Aphrodetta, I should have known that you would do this."

"Oh Starshield," she purred seductively, "You know I'm always glad to see you, but I can't tend to you, I have a prisoner here, and she needs, my personal attention."

Saying this, she then pulled a whip out of her belt, and grinned maliciously.

"I'm getting a little tired of seeing you, so you know what," while speaking he reached towards his back and pulled out a well crafted looking shotgun, "I think we'll skip that other part."

He pulled the trigger, and though every bullet looked like it had missed, they began to glow yellow and all struck the shedevil, sending her falling to the ground immediately. He then went to her and grabbed the key around her belt.

Before he made it to the door, he noticed how damaged it looked, its conspicous dents and prominent cracks catching his eye immediately. He then heard something clattering behind him, and he turned to face this noise, and found Caitie, already escaped from her cell.

"Caitie," he said, exasperated by her presence, "long time no see."

"Yes, it has been some time," she replied. "But we can skip the introductions. I have something else to do."

Starshield interrupted her advance and whispered, "Actually, I need to talk to you about that..."

He had explained to her his previous run in with the demon, and when they agreed that she was too dangerous, they proposed a few ideas how to rid themselves of her.

"Well, she is already dead." he told her.

"You know those demons, they will just send another one and try again," she responded.

"But maybe, we can send them a message."

She then opened a fiery portal and tossed the succubi's corpse through it.

"Now they know who they are dealing with here. And anyway, how did you get that shotgun?"

"That is quite a story, but then I'd have to tell you what I've been doing since I left."

"Well," she sighed, "I have nothing better to do here, so go ahead."

With the two of them out of the she-witch's clutches for good, they began to walk back to Deadwind, feeling like friends for the first time since they had met.

"Who made that gun? It doesn't look like any I've ever seen."

"The engineering staff of the city of miracles." Starshield said.

"What is that?"

"Oh, well, it started when my blue drake told me about a distressed feeling he could not explain. So we went to this seer, and..."

He went on to explain everything else that had happened since then, and he finished as they neared her house.

"But when I returned, it was all in ruins. I had the feeling that nothing I did really mattered, but I know! I know what we were doing changed some of them for the better!" he sighed and went on. "I just wish I could still be doing that."

Starshield hid his dissapointement, but Caitie simply smiled and whispered.

"Maybe you still can, it's never too late to do great things."