Deedlit looked up. "This sucks..." Prodding over to Parn, she mumbles. "Damnit....damnit....DAMNIT!"

Parn looked back at her. "What's wrong, Deeds?"

"Rain...I HATE Rain...."

"I See that." Parn smirked at her.

"Shut up, or I’ll push you in a Mud puddle!" Deedlit snapped jokingly.

"ACK!" Parn shrieked, only to move the joke farther, which made Deedlit burst into laughter. "What? What? What?" Parn looked at her with a dumbfounded face. "I WAS ONLY JOKING!" Parn started laughing hysterical, opening the door to his cabin as they reached it. Deedlit lit the candle which was in the center of the wooden table, then whipped her head to the side, water flying everywhere. "Okay...what was the point of THAT?" Parn stared at Deedlit, which made her fall back in a chair, and continue laughing.

Kitain faced the group, still not having drawn his sword. He stood, trying to make as imposing a figure as he could while his back protested the stoop. Then he was thrown backwards as the earth bucked alarmingly. When it subsided he looked around. "What was that all about?"

Seri let out a small yelp as she was thrown forward off the rock by the earthquake. When she hit the ground, she was assailed by the earth spirits' anguish. "This isn't right," she whispered to herself. She looked back at the human who was hiding behind the rock. "Please, put away your sword," she asked with a touch of pain in her voice from what she sensed from the spirits. This quake wasn’t right, it was unnatural and the spirits spoke of malevolence from someplace within the earth itself.

Kitain maintained his hunch, and heard a muffled flump. As his elven companion dropped down. He slowly released his grasp on the sword, knowing full well, that those familiar with peasants stories would well recognize his fighting style through virtue of not being able to see it. Demons who can disappear at will he thought a most effective compromise. "If you be enemies of Marmo resistance, we be no enemies of yours. I have no desire to fight further today."

Gabriel's mouth went agape as he rushed towards Seri, sheathing his sword. He knelt besides her, looking over her for any injuries. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?..." Gabriel stuttered not knowing what to ask someone who was his enemy only two minutes ago. He stood up and unclipped his cape from the back of his shoulder armor, and rolled it together placing it as a pillow behind Seri's head. She was still coming out of dizziness, and Gabriel watched her eyes dilate as she came into consciousness. He caught his breath as he realized how beautiful she was, and how her eyes reflected the light so well.

Seri looked up at Gabriel, "Thank you," she said softly. She put her hand up to her forehead, feeling a pain start to well up. The whispers of the spirits were causing it and she pushed them out of her mind before she sat up. He was still looking at her and she raised her eyebrow at him, "Why are you staring human?" she asked, uncomfortable because of his steady gaze.

Gabriel stuttered and choked on his words, swallowing hard. Argh...I’ve never been good at this...He thought to himself... "Ah...i'm..s-sorry for staring...its just me.." He helped Seri to her feet, steadying her... "Are you alright?...Well..ah..i suppose u are...heh..." Gabriel gathered his cloak and tucked it under his arm, brushing off some leaves from it. "As long as you're alright, I’ll be leaving now..." Gabriel nodded to Seri and turned around to tramp through the thick forest, not caring which way to go, just to get away as soon as possible...

Seri looked at him oddly as he walked off. "Are YOU ok?" she asked after him. "Hmph....humans. First he wants a fight, now he wants to leave," she said to herself, then walked back to Kitain. "It's nothing to worry about," she said to her companion. "He walked off," she added with the same confused look on her face.

Kitain nodded. "Perhaps you stunned him with beauty. Tell me, I fear that quake was nothing natural. I hope it was natural. That means that the signs I have seen mean nothing."

Seri smiled at his comment, but then her face turned serious. "I'm afraid the quake wasn't natural," she said softly. "The spirits speak of something tremendously evil with Forcelia herself," Seri was silent for a moment as she thought. "I had hoped the world would be safer with the end of Kardis. It seems otherwise," she paused again, "I can speak with the spirits to determine where the quake originated, but there are so many speaking at this time, my mind cannot handle so many voices. We should find Deedlit, I need to know if she's well."

Gabriel watched Seri and Kitain silently from behind. He peered through the bushes silently until they had finished, then turned to Cain who was hunched down beside him. Gabriel whispered to Cain "We have no other objectives at the moment...should we join them, or pursue behind them?..."

Kitain nodded slowly. He didn't say anything for a few minutes. "Very well. It would seem that for now we have a common goal. We may have left it too long to start tracking, but I will see what is left of your ward's trail." He moved away slowly checking and rechecking with long practiced experience. Eventually he nodded. "They went that way." He pointed finally along the way Deedlit and Parn had taken. "They have nearly an hour's march on us. As he approached he spotted...something...in the hedgerows, and smiled thinly. "We had best get moving before something more evil than that earthquake hits. We may have closer friends, or enemies than we believe."

Seri nodded and walked with him. The sky began to cloud over and Seri felt even more torment from the spirits. Another earthquake hit, more powerful than the last and Seri fell to the ground, partially from the shaking and ground and partially from the sudden barrage of emotions from the spirits. She held her pounding head, trying desperately to push the voices from her mind. "Please help me," she whimpered, "something worse is coming." She was nearly in tears from the stress and couldn't stand. There was a flash of light and a thunderclap, then it started to hail.

Kitain froze, even as another earthquake and hail started to fall around him. The elf was surely in a bad way, but it would mean using his other skills. Skills it was dangerous to have because of rumors of cloaked demons. He'd even started most of them by fighting with Marmo. He shuddered, dropped to his knees, and gently picked up Seri. "Hold tight." He straightened up, to his full height, not his stooped stance, and concentrated. His cloak blew straight out as though in a sudden wind. Then he became a blur. The trees lining the route that Deedlit and Parn had taken had their branches blown backward. and the two were gone

* * *

Deedlit shook violently, her ears paining with the blasting noise, wiggling her way into Parn's arms, she leaned her head on his armored shoulder, and whimpered. "I'm frightened...I'm really frightened..the spirits never acted up like this...Some old evil must have risen...KARLA! NO WAY!" She shrieked. Parn looked at her, his blue eyes widening. "Karla? again?" he asked. "Yes, Karla again, stupid!" Parn bursted into laughter. "Sometimes, even though the toughest things, you still make me crack up!" "Well, that's good and all, but we might have to take up another war..." she gulped.

Seri did as he asked, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder, hoping that it would block some of the voices.

Kitain felt his breath burning in his lungs. He rarely went dark form this long. It HURT. The hail cut trails into his face. His eyes watered, but he still managed to concentrate on the trail left by Seri's two friends. He saw the hut before him, and was about to whip inside, when he remembered. Heroes of Lodoss, bad idea. He stopped just past the window. and the blur reformed into his body. He reassumed his stooped form and hammered on the door. "Lady Deedlit, Lord Parn, Lady Seri is hurt

Deedlit heard the hard rasping on the door, hearing the word "Seri" she hesitated of opening the door, but then did, after hearing "Hurt", flinging her things off a chair, she motions towards it. "Sit her there for now, what has happened to her?" Deed jumped at another thunderclap, looking strangely at the man holding her guardian.

Kitain hunched through, gently lowering Seri to the chair. "Hazarding a guess. Being an elf she is more sensitive to the spirits. She said the earthquake was the product of something bad. She then grew weakened and warned me that something worse was coming. We were on our way to find you when this occurred. Can you shed some more light on this perhaps?"

Deedlit nodded, picking up the candle she had lit, bringing to where Seri was seated, her eyes immediately widening. "No wonder she couldn't walk! Her knees are so badly beat up, It must of been hard dealing with the pain!"

Seri came to and heard Deedlit's remark. She sat up slowly, "Child I have a 1000 years experience on you," she chastised Deed. Leaning back against the wall she winced slightly, the pain from falling off the rock returning to her. Her mind was now clear, save a few murmurs. "My tribe is known for have an intense connection with the spirits," Seri explained to Parn and Kitain. I can imagine many of our elder kin are going through worse than I did," she said looking at Deedlit. "It didn't affect Deedlit that bad because she's still very young."

Deedlit and Parn blinked exactly at the same time, looking at each other with mere confusion, Deedlit looked back at Seri. "I never knew that…How come no one told me?"

Seri laughed a little, "I'm not sure, I expected your mother would have," she replied. "Our tribe is descended of the most elite high elves who fought for the Gods of Light many millennia ago. Ask Nalai, our tribe's elder when we get home, she'll tell you the whole story. Most other high elves at your age were never able to what we're capable of," she smiled.

Nodding, Deedlit smiled. "Alright, That's what I'll do, Nalai always told me stories about the past when i was little, but I never understood them, so now that I’m older, I guess I’ll have to listen again, in order to understand."

Seri smiled, then looked at Kitain, "Thank you for you help..." she paused, realizing she didn't know his name. She was about to ask, but from what she knew of him, he probably wouldn't tell. At least not in front of Parn. She just smiled instead.

Kitain slowly bowed at the smile. She hadn't asked his name. Which was odd. His name didn't frighten villagers. Very few people knew it. Most of those either were on Marmo, or dead. He smiled. "You were in trouble. I did what anyone would have done." He subsided, hoping that he wasn't outstaying his welcome.

Seri looked back at her companions. "I don’t feel safe out here. The spirits told me a great evil, but i have no idea what it is," she said. The storm was still raging outside, scraping at the doors and pounding on the roof. "Maybe after this storm blows over, we should find a town to stay in," she suggested.

Flinching at a lightning strike, Deed shook, wiggling her way back into Parn's arms. "Whatever it is, it's really freaking her out..." Parn stated, wrapping his arms around Deed, who blinked. "Oh Parn, you baka...I told you it was probably Karla! you couldn't forget that fast, could you?" "Well, yeah um, I guess I wasn't thinking.."

Karla? Seri thought. "Who is Karla?" she asked them. She hadn't been out of the forest much, like most high elves and was unaware of the things happening in the human world.

Kitain suppressed an involuntary shudder. So the witch was still alive and wreaking havoc. Figured. Someone with that much power would be hard to defeat utterly. Yes... "a town might be safe. Any ideas which?" He shuddered again, he was suggesting going into a populated area. He must be mad.

"Just the closest one, if we can find one," Seri said. "How about Roid? That's where all the Falis priests are, right?" she had passed through the holy city about a century ago while going to the Mirror forest.

Roid! How many more enemies could he find in one day? Kitain gritted his teeth, tensed, and nodded. Once.