She blamed her father for this; she blamed her father entirely for this. It was all his fault and so long as she drew breath she'd give him hell for this. Clawstorm seethed, Mira's hand batting away at the tiny little wisps of magic wrapping themselves around her limbs as they walked along.
"You fairytale types have any clue as to how to get this thing to stop being so touchy feely?" Mira grouched, playing up the clueless bystander act to the fullest, as if she'd allow the freaking Book of Legends of all things blow her cover just because it suddenly decided to be oddly affectionate.
"I've never heard of the Book acting like this before." Apple glanced at the two witches curiously. "It seems to really like you two."
"Strange considering Mira doesn't have a fairytale and Raven is no longer a fairytale character…" Faybelle looked at the artifact in question suspiciously.
"They're both witches." Kitty shrugged. "Maybe that's got something to do with it."
"How?" Raven asked the sky once again. "Did this suddenly just turn up at a completely random moment? We've been looking high and low for this thing and suddenly it decides to just fly up and turn itself in?"
"It's the magic of Wonderland silly, of course random stuff is going to happen at odd moments!" Maddie giggled, throwing her arms into the air. "It's when the randomness stops that people should start getting worried!"
"Should I be worried that piece of advice made perfect sense?" Faybelle wondered to the air.
A strange looking insect stopped in its flight path to regard the fairy.
"Maybe." It said sagely before moving on.
"Maybe we should warn you that things tend to talk back if they have an answer or if they have something to say." Alistair Wonderland chuckled at the fairy's startled look.
"It's nice to finally meet you." Bunny smiled kindly at Raven. "We've heard so much about you."
"And I you two." Raven smiled back. "Though I wish we could have met under less sensitive circumstances."
"How many of the bad guys have you guys been able to find?" Apple piped up, looking around them wearily.
"A few of the creeps that you're looking for ended up over the years either perishing from lack of experience to our land's dangers or have been arrested on a various selection of unrelated crimes." Alistair reported with a slightly satisfied air. "However, your main baddie Kline and several of his loyal minions are still at large, though don't worry, her highness has issued a bolo on them in her queendom and for other queendoms as well with a pretty substantial reward. Foreigners being hunted in Wonderland never ends well. For them."
"I bet." Mira smiled nervously, Clawstorm felt an uncomfortable shiver run down her spine.
XXX
"So, how have you been?" Sparrow asked Dexter as the two ambled along the paths surrounding the Ferris wheel, keeping close watch on the Grimm brothers who were on the ride.
Dexter placed both of his hands behind his head. "Oddly normal, I'm helping Mira learn how to use modern technology, Darling has beaten both myself and Daring in a number of combat sparring sessions, and Daring is testing out some new creams and cologne that he commissioned Raven to make on me and Darling before the two of them sell Raven's latest formulas to the O' Hairs."
"Is that why you smell like a tree?" Sparrow smirked teasingly.
"That is why I smell like a tree." Dexter confirmed.
Sparrow sighed. "But at least he seems happier than he has been in a while, that pained pouting look that he kept making was not a good look on him. Finding out the truth about the guy he was supposed to represent really did a number on him."
"Darling and I are still a little worried though." Dexter admitted. "He's been avoiding looking at his refection in mirrors."
"Wow, by Daring's standards that is bad." Sparrow grimaced.
"That's not even the most shocking thing, in the past week and a half I think that he's developed an actual crush on somebody! Like with real feelings and everything!" Dexter exclaimed in astonishment.
Sparrow furrowed his brows. "But what about all of those dates that he's been on with all those girls, and what about Apple?" He asked. "Surely he felt something for- …no?"
Dexter continued to shake his head firmly. "Apple was more like his ticket to marrying into a highly influential family and those other girls were just… charming practice. Now though he's admitted that he… doesn't like that kind of attention anymore, made him feel fake and since he's found out that most of those maidens just wanted the ability to brag that they got a date with a future Prince Charming…"
"So… this is like... his first crush? All of those dates and yet this one girl is somehow different enough that she's stolen his heart?" Sparrow asked incredulous.
"She's more of a woman… definitely not a girl…" Dexter coughed. "And she's way different from a maiden, in fact she isn't a maiden at all."
"He's got a thing for a villainy teacher?" Sparrow raised a brow, because he knew that the only grown women who were around the high school, and who weren't maidens, were the professors who taught villainy classes. "Unless of course he's got a thing for like mama bear or something…"
Dexter shuttered and shook his head. "It's Raven's grandmother."
Both of Sparrow's eyebrows rose in disbelief to the statement. "What?"
"She's been calling us almost regularly for the past week and a half to have a third party tell her how Raven is doing, apparently there is just something about her that makes Daring just melt at the sight of her."
"Daring is into old ladies?" Sparrow blinked rapidly.
"Actually in witch years Raven's grandmother is still really young." Dexter informed. "She looks exactly the same now as she did back in high school, when a witch reaches a certain point in their life their bodies slow down the aging process to a snails pace, depending on genetics they can live for centuries."
Sparrow pursed his lips and shook his head. "But, um, still… Raven's grandmother? I mean she's pretty and everything but… Raven's grandmother…" Sparrow finished lamely.
"Raven's very single grandmother who doesn't go for jailbait." Dexter sighed. "Or at least that's what Raven told me when I told her about Daring's odd fixation on her grandmother. She also said that what happens in her grandmother's private life is her grandmother's business and that Daring was welcome to try… but that he should not get his hopes up too much, because her grandmother does not go for human boys under the age of twenty six and that she prefers men with enough "experience" to keep up with her and make a decent lover."
"Go grandma Queen." Sparrow snorted, trying to hold back laugher. "So how devastated was Daring when he heard about this? Is he going to try anyway?"
"I have not yet told him what Raven told me." Dexter bit his lip guiltily.
Sparrow gave the other a knowing look.
"I know! But what am I supposed to say? I mean how can I possibly bear telling my charming prince brother that there is someone out there who is way out of his league?" Dexter demanded.
"Well I'd leave out the whole virgin thing, incase he decided to gain experience to impress her or something, but the underage boy thing pretty much sums up everything." Sparrow nodded his head. "The earlier that he can head off these growing feelings the less hurt he'll get in the future."
"I know." Dexter sighs looking up. "That's the seventh pass the Grimm brothers have made on that thing, if the Headmaster leans out any farther he'll fall out." The boy observed.
"Why is he going so far? I mean having her called to the office on Monday would be normal procedure, this is way too obsessive for a school official to behave towards a student." Sparrow narrowed his eyes. "It's creepy."
"Raven once said that the Headmaster admitted that he had a thing for her grandmother when they went to school here, she assumes that they either used to date or the Headmaster held a one-sided flame for Elenore Queen." Dexter shrugged. "Maybe that has something to do with this."
"Well unless he turns out to be Raven's long lost grandpops it's still creepy! And I highly doubt that's the case, I mean, look at the guy! There's just no way he'd attract a chick!" Sparrow sniffed. "Best case scenario he's freaking out over the possibility of the Rebel faction gaining more power."
"Could be." Dexter admitted now narrowing his own eyes to regard the Headmaster as the older man scoured the landscape below. Giles idly looked around too but seemed far calmer, one hand gripping the back of his brother's collar in case the older leaned far enough out to fall. "Giles doesn't look too impressed though, so I'm not too worried."
Dexter looked down, fidgeting nervously. "Say… before I lose my nerve… how would you feel about… trying out going on a date sometime after this? If you just want to stay friends it's cool, and I can be fine with that, but… yeah…" The prince coughed awkwardly.
"Sure." Sparrow breathed out a little breathlessly. "I'd… like that."
Dexter looked up in surprise. "Really? Cool! I um…" The boy smiled. "Cool."
"Totally cool." Sparrow smiled back.
XXX
"Let's hope that they won't end up needing my help while they're over there." Darling took a brave breath before putting on the helmet of her white armored suit.
The girl took one last glance around before jumping into the Well of Wonder, seconds before it winked out of sight.
XXX
"Someone's jammed the locking mechanism to this." Raven murmured, examining the book in her arms. "There are also these gaps between some of the pages…"
"If you don't mind me asking, why are you so concerned about the condition of the Book of Legends?" Alistair asked over his shoulder. "Maddie said that you're rebelling against tradition and everything the Book represents."
"Well while I don't have any desire of becoming the Evil Queen, I do respect the fact that the Book of Legends is a powerful ancient artifact with a great deal of power inside it that I do not know the full scope of, finding it in this condition worries me quite a bit because it is unclear to me what has been done to it and for what purpose." Raven trailed her fingers down the Book's spine gently, tendrils of the object's magic curling around her fingers as she did so. "If the Book had fallen into the wrong hands…"
"We'll have to keep a close eye on it as well as you then." Bunny nodded to herself. "It is concerning how it had ended up here in the first place."
"Ouch River up ahead." Alistair warned slowing down.
"Ouch River?" Apple blinked.
"It's a river named for the fact that it has razor thin obsidian bits traveling through it at such high speeds that if you were to try to swim across with out proper protection you'd end up all shredded and cut up." Lizzie explained. "That and jabberwocky have been known to swim upstream to the mountain territories in it since most warriors would rather not bother dealing with a cranky jabberwocky and the treacheries of Ouch River it offers the creatures safe passage through the realms."
"…How has anything managed to survive in this place?" Faybelle asked appalled.
"Easy! Learn to fight as soon as possible, avoid the known dangerous areas, don't question the wonder, and stick close to the tribe!" Maddie hummed, skipping forward towards the shores of a wide river with waters that ran white from the speed it flowed and was streaked with black lines from the rocks traveling through it.
"There's the boat." Bunny pointed to a vessel made up of a giant turtle-like shell for the hull and pink spotted blue-green feathered tanned skins for sails.
"The bik-bik is a creature with one of the hardest shells in Wonderland and the hide and feathers of the feared sky wisps have been used for only the best sailing vessels for going across treacherous waters and sand seas." Kitty explained as she began helping Maddie inside the vessel.
"Wonderland is a lot more dangerous than I had thought it would be." Apple mumbled leaning close to Raven after they were all seated and had set sail. "Alice in Wonderland sounded like such a cheerful story…"
"My ancestor was… special. Her brain worked differently than the brains of most people from your realm, she even eventually learned to hold this… understanding of Wonderland better than some of those who have spent their entire lives here, this place still may have been very confusing for her, but her innocence and her curiosity charmed everyone she came across. She was a Wonderlandian not born from Wonderland I guess you could say, it softened the hearts of many dangers that would have normally gobbled her up, so they just stayed back and watched her adapt." Alistair murmured fondly. "Her persistence, and unwillingness to be deterred to continue exploring a place such as Wonderland was a refreshing change from the usual foreigners behavior here. No offense meant."
"None taken." Mira shook her head from her spot at the back of the boat. "So just out of curiosity, if we just so happen to see something swimming towards us in these waters, do we quietly ignore it or do we need to worry?"
"The agreement is that we do not interfere with the jabberwocky and they do not interfere with us." Lizzie sniffed; saying jabberwocky like it was something vile.
"…What if a little tiny one decides to cling onto the netting on the side of the boat and go for a little joy ride?" The redheaded witch asked distractedly, looking over the side of the boat worriedly.
All the girls on the boat stiffened, knowing something was up immediately.
"It's very rare for a jabberwocky to lose sight of their young so it's nothing to worry about." Alisair assured as he adjusted the sail, clueless to the others now peering over the side of the boat.
"Raven… Apple, get back to the middle of the boat." Faybelle advised quietly, staring at the merrily whistling black and silver-scaled creature clutching onto the side of the boat.
"Ignore it and try not to draw its attention." Lizzie hissed. "Get back to your seats!"
"Something going on?" Alistair turned his confused gaze to the others who were sitting oddly still in their seats according to his opinion.
"Foreigners!" A tiny scaly head popped up over the side of the boat, tumbling over the side, and waddling over on it's nine chubby legs until it plopped itself down squarely in front of Raven. "How novel! There is a foreign witch holding a book of names! And a human, and another witch, and… a pale thing with teeth and wings! How exciting!" The jabberwocky grinned with its two mouths showing off razor sharp teeth.
"Oh butterscotches." Alistair whispered frightfully, all wide eyed.
"Do you know the sound that a raven makes on a book?" The jabberwocky asked its head tilted to the side.
"…W-well I don't know about the feathered bird ravens but this one right here," Apple points to Raven, "Whose name is Raven, tends to mumble strange things in her sleep as she uses her thronework books as a pillow." The princess tries to sound casual and polite, hoping that jabberwocky children were similar to human children in being easily distracted.
"It's crows that you've got to worry about with your books." Mira piped up, Clawstorm discreetly forming a spell in her hands to shield incase the little beast got into a biting mood. "Especially if they've got something shiny on the covers, you'll wake up in the middle of the night to find one trying to pry the shimmery bits off you will."
The jabberwocky giggled.
"How did you know that this was a book of names?" Raven asked tentatively, holding up the Book in her arms.
"'Cause I can feel the words flying around inside, they're special words, powerful words, controlling words, words that can only be names in nature." The creature stretched and extended its neck until it's snout was inches from Raven's arms and the Book. "It's really, really old! It feels like curling into the wing of your eldest and dearest grand-matriarch and… and…"
"Sunshine?" Raven asked.
"Yes! Sunshine!" The jabberwocky nodded happily. "You can feel it too?"
"Y-yes. I always have I think. Since I was a little girl. A small thread of a feeling from deep inside." The witch hummed in thought.
"Its connection to you is one pretty fat thread!" The creature tilted its head from side to side curiously, much like a small bird.
"Indeed." A deep distorted voice spoke. "How rare to have Grimm children venture into Wonderland without a proper escort."
It was at this time that Raven noticed the way Faybelle and Apple were pressing against her sides and that the attention of the Wonderlandians in front of her had shifted to stare at something off the side of the boat.
Raven inhaled a deep reflexive breath at the sight of a giant eye attached to an even bigger head, so massive that only a fraction of it could be seen from the lip of the side of the boat, the scales more silver than black and the eye itself held a resemblance to some species of cuttlefish that Raven had come across in her home kingdom's aquariums. Though none of the cuttlefish she had seen had eyes that were such a shade of bright blue.
"Merry meet observant stranger." Raven tried to bow politely but only managed a nod of the head since the princess and fairy on either side of her were now gripping onto her so tightly.
"If you don't mind us asking, is this little one yours?" Mira spoke, sounding even less fazed than Raven.
"I'm not that little!" The young jabberwocky sniffed standing regally on its two hind legs and lifting its chin(s) in the air. "I grew two inches in the past year."
"Quite a feat, in no time I am sure that you will reach the size of the one peeking into the boat." Mira smiled indulgently at the small creature.
"I thought I sensed the spark of those of the Queen clan lands." The bigger jabberwocky blinked its second eyelids at the witches. "The one who came to us before had said that your realm rested beside the sea, that it was not uncommon to come face to gill with intelligent creatures with massive sizes and many teeth, it certainly explains why you aren't frozen like scared prey, like your little comrades..." The Creature turned it's gaze onto the others in the boat who were sitting stock still and watching the two creatures cautiously, preparing themselves for an attack.
"I do suppose that the presence of the youngest heir to land and to the Book of fairytale names means that you will be taking down the little joke that your predecessor has played upon the worlds?" The larger jabberwocky asked Raven.
"You know that the curse over Wonderland isn't a curse at all?" Raven asked, ignoring the jabberwocky's odd phrasing of words. "And you've met my mother?"
"But of course tiny heir. We had helped your mother put it up there in the first place." The large creature seemed to almost coo; pleased at the incredulous reaction it got from the Wonderlandians. "We were oh so pleasantly surprised when she came to ask us for permission to color our skies with her magic, argued her case to protect her family, daughter, and lands at any cost necessary even if it was to make herself out to be a monster to those she loved dearly."
Clawstorm ducked her disguised head, a bittersweet look crossing her face.
"We agreed to help her of course." The large creature continued. "She needed us to allow her to work without trying to devour her first thing, and for us to stage a "panicked rampage" to keep her majesty's dogs away. It was beneficial to us, not only did we have the benefit of having a short period of years to fly so freely above a section of realm-ruled skies like we once had in the old days but her plea appealed to us in ways that were deeply rooted in our culture. Of course it did help that we could finally settle the debt our people owed to your family."
"You owed us a debt?" Raven furrowed her brows.
"Your mother was also surprised to hear about it." The creature confirmed. "About four generations back you had an ancestor who had given her life to show a few of the more foolish of us mercy, by ending our misery and our lives."
Raven blinked. "That… doesn't really sound like something to be grateful for. No offense meant."
"You mother said the same thing." Came the wry reply. "As your companions will tell you, Jabberwocky never give their individual birth names to those outside the collective."
"Because names are words that hold power! And giving people power over you is not good!" The tiny jabberwocky declared as it curled up at Raven's feet.
"But back then a few of us who were young and foolish had, and as a result those few of us became controlled, attacking others in the collective and flying off to do their master's bidding like little more than puppets, it was your ancestor who had figured out that deceitful man's scheme and it was she who had freed our lost kin's souls from their enslaved bodies at the cost of her own life. We owe your family greatly for that." The larger creature stared at Raven (and Clawstorm) with half-lidded eyes, seeming… almost fond.
"Strangers are dangerous." The tiny jabberwocky crows proudly.
"Young one, if you truly knew the words you speak you would not have climbed into this boat." The elder sighed exasperatedly.
"But it's very strange to feel all of those words and names in one place." The younger seemed to pout (although that was only an educated guess since jabberwocky did not have lips) and jerked its head in Raven's (and Clawstorm's) direction. "Surely a person with those kind of words flowing through them should be more worried about me! And the narrators couldn't stop talking about this boat! I had to see!"
"…I always told your mother that you were a troublemaker. From the moment you pushed your egg out of the nest and rolled it around the floor before you hatched, upside-down no less, I knew that you would be an excessive handful." The larger seemed to sigh again. "But while we're here, I might as well fly them close to their destination, the narrators are getting antsy for some reason, they keep trying to be sneaky by whispering, a foolish endeavor to try to hide things from a jabberwocky. Something about an impending showdown between a Queen and some fool named Kline, and not to trust the one named Courtly Jester for she is working for the evil ones, not that there is very many cases of strictly good or evil just a bunch of grey shades…"
The occupants of the boat startled when they were suddenly lifted out of the water, the larger creature cradling the vessel in its two clawed front paws.
Breath left Raven's lungs as the larger jabberwocky lowered its arms, Apple squeezed her middle tightly, Faybelle hunched over the witch and princess protectively on reflex as the massive head, neck, and shoulders of the prehistoric creature towered above them. Barely a sound left her lips as they all took to the air; her insides doing a low flop and flip as they were sailed up to the sky.
XXX
"Get back inside, you're starting to draw a crowd down there." Giles tugged his brother back to a proper seating position, waving innocently at the curious on looking students as they passed by them for another turn on the Ferris wheel. "We will go on two more rounds before we should try looking for her on foot again but I get the feeling that wherever she is it's not in the fairgrounds."
"So have you finally managed to find a copy of the list of people who had attended ex-new guy's initiation ceremony?" Milton leaned back, wincing at the twinge of pain in his spine that was a result of half hanging out of his seat for most of their time in the Ferris wheel.
"Whoever had destroyed the original records was incredibly thorough, but I did manage to find a carbon copy folded up in a shoe box where Ms. Trollsworth keeps the old carbon paper just incase she might need it again someday." Giles informed. "You'll never believe who her birth father is."
"I'm sure that whoever he is, his identity is far less shocking than the news that Clawstorm has lead a double life as a revered do-gooder mad scientist from her mirror prison and holds some sort of record on the speed and mass quantity of golem formation, all while she holds a title that she never signed her name for and is the most feared criminal in several worlds." Milton sighed despairingly. "What more is there for her to throw at me?"
"Raven's father is the Good King." Giles announced plainly.
"I'm being serious." Milton rolled his eyes.
"So am I." Giles defended smugly.
Milton's face dropped. "Wha- but how?"
"I think that you would know how by now brother." Giles snorted.
"Not what I meant and you know it!" Milton hissed. "What I mean is that how could a crybaby goody two shoes like the Good King ever let Clawstorm near him? She'd eat him for breakfast!"
"Well they never married, that's about as far as I can tell you about the specifics of their relationship." Giles shrugged.
"Miss Queen did say that she had a family member outside of her grandmother and mother who wanted her to take over their position." Milton murmured in a daze.
"Why do you keep calling her that?" Giles asked.
"Calling her what?" Milton blinked in confusion.
"Calling Raven "Miss Queen", I mean you have no troubles with calling Clawstorm by her given name." Giles pointed out.
"It's still too weird for me." Milton scrunched up his face. "When Clawstorm was her age I couldn't get past the idea of her being Elenore's daughter, but Miss Queen has always been Miss Queen to me from the first day she set foot in this school. I had promised myself not to see her as anything else other than just another student and then the whole Rebel faction started and… she had made the words her own in my mind I suppose, it's stuck like that and I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to think of her name without automatically referring to her as Miss Queen."
"…That makes some strange sense I suppose…" Giles allowed. "Though it is equally weird since you've also started referring to her as your granddaughter."
"Lots of grandparents do that." Milton defended.
"Like our grandfather referred to us as grandson and sprout?" Giles raised a brow.
"You're the one who used to try to make hats out of potted plants when you were a kid, grandfather wasn't too weird for calling you that." Milton snorted. "And besides Miss Queen is my eldest and only granddaughter, it's not strange referring to her as such."
"Is that the speech that you're planning on telling her when we find her?" Giles asked.
"If she'll stick around long enough for me to talk to her properly." Milton looked down at the guardrail glumly. "What if she wants nothing to do with me? I mean after everything I had put her mother and grandmother though…"
"You won't know unless you try." Giles patted his brother on the back. "We'll just have to see what happens when we find her. She's got to be somewhere on campus or in the village after all, where else could she possibly have disappeared to?"
XXX
"Thank you for the ride up here." Clawstorm thanked the Jabberwocky, a respectful smirk on her face.
"The pleasure was all mine. Especially how the young Alice and White Rabbit squealed each other's names at one point. Very humorous." The large creature leered down at the occupants of the boat. "Remember that we did give the not-so Evil Queen the honor of being protected by the bones of our fallen collective, should she be in need of them she should not hesitate to use them." The creature spoke cryptically before beating its massive wings and taking off.
"Bye, Bye!" The smaller jabberwocky waved three of its spindly hand-like paws at them from the larger creature's shoulder as they took to the sky.
Clawstorm's smirk melted into a soft smile, Mira gently touching the charm bracelet on her left hand, where the tiny summoning scrolls were held securely in their decorative bottles, perfect camouflage for one of her more powerful lines of defense.
"…Apple I can't breathe." Raven squeaked out after a long silence.
"Sorry." The princess apologized relaxing her hold on the witch's waist.
"First two hours in Wonderland and we run into a jabberwocky, second top predator of this place." Faybelle scrubbed her face tiredly with one hand, the other arm still slung protectively around both Raven and Apple's shoulders. "Is it too much to ask for a less eventful remainder of this quest?" She growled.
"Trouble in Wonderland usually comes in threes." Bunny fidgeted wearily.
"Oh it does, does it? Well that's just peachy!" The fairy hissed sarcastically.
"It figures that they would have helped the Evil Queen." Alistair spat. "They've been having a grand ol' time flying in and around the curse cloud and making themselves out to be even more terrifying than they already were."
"Still jabberwockies hate being in debt to people or doing favors to anything outside their own kind. Whatever you ancestor did it must have been very impressive if they owe your family so much." Lizzie mused gingerly standing up to look around.
They were on top of one of a series of steep grass covered rocky hills that resembled the back of a very lumpy animal. Since they were almost directly below it, they could see the "cursed" cloud very clearly, every so often lightning arched within the mass of clouds casting off a feeling of doom that could not be shaken away even with the knowledge that it was all harmless.
"That was scary." Apple whispered with wide eyes, clasping Raven's hand like a security blanket.
"How much farther do we have to go?" Raven asked Alistair.
"We're here actually, the only problem is that we were supposed to meet someone who had the Evil Queen's spellbook, one of the few things that she had dropped and left behind when the Grimm brothers nabbed her, it has the spell to reverse the curse in it… but because the curse can only be broken by a blood relative…" Alistair trailed off.
Raven nodded. "Who was supposed to give us the spellbook? We should try to meet them soon."
"Her name was Courtly Jester…" The boy bit his lip worriedly.
"Oh." Raven said faintly, the jabberwocky's warning ringing in her ears.
"We aren't finished with trouble." Kitty growled lowly looking over the side of a cliff edge.
"It's Courtly Jester, and she's with a strange man." Bunny reported quietly.
The rest of the party peered over the edge. There was a woman dressed in brightly colored jesters clothing leaning flirtatiously close to a young man who was leaning against a grassy boulder.
"No…" Raven whispered in horror as she spotted the distressingly familiar man. "That-… that man… I've seen him before! At the initiation ceremony and-" Faint, blurry images flashed across her mind. "He tried to kill me… I- the memory's faint but I could never forget that face! It's him!"
Clawstorm grit her teeth, just barely managing to suppress the urge to let her magic surge outward in fury.