Chapter Eight: Traveling

Rosalyn and Stan refused to talk or interact to each other in any way, save for speaking to the other through Ari.

"Slave, tell that Hero woman that her silence will never outlast mine. I will not speak to her until she stops acting so self righteously."

With a sigh, Ari repeated the message to Rosalyn, who said back just as quickly,

"Tell that moronic shadow that he can say that to my face!"

It unfortunately continued along this line for a long time, and our poor Hero was trapped in this little net until the sound of wing beats could be heard.

"Is that Cora….Cora...Is that Black?" Big Bull grunted.

"Why yes Big Bull, I believe it is the Black Shapeshifter, returned from his endeavor at locating Linda!" Kisling said.

Epros looked up hopefully as the crow landed on Ari's head.

"What do you know, you oversized feather cushion?" Stan demanded.

"Just as I thought, Linda's up there in the clouds." The bird pointed his beak upwards.

"Explain in some superior facet." Kisling asked politely.

Coracinus bobbed his head. "Okay. There's a big citadel that serves as the headquarters of Addonexus's second in command, Melas Kardia. Not only that, but Linda is up there in a jail cell."

"That isn't important at the moment, where's Addonexus?" Stan said with a snarl. This earned him several angry looks and a killer death stare from Epros.

The Black Shapeshifter shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I say somewhere in the Diablerie? Since he has the Necomortis it should be stable enough to live in now, but with the Spiritus gone, I'm not sure how stable."

"You kept your word and now I keep mine. You're welcome on this-"

Interrupting Epros, Stan growled, "You're not welcome here! Go with Linda and hide out with her, that little nuisance is probably terrified at the moment!"

Coracinus turned his pupiless eyes on Stan. "Fine, your Majesty. I intended to go back to Linda anyway." With an angry squawk the bird took off again.

With Coracinus gone everything went back to its routine, until they reached Rashelo.

"We can't keep doing this, we have to either activate the Stone Circles or find some way to scale into those clouds." Rosalyn said as the friends slumped down in the Inn.

Ari agreed while the others discussed possible ways to enter the atmosphere. The only thing they came up with was finding the Spiritus and hoping it could elevate them somehow.

"Why not? It can be capable of creating a new World Order so air travel seems somewhat feasible at the moment," Kisling said.

Epros wanted to go rescue Linda alone, but the others disagreed heavily with him. However, the former Phantom Evil King wasn't going to be swayed from his decision.

"Fine, go if you want." Stan grumbled, leaning against the wall. "Find Linda and that Shapeshifter, and see if you can't come up with some kind of escape route."

Epros left that same night, and the others began talking again. Rosalyn thought they didn't have to go up if they could lure Melas down here, but Stan argued the most important thing wasn't the demon, it was finding Addonexus.

They agreed to look for the Spiritus, which meant they were still in a bad predicament over how to get to the Highlands without the Stone Circles, which once again meant they argued for a while before deciding to locate K.T. and the woman from Wap Wap Island. The woman because she lived there, and K.T. because the lady seemed to know a lot, and looked like the twin to the woman. They might even be the same person.

"Should we split up?" Big Bull asked after a while.

This brought about some more argument before they got to a decision.

"We don't have time; we might need to split up. Okay, Ari why don't you come with me and Big Bull, we'll try to lure Melas down. The sooner we get rid of him, the better." Rosalyn began.

"You were not there, Rosalyn." Marlene disagreed. "Ari was, and even he could not hurt that demon. I think we shouldn't split up, right, Ari?" She gave him that puppy dog stare that he always agreed with.

"Grow a backbone!" Stan roared at Ari before grumbling, "It's true though, we shouldn't split up. We need to find K.T. and that woman from Wap Wap."

The plan finally mapped out, the friends agreed to head for Triste and see if anyone knew where the gatekeeper to the town had went.

***

Linda lifted her head hopefully at the sound of wings fluttering. The black moth sailed through the window and transformed into the black cat.

"Coracinus!" She whispered, leaning forward, glad for his company. She only left the cell every once in a while, and one time in particular had frightened her the most, because Melas had almost noticed her necklace. She was afraid that'd he take the little piece of Epros she had with her.

"Hey, Linda. I'm back. The others are going to try and break you out. I'm supposed to keep a low profile and hang out with you." The cat meowed, flicking his tail.

Linda leaned against the wall with a sigh. "I'm not the main priority, am I?"

The cat made a purring, growling noise in its throat. "No, unfortunately. At least, not to that Stan guy. Everyone else thinks rescuing you is very important."

Linda frowned. "It's a trap, I think. What if I'm just bait?"

Coracinus shrugged, laying his head on his paws. "I'm not sure what to say on that matter."

Time passed by, and Linda asked after finishing a little song,

"What's your real form look like?"

"A…shadowy dragon, like Melas." Coracinus had shifted into a less noticeable black rat, hiding close to Linda and in her shadow, almost completely invisible were it not for his green eyes.

"Oh." She mumbled, leaning against the wall.

"I'm curious on the people you call friends." Coracinus said after a while.

"They're my best friends. Even Marlene, she's a little snob sometimes though."

"Marlene would be the one in the red dress?" Amusement laced the Shapeshifter's voice.

"Yeah."

More silence between them, and then Linda heard the voice of someone she had feared she would never hear again.

"Linda."

***

They left Rashelo rather discreetly, heading for the rocky hills around the statues that opened up and led to Pospos Snowfields, which would then be a cold hike in the ice toward Triste.

What puzzled Ari the most was the extreme lack of ghosts in the area, the ones they did run into didn't seem too thrilled to engage themselves in combat with the traveling party.

"They're afraid of moi-"

"No they're not Stan. Must be some other reason." Rosalyn said with an irritated sigh.

However, the path wasn't going to be clear either. Something large and four legged thumped down onto the ground in front of the tunnel, clacking its beak and spreading its wings wide.

"Your journey ends, now!"