Yes, I know, I'm a day late, but I had to do yard work on Saturday and I still had to get the finishing touches for this chapter done. I noticed we had some questions in the reviews: As to whether I based Fervior on Magneto or not: actually, I didn't remember that Magneto could use metal also until the end of the chapter was done, so, I just went with the flow, and I'm still not that sure if Magneto can manipulate people's minds. And the second question was about that crow back in chapter 4. No, it wasn't Mystique - she really doesn't have much of a part in the plot anymore; the crow was one of Fervior's messengers. Don't ask me why I put it in there, it just happened. Anyways, here is the next chapter, it turned out a bit longer then expected, but read and review anyways~!

(Also, most of you will probably notice that on the list of chapters, I couldn't put the whole chapter name, so I shortened it a bit. Hope you don't mind, if any of you pay attention to that kind of thing at all.)

Summary: Kurt is a Fallen, an indescribably beautiful race of demon–angels. Kitty is a fledgling priestess with a hidden power. Kitty knows that Kurt isn't her enemy, but can she prove it?

Fallen Angel

8. Into the Forest/The Heart of the Dragonfire

Kitty was wandering the paths of Treehaven. Her mind was still going over the story Shade had told her. Why was she such an important player in this future-to-come?

She sighed, finding herself looking up into the branches of the tree where her house was situated. With barely any effort, she soared up to the porch, landing lightly on a bench.

It had been two days since Kurt had been taken—and she was being driven out of her mind by her anxiousness. What if Fervior (if that was who had taken him) had already killed him?

She shook her head vigorously; she wouldn't think like that—she had a terrible suspicion that if she said anything bad aloud—or even thought it, it would happen.

She peered in through her window, watching the light from the dragonfire flicker dimly inside the shadowy house. She walked in and picked it up, watching the flames dance in her palm, the golden light from within it seeming to blaze a little brighter.

She watched it for a while, silently thinking. And by the time noon came, she had a plan.

Kitty sat quietly by the edge of the sandy hollow, trying to concentrate, and despite with all the elements' powers, she had had no luck in finding Kurt. Sighing at her utter incompetence, like Shade liked to do often, Kitty sat down on the rock, grumbling. Why was the power so hard to reach? She'd released it quite easily in the Forest… But it would be later, that she would receive the motivation needed…

Kitty yawned and opened her eyes. Where was she again? Oh, right, she'd fallen asleep in the training hollow. She picked herself up and headed towards the village, flying slowly, to try and find any trace of Kurt, but the Fallen were better at her then tracking, and they had found nothing except the symbol—and a strange smell in the air.

She had only seen Shade that morning, when she was telling Kitty that her training had been discontinued for the moment. Fira still hadn't come back from her messaging duty, Kurt was missing—no one had found his body yet, at least. And that left Sparks… Sparks, whose strange ways continued to confuse Kitty at every corner, her dragon's fire still unusable—but Kitty didn't even know where Sparks was! Both times she had seen her the girl had been at the sandy hollow. Kitty had just been there, and she was fairly sure that there had been no other person besides herself, but Sparks's ability to appear out of thin air and scare the crap out of you was unequaled, as far as Kitty knew.

Kitty sighed; sometimes people were right—too much thinking was bad for you. She soared over Treehaven, lighting down on a branch overlooking the somewhat-small village of the Fallen—Kitty had never really realized it before, but Treehaven wasn't as big as she thought it had been. She heard a slight sound and Sparks appeared next to her, Kitty almost falling off the branch in shock. As it was, she slipped and caught herself on the trunk. "Did anyone tell you that you're really, really quiet?" she gasped, looking over at Sparks, on whom the irony was not lost.

"No. I have come for a different reason."

"A…different reason?" Kitty was really starting to not like Sparks's riddles—she could never make any sense out of them.

Sparks's pure-white eyes flickered in the sunlight. "You should probably get well away from here…"

"Why?" Kitty was also starting to dread Sparks's news tidbits, as they always seemed to have doom and death involved in them—after all, Sparks had been the first to tell her of Fervior, even if it was only one sentence, and not that much information to begin with, but, in Kitty's mind, it still counted.

Sparks turned her eyes to the peaceful village below. "Do you really want to know?"

"Maybe…" It sounded like it would be her death sentence.

"You are sure?"

"Er…yeah."

Sparks's eyes seemed to become more luminous. "There will be an attack on Treehaven soon."

"Huh? When?" Kitty started to take off, but Sparks pulled her back.

"You cannot warn them. It has already begun." Sparks pointed towards smoke along the edge of the tree line, though how she knew where to point, Kitty didn't know.

Then she looked closer, seeing tangled vines erupt from the ground, tearing through the grass, leaving deep crevices behind.

Kitty looked around nervously—she didn't know how to defend herself; and she had just spotted a vine on her branch. She let out a shriek and jumped off the branch, Sparks following her while trying to hit the vine with fireballs—Kitty was beginning to see that she couldn't aim in the air—it was only a lucky hit that brought down the vine.

However, Sparks couldn't navigate well in the air either, apparently—especially around huge trees. When she turned around, she smacked right into one!

Kitty turned around, flapping hastily and hitting the ground—she really needed to work on landing!

She ran over to Sparks, who was crouched at the base of the tree, eyes closed, listening. "They're coming this way…"

"Huh?" Kitty was starting to have a panic attack; she searched the trees with her eyes, but there was nothing there…until the vines erupted from the ground!

Kitty stared wide-eyed as the vines, along with some suspicious-looking large flowers, surrounded their tree.

Her eyes darted back and forth, trying to find an escape route, but the coiling vines were as thick as any wall.

Sparks moved up onto a big tree branch. When Kitty turned to look over at her, Sparks said quietly, "Close your eyes, Kitty."

Kitty closed her eyes, but then opened them into slits, watching as Sparks lifted one hand, a shining light appearing in front of her. The light blazed brighter, spreading outwards from Sparks and over the clearing.

Kitty blinked slowly to clear the spots from her vision. The vines were gone. No trace was left behind. But where was Sparks?

She discovered Sparks by the tree root she'd been standing on. "What…was that?" Kitty asked, helping her up.

"It is known as the heart of the dragonfire," said Sparks quietly. "It has high destructive capabilities, but it can only be used a couple of times, and by the right person." She grimaced slightly. "Anyway, we should move away from this place. No doubt there are other creatures coming to look around here."

The two wandered through the Forest, at last stopping when it was dark in the trees. They sat under the roots of a large tree.

"Sparks?" Kitty asked. She thought she heard Sparks sigh, as if Kitty's questioning was inevitable.

"What?"

"Why don't you look like the other Fallen?" It was a question Kitty had been meaning to ask, but had never found the time.

Sparks tapped one butterfly-like wing, as if to testament to Kitty's question. "It is because I am not all Fallen. My mother was a fairy. They live to the north, near a lake within a valley in the mountains, but that's beside the point. Her looks passed on to me." Sparks's white eyes swiveled towards Kitty. "What did you do with the dragonfire I gave you?"

"Um… I thought I had it… Did I drop it?" Kitty searched through her stuff, but couldn't find the tiny fire. "Er… I can't find it."

Sparks blinked slowly. "You have absorbed it, then."

"Absorbed…it?" Kitty didn't like the sound of that.

"Never mind. We will talk in the morning." Sparks closed her eyes.

Sometime later, Kitty was still trying to get to sleep, and yet all she could think about was:

Sparks and I are out in the Forest alone, and we're the biggest players in Fervior's game of chess…

So that's my newest chapter~! Hooray, everybody, I've made it to eight chapters! ^^ And thank you reviewers and invisible readers that I don't know, for reading my story and liking it! Your questions and comments allow me to develop my plot more, despite the fact that it's still evolving. Thanks, all!

~Shadey