[Lucian]

Lucian had been at the beach on the northern shore of the Human Territory. He had been sitting in the sand by the edge of the water, looking out at the ocean and sky, listening to the ceaseless waves, and feeling the gently sea breeze on his cheeks. He liked it there. It was the very first place that Lucian genuinely liked on Tiberia. He would have been content to stay there forever. It wasnt as if there was anything he had to get to. But Lucian hadnt been able to stay, because that would have led to starvation. And no one likes that. So Lucian had left the beach and had made his way eventually to the city of Ironcry.

Originally Lucian had intented to just bypass the place entirely. His experiences in Coldmourn and Fetan had ranged from bad to nightmarish so he had figured, why bother? In the end it came down to basic need. He was hungry and cities generally had food in them. Ironcry just happen to be the closest city to him. Besides, where the hell else was Lucian suppose to get food? The wilderness? Yeah right. Lucian knew less than nothing of the herbs and plants of Tiberia, and he'd sooner wind up in the stomach of a beast of some sort if he tried to make a meal out of any of them. Upon arriving in Ironcry, it wasnt long till Lucian realized that he'd need money to have any chance of getting some food. Its not that Lucian didnt have money, it was just that he didnt have the right currency. Who knew what the exchange rate could be. Most people just thought his money was fake anyway so its not like they bothered to try and figure it out either. Lucian started to consider stealing.

He looked around trying to figure out how he would do it. What store should he steal from? what kind of food and how much he should take? Where he should run to? Should he even steal from a store at all? Maybe a passerby would do. What if he got caught? It crossed his mind that he had no idea what the penalty for stealing would be around here. Jail? Death? Something else? Who knew what the people in this city were capable of. "Excuse me" a lady said, completly disrupting Lucian's thought process.

A young lady, slightly shorter and slightly younger than Lucian, stood before him. Her hair was brown like cinnamon, slightly curly, and came down just past her jaw line. Her skin was pale. The iris of her eyes were a brilliant lavander in color. And she wore a silver necklace around her neck and a simple one-piece floral patterned dress. Lucian looked around a bit just to make sure, but it seemed that she was talking to him in particular. "Yes?" he said. "You seem lost.. Are you okay?" she asked. "I'm fine" Lucian replied. Then his stomach growled, utterly betraying him. "You must be starved. Please come with me. I'll provide you with something to eat" she said eagerly.

Lucian tended not to trust strangers right off the bat and for the most part its proven to be the smarter thing to do. He went ahead and read her thoughts. It was strange. For some reason the only thought going through this ladies mind was the word 'bunnies' over and over again. A puzzled expression flashed briefly across Lucian's face. "Sorry no, but thanks anyway" he told her. "Please. I insist" she said, her expresion remaining completly unchanged. She took him by the hand and started to lead Lucian down the street. "I dont live far, and there's lots of food" she said. "But..." Lucian's stomach growled again before he coud finish. With a sigh, Lucian resigned himself. It came down to basics. He was starving and she seemed intent on abligeing, whatever her reasons could be. "My name is Janis by the way" she told him without as much as a glance towards him.

A few blocks behind them, a man in a grey robe had been watching them great interest. "I finally found them" he thought to himself. He just couldnt help but smirk about it. He would have started to follow them. But out of nowhere an arrow grazed the man's shoulder and hit the ground infront of him. He quickly turned around, and in the second story open window of a nearby buidling spotted a guy with crossbow. This guy glared at the man with obvious hate as he tried to quickly reload his crossbow. "Damn" the man in the grey robe said, before seemingly disappearing in a puff of smoke.

[Lucian]

As Janis led Lucian down the streets of Ironcry, a lot of odd looks were recieved from people walking past. They werent focused on Lucian, but Janis instead. He quickly took a peek in the thoughts of one such person walking by. "Another sucker" the person was thinking with a shake of the head. "Sucker? Am i the sucker in that statement or Janis maybe? Has she led people like this to her house before? Was her meeting me really an accident?" Lucian wondered. He attempted to read Janis' thoughts again. No luck. 'Bunnies' was still all she thought of. But how was that possible for a person to constantly think the same thing every second. How could they function. Lucian had never encounterd such a person and it made him uncomfortable. "Here we are" Janis said as she stoped.

It was an average two story house somewhere in the middle of Ironcry. A house that people would walk right on by without a second thought. If anyone actually ever walked by. This street seemed to be particularly more empty than others. Janis let go of Lucian's hand and knocked on the door. "Who is it?!" a female voice shouted from inside. Lucian didnt think it sounded at all friendly. "Janis, and i've brought a guest" Janis said with emphasis on the word 'guest'. "Oh. Is that a fact" the female's voice was suddenly much nicer. "Give me a moment to freshen up Janis" she said. Janis turned to Lucian now. "She might take a few minutes. Please dont starve during that time" Janis said. Lucian raised an eyebrow. "Was that an attempt at humor?" Lucian considered. "I'll do my best?" Lucian told her. Janis smiled briefly before turned back toward the door, seemingly disregarding him for the moment. He frowned slightly. Maybe it had been the wrong thing to say. After ten whole minutes, which feels incredibly long if you're waiting in awkward silence, the door opened at last.

Lucian was startled at first by the woman that answered the door. This woman's left eye was completly blood red with the exception of a small dot like dark pupil. There was a scar that went verticaly above and below her left eye. Another scar went across her forhead. This woman wore an overcoat that completly hid her figure, with gloves to match. The woman's hair was long, going down nearly to her knees, and it was dark. This woman looked over Lucian for a minute. She looked like she might be deep in thought. Lucian took the oppurtunity the read this woman's thoughts. Or at least he tried to. He made quite the effort and got nothing out of it. As far as he could tell this woman's mind was emptier than a void. It left him very unsettled. "Maybe I should go, I dont want to trouble you" Lucian said.

Janis took his hand once again as he tried to walk away. "Please stay" Janis said calmly. "Yes dont go anywhere. By all means come in. We do very much enjoy having guests" the woman said as she stood aside, gesturing for him to enter. Lucian had tried to get his hand from Janis' grasp while the woman spoke. "Aren't you hungry? We have more than enough food" Janis said. Lucian really was very hungry. He didnt like this, but who knew when another oppurtunity would present itself. If ever. Against his better judgement he decided he would go inside. "Very good. the name is Avara" the woman said. She held out her hand for him to take. Lucian cautiously shook her hand. They led him inside.

[Lucian]

Upon entering, Avara and Janis quickly escorted Lucian to the dining room. They didnt let him go in any other room and certainly wouldnt be allowing him to go either upstairs or downstairs. "Please stay here until the food is ready or you wont get to eat" Janis said. And it was all she said before promptly sitting him at the table and departing for the kitchen. "They didnt even bother to ask me what i would like to eat" Lucian was thinking. That was usually the polite thing to ask but it seemed like it just didnt even occur to either Janis or Avara. The sounds of cooking began eminating from the kitchen, while Lucian sat in the dining room in awkward silence.

He did find it to be truly awkward and a bit nerve wracking at the same time. In many ways it was similar to the feeling he had when he arrived on Tiberia. Which by the way wasnt all that long ago. It was also like being on a glass tightrope. If you dont watch where you tread you fall to certain doom, if you dont watch how you tread the glass will shatter and you'll still fall. It would have been nice of them to have at least given him something to distract himself with while he waited for the food to be ready. Something to distract himself from the quickening pace of his heartbeat and his own thoughts of all the ways this situation could possibly go wrong.

Not even looking around the dining room could help. The room was beyond plain. All the walls were the same featureless neutral color, there were no pictures to speak of, the carpet and table cloth were patternless. If you were thinking that there was a window to look out of, no joy. Lucian now really hoped that they got down preparing the food quickly. The faster it was cooked, the faster he could eat, and the faster he could just leave.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, pots and pans filled of food were brewing away. Janis was doing all of the actually cooking. Avara would occasionally hand over a utensil if asked, but not much else because Avara felt that cooking was just really below her. While they were cooking they were also conversing, but they kept their volume low to prevent Lucian from hearing anything. "hmm, Are you sure about that Lucian fellow, Janis? Is he even worth it" Avara asked. "Yes of course. I wouldnt have selected him otherwise" Janis replied. "I know he attempted to read my thoughts when he first saw me, with no success i'm sure, but if thats all he's capable of then he's just a huge waiste of our time. Even that Ubrac brother was more useful" Avara said. Janis looked at her. "He's capable of more. I can tell afterall" Janis replied matter of factly. "Hmmmm" Avara thought it over. "I'm not absolutely convinced. And since I prefer to aviod duds, I've decided that we're going to test him" Avara said. "How so?" Janis asked. A smirk formed on Avara's face as what she considered to be an ingenieous idea formed in her head. "....the rest of the Ubrac brothers. As they say, two birds with once stone" Avara replied.

Awhile later the food was done. Before they brought it out to the dining room, Avara noticed that some sauce had gotten on Janis' face somehow. "Wait a sec. Let me clean you up some" Avara said. She then slowly licked the sauce off of Janis' face. "There" Avara said. "Thank you" Janis replied. In the dining room, Lucian had nearly fallen asleep and died from starvation when they started bringing out all the food. Lucian was surprised by the sheer amount they had made. It filled the whole length of the table, which was made to sit about 8 people. "Whoa" Lucian thought, but that was mostly his neglected stomach talking. Of course Lucian had never seen most of the food that had been made here before, so he was incredibly catious about whether it was even safe or not. "Please stop starving already. Eat" Janis said. Both her and Avara were now also sitting at the table and right across from Lucian.

Lucian slowly lifted a spoon full of food towards his face. He sniffed it at first. It didnt smell toxic, Lucian was thinking. Avara raised an eyebrow. Janis stared at him. He would have liked to see them eat some first, but there was no way to say that without offending someone or getting himself in some sort of trouble. He didnt know these two at all, or really trust them, and didnt know what they were capable of. He decided upsetting them with such a request would not be best. Lucian slowly put the food into his mouth and started to chew. "Oh wow thats good" Lucian said, before he could stop himself. Avara rolled her eyes. Lucian's hunger completly usurped any and all his suspicion and caution, as he proceeded to devour the large feast infront of him. It wasnt that Lucian was a pig or that he needed large amounts of food, not at all. Its just that he had almost starved, and before that he hadnt had a meal like this in an incredibly long time.

Eventually Avara, Janis, and Lucian had finished their meals. Only empty plates sat about the table now. "Are you satisfied? Did you enjoy our food?" Janis asked. "Yes I did. This was really kind of you, um...both of you. Thanks very much" Lucian said. Janis smiled. There was a few seconds of awkward silence. Lucian was unsure of what he would do now, but before he could figure things like that out, it was time for him to be on his way from here. "So...thanks again and all. I should probly be going now" Lucian said. "No you shouldnt" Janis said. "Huh?" Lucian thought he misheard her. "So we do you a favor here and your just gonna leave? Just use us and leave like we're worthless trash?!" Avara said. "No thats not how i meant it at all" Lucian replied. "We did you a favor, Lucian. Please, now its your turn, your obligation, to do us a favor in return" Janis said with a smile.

[Lucian]

"A favor?! What kind of favor? What could you possibly want of me?" Lucian asked. Once, a person had approached Lucian in the Forest of Elements. This person had offered to help Lucian, he had suggested that they could infact help each other. That person had then proceeded to knock Lucian over the head with a hammer and nearly had him sacrificed to monsters in Fetan. So it should be understandable that Lucian wasnt at all thrilled about whatever supposed favor they had in mind for him. One wrong word from either of them and Lucian was geared up to run the hell out of there and never look back. "Help us deal with the Ubrac brothers" Janis said.

"What?" Lucian said puzzled. "The Ubrac brothers. They are a family of thieves that steal jewelry, food, gems, money, anything they think is of value. Lately their eyes have been set on Ironcry and its people and resources" Janis clarified. "Oh. Why hasnt anyone done anything about them? and what about the authories?...are there even authories of some sort to speak of?" Lucian asked. "They're all useless" Avara stated bluntly. "The people around here just want to be saved. They'd want everything done for them, for their whole lives to be as easy and convenient as can be with little effort, if that was possible. And the Ubrac brothers kept getting away from anyone else that tried to stop them. So we took it upon ourself to after them" Janis explained. Janis and Avara looked at each other for a moment.

Lucian was surprised. His mind had gone to all the worst scenario's and outcomes he could think of, so this wasnt what he had expected in the least. Had he misjudged them?, he wondered. "Wow. Thats really a noble thing for you to do, but I dont see how I could help" Lucian said. "There's five Ubrac brothers. We've already.......captured one of them. With your help it would even the odds" Avara said. "No you see it wouldnt. I'm no good at something like that. I'd just be dead weight" Lucain replied. Avara now wore an annoyed expression. Avara looked at Janis, but Janis gave a reassuring smile in return. This favor of theirs was starting to sound dangerous and Lucian didnt like the idea of intentionally putting himself in harms way. Also it didnt seem all that fair to him that they were asking so much of him in return for just getting a decent meal. "What if I helped clean around your house or something...or even maybe looked after it while you chase down the Ubrac brothers. Thats sounds fair to do in return for the meal you gave me" Lucian said.

Avara glared at Lucian now. She looked like she had some things to say about that. Lucian tryed reading her thoughts again, but Avara's mind still seemed like a void to him. Maybe it had been the wrong thing to say, he was thinking. Just as Avara was about to speak, Janis put her hand on Avara's shoulder. With a deep exhale, it looked like Avara calmd down. Janis took her hand off of Avara's shoulder and focused her attention on Lucian. "Please" Janis said as she placed her hand on Lucian's. He inhaled sharply. "Please help us stop the Ubrac brothers. Help us make things just alittle bit better here in Ironcry. What if one day they decide that thievery isnt enough for them anymore? What if the rest of them are all together next time we confront them, what are two girls like us suppose to do all by ourselves? What if they....try to take advantage of us?" Janis said as tears began forming in her eyes. "No one else will help us. So please, i'm begging you to help" Janis said.

This had very much startled Lucian. After a moment, he sighed. "Okay. I'll do this favor for you" Lucian replied, while he put his hand over hers briefly. A voice in the back of his mind had been telling him to say 'no'. He really didnt want to get involved and he honestly didnt think he would be of any help to them anyway. Maybe they would figure that out on their own, he hoped. But he would of had to of been a really cold bastard to have been able to say no Janis just now. "Thank you" Janis said. She took back her hand and wiped away her tears. She looked to Avara and smiled briefly. "Good. Then we should leave immediatly" Avara said. "You know where they are right now?" Lucian asked.

"I heard a rumor about the rest of Ubrac brothers being in the Northern Mountains" Avara replied. "The Northern Mountains?" Lucian had no knowledge of them. Avara and Janis guessed this from the expression on his face. "Its west of here. Those mountains have mines in them with ores and gemstones. Some of this cities resources comes from those mountains. If the Ubrac brothers are there, the gemstone are what they're after" Janis said plainly. "Oh" Lucian replied. "Please wait here while we go upstairs to get one or two things. We'll leave right after" Janis said. "um..sure" Lucian replied.

Upstairs, Janis grabed a backpack and the both of them put some weapons into it. Then Avara grabed a black book that had been sitting on the nightstand. She seemed to covet this book. "Definitly cant forget this" Avara said as she put the black book into the backpack. With a smile, Janis closed the backpack and slung it over her one shoulder. Avara grabed Janis' arm lightly. "Good job down there" Avara said. "I know" Janis replied. They went downstairs afterward. As they three of them left the house, Lucian glanced at the backpack. "Just some supplies we'll need" Janis told him. "I dont mind carrying it for you if you like?" Lucian offered. "No thanks" Janis replied. As they were leaving Ironcry, people were again staring and giving all sorts of looks. Lucian noticed they were aimed mostly at Avara and Janis. Some people they passed by went out of their way to get away from the three of them.

[Lucian]

From the window of a residence at the the edge of Ironcry, the man in the grey robe watched as Avara, Janis, and Lucian left the city. "Opportunity at last" he said. The people who actually lived in that house were all unconscous in their seats at the dinner table. The man in the grey robe (Zorander) ate some of their food before he left their house. He walked along the streets of Ironcry till he had arrived at the doorstep of Avara and Janis' humble abode. He tried to open the door. It was locked of course, which he had expected. Zorander muttered some words under his breath while waving his hand infront of the door. Now the door did open. Zorander went inside and made sure to close the door behind him. "Now where is it?" he wondered.

Zorander went downstairs into Avara and Janis's basement first. The first thing he noticed was the terrible stench. It was very nearly vomit inducing. Most people would just leave rather than stomach that smell. When he got all the way down there, he saw something laying on the middle of the floor. It was the corpse of the Ubrac brother that Avara had told Lucian they had 'captured'. It was missing an eye. "So thats how it is. Those two filthy acursed bitches have been using it for themselves" Zorander was incredibly pissed off. He ransacked the rest of the house trying to find what he was looking for with no success. When he looked in the dining room he saw the empty plates all about the table. He whispered a few words out loud and then suddenly he could hear the conversation that had taken place in this room as if it was happening infront of him. "The Northern Mountains it is" he said.

Meanwhile. Avara, Janis, and Lucian were walking along through the grass plains between Ironcry and the Northern Mountains. "I dont mean to be rude, but isnt it to warm for an overcoat? You must be suffocating in that" Lucian said. "You're being rude" Avara replied. "Wow, okay" Lucian mumbled. "So where are you from?" Janis asked Lucian. "You're actually curious about that?" Avara said, interupting. "Yes barely" Janis replied. "gee, thanks" Lucian was thinking to himself. "I just dont see the point in knowing something like that about him" Avara said. "Um...I'm right here you know" Lucian said. Janis smiled. Avara sighed. "So where are you from, Lucian? You are not from here in the human territory" Janis said, getting back to her question.

Talking about where he was from was not a topic that thrilled him. Awkward silences with these two didnt thrill him either. So he figured being vague about it was a good enough compromise. "Where I'm from is far away" Lucian replied. "A different realm?" Janis asked. "No" Lucian replied. "Alternate reality or timeline?" Janis asked. "No" he replied. The tone in his voice had suggested that he thought that was ridiculous. "Another planet in this system?" Janis asked. "Much farther than that" Lucian replied. Janis looked like she pondered his answer momentarily. "So no family than" Janis said. Avara regained slight interest in their conversation at that point. Lucian liked this topic even less. "Actually I have two siblings, but I'm here by myself" Lucian said in an unhappy tone. Just mentioning them made him wonder how they were doing, and if they were okay, and that he would most definitly never see them again. He needed a change in conversation. "So how about you two, any family?" Lucian asked them.

"Suffice it to say, the two of us have each other. Thats all there is to it" Avara said. Avara and Janis had looked at each other briefly while she spoke. "That must be nice" Lucian thought. And then they had arrived at the Northern Mountains. Lucian took in the sight of these mountains that he had never seen before. As he did he noticed quite a few tunnel-like entrances to the mines. "How are we suppose to figure out which way to go in, in order to find the Ubrac brothers? And how extensive are these mines anyway?" Lucian asked. "They are very extensive. The mines go through these mountains from one side to the other. They also go deep and are rumored to be maze-like" Janis answered with a smile. "Yay" Lucian said sarcasticly. The idea of getting lost forever and dieing within the mines crossed Lucian's mind and he didnt like it at all. "It doesnt matter which way we go in. We'll find the Ubrac brothers if they're here" Avara said. Avara walked confidently into the mines with a certainty about her. Lucian sighed, before following her inside.

[Lucian]

Avara, Janis, and Lucian were making their way through the mines. They hadnt bumped into anyone so far. Either the regular miners had decided to take the day off or they were all working in another part of the mine. These mines went all throughout the Northern Mountains, so it was entirely possible that the three of them and the miners were no where near each other. It was also possible for neither group to realize the other was ever there. Lucian hadnt actually seen any gemstones yet since they entered. Unknown to him, this whole section of the mine had all its resources used up very long ago. Hence the lack of miners in this section they were in. Any ores, metals and precious gemstone would be further in. Which is likely where the Ubrac brothers would be if they were here. It wasnt a problem seeing where they were going because lanterns hung from the wooden beams that supported the walls and ceiling of the tunnels. The tunnels diverged and criss-crossed in many myriad ways. It was hard not to get lost. Lucian considered them to be lost already, but the expresion on Avara's and Janis' faces conveyed that they disagreed. Lucian was concerned about how they would get out. Did natives of this area just happen to know the way automatically, or did Avara or Janis have a map of the mines that they had kindly decided to not bother sharing. Lucian frowned at the thought.

Avara stoped suddenly, causing Janis and Lucian to stop as well. "What is it?" Lucian asked. "I thought i heard something just now" Avara replied. Lucian looked around. He didnt see anything. "Are you sure?" Lucian asked. Avara slowly took a few steps forward and took a peek down a tunnel that intersected the one they were in. A man carrying two bags of gems was walking through this tunnel while merrily humming to himself, at least until he spotted Avara. He stoped in his tracks. "Who are you?!" he demanded. "Are you one of the Ubrac brothers?" Avara asked. "Damn it" the man said as he droped his bags and started to run the other way. "Found one" Avara exclaimed as she chased after him. Janis had quickly followed. "Hey wait" Lucian said as he ran after them, trying to catch up. Avara couldnt help but smirk. When this Ubrac brother thought he had gotten enough distance from them, he stoped and turned toward them. He held out his hand infront of him and it started to glow as energy gathered. This energy then formed into crystaline shards which he shot at his pursuers. "Duck!" Avara yelled. Not only did she dodge them with ease but she also managed to pull Janis out of the way as well. Lucian on the other hand had been left to fend for himself.

Lucian had barely seen them coming as he heard Avara yell. He stoped and duck just barely in time, so the crystaline shards hit the wall right beside him. Lucian looked up and looked at the crystaline shards in the wall. "What the hell was that?!" Lucian said as he stood up. He looked ahead and saw the Ubrac brother standing there in the distance. He realized what had happend. The Ubrac brother took the oppurtunity to start running away. "Come on we're going after him" Avara said. "Wait, you didnt tell me the Ubrac brothers could do anything like that. You told me they were just theives, which seems to not be the whole story" Lucian said. "The Ubrac brothers are mutants" Janis informed him. Lucian had already been made aware that there were all sorts of weird and powerful and dangerous beings on this world, he had even seen it for himself on a few occasions. But this was more about the fact that they just didnt bother to let him know, that they deceived him about it and intentionally left it out as if to make sure he would agree easier to doing this favor for them. "Why didnt either of you tell me" Lucian demanded to know. Avara looked back at Lucian. She looked frustrated with him at the moment. "How do you think the Ubrac brothers kept getting away all the time from the authorities in Ironcry. I thought you'd put two and two together. And what does it matter anyway" Avara said. "Because we could get killed! How are we supposed to stop them" Lucian replied.

"We dont have time for this. So unless you have some way of stoping that Ubrac brother right now, we need to go after him" Avara said. She was actually baiting him, daring him almost. Even though Lucian hadnt said otherwise, she knew from Janis that Lucian wasnt a normal human. She wanted to see for herself if there was something Lucian could do in this situation. She wanted to know what he was capable of. Avara was starting to test him. What Avara said had made Lucian pause for a moment. Ever since arriving on Tiberia, he had been very careful for the most part about hiding what he could do. So he wouldnt provoke anyone, so he wouldnt get killed, so he wouldnt get himself into trouble. His abilities had been what got him in trouble in the first place back where he was from. It had triggered a miserable chain of events that had led him to being on Tiberia. More reasons he was very hesitant so far about most of his abilities. But right now there was something he could do to stop that Ubrac brother. He found himself for the first time in a scenario where his abilities could help do something good, a small part in getting the Ubrac brothers caught. "Okay i'll stop him" Lucian said.

"Then do it, and quickly before he gets away" Avara said. Avara's tone sounded rude and ungrateful at the moment but actually she was pleased with herself. Though she wouldnt be surprised if she wound up disappointed by him. Lucian walked infront of Avara and Janis. He had a clear sight of the Ubrac brother. "Okay" Lucian said to himself as he sighed. Then his right eye glowed a faint blue, and as it did he stared at the Ubrac brother and said "I compel you to stop running!" Suddenly the Ubrac brother had realized he had stoped moving. "Whats going on?" he was thinking. He tried to move but his limbs just wouldnt obey. As he continued to struggle to move, he started bleeding slightly from his nose and then his head hurt. The more he tried to move the more it hurt. The Ubrac brother had no choice but to give in, standing there seemingling frozen in place. Lucian smiled briefly, his right eye still glowing. "It worked" Lucian said relieved. Avara looked back at Janis for a moment before going to Lucian. She patted him on the shoulder. "Good work" she said. She looked pleased. The three of them approached the Ubrac brother.

[Lucian]

The Ubrac brother glared at the three of them as they surrounded him. Especially at Lucian for what he was doing to him. Avara grabed the Ubrac brothers hand and seemed to examine it. "Do you need both hands to use your power?" Avara asked. "Yes actually. What do you care?" replied the Ubrac brother. "Interesting" Avara said, more to herself as she looked up his arms briefly. Lucian was perplexed by this behavior of hers. "Would you mind guiding us to your brothers?" Janis asked. "Not on your life" the Ubrac brother said before spitting at her. Avara backhanded him. The Ubrac brothers' jaw bruised a bit. Janis wiped the spit off of her face with a smile. "Please refrain from doing that again" Janis said. "What do you want with us!" the Ubrac brother shouted. Janis and Avara paused and looked at each other for a minute. "We're doing our part to make Ironcry safe from the likes of you, of course" came Janis' carefully thought out reply.

Lucian tried reading Janis' thoughts again. "Dang it, bunnies again" Lucian thought to himself. He then proceeded to read the Ubrac brothers thoughts. He was only thinking about trying to get away from the three of them so he could get rich off the gems he was stealing. Lucian felt a slight strain from sustaining compel on the Ubrac brother while using his telepathy at the same time. Lucian spoke in his mind. "Could you just say where your brothers are, or at the least just think about it right now. I would really prefer not to have to do anything else to you if I can avoid it." The Ubrac brother glared at Lucian and said aloud, "Screw you." Lucian sighed. "Tell us where they are, please" Janis told the Ubrac brother. "How many times do I have to say it. Over my dead body" the Ubrac brother replied. Janis put her hand on Avara's shoulder. Avara huffed. "This is pointless" Avara said. "Wait. Maybe their is a way for Lucian to get what we ask out of him" Janis said. Both her and Avara looked at Lucian now. Lucian sighed again. "There is something I could do, but you would need to hold him down" Lucian said.

Janis and Avara quickly exchanged a smile and a nod. "Hey what is he talking about?!" the Ubrac brother said slightly nervous. Avara and Janis each grabed one of his arms and held onto him tightly after slamming him against the tunnel wall. Lucian's right eye ceased glowing blue. He had stoped sustaining compel, and the Ubrac brother could feel it. He immediatly began to struggle. "Get the hell off of me! There may be gems in it for you if you do" the Ubrac brother said. His bribe was depret and also a lie. "What are you waiting for" Avara said impatiently. Lucian hesitated. He had only suggested this in the spirit of helping, but it wasnt something he had actually wanted to do at all. This was the ability he disliked the most, of all the things he was currently aware he could do. To him it was intense, amoral, violating, and potentially dangerous. Lucian was reconsidering doing it at all, but if he didnt he thought the Ubrac brother might get away to continue being a menace to Ironcry and it would be all his fault. Lucian was thinking that he had backed himself into a corner. "Damn it" Lucian mumbled. If he didnt do it now, he wouldnt do it at all. So he just went for it.

Lucian put his hands on the Ubrac brothers' temples and closed his eyes, initiating his mind scan ability and forcefully plunging deep within the Ubrac brothers mind. The Ubrac brother started to yell and scream as this happened. Lucian found himself rumaging through the Ubrac brothers memories of his life. It turned out that the Ubrac family have been thieves for at least a few generations. Nomadicly moving from terrritory to territory using their mutant powers to steal whatever the next big score was. The parents of the five brothers had recently died. They had killed each other argueing about possesion over a bunch of gold. Mostly everything else Avara and Janis had told Lucian about the Ubrac brothers was true. Except that.... "their brother is dead?!" Lucian discovered. Lucian searched through every corner of his mind for more information. Lucian found that this brother didnt know the details because he had been informed of the grim news by another of the brothers. One of the brothers though knew exactly what happened to the brother that died because the two of them were together when it happened. In the process of looking for that info, Lucian had also discovered where the other Ubrac brothers were. Or at least where they had told this brother they would be. Lucian had to be careful now while exiting the Ubrac brothers mind. There was a risk in accidentally taking some of the Ubrac brothers memories with him, or even worse the risk in accidentally taking some of the Ubrac brothers personality traits with him.

Lucian took his hands off of the Ubrac brothers temples. He took a few steps back, opened his eyes, and fell on his rear. Lucian's breathing was heavy for the moment, as if he were exhausted or trying to catch his breath. The Ubrac brother had stoped yelling by now. He wasnt struggling right now but he would be again if given the chance. "Tell us if you found out something, Lucian" Janis said plainly. "Two of his brothers came with him here to the mines" Lucian replied. "Damn you!" the Ubrac brother said. Avara punched him in the stomach. "Only two? There should be another one. Where is he?" Avara said in a frustrated tone. "Their youngest brother ran off to chase after a rumor about a town filled with treasure on an island north of this territory" Lucian replied. "We'll have to deal with that later" Avara said annoyed. Avara was about to ask something when Lucian spoke again. "The youngest Ubrac brother also ran off because the news that one of his brothers was dead really upset him. Did you know that the Ubrac brother you captured is dead now?" Lucian asked.

Avara paused. She realized Lucian had seen more than what she had asked him to look for. In a way she was surprised and pleased. Avara glanced at Janis for a moment. "Oh. No I didnt know. Thats odd..... maybe the authorities in Ironcry changed the rules about the punishment for theivery, or possibly he could have been killed trying to get away" Avara said. "But if the authorities did change the rules, is it right to still have the Ubrac brothers captured for them?" Lucian asked. "As opposed to continue letting the Ubrac brothers menace the lives of the people in Ironcry" Avara replied. Lucian found it hard to disagree when she put it that way, but it still seemed a bit wrong to him. "Did you get any specifics about where the two other Ubrac brothers are in these mines" Avara said, finally getting back to what she would have asked before.

"Down the tunnel we saw him coming from, eventually there's a fork in the path. One of them went left, the other right. I mean thats where they told him they were going. So if they changed their minds after or were just lieing to him, I wouldnt know" Lucian replied. Lucian actually had an ability that enabled him to locate people, things, and places with exact accuracy, but he has to know exactly what he's looking for in order for it to work. In this case he would've had to known and met the other two Ubrac brothers for it to work. Its why he didnt mention it. Otherwise Lucian would've just done that in the first place, he certainly would of preffered it. "Fine, its good enough place to start. Janis and I will go find them, while you stay here and keep an eye on him" Avara told Lucian. "No ones keeping an eye on me!" said the Ubrac brother. He began struggling to get free. "Lucian, would you mind" Janis said. "Oh right" he replied. His right eye again glowed blue faintly. He stared at the Ubrac brother while he said, "I compel you to stay right here!" "Not this crap again" the Ubrac brother said after he found himself unable to go anywhere or move. Avara and Janis had already let go of him. "Wait why am I being left behind here? I thought the whole point of me coming was to help you" Lucian asked.

"You have helped. And you'll help more later. But you look exhausted, and besides the Ubrac brothers have split up. We'll come back for you" Avara said before walking away. Avara had decided she had tested Lucian enough for the moment. Janis smiled at Lucian before following Avara. "Still think he's a dud?" Janis asked. "No Lucian's a good find afterall. Can he do more?" Avara asked. "The answer is still yes" Janis replied. "Then I cant wait" Avara said. Eventually Avara and Janis were out of Lucian's sight. He frowned. "You're an idiot" the Ubrac brother told Lucian.

[Lucian]

Avara and Janis walked down the mineshaft till they reached the fork in the path, leaving them with a choice of left or right. "How much longer are we going to test Lucian?" Janis asked. "Just until we're done dealing with all the Ubrac brothers. I figure its a good oppurtunity to get more out of him, if possible" Avara replied. Avara turned left and Janis followed. "And what happens after we're done with the Ubrac brothers?" Janis asked. "We deal with Lucian immediatly" Avara replied. "And then?" Janis asked. "Onward to bigger and better things" Avara replied. Janis smiled. Avara then grabed Janis suddenly and pulled her quickly to the tunnel wall, just in the nick of time to avoid an energy beam of some sort that had fired down the tunnel in their direction. They recognized that energy beam, they had seen it once before and knew where it came from. An Ubrac brother.

This brother had been on his way to meet up with his other brothers when he heard people talking, coming his way. He had decided to attack first, question later. He was annoyed that his attack had missed. But now he got a good look at Avara and Janis, he recognized them as well. His eyes were wide with terror. "Its you! No this isnt happening!" the Ubrac brother shouted as he blasted a barrage of energy beams from his eyes at them.

::flashback start:: Two Ubrac brothers ran into an alleyway somewhere in Ironcry. They had just stolen a families entire saving fund. They were bizy catching their breaths and congratulating each other. Then Avara and Janis steped into the alley. "What do you two want? Are you lost" an Ubrac brother said. The other laughed. "We saw you steal from that family. We saw one of you do something not quite human" Janis said. "Mind your buisness and get lost if you know whats good for you" an Ubrac brother said. "Show me what you can do again" Avara nearly demanded. "What!? You asked for it" an Ubrac brother said. He then blasted energy beams from his eyes at them. Janis immediatly stood infront of Avara, shielding Avara and taking a direct hit. Janis fell to the ground. It didnt actually wound her, but the energy beam had rendered Janis extremely dazed, incredibly confused and somewhat nauseated. "Thats acceptable i suppose" Avara replied. "You wouldnt be saying that if all five of us Ubrac brothers were here. So if you dont want to be next, you'll leave now" an Ubrac brother said. "I have a different idea" Avara replied.
She took off one of her gloves revealing a demons claw where a hand should be. Above the palm of the claw, the air ignited forming a flame which began to get larger. "What the hell, lets get out of here" the two Ubrac brothers exclaimed. As the two of them ran for the exit of the alleyway, Avara throw a nearly person sized fireball at them. One of the Ubrac brothers yelled out as he was burned almost to charcoal. The other Ubrac only stoped briefly before he kept running. "Damn I was aiming for the other one. Janis what can this one do?" Avara asked. Janis had started to get up. "He can dispel illusions with a glance" Janis managed to reply. "What a disapointment. I guess it''ll have to do" Avara said. ::flashback end::

"Its you! No this isnt happening!" the Ubrac brother shouted as he blasted a barrage of energy beams from his eyes at them. Avara's red left eye glowed briefly before firing an optic blast, which completly wiped out any incoming energy beams and blasted the Ubrac brother into the tunnel wall. He then fell to the ground. "Ow" he said. He held his midsection while trying to get up. "Are you alright, Janis" Avara asked. "Yes i am fine" Janis replied. Avara opened the backpack Janis had slung over her shoulder and pulled out a gun and the black book. She walked over to the Ubrac brother and kicked him in the gut, causing him pain and to roll onto his back. He looked up and saw Avara standing over him with a gun pointed down at his head. "Please, dont!" the Ubrac brother said. Avara looked him in the eyes as she pulled the trigger. Janis walked over and put the gun into the backpack again. Janis smiled. "Now for my favorite part" Avara said. She opened the black book.

Meanwhile. In a different area of the mines, another of the Ubrac brothers was happily gathering precious gems and ores. At least he was until a man suddenly appeared before him. "What the hell!?" the Ubrac brother said while backing away. "Who are you?" the Ubrac brother said after getting a good look at the man in the grey robe. Zorander looked over the Ubrac brother for a moment. "Hmm, you look related to the corpse in the bitches basement. They must want to collect the whole set" Zorander said more to himself. "What are you talking about?" the Ubrac brother said baffled. "The two bitches with the black book. They came to these mountains to get you. Tell me which way they went" Zorander demanded. "Listen looney-tune, i have no clue what you're babbling about. Now if you dont mind, I was in the middle of getting richer" the Ubrac brother said. "Dont play games with me, insect" Zorander said. "Was that a threat" the Ubrac brother said. "If thats what it takes to get a spec of dirt like you to tell me what I want to know" Zorander replied. "Okay I've had enough. No one talks to the Ubrac brothers that way" he said, imediatly before firing blasts if lightning at Zorander.

Zorander was hit directly in the chest by the lightning and repelled back about ten feet by it. This was when, while ignoring the pain, he waved both his arms toward the tunnel walls. The lightning then redirected away from Zorander and went into the walls. He pushed both arms forward and the lightning moved up the walls and blasted out of the gemstones and back at the Ubrac brother. It was like watching a fly writhing in an electrical web. "Your pain ends when you tell me what i've asked of you" Zorander said while taking a few steps towards him. The Ubrac brother started to grin. He had a resistance built up to his lightning and wouldnt be done in by his own attack. He changed the course of the lightning, at first it was a struggle but he managed. The lightning now moved around him instead of at him. And then the Ubrac brother concentrated it and blasted it back at Zorander. Lightning wasnt going to strike Zorander twice though. With the mumble of a word, a gemstone flew out from the tunnel wall and intercepted the attack, taking the full force of the lightning. Then waved his hand forward, and what was left of the gemstone flung into the Ubrac brothers gut.

The Ubrac brother gasped from the sudden immence pain in his midsection and fell to his knees. Zorander looked down at him. "Just so you know, this could have been avoided if you had just cooperated, insect" Zorander said. The Ubrac brother glared at him. With a movement of Zorander's arms, the rest of the gemstones embedded in this part of the tunnel flung out of the walls and into the Ubrac brother. Blood splashed all over. Zorander tried to wipe as much of the blood off of him as he could, while walking further down the tunnel. "Now to find those...." suddenly Zorander could barely stand and was nearly out of breath. "Damn it not now,....I must withdraw. I need to be at full strength when i confront those bitches" Zorander said pissed off. He was gone in a puff of smoke.

Not that much later Avara and Janis arrived where Zorander had been. "He's conveniently dead" Janis said observing the Ubrac brothers corpse. "To convenient" Avara replied. "Have the brothers betrayed each other, or was it the miners?" Janis said. "No ordinary human could have done that...... Anyway, what was this one capable of" Avara asked. "To put it simply, lightning" Janis replied. Avara smirked. "How nice of someone to do most of the work for us" Avara said.

Alittle while afterward, Avara and Janis met up with Lucian and the Ubrac brother. "How did things go? Where's the other Ubrac brothers?" Lucian asked. Avara and Janis looked at each other. "When we confronted one of them there was a struggle...and he died" Avara said. "NOOO!" the Ubrac brother shouted. "He died? We're suppose to be capturing them. I didnt agree to help you murder them!" Lucian said. "Excuse me for surviving! He was about to kill me, he didnt leave me a choice damn it!" Avara yelled. She turned away, seemingly upset. Lucian kind of felt like crap now. "I'm sorry" Lucian said. "All of you can go to hell" the Ubrac brother said. He was a bit inconsolable about it. The three of them kind of looked at him. "So um...what about the other one?" Lucian asked. Janis looked at Avara and then said "We never found him, maybe he wasnt here" Avara grinned before turning back around. "Again i'm sorry. I didnt mean to be a jerk" Lucian said. "Dont worry about it. Lets get out of here" Avara replied.

Lucian turned to the Ubrac brother. His right eye was still glowing faintly blue while he said "I compel you to follow us!" Soon enough the Ubrac brother was following them out of the mines whether he wanted to or not. While Lucian distrusted Avara and Janis less now, he still found himself uneasy about them from time to time. The fact that, as far as he knew, two Ubrac brothers were already dead also made he really uneasy. If any other Ubrac brothers wound up or surfaced as dead, Lucian decided he would be done with Avara and Janis. "So whats the plan now?" Lucian asked. They were walking away from the Northern mountains at this point.

"Its been a long day. You should camp out and get some rest. In the meantime I'll go back to Ironcry with this Ubrac brother in order to hand him over to the authorities" Avara said. "We should be rested up before we head to the island north of this territory to go after the Ubrac brother thats suppose to be there" Janis added. "Oh" Lucian said. He was surprised by how considerate of them that sounded. "Wait so i'm being left out here by myself?" Lucian asked. If that was the case, then he was done with thier favor. "No Janis will camp out with you. No need for us all to go back" Avara replied. "And how are we getting to whatever island it is the Ubrac brothers on?" Lucian asked. "After handing this Ubrac brother to the authorities, I'll make preparations for getting a boat" Avara replied. After Lucian compeled the Ubrac brother to follow Avara, the two of them left for Ironcry...or so Lucian thought. Avara grinned. Lucian and Janis were left to camp out in the field.

[Lucian]

Somewhere in the plains between the Northern Mountains and Ironcry, Lucian and Janis had made camp. Janis had gathered some wood to start a fire with from the Forest of Elements alittle earlier. It was kind of late into the night now. Janis sat on one side of the fire. Lucian laid on his side on the opposite side of the fire. Lucian had attempted to go to sleep earlier but he just didnt trust or know Janis well enough to let himself fall asleep around her. He had attempted to read Janis' thoughts again earlier out of habbit, but that didnt work. Janis had been sitting there silently looking into the fire. It captivated her a lot more than Lucian did. Occasionally she would glance for a moment back at Lucian, catching him still awake with his eyes on her. Whether he actually got any sleep this night wasnt her concern. Thats his problem, she figured.

Lucian sighed. The silence was becoming slightly akward, and the akwardness was slightly getting to him. "So, um..... Are you human?" Lucian asked her. Janis looked up from the fire and at him. "Why do you ask?" she reponded with a slight smile. "Well...I mean I've encountered some creatures and people that are capable of all sorts of things, some of them seemingly really really powerful. And then there's the Ubrac brothers which are a family of mutants, and I can tell just from that left eye of Avara's that she isnt quite human. So I guess I asked you because I was curious" Lucian replied. "I'm very much human. Although I do have a talent for being able to exactly sence all the powers people that I meet have. I consider it a sixth sence of sorts" Janis said. She didnt see the harm in telling him. Lucian was surprised to learn this, though it still left him confused about why he couldnt really read her thoughts. "Do bunnies mean anything to you by any chance?" Lucian asked.

While she didnt show it, Janis had found that question amusing. It wasnt a question she ever intended to elaborate on though. "No" Janis lied in responce. "Oh...... Anyway, so whats after all this is done with?" Lucian asked. "Be more specific please" Janis said. "I mean, if I manage to be able to help you two capture the rest of the Ubrac brothers and if we're actually successful for that matter... What happens then? I guess I'm asking what your intentions are after that?" Lucian said. "Once we get all the Ubrac brothers....Ironcry will be a safer place for it. The people of Ironcry and Avara and I will be greatfull to you. We will thank you for it and then...send you on your way. Wherever that may be" Janis replied. She thought that sounded believable enough. "Oh okay" Lucian was just making sure.

"What would be next for you?" Janis asked. Lucian sighed as he laid flat on his back now. "No idea" Lucian replied. Janis looked back at the fire. Now that Lucian was on his back, he was looking upward at the night sky and the stars. For some reason looking up at those stars made Lucian think about his siblings. He tried to reach out with his telepathy, he tried despretly to reach theirs minds, to hear their thoughts or to get them to hear his. It didnt work. They were just to far away, they might as well be an infinite distance from him.

Back in the mines of the Northern Mountains, the guy with the crossbow was looking over the corpse of one of the Ubrac brothers. This corpse was embedded with gemstones all over and was also missing an arm. "Zorander must have been here, this is his doing" the guy said. And then he kneeled over and took a closer look at the lack of an arm. "But I thought Zorander had graduated from people... someone else must have taken the arm. Probly the same person who took the eye from the other corpse i found in these mines. I get it. Whoever it is must have Zorander's book and he's going after them" the guy realized. "You wont evade me forever, Zorander. You'll pay for it all" the guy said. The guy with the crossbow got up and left, making sure he would be unseen by the miners.

In was dawn and the sun was starting to rise as Avara, by herself, arrived at where Lucian and Janis had made camp. The camp fire had gone out and both Lucian and Janis seemed to be sleeping. It wasnt that either of them had went to sleep by intent or choice, just that eventually exhaustion gets the best of everyone whether they like it or not. Avara went by Janis and kneeled down. As she started opening the backpack that Janis had next to her, Janis woke up. "Good morning" Avara said. Janis responded in kind. Avara placed the black book into the backpack and closed it again. "Did things go well?" Janis asked. "Yep. Four Ubrac brothers down and one to go" Avara replied. Janis smiled. "Wake him up, we should get going before that last Ubrac brother gets another bright idea to run off somewhere else even more remote" Avara said.

Upon waking Lucian up, the three of them had set off and were now heading north. "So how did it go, Avara?" Lucian was curious. Avara was annoyed by his questions and annoyed by having to think up things to tell him all the time. And she was a bit on the sleep deprived side of things, so that never helps. "I....handed over...that Ubrac brother to the authorities in Ironcry. They appreciated it." Avara said. "Did you ask about what happened with the Ubrac brother that wound up dieing somehow after you handed him over?" Lucian asked. Avara huffed. "The authorities said it was suicide pure and simple" Avara replied. Janis patted Avara on the shoulder. Lucian found something slightly off about that, considering what he found out during that mind scan of an Ubrac brother, that one of the brothers had been with the brother that first died when it had happened. "And were you able to get us a boat?" Lucian asked.

"I was. My preparations to get a boat went accordingly without problem. A decent boat's waiting for us on the northern shore of this territory, which is where we're heading" Avara replied. Lucian smiled for a moment. The fact that they were going to the northern shore made Lucian feel good, even if they would only be there briefly. "Once there we'll take the boat to that island north of this territory. With any luck the Ubrac brothers thats supposed to have run off there will still actually be there. And hopefully we dont encounter any of those damned sea creatures that tend to attack Ironcry at random" Avara said. "Sea creatures!?!.....Please tell me you're joking" Lucian said alarmed.

[Lucian]

A modest boat awaited them not far off the shore of the Northern Coast of the human territory. It was white and streamline. The front of the boat housed the controls for driving it, nearly like a three sided desk. A comfy chair was their for a captain. There was also a white cushioned seat along each inner side of the rear of the boat, able to sit up to four passengers. A mini zodiac was upon the beach for them to use to get to boat. Lucian wouldnt have minded the swim, but Avara seemed completly against it. It would have completly soaked her overcoat and forced her to take it off, something she was dead set about not doing. Which is probably why she had set the mini zodiac on the beach by herself before getting them. Lucian, considering Avara's scars on her face and completly red left eye, had come under the impression that maybe her overcoat was for hiding a grotesque scar of some sort. Aside from that, Lucian was very much enjoying being at the Northern Shore again.

It was nice, calming, and it seemed like there would never be enough time to take it all in. "What are you waiting for" Avara said. Avara and Janis had already gotten in the mini zodiac. Lucian frowned. It only took a few minutes to sail over to the boat. Janis tied the mini zodiac to the back of the boat, while Avara went straight to the captians seat and began the process of starting up the engine. Of course..., not even a vote or opinion or anything about who the captain should be, Lucian figured as much. He just sighed as he sat down on one of the passenger seats. Lucian knew by now that most of the time consideration wasnt either of their forte. Once Janis sat down across from him, she put the backpack down besides her and smiled to Avara. Then they sailed off. Lucian kept his eyes mostly out on the ocean. "So this boat is your now?" Lucian asked. "It seemed more practical to rent it" Avara replied. "Hmm... and what about this island we're headed to? What's it like?" Lucian asked.

"It is large, nearly the size of the smaller territories. There is not supposed to be much of anything there" Janis told him plainly. "Except now for the Ubrac brother and rumors of a town filled with treasure" Lucian said. Janis smiled briefly, then looked away.

Some time had passed while they were sailing towards the island. Lucian had been able to see the northern coastline of the human territory for awhile, but its also been awhile since they lost sight of that. They sky was clear and the breeze was slight and tolerable. Lucian was glad there was wasnt a storm. While he didnt know what storms on Tiberia were like, he could still make assumptions about it. And the idea of a storm draging the boat and him with it to the bottom of the ocean was not a thrilling thought.

There wasnt much conversation happening on the boat. Usually Lucian disdained the awkward silences, but this time he didnt mind all that much. He was buisy thinking about quite a few things. Mostly about this Ubrac brother they were currently going after. When Lucian had preformed that Mind Scan on one of the Ubrac brothers, there was some other info about the brother they're now going after that Lucian had found out and neglected to mention. Intentionally. Lucian wanted to figure out what to do with this particular Ubrac brother on his own.

It would still be helping Avara and Janis, right? Lucian figured in a way. But also Lucian wanted to make a difference too. Somehow, at some point between when this started and now...and despite the thin ice's worth of trust he had for Avara and Janis, Lucian had decided that helping to capture the Ubrac brothers would be his first really good deed on Tiberia. A first act of good towards the world he found himself basically adrift on now, something that would at least help some people and the world of Tiberia in some tiny beneficial way. Something to root him and really connect him to Tiberia in some small manner.

There was a loud thud on the under side of the boat. Lucian had very nearly fell out of his seat. "What was that?" Lucian asked. He turned around and saw a sea creature in the water. It was a Dragon Turtle and it was much large than their boat. Lucian back away to the side Janis was on. But it didnt move. "I thought you said the sea creatures attack people" Lucian said. "Its dead" Janis said. "Its not the only one" Avara said. Janis now stood up also and her and Lucian walked up to the front of the boat by Avara's seat. They kept sailing towards the island, the closer they got the more dead sea creatures they encountered.

[Lucian]

"How could this happen? What could have done this?" Lucian said repulsed by the sight of this seemingly neverending sea of dead creatures. "I dont know" Avara replied. But she wanted to find out. Badly. As far as Avara was concerned, If this was the last Ubrac brothers doing then he was definitly worth all this effort, and if it was something else then it was the lottery's worth of bonuses. Lucian knew for a fact that it was something else. He was so sure because he already knew what the Ubrac brother they were after could do. It was among the things he had found out, from the Mind Scan he did on the other Ubrac brother, that he had decided not to mention. In the back of Lucian's mind a voice was telling him to take control of the boat and turn it around and sail away as fast as possible. He wasnt going to though, which surprised even him. A misguided notion about being able to help deal with this new situation as well, perhaps? Lucian sighed. Janis put her hand on Avara's shoulder and the two of them looked at each other. "Well, we're going ahead" Avara said, turning forward again.

Getting to this island would have taken long enough on its own, having to constantly meander around dead sea creature corpses only served to make it annoyingly longer. Some people would have taken the oppurtunity to take a nap possibly. "Wake me up when we're there" Lucian imagined someone would say. He had considered saying it himself, very breifly. He was to awake and a bit on edge, just waiting for whatever horrible thing that killed all these sea creatures to jump out from nowhere to get them. Not that Lucian would admit that outloud. Also, he realized he was getting hungry. It occured to Lucian that ever sence arriving on Tiberia he hadnt taken the best care of himself when it came to things like eating. It kind of annoyed him. This was never a problem back where he was from. He considered making a point to work on it later on. But for now he just asked Janis, "Do you by any chance have anything to eat in there?" He was refering to the backpack she had at her side. Janis' attention had been elsewhere. Who knows what she had been thinking about. All Lucian could ever get out of trying to read her thoughts was bunnies. Janis turned towards Lucian for a moment and then looked at the backpack briefly before replying, "Yes, a moment please." Janis grabed the backpack and put it on her lap. She opened it in such a way as to make sure Lucian wouldnt see inside. It turned out that besides the black book and the guns, there were actually some sandwhiches in their of varying types. She took out two and held them out for Lucian. He reached over and took them. "Starving isnt allowed" Janis said with a slight smile, while quickly closing the backpack again.

It turned out the sandwhiches werent that bad, he had admitted to himself while eating them. It was nearing the evening when there was a change in the scenery. They could now see the island ahead of them and the ocean had became clear of and free of any sea creatures, dead or otherwise. All those dead sea creatures were behind them now, along with the setting sun and the orange sky. While Lucian was relieved not to have bumped into whatever had killed all those things in the first place, it was also discouraging at the same time. Had the thing that killed all those sea creatures just been buisy elsewhere. That would of been nice. But then he wondered if maybe it was actually on the island they were headed towards. Lucian frowned. With his luck thats most likely where it was.

When they got closer they could make out a port. It was a fairly nice and quant and it seemed to be lit by lamposts. When more distance was closed they spotted people. A crowd infact. These people were all standing at the port, smiling and waving, seemingly at the three of them. As if they had expected their arrival. Sailing even closer, they saw a town a short distance from the port. A paved road went directly between the port and the town. Avara and Janis were quite startled by this, afterall there wasnt supposed to be much of anything on this island, let alone any inhabitants. "It seems the rumors about a town filled with treasure arnt just rumors, at least the part about the town anyway" Lucian said.

As Avara was docking the boat into the port, the crowd of people began cheering. Well all of them but one. A young girl with long blonde hair wasnt smiling, just looking at the new arrivals. Until that is Lucian spotted her. While he took note of it, he didnt really think anything of it. For all he knew she could of just been more curious than happy at the moment. When the little blonde girl realized he had seen her, she turned around and walked back to town. Was she shy? Anyway, when Lucian steped off the boat and onto the dock, one of the people from the crowd actually came up to him and shook his hand and said "Welcome". "Oh thanks" Lucian replied. While his first instinct lately tended to be towards suspiscion, this was still a nice welcome as far as Lucian was concerned. When Avara and Janis got off the boat, people from the crowd did the same to them. The scars on Avara's face and her completly red left eye didnt seem to get any reaction out of these people in the slightest. Avara and Janis looked at each other for a moment and shruged.

"There's not suppose to be anything on this island. Explain yourselves" Janis said. She smiled politely afterwards. The people in the crowd looked amongst themselves and laughed alittle. "Sure. We just guess that most folks in the rest of the human territory forget we were even here" one of them in the crowd replied. "What about all the dead sea creatures we past on the way here?" Lucian asked. "We wouldnt know about that. We dont leave our island. And besides thats just depressing" another person in the crowd answered. Lucian tried to read this persons mind, but he didnt pick up any thoughts at all. Infact, he didnt pick up on any thoughts from anyone in this crowd. Lucian found that to be very disturbing and offputting. "Has anyone else arrived recently?" Avara asked. She was obviously asking about the last Ubrac brother. "Why yes actually..." a person in the crowd said. Avara grined. "Paydirt" Avara thought to herself. "...but he seems to have gotten himself lost somehow. We dont kinow where he is at the moment" this person in the crowd added. Avara's grin disappeared. And her and Janis and Lucian kind of gave each other a quick look.

"Well if you folks wouldnt mind. We'd like to show you some hospitality. Its nearly dark now and we have an inn that travelin types can stay at. Unfortunatly it doesnt get much use since we havent had guests in a very long time. But we'd be happy to take care of you while your here and answer any questions you might have about our humble town. Its called Feyville by the way" this person from the crowd said. "I suppose that'll have to do for now" Avara replied. The crowd of people happily led the three of them down the superclean and paved road towards their town.

[Lucian]

The crowd of people led the three of them into their humble town of Feyville. All the buildings were of old style cottage design. None of them were any taller or shorter than two stories high. The main streets were all exceptionally wide and made of red brick, while the side streets were all a tad thin and made of cobblestone. The side streets might as well of been alleyways. A lampost was lit on every corner. Many lights were still on from the windows of the houses, too. There werent any vehicles to speak of besides the occasional bicycle. Though it seemed walking was preferred by most here. The crowd that had led them in dispersed more the further into Feyville they went. By the time they reached the inn, only one person was left with the three of them. "Good Night" this person said before walking away. Yes it was night time now. There wasnt anyone outside anymore. Apparently the people of Feyville let the rising and setting of the sun inform them when to go to sleep and awake. It wasnt as if the three of them had seen any clocks anywhere. Avara, Janis, and Lucian walked inside the inn.

Upon entering they found themselves in an unpainted wooden room. Near the opposite wall was a counter with a sign in book and a bell on it. To the right of the counter was a hallway with a few rooms along it. To the right of that hallway was a stairwell that went upward. Avara went to the sign in book. All the pages but one were empty and that one page only had one name on it. Evan Ubrac. "So he was in here too. Good, hopefully we can find him easier and leave this place quick. There's a to-good-to-be-true air about this town that bothers me" Avara said. "I dont know if I agree with that, but none of the people here in town seem to have any thoughts at all whatsoever. It's really odd" Lucian decided to mention. "Is that so" Avara said. She motioned for Janis to come over. "Are any of these people capable of anything?" Avara whispered to Janis. "No, and its as if they're barely capable of being here" Janis whispered. Avara and Janis exchanged an odd look about it. Lucian was annoyed with them having a private conversation right infront of him, so he walked right up to the bell on the counter and rang it a few times. Avara frowned. Then, from one of the rooms in the hallway, came the blonde girl Lucian had seen at the port. "Oh her again" Lucian thought to himself. The young blonde girl looked them over.

"I suppose you'd like rooms" said the blonde girl. "Yes. You should get who's incharge" Janis said. "My parents are disposed of at the moment, so I'm in charge" the blonde girl replied. "Then please get us rooms" Janis said. The young blonde girl motioned for them to follow her upstairs. "Dont we have to pay for the rooms" Avara said. "You'll pay soon enough" the blonde girl replied. Once they were all up there, the blonde girl pointed out a room for each of them. "Avara and I will be sharing a room" Janis insisted. "Suit yourself" replied the blonde girl. "Where did Evan Ubrac stay?" Avara asked. "In a room down the hall. But he isnt here now. Last night he disappeared and has wound up lost, as you may have already heard. I dont know where he is right now........ trust me i've been looking" the blonde girl explained. "What about his boat? He had to of gotten here by one, yet I didnt see another at the dock" Lucian said. "It disappeared, too" the young blonde girl replied. "Well doesnt that mean he took it and left already?" Lucian asked slightly annoyed. "No, I...we would know if that were the case" the young blonde answered. "Is that so" Avara said. "Yes, have a pleasant stay" the blonde girl said. She went downstairs now to keep them from asking any more questions for the time being.

"We're spending tomorrow looking for that Ubrac brother" Avara said, before her and Janis went into their room. Lucian went into his room now too. It was quaint and plain, more like a motel room. Lucian sighed as he laid upon the bed. He couldnt remember the last time he actually slept on a bed, so he figured this was not an oppurtunity to be missed. He also figured a bit of rest couldnt hurt, but that might have just been the bed talking.

A few hours later in the midst of the night, Lucian suddenly woke up. He could of sworn he had felt something but the room was empty. Lucian sighed and then figured that since he was already up that he might as well use this oppurtunity to try and find Evan Ubrac, so he could deal with him on his own like he wanted. Lucian quietly got up and slowly opened the door. He looked around and it seemed like no one else was awake so he left the inn being as quiet as he could be. He wondered about the streets of Feyville for awhile, without much success or incident. Lucian turned down an alleyway. He walked down it for a bit until he started to realize that this alleyway was becoming maze-like. "Maybe this was a bad idea" Lucian said to himself. He turned around only to bump right into a wall. A wall that obviously wasnt there before and now blocked the way he came and only way back. "Hey!" Lucian shouted while slamming his fist against the wall. He tried this for a few minutes but got no responce. "I guess I have no choice now" Lucian said to himself. With a frown and a not-so-great feeling in his gut, Lucian kept going ahead down the maze-like path of this alleyway. Back on the other side of the wall that had shown up out of nowhere, the young blonde girl was standing there. "Good mouse. Go ahead and try to find that other lost mouse for me" said the young blonde.

Meanwhile back at the inn. Avara had been sleeping till she felt like something was in the room. She jumped up from bed suddenly. Oddly she was still in her overcoat. "Who the hell is that?!" Avara demanded. Janis was woken up by this. She sat up beside Avara. In the now open doorway of their room, the young blonde girl stood there stareing at them.

[Lucian]

Lucian was wondering around through the maze-like alleyway. He would occasionally bump into a dead end which only served to be annoying. Eventually though, and thanks to some moonlight in the right direction, Lucian found a way out. Not only did it lead out of the alleyway, but out of Feyville too. It was like a secret rear exit from the town. As Lucian looked around at the grass and borders of a small forest, he picked up on a stray thought. This was the first time he had heard any thoughts from anyone since arriving on this island. It has said something like "I have to hide." It seemed to be coming from the direction of the forest and Lucian knew it couldnt be all that far. His telepathy had almost no range. Infact the person must of been hiding behind the nearest tree and Lucian hoped this person was Evan Ubrac. It didnt take many steps to walk over to that tree. Lucian didnt see anyone there, but he wasnt discouraged for some reason. "Hello? anyone there?" Lucian said. He didnt get any responce, but he picked up a thought saying "Go away, go away." Lucian persisted. "Evan is that you? I know why you came to this island. I came to get you away from here" Lucian said. "Wait your not one of the people from Feyville?" a voice asked.

Lucian was glad to have started to make at least alittle progress. "No I'm not from Feyville. I only arrived this evening. Like i said I came to get you off this island and back to the mainland of the territory" Lucian replied. "I hope so, this place has no treasure at all and its scary dangerous. I dont like it here" Evan Ubrac was thinking. "You have a boat right?" Evan asked. "Could you come out first? I'd like to see who I'm talking to. Its okay, I dont mean any harm" Lucian said. A moment of silence went by and then suddenly Lucian could see Evan Ubrac sitting there on the ground beside the tree. There were a few things Lucian had learned about Evan Ubrac when he had used Mind Scan on one of Evan's brothers. Things he had decided not to share. One of these things was that, like the rest of his brothers, Evan Ubrac had a power. His was that he could turn invisible at will. Another of these things was that Evan was the youngest of the Ubrac brothers. Much younger than the rest of his siblings at a mere 11 years old. Evan's age was specificly why Lucian had wanted to find and deal with him on his own, because Evan reminded Lucian so much of his own younger brother. It also made the prospect of dealing with this Ubrac brother more difficult.

With the other Ubrac brothers the plan, as far as Lucian knew anyway, had been to capture them and hand them over to the authorities in Ironcry. But Evan was only 11 years old, a kid for crying out loud. And even though he had gone along stealing things with the rest of his brothers, just handing him over to the authorities to get put in jail or prison or whatever they do to people just wasnt the right thing to do with a kid as far as Lucian was concerned. He wouldnt do it, he didnt want to. And he didnt care how Avara or Janis felt about it. Lucian had decided that it would be up to himself to figure out what to do with Evan. Maybe a bordering or reform school of some sort, or to an adoptive family to show Evan the right way to do things, or maybe even to just let him go or something. Lucian hadnt exactly decided, but these were his thoughts about it so far. When Lucian saw Evan sitting there he kneeled down and gently patted him on the head. Was this a case of Lucian projecting his feelings for his own brother onto Evan or was this actually the feelings of Evan's brother, feelings Lucian may of accidentally taken with him from when he had used Mind Scan on that brother. Lucian couldnt tell and honestly the point was moot for Lucian anyway. Evan swatted Lucian's hand aside.

"So like I was asking, you have a boat right?" Evan asked. "Yes I came on a boat, Evan" Lucian replied. "Good because I think they did something to the raft I came on and I'd like to leave" Evan said. He stood up now. Lucian stood up as well, but the prospect of having to back through that alleyway dawned on him. He frowned. Evan caught him looking back at Feyville. "Oh I found a way to get to the port by going around the town. This way" Evan said. Lucian started to follow him. Lucian wished the whole thing would be that easy, but he had forgotten to mention to Evan that he had come with Avara and Janis. Secondly he doubted the Avara and Janis would like how he was handling things with Evan, he just hoped they would understand. Also what about when Evan asked about his brothers? There were certain questions that would make this an even harder situation. "So how did you know my name? And how did you know I would even be on this island for that matter?" Evan asked. Lucian sighed. It figures Evan would go straight for those kinds of questions. "Well,um, I find out from one of your brothers that you were here. That you had did it in part because you were running from the news that you found out one of your brothers had died" Lucian said a bit nervous. Evan was caught off gaurd for a bit. "Yea...." Evan paused. "So you know my brothers? How come you came and they didnt?" Evan asked.

"Well....its complicated" Lucian replied. He felt like a jerk at the moment and he felt like grade-A crap about it. Evan stoped and faced him. "What do you mean its complicated? Where are the rest of my brothers?" Evan basicly demanded. Lucian sighed. "I was asked by these two ladies, to help them find and capture the Ubrac brothers because your all a bunch of theives. Who keep the people of Ironcry from ever having any sort of prosperity. But things didnt nessecarily go the way I thought they would go...." Lucian was interrupted. Evan was furious. "You lying bastard, no harm my ass. You came here to put me in jail. Is that whats so complicated, Are the rest of my brothers in jail or worse" Evan yelled. He hit Lucian a few times. Lucian paused at first. "I didnt come to put you in jail. Thats not what I intend at all, I dont mean any harm. I mean your a kid...." Lucian was interrupted again. "So I get off easy, so you take pity on me! Where are my brothers you jerk!" Evan yelled. Evan was frustrated and upset and furious. Lucian didnt really have the heart to tell Evan that more of his brothers were dead, but he would have gone for it anyway...or tried. This was not going well at all. But then Lucian was interrupted again, this time it wasnt by Evan though.

The area around them suddenly changed. They were now in the middle of what looked like a coliseum. One that had no exits. "What the hell is this!" Evan Ubrac exclaimed. "Its my doing" the blonde girl replied. She stood below where the emperors seat would be. "Its her again!" both Lucian and Evan said simultaneously. They looked at each other for a moment. Evan was still mad with him. "What are you doing?" Lucian said. "Thank you mouse, thanks for finding the other mouse that I could not. It makes things much easier" said the blonde girl. "You're working with her too! Your despicable" Evan told Lucian. It only made him more agitated. "No I swear I'm not, I dont ever know what this is about" he replied to Evan. Who knows whether Evan was really listening or not. Lucian turned to the blonde girl. "What are you talking about? what is this about?" Lucian asked. He did not like the feeling he was getting. "How dense and amusing, really. Both of you thanks for the entertainment, but to answer your question this is about my dinner pure and simple. Guess what, your both on the menu" the little blonde girl replied. She smirked. Her form then started to become something else and as it did she said, almost with a laugh, "Thanks for playing."

Meanwhile back at the inn. Avara had been sleeping till she felt like something was in the room. She jumped up from bed suddenly. Oddly she was still in her overcoat. "Who the hell is that?!" Avara demanded. Janis was woken up by this. She sat up beside Avara. In the now open doorway of their room, the young blonde girl stood there stareing at them.

"What do you want" Avara said. The young blonde was quiet for a moment. "It seems that the guy who came with you has disappeared and become lost as well. I was about to wake you to ask if you'd like to help me look for him" the blonde girl said. "What!?" Avara said. She got up, walked right past the little girl and opened the door of the room Lucian had been in. It was empty. Avara glared. "Give us a minute" Avara demanded as she walked past the blonde girl again. The little blonde girl went downstairs, while Avara was back in her room with Janis. "I swear if anything has happened to Lucian, his corpse better be intact. He's for me to deal with, MY prize after we're done dealing with the Ubrac brothers. Not to be waisted on whatever the hell is with this town" Avara vented. Janis was already in the process of getting dressed. "It didnt seem like that blonde girl was capable of anything before, but now its different. I'm certain she's capable of something, I just dont know what. Which is odd for me. The girl must be obscuring my senses. She must have been the whole time" Janis said. "Fine. I've had about enough of this place. Lets see where the bullshit-brick road leads" Avara said. Janis grabed the backpack and the two of them went downstairs.

"Lets go look for Lucian together, shall we" Avara said. "Yes, this way" the little blonde girl replied. She led them down the hallway to the very last door and opened it. This door seemed to lead outside. A back entrance of sorts. "After you" the little blonde girl said. Avara and Janis steped through the door, but as soon as they did it was slammed shut behind them. Then it was if the ground had vanished beneath their feet and they fell. When they hit the bottom they were in what looked like a dungeon. A very filthy dungeon, with a filthy ceiling to go with it. One that seemed to lack essentials like an entrance or exit of any kind. "Are you alright?" Avara asked. "I'll be fine" Janis replied as she dusted herself off. They looked at their surroundings. "That little brat, how is this even possible?" Avara said frustrated. Janis walked over to Avara and put her hand over Avara's. "Find out if it is" Janis said. Avara grined. She took a glove off of one of her hands. This hand of hers had an eye in the palm and another eye on the back of the hand. She made a fist, focusing on the eye on the back of the hand. When she did that eye opened and glowed. Their surroundings glowed around them as well. There was a flash of light. Once the flash passed, the dungeon they had seemingling fallen into was gone. Infact the entire inn and the whole block it had been was no more.

Avara and Janis now stood in a square shaped area of dead grass and a few small piles of old rubble. It looked odd for the moment, this area just sitting there in the middle of Feyville. Avara started to laugh. She laughed till it was so loud it could wake people up. "Its fake. This entire town is nothing but an illusion" Avara said. People started coming out from their houses. They were forming an angry mob coming towards the two of them. "Lucian said none of these people had any thoughts at all, lets find out why" Avara said. She faced the open eye on the back of her clenched fist towards the crowd. The eye again glowed and flashed and the people were gone as if they had never been there in the first place. Avara and Janis began walking around using that eye on the back of her hand on different parts of town. The results continued to be the same. If left unchecked the entire illusion of Feyville would be gone soon. But now the little blonde girl came out of nowhere and steped in Avara and Janis' path.

"All you two mice had to do was stay put in your cage till we were ready for you, now look what you've done" said the blonde girl. "Let me take a wild guess, your responsible for spreading rumors about this place to get people to come" Avara said. "We had to get someone to come somehow" replied the blonde girl. "We?" Avara said. "Yes. Me and my mate" the blonde girl replied. Janis gave Avara a quick glance before asking "Why?" "Hunger" the blonde girl began to explain. "You see there really was a town of Feyville here once upon a time. My mate and I found it. And for us it really was full of treasure, all those idiotic people ripe for the eating. We terrorized and feasted very well for a long time. By the time we were done, everyone was dead and nothing was left but corpses and ruins. We were satisfied and stuffed and figured eventually more people would come anyway. But no one else ever came, the rest of the human territory seemed to forget this island was even here. It was depressing. For a long time we had to settle with killing those sea creatures just so we didnt starve. And also we thought it might be the sea creatures fault no one else was coming. It was then that we spread that rumor about this place to raise the chances of people coming again." the little blonde girl explained.

"Thats when you hit paydirt with Evan Ubrac" Avara said. "Yes. We even created this illusion of what the town of Feyville used to be like to lure him in more. It certainly worked on you three as well. It would have been an easy meal if not for that disappearing trick of his" the blonde girl replied. "Where are Evan Ubrac and Lucian. They're my prizes not yours" Avara demanded. "The only prize you two are getting now is death" said the little blonde girl. "You first" Avara insisted. She aimed the eye on the back of her hand at the little blonde girl, and the eye glowed and a light flashed. The form of a blonde girl was of course an illusion, one that now was dispersed to reveal its actual form. This thing mostly looked like a large black leopard, except its teeth were more numerous and sharp. Also it had a long tentacle sprouting and writhing from each shoulder. Both tentacles ended was a mass of spikes. This leopard like creature roared, ready to pounce at Avara and Janis.

[Lucian]

The black leopard like creature roared at Avara and Janis, ready to pounce on them. It didnt waiste another moment, charging at them. Avara's red left eye glowed for second till she blasted an optic laser at the leopard. The creature hadnt expected it and was hit directly in the face. It was knocked back and rolled on the ground a bit. Avara blasted another optic laser at it. The leopard got up just in time to leap out of the way. Its tentacles wriggled a bit before it fired projectile spikes at them from the ends of each tentacle. Avara ran infront of Janis and took the full volley of spikes. Avara winced in pain a bit, taking a step back. "Are you alright?" Janis asked.

"I'll be fine" Avara replied. She didnt seem as hurt as she should have been for some reason. Janis wasnt standing behind her doing nothing though. Janis had opened the backpack, taking out what looked like different pieces of a gun, and seemed to be assembling them. By the time Janis had asked Avara if she were alright, Janis was nearly done with the procedure. The leopard like creature roared. Its tone seemed to be that of a laugh or a taunt possibly. It figured it was the perfect time to strike Avara before she could possibly recover from being hit by those spikes. It started to come at Avara, relished the thought of sinking its jagged sharp teeth into her. "Out of the way" Janis shouted from behind Avara. Avara moved aside.

Janis stood there with gun in hands. She had put together what looked like a machine gun of sorts. A large one with a chain of bullets that hung to the ground. The leopard like creature had only been given a moment to take in this site, before Janis fired upon it. The creature roared out as it found it self getting riddled with bullets all over its body. But it was a resilint sort and was determined not to go down like that. As the creatures body writhed, its tentacles wriggled and it fired those spikes from the ends of the tentacles as a counter measure. Spike and bullet would collide and ricochet against each other. The creature didnt hesitate to take the opening it was granted when Janis had just about run out of bullets. It charged forward, allowing itself to get shot those last few times, roaring all the while, and it leaped forward toward Janis.

When Janis had actually run out of machine gun bullets the leopard like creature was already mid leap. This was not enought time for Avara to do something about it, and that was really the point. While Avara's red left eye glowed, one of the leopards tentacle reached out and whipped her across the face. The optic beam fired into the dirt as Avara lost balance and fell from the tentacles impact. When Janis had fully run out of machine gun bullets and saw it coming for he, she threw the machine gun itself at the creature. The leopard like creature got hit it the face with the machine gun, while it reached out with its other tentacle and whacked Janis in the midsection with it.

The creature and Janis hit the ground at the same time. While the creature got back to its feet, Janis frantically went for the back pack. As it came at her, Janis pulled out two hand guns and started shooting. The creature was forced to dodge and then flung some spikes from the end of one of its tentacles at Janis. Janis quickly droped the guns and grabed the backpack itself and held it infront of herself. The backpack took most of the spikes, one of them had cut her arm a bit. She whinced. While droping the guns had enabled her to live another moment, it was a mistake in the long run. The leopard like creature went to pounce at her.

Janis, in an act of desperation, threw the backpack at the creature. The creature caught it with its mouth and tore into it a bit before tossing it aside. It gave her a look, almost like saying she was pathetic. But Janis' desperate acts of defense had given Avara the time to recover a bit. Avara had opened up her hand and faced the eye in the palm towards the creature, blasting a beam of energy at it. The leopard like creature had been to focused on Janis to be able to avoid it. The creature roared out as it was hit, but it wasnt in pain. That energy left the creature feeling confused and nauseated. "Get back" Avara told Janis. She grabed the backpack and one of the guns and moved away.

Avara took off her other gloves revealing the demon like claw instead of a hand. The air ignited above it, a fireball formed and she threw it at the creature. The leopard like creature had only began to regain its composure when it suddenly found itself hit with that fireball. It roared out as it started burning alive. Janis pointed a gun at its head. Then the leopard like creature suddenly looked like a little blonde girl again. A little girl burning and screaming in agony. "Please dont kill me! Help me! I beg you!" she said. "No thank you" Janis replied before pulling the trigger at its head. Eventually the fire went out and it turned back into its real form of the leopard like creature after it had died.

Avara and Janis stood before the dead creature now. They checked briefly to see if they were both alright. Avara was basically unscathed besides a slight bruise, and Janis had managed to get away with just the one cut on her arm. They then checked what was left in the backpack. The black book remained fine, but they were down to one handgun. Janis tossed the empty handgun aside and picked up the remaining handgun with bullets in it off the ground. She dusted it off a bit and placed it into the backpack again. "Its a shame you had to shot it in the head to finish it off, that illusion ability it had could of come in handy" Avara said. "Sorry" Janis replied. "Hmm, though i suppose one of those tentacles it shot spikes out of is a passable enough ability" Avara said. Avara put both her gloves back on first. Then she kneeled down and with her own bare hands, tore the tentacle right of the dead leopard like creature. Avara stood up again and took off her overcoat. Her form under the overcoat was.....(nah, sorry not revealing that yet). Anyway, Janis took the black book out from the backpack and handed it to Avara. The inscription on the front of the black book read as "Grafting Arcanum." Avara opened the book to a certain page and began to read alloud from it. The book glowed as did Avara and the creatures tentacle. This process made the creatures tentacle a part of Avara and granted her access to the ability that body part had possessed as if it had always been her own. She stoped reading and the glowing faded. Avara sighed and closed the book.

Janis took the black book again and placed it back inside the backpack, along with the one handgun that was left in there. Janis closed the backpack and slung it over her shoulder, while Avara put her overcoat back on and closed it carefully and completly. "Now to find Evan Ubrac and Lucian" Avara said. Avara and Janis walked along through the now fading remnants of the illusion of Feyville.

[Lucian]

(( Second time I've had to type this post up...sigh.))

Lucian and Evan watched as the little blonde girl changed, her actual form revealing itself before their eyes. It was mostly cheetah-like. Its teeth were far more sharp and numerous than the average cheetah. Its tongue was split in two, saliva dripping from both ends. A single tentacle arose from between its shoulder blades, ending in another mouth filled with sharp teeth. "I'd say it was nice knowing you, but I'm mad as hell at you" Evan said. Now Evan turned invisible. "Just great" Lucian said, his words laced with frustration and sarcasm. "Use your disappearing trick all you like little mouse. There's no way out of my coliseum. I'll hunt you down, it's only a matter of time" the cheetah-like creature was thinking. It wasnt as if Evan heard that or could, but Lucian had picked up on the thought. The cheetah-like creature's attention was fully on Lucian now.

Lucian's heart sunk down to his stomach. There was no exits, no places to hide, and no one to help him. How was he suppose to survive against this creature that was fully intent on devouring him? Lucian didnt want to die on some forgotten island on this forsaken planet, like a whisper in the night. Would Lucian even have a choice? The creature looked like it was about to attack so Lucian acted to pre-empt it. His right eye faintly glowed blue as he said, "I Compel you to....." The creature lunged at him, swiping its claw quickly across Lucian's chest. Lucian yelled out in pain, completly losing concentration. The glow of his right eye faded as he hit the ground. His one arm gaurded his chest while he whinced. "No tricks out of you. You're going to die like all men should" the cheetah-like creature was thinking. The creature went in for what it thought would be the kill, till Lucian tossed a handful of dirt in its eyes. Go figure. The creature roared out. Its eyes were so irritated, a little like burning and plenty blind to boot. Lucian needed to buy some more time to try to think of a way out of this, or so he figured.

So just incase the dirt in its eyes wasnt enough, Lucian used Distort Vision on the creature. The cheetah-like creature could no longer percieve the real Lucian now, it could only see a fake Lucian seemingly standing some feet away. The real Lucian got up and ran to the other side of the coliseum. He stood there, slightly hunched over in pain, with no idea what to do at the moment. Pain and rational thought werent friends, you know. With blurry eyes, the cheetah-like creature could see again. It spotted Lucian just standing there. It charged at him, and when it had got close enough it lunged its tentacle at Lucian's mid-section. It was intent on biting a chunk out of Lucian's gut. This was not to be. Attacking the false Lucian felt like attacking itself. While the false Lucian faded away, the creature roared in pain and annoyance.

If it looked in a certain direction it would easily spot where Lucian really was now, but it didnt. The cheetah-like creature had picked up a scent and had started to follow it. Lucian wondered what it was doing. When the scent was strongest, the creature thrust its tentacle forward. A yell emitted throughout the coliseum as Evan became visible again. He had been bitten in the arm. Lucian's eyes went wide, he gasped. Then something came over Lucian. Like watching the Imperium kill his parents before his and his siblings very eyes, like being very nearly killed as a human sacrifice in the town of Fetan, imagineing what if the Imperium ever decided to try and kill his own little brother. Lucian, ignoring his own pain, ran straight for the cheetah-like creature. After being bitten in the arm, Evan got off his feet and started running away from the creature. He didnt make it far at all before the creature whacked its tentacle at Evan legs, triping him. The creature expected a look of fear on Evan's face because he was about to get killed, but instead Evan was looking elsewhere and he only looked confused. The creature looked where Evan was looking. Just in the knick of time to watch itself get speared in the mid-section by Lucian.

The creature and Lucian tumbled and rolled over each other for a bit. Before the cheetah-like creature could get up, Lucian got ontop of it, pinning it down. That jaw of razor sharp teeth at the end of the creature's tentacle lunged at Lucian. He grabed the tentacle, and the two of them struggled with it. All the while the cheetah-like creature was cutting up Lucian's arms with its claws. Lucian started to get the upper hand, as soon as he did he shoved that tentacle down on the creature's own throat. It emitted a gargled roar, choking on its own blood. More blood spit forth as he shoved the teeth on that tentacle harder into the creatures throat. Lucian kept doing so until he heard a snap, until the creature fell silent and still, until he could no longer feel the creature breathing under him. Only then did Lucian let go and get off the dead cheetah-like creature. Lucian had never done something like that before, it bothered him that he had to. Lucian sat down on the ground away from the creature, breathing heavy and holding his arms and chest in pain.

Evan got up now. He had an astonished look on his face. "Whats wrong with you?! I'm really mad at you, with good reason. I called you a lying bastard among other things. I had no problem with letting you get killed to save my own ass. Why did you do that!?" Evan said. Lucian looked towards Evan now. He noticed the cuts and gashes near Evan's shoulder from when he had got bitten. Lucian stood up and walked towards Evan. He unbuttoned his shirt and riped off a part of his undershirt. "What do you think you're doing" Evan demanded. "You're hurt" Lucian replied. He grabed Evan's arm and started to tie the ripped shirt cloth around Evan's wound. "Get off me. I dont need or want your pity" Evan said. He went to push Lucian away, but Lucian swatted away his hand. "I said stop it" Evan protested. "Shut up" Lucian replied while he continued tying the makeshift bandage. "But why are you....." Evan's words trailed off, now seemingly letting Lucian finish what he was doing.

Evan was taken aback by Lucian's actions. This act of bandaging his wound, it was so profoundly nice yet so small and simple a thing at the same time. And right after having basically saved his life too. Evan wasnt used to this sort of treatment, especially not by strangers who werent sure to get something out of it before hand. "There, finished" Lucian said. Evan looked over the makeshift bandage. His arm still hurt alittle, but not as much as before. Evan figured there was possibly at least some good to Lucian, and that maybe he'd give him a chance. Maybe. "Thanks" Evan sort of mumbled. Lucian patted Evan briefly on the head before rebuttoning his shirt. "So what were you planning on doing with me, if you werent intent on sending me to jail via the Ironcry authorities?" Evan asked.

"I was thinking either boarding school or to an adoptive family to be honest" Lucian replied. Evan didnt quite agree with that. He figured he'd fake going along with it, but he thought at least Lucian's intentions seemed good and in the right place. "I was hoping I could convince the ladies I'm helping to go along with it, but I'm not sure I'll be successful. Either way I'm not letting them put you in jail" Lucian added. Even though Evan didnt show it, he appreciated the sentiment. Also Evan's opinion of these ladies Lucian kept saying he was helping wasnt that high. "Where are my brothers? Whats happened to them? I need to know, Lucian" Evan said point blank.

Then the area around them glowed, and the illusion of the coliseum faded away. Lucian and Evan were back in the wilderness. Though now there was a lot more wilderness because Feyville seemed to be completly gone as well. What they really noticed first though, standing nearly ten feet from the two of them, was Avara and Janis. "Well, well, what do we have here" Avara said.

[Lucian]

Avara quickly put one of her gloves back on as the illusion of the coliseum faded. Avara and Janis now stood facing Lucian and Evan. They noticed the cuts and gashes on Lucian's arms and chest, and the bandaged gash near Evan's shoulder, not to mention the dead cheetah-like creature on the ground. "Well, well, what do we have here" Avara said. Evan was immediatly alarmed by Avara's appearance. The scars on her face, that completly red left eye. Also, her incredibly long flat dark hair and the overcoat only seemed to make Avara more ominous and stick out more. "Who's the runt?/Who are they?" Avara and Evan asked at the same time. "Evan, these are the ladies I'm helping. Avara, Janis, this is Evan Ubrac" Lucian replied. Avara hadnt expected him to be a kid, but it didnt make much of a difference to her in the long run. Though she did take note that the two of them seemed to be on a first name basis. "Is that so" Avara said.

"What happened to Feyville?" Lucian asked. "Feyville and its people were an illusion like the coliseum you were traped in. There was really a town here once, but it was destroyed and all its people eaten by those two creatures" Janis answered. "There were two of them?!" Lucian said alarmed. "Yes. The other one tried to kill us, we took care of it. They were responsible for the rumors, the dead sea creatures, and for making the illusions. All to get more people food" Avara replied. "Oh" Lucian and Evan said at the same time. "I think thats good enough of a summary" Avara said. Janis nodded.

"Anyway. It seems that not only did you manage to kill the other creature, but you also went and captured the Ubrac brother we were looking for at the same time. And you did it all on your own too. It seems your becoming more and more capable all the time, Lucian" Avara said. She was thoroughly pleased. At the same time she just didnt seem to give a crap about their wounds. "So whats the runt capable of?" Avara checked with Janis. "I dont appreciate being called a runt, freak" Evan said. Lucian's eyes went wide briefly. Avara looked plain pissed off about it. "He can turn invisible" Janis said. "I suppose that can be useful" Avara replied. "How could she possibly know that? And what do you mean you suppose its useful" Evan said. He was a bit surprised, insulted, and suspicous. "She knows from her sixth sence" Lucian replied. Avara was alarmed that Lucian knew that. She turned to Janis. "He asked once" Janis said. Avara frowned. "Well whatever. Now that we've got the runt bastard captured, lets get the hell off this worthless island so we can hand him over to the authorities in Ironcry" Avara said. "Listen bitch queen. I'm not captured, I'm not your prisoner, and I'm not getting handed over to any authorities" Evan said. Avara was on her way over to Evan to beat the tar out of him, when Lucian steped in the way.

Avara looked at Lucian, surprised by this act. "Right Lucian" Evan said. He was kind of testing Lucian now. Avara nearly laughed, she found this to be slightly amusing. "Listen, just tell the kid we're not giving him a fricken choice. Then grab him, or Compel him, or I dont care what, so we can be on our way" Avara nearly demanded of Lucian. He didnt like or appreciate how he and Evan were being talked to by Avara at the moment. "Sorry Evan's right. There's been a change in plan" Lucian said. Avara looked Lucian in the eyes. "What!" Avara said. She was no longer amused.

"Come on Avara, look at him. You cant seriously still think its best to hand him over to the authorities just so they could toss him in jail or worse" Lucian said. "You're letting him get to you. He's still just a no good coniving thief. From a family of theives no less, you found that out yourself. Not only is he an annoyance and a menace to the people of Ironcry, but to people everywhere. I thought you understood that, its what we asked your help for in the first place" Avara said. "Asked? You basically blackmailed me, and Janis here guilted and begged me into it. You're lucky I'm helping you at all" Lucian replied. "You're lucky we didnt leave you to starve" Avara shot back venemously. Lucian paused for a moment after hearing that. He took a deep breath and exhaled. "We have a chance to really help Evan here. Either by schooling or a new family we could drastically change his life for the better. He wouldnt have to or need to be a thief anymore. It would make a positive difference for a lot of people" Lucian said. "We're not here to help him, you're here to help us" Avara said. Lucian sighed. "I'm not handing him over to the authorities. He's just a kid, I wont do it" Lucian said very stoicly. Avara clenched her fist. She was about to say something when Janis put her hand on Avara's shoulder. "Fine" Avara said through gritted teeth.

"Okay" Lucian replied. He and Evan started walking in the direction of the port. Avara and Janis followed a slight distance behind them. "Thanks...." Evan said at first. Lucian had really seemed to go to the bat for him when Evan had tested him. Lucian smiled slightly back at Evan. "....But you never got around to telling me what happened with the rest of my brothers. I need to know" Evan said. Lucian complied. He would explain to Evan what happened with the other Ubrac brothers, well as far as Lucian knew anyway. While Avara and Janis followed, they watched Lucian and Evan's conversation. Evan seemed to get a mix of mad and sad.

Avara's mind was on other things though. She felt like she was watching her plans fall to pieces in the home stretch. Originally Avara would of found and captured the last Ubrac brother, sailed away from this island back to the mainland, taken Evan alone somewhere seperate under the guise of bringing him to the authorities, dealt with him, and then go back and finally have Lucian dealt with. But Lucian's plans were going to make accomplishing that much more complicated and difficult then it needed to be. Avara huffed. "Its simple. Just ask yourself if its worth maintaining this facade any longer" Janis said. Avara thought about it. She felt she had tested Lucian's capabilities quite enough and she was more than satisfied at this point. Also now that they had the last Ubrac brother, there wasnt much use in keeping Lucian around any longer anyway. "No its not worth it" Avara replied. She walked ahead of Janis, quickly going towards Lucian and Evan. But then Lucian and Evan suddenly stoped and turned towards her, so Avara stoped as well.

"Yes?" Avara said. "We need to talk to you about something. Its about the Ubrac brother you said you had managed to capture before we met. After you went and rented the boat, I had asked you if you have inquired about what happened with the Ubrac brother that wound up dieing somehow after you handed him over. You told me that the authorites told you that he had committed suicide" Lucian said. "But before I ran off to this island, my bother told all us Ubrac brothers that our brother had been killed and that he himself had barely gotten away. He didnt go into anymore detail about it because it was hard for him to talk about. But, there was nothing about him ever having been captured by anyone, ever, let alone suicide. And he would of mentioned it if our brother had been captured because we would of gone to try and get him free right away" Evan said. Considering the things Lucian found out from when he used Mind Scan on one of Evan's brothers, Lucian thought what Evan said made more sence than what Avara had said. "Yes thats quite the discrepency, but there's a simple explanation for it" Avara said. "What would that be?" Lucian asked. Avara then punched Lucian as hard as she could in the head. "I lied" Avara said as Lucian fell to the ground. Lucian could feel himself slipping out of conscousness. He saw Janis take a handgun out of the backpack and point it at Evan, then everything went dark.

Meanwhile, some distance from the island a raft was approaching. On this raft was the guy with a crossbow.

[Lucian]

Lucian started to wake up. Sunlight shined in his eyes a bit, meaning it was at least past morning of the next day. Lucian attempted to rub his eyes but couldnt. He realized his hands were bound. He became alarmed and more alert. He was somewhere deep in the forest of this island and tied to a tree. Avara and Janis were both there too. They were facing Evan who was tied to another tree. Evan didnt look well. He was sitting against the base of the tree looking pale and sluggish. A result of the bullet hole in his shoulder which he was bleeding a significant amount from. The ground under him was soaked in his blood. Also Evan's face was soaked from tears. He had been crying, probably from whatever Avara was still telling him. "Evan!" Lucian shouted. He struggled to get free of his bindings. Avara and Janis turned towards him.

It wasnt as if Lucian had ever trusted them all that much, and as time went on his suspicions of them had slowly increased, but still he had never thought it would turn out like this. No, a part of him had despretly didnt want it to turn out this way. This was feeling like Fetan all over again. "Finally decided to wake up and join us Lucian" Avara said. "What have you done! What is this?" Lucian demanded. "Oh, well Evan and I were having a chat about how I murdered his brothers. Gave him all sorts of graphic details" Avara said. "You..... you were intent on killing all the Ubrac brothers from the start. This was never about stopping thieves, or having them captured and arrested, or justice, or doing the right thing, or making the lives of the people in Ironcry better and safe. All lies. The entire time you were using me to make finding and killing the Ubrac brothers easier" Lucian said. "Actually the people of Ironcry are still benefited by the Ubrac brothers deaths. But I could care less about them, what the hell have the people of Ironcry ever done to deserve help from anyone. Screw them! But besides that you're completly right Lucian" Avara replied. "Why!" Lucian yelled at Avara. Janis pointed the handgun at Lucian and pulled the trigger.

The bullet had hit the tree Lucian was tied to, only missing his head by a few inches. "Refrain from yelling at Avara, please" Janis said. "Why, you ask, Lucian. For power" Avara answered him. Avara walked over to Janis, took the black book out of the backpack, then went back towards Lucian. "I wanted the Ubrac brothers powers for myself. And this book, the Grafting Arcanum, allows me to do it. Doesnt matter whether its from demons, animals, or people. As long as they got power all I gotta do is kill them, cut off the part of their body where the power is, and this book magically grafts those parts to me. Giving me their powers like it was always mine" Avara said. "The scars on your face, your red eye, thats all from grafting. Thats why you wear that overcoat all the time, who knows what you look like under there. Thats why I cant read your thoughts, because of some ability you gained by grafting" Lucian said, a bit disgusted. "Thats right" Avara said, pointing to the scar across her forehead. "And I keep you out of Janis' head too" Avara added. Avara placed the black book in one of the overcoats pockets.

"Whats with the bunnies in Janis' head all the time though?" Lucian asked, momentarily distracted. "What bunnies?" Avara asked. She looked at Janis with a puzzled expression. Janis simply smiled and remained silent. She had no intention of discussing it with Avara ether. Avara frowned.

"And why me" Lucian started to say. "Was I just a random sucker you picked up off the street. No, Janis must of senced what I was capable of doing. You always intended on doing to me, what you did to Evan's brothers. And it was ideal for you that I basically have no family or friends around here, that I'm so far from home, that no one would come looking after you were done with me. They why wait, why didnt you just deal with me at the start" Lucian said. "I wanted to test you to see if your abilities were worth my while, and I was going to go after the rest of the Ubrac brothers anyway, so I multitasked. Two birds with one stone as they say" Avara replied. The entire time Lucian had been trying to undo his bindings. Either by untieing, ripping them apart, or cutting them against the bark of the tree. He figured if he kept them talking long enough that he'd get enough time to free himself. Unfortunatly Lucian hadnt succeeded yet and Evan was looking worse. "Damn it" Lucian mumbled to himself.

Avara sighed. "You'll never know how much of a relief it is to not have to deal with your stupid questions for much longer, or to not have to keep thinking up crap to tell you, or pretend that your opinion is worth a damn" Avara said nearly with glee. Lucian glared at her. "I could have killed you both already, but I just wanted you to know that. I wanted to rub your face in it and I wanted you both to suffer slowly till you died" Avara said. "You go around grafting parts of peoples bodies and taking their powers because on your own you're nothing. You're just like the Imperium, vile and rotten and a worthless monster deep down inside" Lucian said. Avara punched Lucian in the face. "Actually I prefer to see myself as a god in the making" Avara said. Lucian spit blood in her face.

Lucian was getting tired of being treated like this. Like crap, like a perpetual victim lately. He had just about enough of being made helpless, too. Helpless to prevent his parents from being killed by the Imperium, helpless to prevent the Imperium from taking him away from his home, helpless to get back there, helpless to prevent muggers from nearly killing him in an alleyway in Coldmourn, helpless to stop the people of Fetan from trying to use him as a human sacrifice. For crying out loud!, Lucian had single handedly saved his and Evan's lives from that cheetah-like creature. The perpetual victim cycle he found himself in as of late could royally screw itself. Which is why, when Lucian had spit blood in Avara's face, he had aimed for her eyes. Lucian was about to take them on.

[Lucian]

Lucian spit blood in Avara's eyes, temporarily blinding her. While Avara was trying to wipe the blood out of her eyes, Lucian turned towards Janis. His right eye glowed faintly blue. "I Compel you to shot my bindings" Lucian said. Janis found herself doing exactly that, against her will, freeing Lucian in the process. Avara had cleared her eyes by now, only for Lucian to punch her in the eye. "Damn it!" Avara shouted while covering her eyes. Janis pointed the handgun at Lucian. He saw this and quickly used his Deja Vu power on her mind. Forcing Janis to repeat the action she just did. Which in this case was to shot at bindings that were no longer there. While this was going on Lucian ran and hid behind a tree. The trees were thick enough to be able to hide a person behind them. Lucian had chosen a tree which gave him some distance from them. Avara looked around once she could see again. Her eye was slightly bruised, witch she didnt appreciate.

Avara took off both her gloves and tossed them aside. Her one hand had two eyes on it. One on the back of the hand, the other on the palm. Both eyes were open. Her other hand was a demon's claw. "Come on now Lucian lets not delay the inevitable. If you werent such a fool, I might actually believe you escaped. But something tells me you're not so willing to leave poor Evan Ubrac behind" Avara said. She was right about Evan, but Lucian kept quiet. He was thinking up a plan. In her frustration, Avara started creating fireballs from the demon claw and throwing them at the trees. Many trees in the area were tumbled down, incinerated and destroyed. It created a clearing of sorts in the middle of this forest, yet by luck, for Lucian anyway, she hadnt managed to get the tree he was behind. Avara huffed. She was just so sick of Lucian at this point. "If you dont come out right now Janis is going to put a bullet in your precious Evan's skull" Avara shouted.

For a moment there was silence. "Do it" Avara told Janis. "Wait" Lucian shouted. He seemed to peer his head out from behind the tree, looked at them till they saw him, and then hid behind the tree again. Avara and Janis kind of gave each other a look. "That was just dumb and weird" Avara said. She didnt dwell on it as she headed over to that tree. She went behind it and saw Lucian just standing there. Avara grinned, as her red left eye glowed and she blasted him point blank with an optic blast. But instead it just went and passed through him like he wasnt there, and Avara steped back in pain feeling as if she had attacked herself. "What the..." Avara said. Lucian faded before her eyes, and she realized it had been a false Lucian. Peering his head out from behind the tree like that had given Lucian the time and chance to use his Distort Vision power on her. Avara could suddenly perceive the real Lucian standing a few feet to her side. His right eye was already glowing faintly blue. "I Compel you to die" Lucian said.

Avara was horrified, for a moment. "No, you dont have the capability to use your power like that. And even if you did, I have resistance" Avara said, tapping the scar across her forehead. The glow of Lucian's right eye started getting brighter. Avara then started to feel it, her mental resistance was failing. She had to start concentrating more and more to resist against his power. This was a battle of minds and of will. "But....you.... cant" Avara barely managed to say. "You're right, I cant. But I can still try, and in the process force you to use everything you've got to resist me, force us into a stalemate and keep you there as long as it takes for you to completly drain and use up all of your energy" Lucian replied, his right eye was glowing even brighter than before. "Damn you" Avara said. But could Lucian's plan possibly work? Forcing his power like this was incredibly risky and was taking its toll on both of them. Avara was bleeding from her ear and Lucian was bleeding from his nose.

"Janis, shot him!" Avara said with urgency. But she didnt, infact Janis was nowhere to be seen. Earlier Janis had been standing by Evan with the handgun pointed at him, but sometime after Avara went off towards Lucian, Janis had become distracted. That sixth sence of hers had picked up something in the distance. Something on its way. She looked back towards what was going on with Avara and Lucian. Janis actually looked worried. There were two ways she could help Avara now, either with Lucian or with what was coming. She figured Avara could take care of herself for the most part, but not if she were interupted now. Janis sighed. She looked at Avara again before running off into the forest. Janis was actually really fast when she wanted to be, so it wasnt long at all till she was in a completly different part of this forest. "Come out, I know you are here" Janis said. In a puff of smoke Zorander appeared before her. "At last, I've caught up with you bitches" Zorander said.

[Lucian]

"At last I've caught up with you bitches" Zorander said. Janis pointed the handgun at him. Zorander nearly laughed. "And what do you expect you'll accomplish with that" Zorander said. "To give Avara a moment she wouldnt of had before" Janis said. She then fired every bullet she had left in that handgun at him. With a quick utterance from Zorander, all the bullets turned to vapor. Janis sighed as she tossed the empty handgun away. "Okay" she said to herself. Zorander waved his hand, which sent Janis flying away and at a tree. Zorander looked towards the ground and Janis's tracks through the forest were revealed to him, laying out the path back towards his goal. He would follow them, disappearing and reappearing in puffs of smoke over short range along the way.

It wasnt long till he arrived in a clearing of sorts in the middle of the forest. Zorander spotted Evan first, tied to and dying slowly at the base of a tree. He would of approached Evan if he hadnt then seen Avara and Lucian. Zorander now completly lost interest in Evan as he walked right past him. Avara and Lucian were still locked in a mental stalemate. Avara was looking exhausted. Lucian's head was starting to hurt quite a bit. He was beginning to worry he would fail, even more worried for Evan. Zorander pushed his palm forward, sending an invisible wall of force at Avara and Lucian. The two of them were hit at the same time and sent flown back into different trees. They both yelled out on impact. Lucian yelled out slightly a second time when he hit the ground. His concentration being completly lost, the glow of his right eye faded. Lucian tried to get up but couldnt. He felt dazed and his head hurt badly, he felt like he might be on the verge of a seizure or something. Lucian collapsed by the base of that tree. Avara on the other hand felt relieved after managing to land on her feet. After having seen Zorander, Avara walked past the trees and into the clearing she herself had made.

"I appreciate the assist, but dont expect me to return the favor. I suggest you leave however the hell you came" Avara said. "Give me the Grafting Arcanum now bitch" Zorander demanded. Avara's eyes went wide, briefly. "So it was you who killed that one Ubrac brother in the mines of the Northern Mountains. I knew that was to convenient. I appreciate the assist that time as well. But guess what, all that effort and trouble you went through was a huge waiste of time" Avara said. "That book is mine! Your filthy harlot hands have defiled it long enough and I wont tolerate it and further" Zorander said. "Yours, ah I understand. Well its mine now, I found it. This book was like a miracle, a godsend, and I'll be damned to ever let anyone else have it" Avara said. "Then you'll recieve the same as the other bitch" Zorander said. "What?....! Where is Janis?! I swear if you've hurt her...." Avara was saying with rage. Before Avara finished, Zorander repeatedly pushed his palms forward. Slamming Avara with a rapid barrage of invisible force walls which sent her across the clearing till she was repeatedly slammed against a tree.

Avara managed to stay on her feet. She spit out some blood. She was furious, thoughts of the possible things that Zorander could have done to Janis flooding her mind. "I'm going to kill you and use your own book to take every power you've got" Avara said full of wrath. She tore off the overcoat and tossed it aside, knowing full well that the black book was still in the overcoats pocket. Avara's form was something to behold. She wore only a sports bra, bikini, and high heels. Large areas of her skin had been replaced with dragon's scales, she had three extra arms for a total of five, a tentacle with spikes at the end of it for a tail, completly red left eye, scar across her forehead, two eyes on one hand, a demons claw for another hand, and large bat demon wings that unfolded and spread out to a ten foot wing span.

Zorander raised his hands and two trees tore out of the ground and flung towards Avara. The air ignited above her demon claw, creating a large fireball which she threw at one of the trees, completly incinerating it. Then her long flat dark hair seemed to come alive. It stretched outward, wraping around the other oncoming tree, swinging it around Avara and releasing it in a trajectory back towards Zorander. He put his hands infront of him and the oncoming tree tore apart into razor sharp splinters which were sent flying towads Avara. The dragon scales deflected most of the splinters, a gust of wind from the flapping of her wings took care of the rest. Zorander mumbled under his breath and that same gust of wind condenced into wind blades that flew back at Avara. Another flapping of her wings had Avara flying in the air. The wind blades missed at first but then followed her upward. Avara turned quickly mid-air and fired an optic blast from her red eye at the wind blades, destroying them. While Avara was turned around, Zorander faced his palm to the ground causing a slab of earth to rise up and catapult towards Avara. She looked back towards Zorander only to see a chunk of earth hurtling at her. Avara's fifth arm fired a dense blast of lightning, destroying most of it. Leaving a few chunks to fly past her and a cloud of dirt behind momentarily. Zorander raised his arms to the sky, his hands glowing. The clouds gathered and formed into a tornado which came down upon Avara.

The hint of a grin appeared on Zorander's face. He was sure she was finished. Avara was being battered and tossed around by the winds inside the tornado. All it would take was one gale to strike her in just the right way to either suck the air out of her or snap her neck. Avara started flapping her wings hard, even then it was quite the effort to keep herself steady in the center. She then began to spin, in the opposite way from the spin of the tornado. Her wings flapping hard and fast. The wind being dragged around her was canceling out itself and the tornado. As the tornado dissapated Avara didnt stop spinning. Two of her arms cusped, glowing with energy that formed into shards of crystal, many shards. Her red eye glowed, her tentacle of a tail prepared its spikes. As Avara kept spinning she unleashed a legion of crystal shards, spikes, and optic blasts that rained down below toward Zorander. Zorander hadnt expected Avara to survive the tornado and had gone about looking for the black book. He figured the dissipation of the tornado meant Avara's demise, but got the shock of his life from the onslaught Avara had unleashed upon him. Zorander had to disappear real quick in a puff of smoke just to barely avoid it. He kept disappearing and reappearing only to find her onslaught continuously catching up with him. After getting hit by a few crystal shards, Zorander was fed up. He reappeared again in a puff of smoke, this time his hands already glowing intensely. This time the onslaught that came upon him stoped in mid-air around him. As his hands glowed more the crystal shards and spikes became huge and the optic blasts became denser. All of it infused with his own energies. Then Zorander sent the onslaught back at Avara.

She cursed under her breath when she saw it coming. Avara flew upwards into the sky at high speeds, barely dodging it. Suddenly Zorander appeared in a puff of smoke above Avara. He came down upon her with an arm that was now in the form of a sword. Avara had nearly no time to think or react. She grabed the blade with one of her hands. The eye in the palm of that hand was slashed through. Avara yelled as blood splashed across the blade. Zorander pulled back his other arm. A few words in an unknown tongue changed that arm into a sword as well. He thrust it forward aiming to slay her. Avara grabed that blade with her fifth arm. This time there was intent and purpose behind it. Avara blasted lightning through the blade. Zorander's sword arms becoming sublime conduits. Zorander yelled out in agony as he was electricuted. When he looked like he had enough, and after his sword arms had returned to normal, Avara tossed him upward. She then made ready nearly every attack she had. Two of her arms cusped and glowed, crystal shards forming. Her tentacle tail prepared a barrage of spikes. The air ignited above the demon claw, a massive fireball forming. Lightning was charging in her fifth arm. Her red left eye glowed, preparing an optic blast. Avara would hit Zorander with every attack all at once, all at full power. Thats when, far below on the ground, Lucian started to get up.

It had taken till now for Lucian's head to feel mostly better. Zorander and Avara's fight had taken its toll on the area, and Lucian was taken aback by the amount of debris and destruction. Lucian spotted Evan so he ran towards him, but stoped in his tracks when he heard something above him. Lucian looked upward to see far in the sky Avara and Zorander in battle. He saw Avara about to unleash all those attacks upon Zorander. While Lucian didnt know Zorander, he knew he didnt want Avara to win. So Lucian did the only thing he thought he could do to help. Lucian's right eye glowed faintly blue. "I Compel you to miss!" Lucian shouted. Avara gasped. She felt herself forced to act against her own will. She knew exactly what this was. "Nooooo!" she yelled as she watched herself blast all those attacks every other way but at Zorander. All that power and energy, gone and waisted. Zorander started to plummet down towards the ground. Avara glared down at Lucian. He wasnt finished though. "I Compel you to Fall" Lucian said. Avara's eyes widend. "But...." she said. Her wings stoped flapping and Avara started plummeting towards the ground as well.

They had been very high up, so for awhile Zorander and Avara both just kept falling. Zorander vanished in a puff of smoke, reappearing on the ground. He faced both his palms to the ground, causing a boulder to come out of the ground and fling upward. Mid-air the boulder collided with Avara. She screamed as her spine snapped and shattered. The boulder and Avara fell back towards the ground. The boulder slamed into the ground with a thud. Then Avara slammed into the boulder, bounced off and was fliped through the air a few times like a ragdoll, before finally hitting the ground as well. A dent in the ground as evidence of how hard her impact was.

Meanwhile Zorander had gone back to looking for the black book. He had checked the backpack, only to find nothing left inside, so he reduced the backpack to vapor. He saw that Evan didnt have it. He went over to the overcoat when he noticed it, and a look of glorious satisfaction came upon his face as he pulled the black book out of the overcoat pocket. Zorander reduced the overcoat to vapor while he practically hugged the black book. That was about the time Avara hit the ground. Zorander appeared in a puff of smoke before Lucian. "Who are you and what are you doing with that book" Lucian asked. "This book is mine, I'm taking it back. But to thank you for your assistance, I'm going to kill you quickly" Zorander said. Before either of them could react to that, an arrow shot through Zorander's arm. He wore an expression of pain on his face as he exclaimed, "Shit!" Zorander disappeared in a puff of smoke right as another arrow was about to hit him. Lucian looked and saw the guy with a crossbow.

"Now who are you" Lucian said. He was getting annoyed and slightly baffled about all these seemingly random people showing up. "Just someone after that guy that was about to end your life. Appreciation would be nice" he replied as he put away his crossbow. He mumbled some obsenities to himself about Zorander getting away from him again, as he walked over to Lucian. "Oh, sorry trust seems to be an issue, but thanks" Lucian said. "Are you alright?" the guy asked. He looked over Lucian himself, not bothering to wait for his answer. He briefly checked the wounds on Lucian's arms and chest, briefly looked at the bruises on Lucian's jaw and the now dried up blood from his nose. "You should be fine" the guy told Lucian. "You have medical expertise?" Lucian asked. "Basic" the guy replied. "Could you look over Evan please? The young boy bound to the tree, he really needs your help" Lucian asked of him. "Not like I have anything better to do" the guy with the crossbow replied full of sarcasm. He went over to Evan. Lucian went over to Avara.

She was laying on the ground on her stomach, her body bloody, ragged, and slightly contorted. Lucian thought he should say something, he just wasnt sure what. Avara looked up at him with a venemous glare. "I hate you, I hate this world" she said. Avara would have spat on him if she could, but she just choked on blood instead. Her expression then changed, like that of a small frightened child. "Janis, where are you?........Where did my Janis go?" she asked, then she died.

Then the guy suddenly took out his crossbow. Startled, Lucian looked where he was pointing it. He saw Janis standing some distance away. Standing there with a thick tree branch sticking through her chest. "No its okay" Lucian told the guy with a crossbow. Janis looked like she was about to fall over. Despite everything, Lucian went to her and helped her to stand anyway. "You need help, this guy he can...." Lucian was interupted. "Avara is dead?" Janis asked. "Yes" Lucian replied. "Then bring me to her" Janis said. "But..." Lucian was interupted a second time. "Please" Janis said. Her tone was begging, pleading with him, and this time it was honest. Lucian sighed as slowly brought her to Avara. "Could I ask you why you were helping Avara? It didnt seem like you were gaining anything out of it" Lucian said. Janis looked Lucian in the eyes. "Because I love her" Janis replied. Lucian was looking back at her and you could see she genuinely meant it with every fiber of her being. Lucian carefully sat Janis down next to Avara. She put her hand on Avara's face, then took Avara's hand and held it between both of her own. For a moment Janis looked elsewhere. Lucian now looked in that same direction too. In the distance Lucian could barely see, coming out of a small underground den, some bunnies. Lucian gasped and looked back toward her. But by the time he did, Janis had already fallen to the ground and died besides her love.

[Lucian]

"He's not going to make it" the guy with the crossbow said. Lucian hurried over to the guy and kneeled on the ground besides Evan and the guy. Evan was now laying on the ground after having been unbound from the tree. He was conscous, barely. Evan looked towards Lucian. "Evan, listen, you're going to be fine" Lucian said. Lucian looked to the guy now. "What dow you mean he's not going to make it, you havent even tried" Lucian said. "I've cleaned up the wound a bit, but this boy's just lost to much blood. Nearly all the blood he's got. I would pull out the bullet if I saw the point" the guy with the crossbow said. "The point is his life!" Lucian yelled. "You're missing the point. This boy needs a transfusion, which are done at hospitals. To get anywhere near the closest hospital, we have to get out of this forest, off this island, sail across the ocean to get back to the mainland, only then to have to do some running. Anything I can do is a temporary measure, and nothing I can do will keep him alive that long" said the guy with a crossbow. "But.... we have to try. We have to do something" Lucian sounded desperet. "It's obvious he's important to you, so there is something you can do for him. You can let him die" the guy said.

"What!? No!, whats wrong with you" Lucian said repulsed at the notion. "Let him go" the guy said. "I refuse" Lucian replied. The guy repeated himself. Lucian ignored him and focused on Evan. "All you have to do is hold out till we get you to a hospital. Please? It'll be easy" Lucian said. "....It hurts" Evan replied. Lucian looked towards the guy with a crossbow, his right eye glowing faintly blue. "I Compel you to help Evan" Lucian said. The guy with the crossbow found himself suddenly taking the bullet out of Evan's shoulder. Evan cried out during this. The glow of Lucian's eye faded while he was trying to comfort Evan. As soon as it did, the guy with the crossbow hit Lucian in the face. Lucian fell completly to the ground and the guy pointed his crossbow at Lucian. "Never do that to me again, and I'll never need to use this on you" the guy said. "Fine, I'm sorry. It was wrong, but I just dont want Evan to die" Lucian replied. "Then I suggest we get off this island now. We both have things to do on the mainland" the guy said. He put away his crossbow, while Lucian slowly and carefully picked up Evan. Lucian securely held Evan in his arms as he started following the guy. Evan whinced in pain occasionally. "I memorized my tracks through this forest. There wont be a problem getting out and to the port, as long as you keep up" the guy with the crossbow said.

Lucian was greatful. No thanks to Avara, Lucian hadnt been conscous on his way into this forest. Lucian looked back towards the bodies of Avara and Janis. "What about them?" Lucian asked. "What about them" the guy thought to himself. "Leave them be. No one tends to come to this island, they wont be disturbed" the guy said. So they would make their way through the forest, and they ran awhile till they reached the port. At which point they were greated by an unpleasat surprise. The boat Lucian had arrived on and the raft the guy had come on were both destroyed. "A farewell present from Zorander" the guy said with a glare and some obsenities. Lucian nearly succumb to despair. "Wait, look. The zodiac is still intact" Lucian said, having just spotted it among the wreckage of the boat. The guy went over and started to clear away some of the wreckage. Then he sat in the back of the zodiac and started up the engine. Lucian got in the front and gently laid Evan down. They slowly navigated around what was left of the wreckage and then sailed away from the island. The guy pushed the zodiac's engine as fast as it could go, so at times it now seemed as if the zodiac skipped across the ocean's surface. Lucian would keep a close eye on Evan, while his attention went to the guy with a crossbow.

"Do you have a name?" Lucian asked. "Not one you need to know" the guy replied. Lucian read the guy's thoughts to try and find out, but the guy wasnt thinking about it. His thoughts were completly focused on Zorander. "So whats with you and that person in the grey robes.....Zorander, was it? Why are you after him?" Lucian asked. "I swore an Oath of Revenge. Zorander killed my entire clan" the guy said. "Why?" Lucian asked. "Because we went after him" the guy replied. "Same question then" Lucian said. "It would make more sence if I told you about Zorander" the guy said. "Go ahead" Lucian said. The guy mumbled under his breath, he hadnt been looking for a confirmation. "Zorander is a wizard. Long time ago he was very powerful, might of even had some morals. Then he got old and his magicks started to fade. He didnt cope with that well. He refused to accept that his lifetime's worth and magnitude of power he had obtained would just fade as his life did. He'd be damned to lose anything, he wanted to keep it all at any cost. Goodbye morality. So Zorander eventually found a way. He used his magicks to create that black book, the Grafting Arcanum. In a way that book is apart of him" the guy said. "Black book, for a black heart" Lucian said.

"So it seems. Anyway I imagine you already know what the book does. But for Zorander the point was that by grafting parts of others and therefor taking their powers, he would be compensating for his own fading magicks. And that if he kept doing it, he could potentially keep himself powerful forever. First he targeted people, then graduated to demons, then to any gifted unique beings he encountered. It got out of hand. Which is when my clan became aware of Zorander, looked into his past, and made the decision to stop him. Every time we sent people, he killed them. After losing enough people, my clan decided it was necessary to send our whole force in order to succeed. We intercepted Zorander in the Southern Mountains, we suspected he had been heading towards the city of Nacie. The battle was brutal, he lost his book during the fighting. It had fallen down the mountains. In his rage he made sure my entire clan suffered till death. I was lucky to survive" the guy said. "Avara must have found the book sometime after, and unfortunatly she and Zorander were similiar when it came to power" Lucian said. The guy nodded. "But I didnt see any signs of grafting or age on Zorander" Lucian said. "He uses whats left of his magicks to hide all that" the guy with a crossbow replied.

They had been sailing through the ocean for awhile now. It seemed like the trip would be uneventful, until Lucian checked on Evan again. His eyes were closed and he was motionless. A splash of worry could be seen in Lucian's eyes. He checked Evan's breathing. Not a breath. Lucian leaned his head on Evan's chest for a moment to check for a heartbeat. He heard just one and then it stoped completly. "No" Lucian said almost under his breath. But his eyes said so much more. Denial, worry, concern, pleading, begging, doubt, sadness, fear. The guy with the crossbow saw it all when Lucian looked towards him. The guy simply sighed. What was he suppose to say, "I told you so", no that would be unessecarily harsh. The guy looked away from Lucian and toward the horizon, quietly continuing to sail the boat. "Help him" Lucian said. He got no reply. "HELP HIM!" Lucian yelled. Anger passing momentarily through Lucian's features.

He turned back towards Evan. "No" was again all Lucian said upon looking at Evan. He refused to acknowledge the dying of Evan. As far as Lucian was concerned it wasnt suppose to happen, it wasnt meant to happen, he wouldnt accept it, he wouldnt take it, he wouldnt be helpless to do anything about it. Lucian tilted Evan's head back slightly and started doing chest compressions. He breathed into Evan, but got no responce. He started again. "Come on Evan, dont go. I'm not quiting on you" Lucian said while he did more chest compressions. Lucian kept repeating this cycle, over and over and over again. For over an hour non stop Lucian went at it, cursing himself after every failed attempt. Eventually Lucian would slow down, a single tear falling slowly down the side of his face. "Nooooooooo!" Lucian yelled for as long as he could at the top of his lungs. He slamed at Evan's chest repeatedly with his fist. Regardless of whether it was Lucian's own feelings, the feelings of Evan's brother that he had Mind Scaned, or just a case of Lucian projecting, whatever the case was Lucian still felt as if he was losing his own little brother. "Damn it I wont be made helpless, not with this. I wont lose him.....I wont allow it" Lucian said suddenly. The guy with the crossbow wasnt thrilled with Lucian's tone shift. Lucian grabed Evan by the shoulders. Then his right eye started glowing faintly blue. "I Compel you to Live" Lucian said.

Nothing seemed to happen. His glow of his right eye became brighter and brighter. No responce from Evan. Then for the first time Lucian's left eye began to glow as well. At first the glow was faint and pale but within a minute it flashed into an intense and brilliant white glow. His eyes glowed so brightly that you couldnt actually see his eyes anymore, just the glow. Evan twitched, then his eyes shot open and he thrashed around violently. Lucian tried to hold him down still, possibly keep him steady. Evan yelled out, his lungs filled with air, his heart started beating. All against his body and nature's own will, all according to Lucian's will. "Its hurts, its hurts! please make it stop!" Evan cried out, his face soaking with tears. Lucian held on to him almost like a hug, the glow of his eyes never ceased. He couldnt believe it worked, a part of him was ecstatic. "Just hold on Evan, until we arrive at the hospital, they can make you better" Lucian said. Evan looked up at him. "Lucian...how are you doing this?! why..." Evan only could smile briefly through his pain. He was starting to understand why, this was... "Your keeping me alive right now arnt you...I'm grateful...but you dont have to. Its okay, you can stop, its the thought that counts." Evan was saying. Was Evan being noble, or was he just ready to join his siblings, or was it just the pain talking? Evan wasnt even sure. "Forget it, dont be a dummy" Lucian replied. "Jerk!" Evan yelled in his pain. The exchange was almost sibling like.

The guy with the crossbow was astonished about what had taken place, though it didnt sit well with him in a small way. Also he noticed a slight bit of bleeding from Lucian's ear. He couldnt imagine the strain on Lucian's mind at the moment. Lucian did his best to hide that strain with a smile. The sun began setting. They could now start seeing the mainland of the territory in their sights.