Author's Note:
Get the reference and you're awesome. I'll say what it was in the after note.
So this took really long. Sorry. Actually, I've had the final version of the story ready for almost two weeks now. Why did it take so long? Because to me, fixing all the crappy mistakes I make is like reading Twilight. For the fourth time. I hate doing it so very very much, it's the least attractive bit about writing. But hey, I'll get over myself and get used to it. I'm sure.
Don't forget to read the end notes and I hope you enjoy this chapter filled with yeah right this ain't no spoiler buddy :D
Update1: Grammar mistakes fixed as far as I found them and I'm using the advice of several people for a new paragraph per person speaking. I swear, six chapters in and suddenly three people start informing me of that xD
Chapter Six: Clarification.
Many things happened since that campfire night on top of the cliffs, leading up to the group restoring the Alchemy Forge to partial power and the Alchemy Well to full power. Along with a certain Water Adept prince from Ayuthay joining them on their travels. Summed up, getting over a mountain is not something easy.
The were nearing the entrance into a small village in between Ayuthay and Passaj, with no more than twenty wooden houses and few stone ones spread far over the hillside in between farms and cattle fields. Animals were in abundance, the cows were busy grazing the fields empty whilst a rag of horses were taking it easy in the distance behind fences. The dirt road they were walking on was steep and not very wide. It was one of the side roads of the village away from the main road through which caravans and larger traveling groups passed.
Five young people, all oddly distinct from one another, were passing past the villagers and other travelers, drawing no small amount of attention.
A brightly red haired man was leading up front, walking broad and swinging his arms about in a display, glaring at bystanders with his chin raised a bit, trying to intimidate them. Directly behind him was another young man, roughly his age but less muscular and sharp eyes. In contrary to the boy in front of him, he simply walked on, his jacket's pliant collar waving across his neck in the hillsides usual strong winds.
Almost next to him, but a few steps back walked the only girl in the group. A pretty young woman whom every man in the village stared after. There was not a soul among the few younger men in the town that did not watch after her at least for a moment.
Next followed two out of place looking boys. Both had blue hair but one of them was a lot more fine looking than the other, whom with his glasses and heavy robes seemed like a scholar of sorts, a prodigy one could guess.
"Merchants ye think?" A brawny man asked his compatriot across the outdoor table.
The other one grinned in a reply. "De're lightly packin' but yeh never know dese days...". Both glared after the group as the made their way past the houses. The men slowly faded from sight as the road turned left, following the sway of the hill.
"You know, I don't like this town." the young prince confessed grumblingly. Karis slowed down to match his slower pace, turning her head to him with a worried look. "
What do you mean, Amiti? We've seen these kinds of villages tens of times by now."
"Well, it's just that I've never even heard of this place before. And those people looked at us with those odd grins as if they were eying us for something. Mostly you, anyway." the prince confessed, now blushing uncomfortably.
She turned her head back, muttering a quick and embarrassed "Let them think what they want." before increasing her pace again.
She was a slight bit taller than him by almost two centimeters, had smooth almost silky green hair hanging down across her back and a few strings over her shoulders. She had confessed preferring a close ponytail instead of just hanging it generally, but lately felt more like trying different hairstyles.
Her eyes shined lively, amazingly so. A single look at those purple eyes could heal any wounded soul and any mend irritation within the blink of an eye. She was just so pure in her demeanor, despite having done her share of monster killing.
She looked back at him over her shoulder, she'd drawn her conclusion but as she looked back at the young prince, Amiti, she saw him quickly looking away from her. Had he been eying her over..? She figured it was to be expected, being the only girl in the group, but it was even more embarrassing than what the villagers did, he was a friend. After all, she didn't see any of them as anything more than really good friends. The thought came over odd and shook her up when she realized that both Matthew and Tyrell had taken a liking to staring at her on occasions, whereas Rief seemed to avoid looking at her outside of conversations. He had explained that "Ones body is a private thing and should be honored.". None of them understood what he meant but they respected it nonetheless.
She turned her head back forward again, cracking a smile. Did she notice him watching her? "You're a prince Amiti, and you're staring at a girl and thinking- Dammit!" he thought to himself, but the damage was done, he knew she had seen him watching. She didn't even have to have seen him watching directly to know it. How he turned his head to the other side was evidence enough. Luckily it didn't seem like she paid attention to when she finally responded.
"If you ask me... You're just not used to it yet. You'll see plenty of villages and towns on the road Amiti. We'll be back out on the road in no time at all so don't fret about it."
Rief stepped up to slightly behind Amiti and on his left as he spoke up.
"I don't think there's any reason at all for us to fear these villagers. Even if the burlier men attacked us, we're with five and we're all capable adepts. You're just being paranoid. I was like that too at first when I started traveling with Kraden. You really get used to it." he said, roguishly smiling at the prince.
She turned her head around as Rief helped her out in putting him at ease. The Jupiter adept threw Rief a smile, before speeding up her step to catch up to Matthew and promptly started talking to him. A few moments later Tyrell dropped in line as well and the three were quickly laughing away as Tyrell cracked his jokes, leaving behind one awkward prince and a silent scholar.
By the time Rief spoke up, the group had already passed out of the village and it's fields, entering a dense forest.
"They are really close friends... Aren't they?" Rief finally said. The other Mercury adept turned his head again to look at him as Rief caught up to his speed.
"Yeah, I suppose they are. They're always like this aren't they?" he responded.
"More or a less. You know what I know, childhood friends and such. I can't say I'm fitting in much more than you really. I don't know, it feels like I shouldn't try to." Rief confessed. Memories of that particular afternoon at the cliff flooded his head, the feelings came back to him, of silent solitude from the group despite his involvement.
"You're worried that they'll frown at you if you try to mix in, am I wrong?" Amiti asked.
"You've got it pretty much right. I don't know what to do really, I was hoping it would be easier for you to fit in than for me and maybe I could..."
"...ride in on it with me, is that it?" Amiti finished his sentence.
"It's kind of like that yeah. But it doesn't really matter, it's fun enough as it is." Rief replied. Amiti didn't believe it, he knew Rief was hiding something from him deliberately ever since he first talked with him about the group as a whole. But it was also clear that Rief was not going to tell him even if he pressured him.
"Oy, Sash. Dere's some five kiddies comin' up de road. Dey look like merchants tryin' de hide dat dere money by spreadin' it 'round dere bags." A muscular had walked up to a group of eight men, all lying in wait just around a small bend in a forest road.
"Is that so... Five of them? Easy pickings. We'll take them..." the man responded. The man wore a white shirt with leather paddings on his shoulders, elbows and sides, as well as a colored sash from which he had gained his nickname around his waist and dark green pants underneath with matching traveling boots and as an accessory a dark green bandanna covering his hair and tied at the back of his head.
"Oy men! We've got ourselves some targets! Grab yer swords and axes and take yer position. A round on me once we mug these kids proper good!" he yelled as he raised his two sheathed swords into the air, rallying the men whom responded in kind.
The childhood friends were still talking away as they made their way through the forest, ever as relaxed. "I still say that it was cheap-" Karis suddenly stopped, clamping her arms around her body, shaking lightly whilst she stared down at the ground.
"Karis? Are you-" Matthew said as both he and Tyrell had stopped walking and looked back at her, but Tyrell interrupted him before he could finish his sentence.
"Are you alright? Whats wrong?" the Mars adept said as he took a step towards her and laid his hand on her shoulder. Cheap anger accumulated in Matthew as he shot a glare at Tyrell for that.
Before any of them could ask further about it though, they were interrupted by a loud and brash voice.
"So. Thats them kids then?" A man was standing a few meters behind Matthew and Tyrell, two sword sheaths on his side, a bandanna on his forehead and his arms crossed across his chest. Two more appeared from behind some trees and bushes on the left side. Matthew turned around to them, being dwarfed by all three of them.
"Did you do something to her?" he yelled, but was promptly ignored.
"Yeah, dats dem alright Sash, heheh..." the smaller of the three said. Despite his size, he had a large broadsword hanging from his back, intimidatingly present.
"Who the cojibbers are these guys.." the Venus adept thought. First something is wrong with Karis, and then these guys suddenly jump out? He eyed the group of three over in front of him, acknowledging with a grunt that physically, they were by far superior. Only Tyrell could perhaps stand up to one of them – but just one – purely physically.
"Who are you? Why are you blocking the path?" he yelled out to them, trying again. Sash responded with a broad grin as he raised his chin, looking at the brats in front of him.
"We're just here to relieve ye of some golden weight, boy. Drop your bags and leave or we'll teach ye a lesson your mommy's we're supposed to."
This odd feeling... Whats going on? The sensation kept returning to her every time she thought of it, clear as day. Something ominous. But why? She raised her head again, staring at Tyrell for a few moments before getting her bearings, noticing the three men on the road facing against Matthew, the latter of whom had grabbed the handle of his sword on his back. "Wait, whats going on?" she thought, and voiced to Tyrell. But before she got any answer, he had moved away from her and grabbed his broadsword from his back, pulling it outright out of it's sheathe with no regards for possibly getting away without fighting.
There was something going on in the distance with the others and Amiti and Rief had come to a standstill just far enough around the bend to see what was going on. An odd scenery if any, two of their friends were drawing their weapons on people in front of them where it's usually the other way around.
"Trouble?" Amiti looked at Rief with an uncertain look.
"Looks like it, no use standing here, let's go!" Rief responded with vigor, he seemed thrilled to the young prince to be running into possible danger.
"So. You're planning on mugging us, is that it? You've got the wrong 'merchants' alright." Matthew spoke to the bandits, supported by Tyrell.
"Yeah, if you don't want to get your arses kicked you'd better start running now."
"Bah, ye think we're some kind of weak douches kid? Looks like a generation is gonna be chopped off soon fella's! Gyahahah!" Sash responded, yelling to his men that were hiding in the bushes whom stepped out into plain sight. Matthew pulled out his sword as well, now looking more concerned than confident – they bandits outnumbered them three to one and at least half of them looked like trouble.
At that time, Amiti and Rief approached over the road, joining the other three adepts, sword and staff already drawn for the fight.
It wasn't the smartest idea Matthew had ever had. There was quite a bit of risk involved, but he did know that that which he could gain from it outweighed what he could lose to it. Everyone could be injured. As their leader, he felt obliged to prevent that if he could. And well, what better way to prevent a fight where they were outnumbered?
"Wait! You. Your name is Sash, right? What about it? ... How about a one on one fight?" Matthew asked, treading on dangerous ground. He was challenging one of the bulkiest men he had ever seen to a straight out fight. It was a crazy idea, but it was one he thought he could manage. A straight out battle between them all would be disastrous not only for themselves, but also for the direct surroundings. He could already imagine the all consuming flames Tyrell would be forced to launch... The floods Amiti and Rief could cause together. And with this plan he could catch two flies in one blow.
"What in-?" Tyrell had been caught completely off guard. What the elements was he thinking! Challenging him to a one on one. That idiot! What good could possibly come from this? They were much stronger together than apart, even when outnumbered.
There was no logic the Mars adept could fathom as an excuse for Matthew's decision, this was stupid bordering on the insane, with a doubt!
"What's this eh? Ye want to fight the big boss on yer own then? Yeh've got it kid. Hope ye know what yer getting yerself into." Sash responded, pulling both of his swords out of their sheaths and pointed the right handed sword directly at Matthew as a means to intimidate. The two men next to Sash backed away to a distance and Matthew stepped closer, distancing himself from his friends.
"Winner takes all." Matthew said as he took a ready fighting stance, sword in two hands and in front of him as he got ready for the fight. "But you're not getting anything." Neither of them moved and everyone was as silent as mouses as the air grew thick with tension.
Sash made the first move, as much as Matthew had anticipated. The Venus adept stepped forward as Sash reached him, slashing his sword down fervently from the top right, forcing Sash to block with both of his swords. For a moment the two were locked together, sword against swords as a duel of strength commenced. Sash briefly stepped back, loosening his force on the lock between their swords – presumably to gain a better stance. No better opportunity than this, Matthew took his left hand off his swords hilt and raised it far above his head. The ground shook before a round pillar, one and a half foot in diameter, shot out from the ground, and hit Sash straight in the stomach. Bullseye! Sash was sent flying through the air, clearly in pain but he recovered himself, landing on both of his feet and sliding a few feet over the earth as he eyed what just happened.
"Ye've got some nasty tricks kid. Adept eh? Guess thats why yeh thought yeh could take me... Too bad for ye that that ain't the case!"
Sash shot out from where he was standing. The other thugs grinned wickedly as Sash dashed a good thirty meters in just two seconds. With two outward slashes, the pillar Matthew had created was no more. And with two corresponding inward slashes, the two found themselves clashing swords again, Matthew's sword pinned protectively in front of him.
Things were not in his favor – in fact, this was just completely insane. He was flying through the air, his feet weren't even touching the ground! How was this supposed to be fair? Sash was using so much force in the blow that he was lifted up from his feet altogether and he had lost his footing entirely. He didn't know for how long that lasted, it took but a moment to pass the others, they barely kept up in turning their heads. Not long after that, Sash stopped, the thug pressed his feet against the ground, stopping his own forward motion as their swords disconnected.
Finally, now he could get back to a position he could fight from again... When he stops flying that is. He was still flying though. And just as he questioned the overly extreme force behind the blow causing him to fly near horizontal for more than a few seconds, he stopped.
Like lightning on a clear day, he hit the tree dead on and full force. First his back, then his shoulders, followed by his legs violently slamming into the bark of the tree and then his arms bending further than he thought was possible – his sword flying off elements knew where – followed almost in sync by his head bashing against the tree. The pain, the shock, and the immobility. From the moment Sash started dashing, it couldn't have taken more than twelve seconds.
Slowly gravity peeled his body off of the tree, taking pieces off bark along with him in his clothes. He collapsed onto the ground below, falling on hands and knees as he coughed up blood. A quick trickle of blood started to seep out of the back of his head, through his hair, down his neck and onto his chin, regularly dripping down and granting the grass an ominous shade of red. That wasn't all he had gained from that though, his legs were shaking. He figured it understandable to be shaking after a blow like that, but he couldn't even feel the fact that they were shaking. They had simply gone numb. The blow knocked him down good and he couldn't feel his legs at all, only his upper thighs were still working and boy did they hurt.
She couldn't believe her eyes. The shock had her dumbstruck and stuck on the spot. She wanted to scream at this, she wanted to do something – anything. But she was nailed to the ground, just like all the others. It was just too quick for her brains to accept this sudden feed of information.
That was Matthew. And that was definitely a tree. So that meant he had just flown straight into a tree. She now wanted to run, run to him and help him, but everything was going so fast that she forgot to walk to him.
Rage quickly consumed the young Mars adept, his blood pumped and he clenched his fists tightly. Tyrell found himself quickly moving towards Sash, drawing his sword again with nothing but the worst intentions. Amiti stopped him, a few meters in. It disgusted Tyrell, the look in Amiti's eyes... He knew what to do in this situation, even he knew to stand back and have faith in Matthew yet here he was, his best friend not even considering the consequences for even a moment. It disgusted him that someone whom barely knew Matthew was making such non verbal demands off of him... But he knew he was right. Attacking Sash know would cause everything to come crashing down. His anger subsided and he sheathed his sword once again.
He should have more trust in Matthew than this. It was the roughest wake up call he'd ever had, when did he stop trusting Matthew? They'd been the best of friends. In the past he would've climbed down a rope into a canyon if Matthew was the only thing holding that rope up. He knew he was jealous every time him and Karis were alone together, or just having fun together all the same. It nibbled at him but he had no idea it had gone so far that his trust in him had waned. He knew he had become jealous of his own friend, defying all logic that he had his own moments alone with her all the same. There was nothing special about them. Still, there was hardly another explanation for it, it couldn't have started more than a month ago, maybe two, at best. It was a disgrace to himself, he hated himself, despised himself for it. He was turning on his best friend. Or at least that was the direction he was taking at this rate.
But even with all that, was it truly the best thing to do, to just leave him like that to his own devices?
It didn't matter though. He'd have to force his way through Amiti which would be an utterly useless effort seeing what that'd turn into. By all intents and purposes, it'd go against all his own morale values and he'd be scorned by everyone, Karis included of course. The latter held more than enough weight to him to force him to have restraint for a change. He stepped back again, acknowledging that Amiti was right.
He coughed up a good handfull of blood. A small internal bleeding, he figured. It wasn't a lot of blood though as it was mostly saliva colored red by the blood. His legs were slowly recuperating, he could move them again but it still felt sluggish, and now that the numbness was gone he could feel the pain in his legs as well, a horrible pain as if his legs were burning away slowly.
Slowly he stood back up, pushing the pain away as best he could. First he pushed himself up on both hands, then one foot on the ground, then another. Before long he was standing up again. He didn't understand why but his senses were heightened. He could feel the entire area around him. As if he could see with sonar waves he knew his sword was five and a half meters to the right behind him.
He formed a fist with his right hand and with one short powerful motion sideways and a release of psynergy, the ground beneath his sword rocketed up two meters, slinging the weapon straight into Matthew's waiting hand from behind. He was in sync with his element.
Oddly, he had all the time of the world. Sash was swinging his arms around to stretch his muscles as if he was preparing for the most casual morning jog of his life. He probably thought he had already won the battle with that blow. He was almost correct.
It wasn't a complicated plan, he'd just have to use his best psynergy move to finish this in one go. Risky, because he would be too tired to try anything else afterwards, but he didn't have much else of a choice. A melee fight was entirely to his disadvantage against someone of his skill.
"Come on kid," Sash provoked him. "Next move is yours. See it as gift, from me."
He would have but one attempt at this. He had to do this right. A great deal of things coursed through his mind. What would happen if he didn't win? Would they actually kill him? What would happen to the others? What would happen if he won? Would the other bandits keep their promise?
Would Karis be alright?
But these thoughts faded as he began the process of channeling the brunt of his remaining psynergy into a single attack. Matthew raised his sword in his right hand over his right shoulder and rested it on it. He lifted his left hand up, the palm towards Sash. In short bursts of concentrated energy, his clothes began to wave on the currents of psynergy in and around him. Smoothly going up and down and rippling the fabric, his hair and his very surroundings.
He had enough of watching the kid performing his tricks and Sash rushed forwards towards Matthew swords drawn and with the clear intention of gutting him a fatal wound. But he was too late to stop it now. With a single burst of energy, four swords launched forth from the skies above Matthew at Sash whom, unable to see them, got hit by all four. Each of them immobilized one of Sash's limbs, the swords of psynergy stuck in the ground with his limbs stuck inside them. He yelped out in pain and surprise, trying to use force to free himself. It was not over though. Matthew put both of his hands on the handle of his sword as it still rested on his shoulder. He pushed it back a bit, now holding the sword behind his back before he slashed it down in front of him in a mighty swing with all his power. The blow scorched the grass below him and in between them two in a golden flash of psynergy as a gigantic sword struck down from the sky, straight into Sash's chest. And though the sword was but psynergy and therefore didn't actually injury his body, he passed out within moment from the intense pain, utterly defeated. Slowly, Sash slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Everyone else stared in shock at what had just happened; the brigands looked at their leader falling to the ground and unsure if he was even still alive; the adepts looking in both shock and awe at Matthew and his attack, the magnitude of the release of psynergy leaving a deep impact on them. None of them had ever experienced so much psynergy being released in one go, not even from their parents.
Everything went silent, a grayish darkness if described in colors. Matthew's vision began to blur, his eyes becoming unfocused. Not a moment later, his legs buckled and he fell onto one knee. And then hands and knees as his last footing slipped away from under him. Wheezing and gasping for air, his limbs held no more strength to keep him up. Just using his arms as support to keep his body up was a battle in itself.
Matthew looked up, managing to lift his head for just long enough to recognize multiple shoes and boots running towards him. And then, he collapsed, his arms finally buckled as well and he fell onto the ground. He could just hear the shuffling of feet close by him, faint murmuring and just before his lights went out, he felt soothed and comforted by something both close and familiar.
He was lying close to the edge of a cliff. A dense forest of trees surrounded a small open area with tree trunks left and right behind him. Foresters he figured. There was a tent in the middle of th area, around ten meters from him. He quickly got up and as Matthew moved closer to it he felt a sensation he could not describe, anxiety, fear, excitement and happiness all mixed together to make one muddy mix.
As he drew closer he noticed a form on the ground. It was a person with blue hair wearing a dark red shirt- or no, the shirt was not red of itself but was tainted red – by blood. He wanted to turn to body around face up, see whom it was but his body was frozen. It wouldn't move as he wanted it to, only in a specific direction. It was as if he was possessed, forced to watch something he did not want to.
The tent seemed just as far as before and again as he drew closer, he saw more bodies on the ground and covered in blood. He recognized Amiti by the crown that had fallen from his head and Tyrell by his red hair. The other one must have been Rief then he concluded.
Unlike Rief whom only showed blood, Tyrell was more clearly killed... A large axe stuck out of his back but no matter how much he tried to look, his eyes wouldn't focus on it.
He wanted to scream at this point, to do something but not just stand there and watch. But whatever controlled him, it took pleasure in forcing him to watch his friends dead.
He turned his attention to the tent. There was a figure sitting on his knees behind the canvas. He didn't even need to rationalize anything at all. He recognized Karis within that same second. She turned her face towards him and he could recognize tears rolling down her face. He still couldn't move, no matter what he tried.
Suddenly, everything around him was ablaze. The tent, the trees. Even the ground felt hot and the air was thick with smoke within seconds. Karis grasped the tent canvas, screaming, tears rolling down her cheeks. And he was forced to watch. He just wanted to scream.
He sat up straight as he woke up in an adrenaline filled rush, breathing so heavy that he thought he could faint any second. Multiple sweat drops trickled down his hair and onto the bed sheet he was underneath. He couldn't breathe for the first few seconds, saving him from waking other people up luckily but he hadn't realized that just yet. When he finally got his bearings, he realized he was in a large stone room with a small candle in the left back side burning on a writing desk. Next to it, between it and the far wall, was a large wooden wardrobe. Above the writing desk was a slightly opened window from which a cool breeze filled the room. On the other side of the room, a thick wooden door rested closed within the wall. He could make out the faint figure of a key inside the lock of the door.
He remembered falling unconscious at the end of the fight or at least what his memory would permit. If he wasn't in the afterlife now, then that must've meant he won. And he was brought to wherever they were right now. And if he was still alive and now in a bed, then that just now must have been a nightmare.
Matthew tried to look around further, but felt a tug at his right leg. Looking down, he saw a sight that made his heart skip a beat – maybe even two in fact. Karis had fallen asleep on a chair next to his bed, and was resting her head on his lap, her face towards his. A few of the strains of her loose hair hung over the front of her face and she breathed in ever so frailly through her slightly opened mouth. He started to calm down, his breathing slowed down but his heart rate did not drop. He smiled so wide and he just wanted to cry, knowing that it had just been a dream and that she was okay.
He stroke her hair shakily. He felt so enamored by her and suddenly it made everything make sense.
He really liked her. Actually, he might just love her.
Author's Note:
YESH! A new REAL chapter. Well. Sort of. Yeah, definitely!.. At least it got close..! I'm going to stop doing this now.
My goal in this chapter was to have Matthew fight an awesome (enoough) fight which he'd, clichéd, only just win. I don't know if I succeeded honestly. It's easy to imagine a five hundred move ninja battle in a forest but just -try- to bring that into words,I dare you! ;_.._;
It wasn't the plan originally to have Matthew pass out. I had planned him on actually being live and awake to be all chivalric towards Sash but, in the end, it just felt better. Maybe another cliché but hey, if you don't like it, go read one of the other non-existent stories, HAH! Actually that's a lie, there's another one of equal length, if half the length per chapter. "If I only had you" on for those that want to read it. Just... Be careful. It's a bit cracky, especially at the start.
I'm performing collaborative work atm with an -amazing- artist, Jennax3 on Deviantart. If you read my "Time for School" story, -that-. Sort of.
Oh yeah!
It was Sash being a reference to Zoro. Roronoa Zoro: .
*Nerdgasme* Can't be more bad ass than that... Except for Whitebeard and Luffy. Whom are the epitome of badassery. I decided to keep the mouth katana out of Sash's fighting since... Well, I still don't see how that works. xD
I don't have much else to say honestly. I have my fourteen weeks of freedom now which means I've got a lot of free time. I did make a CRAP LOAD of obligations in the weeks running up to this though... You know, promising to do stuff on WoW, working out again, working more at my dads. It's kind of hectic to try and figure out what to do when so stuff is going slow. Here's to hoping nothing goes horribly wrong :P speaking of horribly wrong, I really need to update the back up of my story folder... Done! Awesome.
Well, don't forget to leave a review, it's heaven on Earth for a writer even if you don't have anything smart to say :D Which is, might I add, half the Internet - good god.
Also, yes, a rag is a collective term for horses (colts).
So I'll see you guys, in chapter SEVEN. Or 6.5. Or a short story.
I'm not very consistent, am I?
BYEEEEEE!
