Ride the Wave, In for a Penny, in for a Pound.

[~Arx Fatalis~]

((OOC: Transcon, Al crawled out a window and headed into the forest before the inferno started, just to let you know. Scroll up a bit, you'll see it.))

As the trees around him caught fire, Al'aundro wimpered. He wasn't very fond of fire or the qualities it boasted. He had been burned once in a fire at his home village, and it hurt. That was only a small blaze though... this was an entire forest going up in flames!

Much more concerning was the sight he saw next, though.

Afree Redwood, the thief, falling from a window into the lake. He assumed she would be ok, but... there were bubbles where she jumped in, and she hadn't come back up yet. Al screamed and ran to the lake, discarding his jacket and belongings immediately and jumping into the murky depths.

She had helped him after his mistake of killing the guard, and he owed her for that. It was time to be the hero he had always dreamed and save a certain damsel in distress.

He swam through the water quickly, thrashing about in the spot that Afree had dove into, but he could not find her. He began to panic as he swam more and more in the lake and found no sign of his older elven friend.

He didn't give up, though, and continued searching for Afree, oblivious to the happenings around and above him.

((OOC: Major edit has been done.))

[~beflexor~]

A dark figure plunged halfway into the water and, wrapping a callused hand around one of Al'aundro's wrists, pulled him out.

"You would do best to leave the situation as it is boy" he hissed, his eyes beneath the black hood, one blue and the other grey, pierced the elf. He tossed Al aside like he was a sack of potatoes before looking into the lake again. "Get up, I'm taking you out of here. If you hang around much longer you're going to be in big trouble, and I know all about trouble."

He turned, his cloak flapping ominously as he hurried to one side of the trees that soon began to catch fire. "If we hurry" he said "we can make it deep enough into the forest where the fire won't reach, and neither will the guards. We will eventually make our way back into the city, you can stay in my place until the athorities cool off." He paused "unless you like the idea of spending time in a dungeon?"

~

Zaraxzo nodded. "Indeed, because of their short life spans, my people often find it hard to let go of the past, be it good or bad. Well, shall we make a prompt exit then? I suggest we follow suit of Afree. Whoaheeho!" He yelled as he leapt out the window, holding his robe down to try and prevent exposing his bare legs (and you thought they wore something underneath?) There was a strange sound, like a tuning fork hitting a thin sheet of metal, and the wizard slowed considerably in his fall before landing softly on the ground.

He adjusted his spell as best he could for the Kitsune and adjusted his sandals while he waited. The rain coming down in more force as Zaraxzo realized it was doing little to combat the fire in its current state.

[~RejjeN~]

Azarias was no expert when it came to controlling the elements, but for his age he was quite skilled, but earth-walking, as they called it, was still a time-consuming process for him, which is why it took several hours for him to make it from the museum, under the lake, and then back into the city and into a dark alley where he could appear from the ground without making a commotion.

Because of all the heat that had been surrounding him during his chanting he doubted anyone had seen him clearly, atleast not the soldiers that had come to the museum, and even if they did, he had many more tricks up his sleeve. Despite this it was not safe to take unecessary risks, so Azarias decided that returning to "Weave's den" would be a bad idea, who knew if anyone of those fools had been captured?

Azarias was about to walk out of the alley when he remembered something, the communication stone! It was a possibility it could be used to either track him or spy on him, either way they would probably feel as if he abandoned them, which was true, so carrying it around would not be wise. Therefore he took it out of his pockets and simply tossed it over his shoulders, the stone landing on the ground by the alleys wall.

He had recieved instructions to await further commands a few days ago, so he assumed something big was about to happen, therefore he decided to go find a decent tavern where he could stay until he was given his orders.

[~Arx Fatalis~]

"You would do best to leave the situation as it is, boy." The sentence infuriated Al'aundro as he was pulled out of the water. He struggled to get free of the man's grasp until they locked eyes; his eyes, one blue and the other gray, pierced through his moment of heroism, and he stopped his struggle. He was tossed aside.

"Get up, I'm taking you out of here. If you hang around much longer you're going to be in big trouble, and I know all about trouble." Al protested at this moment, saying, "But... we have to help Afree--"

His sentence was cut off by the man continuing to talk as he turned away. "If we hurry, we can make it deep enough into the forest where the fire won't reach, and neither will the guards. We will eventually make our way back into the city, you can stay in my place until the athorities cool off... unless you like the idea of spending time in a dungeon?"

Al sat still for a moment, then whimpered out a tiny "No... I'll go." He stood up and put his jacket back on, then, shivering slightly, followed the man.

[~beflexor~]

(OOC: I'm going to do the time skip, is that okay? It'll help get things revved back up hopefully)

The museum had burned to the ground, leaving no evidence against the thieves and their excapade. The guards let them off the hook since nothing could be used as proof against them other than Trespassing and, in this city, that had very little merit.

Afree's body was never found.

Though they had searched the lake, it was just too deep to reach the bottom. No one even knew what was down there exactly.

They held a funeral in her memory, having dug a hole and everything.

The man in the cloak eyed Al'aundro in the small crowd. Right after the disaster he had taken the boy back to Weave's shadow and, no matter what questions people asked, he never confirmed nor denied that he was Weave himself. The boy seemed to be more than a little morose, poor little thief probably didn't know what he had gotten himself into until it was too late.

He stood in front of the crowd, holding a book called The Law of Thieves in his hands. It was thin, showing people that thieves didn't have very many laws to begin with.

"We are here to honor Afree Redwood. Elf, daughter, posessor of many shiney things, keeper of the illegally aquired, owner of things that other people own. Theif."

He bowed his head. "Afree died doing what she loved. We commend her for it and hope she finds peace in the Afterlife."

The cloaked man stepped away into the woods nearby and, once he was out of earshot, he began to laugh. It started as a low chuckle, but slowly rose until his roaring laughter caused the birds to fly away in fright.

Back in the museum, Afree had said something to Al'aundro, something important as she took care of the guard that Al had accidentally killed.

I'm good at faking deaths.

The laughter turned distincly feminine as the cloak was removed to reveal Afree Redwood. She held up the Amulet of Upside in her hand.

The plan had worked perfectly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Two: Upsidal Discovery.

Two weeks later.

Most of them were still in town, the others that is, the others that had helped her in the museum.

Afree felt a pang of guilt that she had decieved them all, but it was for the best, she didn't want them getting hurt. She knew Zaraxzo wouldn't think for a minute that she was truly dead, he'd known her for a long time, and he was a wizard afterall, with extra Z's and X's in his name to make him extra powerful. He wouldn't meddle in her affairs though, she'd proven him on more than one occasin that she was cabable of handing things. Not with the best skill, but nonetheless, she managed.

It was Hakari she worried about.

The Fox Demon seemed to be around at the most inconvenient of times, that, and he got her to do things she didn't like to do, like tell the truth or question her theft of petty objects.

She looked at the Amulet of Upside hanging on a coathook.

Of course, there were less petty things she got her hands on as well.

The elf currently resided in a small inn room, ironically, not far from her 'grave' that the others had made for her.

Afree pressed her hands down on a scroll she had before her. It told her how to activate the amulet, but not exactly what it was nor what it did, but that was all unimportant. She was busy trying to reverse the spell.

"Goat's blood, bile from a troll, and a weilder of magic with a dark, blackened, evil heart" she said, reading from the scroll. Reverse-check, check, and check.

While Afree wasn't exactly a non-weilder of magic with a light, pure, good heart, she would have to do (her heart was a crispy golden at best). She wasn't sure what to do about finding the opposite of troll bile, so she settled for dibbling a little salliva. And there was no opposite of goat's blood, then again, getting the blood would require killing it, and she managed to find a way around that, she let it just hang around during the ritual.

"Knock it off!" she shouted, elbowing the goat as it tasted the scroll. "Okay, here we go!" She said before closing her eyes and speaking from the scroll, it had sounded like gibberish in the original format but, when Afree read it backwards, it still sounded like gibberish.

Everything grew quiet when she finished her spell. There, nothing happened, had the amulet been dispelled? Its mysterious power forever locked away, never to be used in the hands of anyone again?

It looked plain enough, of course, it looked plain to begin with. She reached out to grab it, to be sure, if she was lucky it would turn to dust or something.

To say it exploded was a little vague, first, it exploded something that looked like a gateway, then it imploded, sucking Afree, her tools, the furniture, and the goat into the gate, then it exploded again.

The wall of the inn room blew back and into the builing opposite it, and snow, torrents of snow, came pouring out the gate. It was so much that, despite it being a warm, summer day, it stayed there.

People walking down the street had panicked at first, then their normal Human Curiosity set in and their eyes followed the trail of snow up the street, into the decimated inn room, and right up to the portal.

Human Fear kept them from entering it.

It took all of ten seconds for Human Gossip to travel through the town, explaining the massive, stone-rattling sound that had occured.

The main question was, what was on the other side of the portal?

[+transcon+]

It was a warm day, the night after Ms. Redwood disappeared. Zaraxzo's home was well furnished and decorated, as Hakari would've guessed. The two sat in the study sipping black tea by the empty and unlit fireplace. Soothing incense wafted in the air, calming their hearts after a rough night of fire and loss. Neither slept that well, one worried for the Amulet, the other worried for Afree.

After their meeting outside the museum, Zaraxzo invited the Demon to stay at his residence for the night. The old wizard felt privileged to have the fox man in his home. He was also too old to worry about his death, if anything were to happen along those lines. Besides, he considered, this was not Death. It was not Hakari's place to chose who lives or who dies, but moreover what needs to happen to maintain the balance of Light and Dark. And, if death needed to occur to attain that precarious balance, then so be it.

Although, as a mortal, he also considered, this made Hakari's existence very rough. Not only was he incarnated into a mortal shell for the purposes of experiencing what life itself had to offer as well as how valuable such a thing was, but he also had to do what he could that was within his job description. This, Zaraxzo wondered, must've left the Demon in personal distress on more than one occasion.

The old man watched over his teacup how Hakari looked preoccupied in thought. The Demon's hands clasped the cup and held it just under his nose. Those wicked eyes stared into the liquid's surface without sign of life. Even his hair had fallen to frame the sides of his face in a sullen demeanor.

"A penny for your thoughts?" the old wizard asked quietly after a few moments.

"Hm?" Hakari's eyes snapped back to life and focused on the wizard's long trailing beard. Then, he tilted his head and looked back at the tea before sipping at it once. "Oh, sorry. But, the price went up."

"You need to let her go," he said peacefully. When Hakari's eyes snapped up again to meet his gaze, he politely smiled. "I may be just an old man, but I'm not senile."

"I don't see how that is any of your business," the fox man warned. "I find her very important to the Cycle. What she accomplished last night was necessary."

"Was it, now?" Zaraxzo leaned back in his comfortable padded chair and held his own teacup in thought. "Please mind the fact that I'm not trying to be rude, but if I may be as so bold to note that you bear only two tails?"

"That would be correct, yes." Hakari wasn't sure where this was going, but at least the wizard was polite about stating an obvious trait.

"And, if I'm not mistaken, according to what I've studied in Demonology, that this means that you have not regained all of your memories and experiences, yes?" With a simple nod in agreement from Hakari, the old man continued. "I know you bear wisdom from your experiences, but perhaps the memories of your prior lives haven't come to the forefront just yet. I must ask you this for everyone's own good, as well as your own: are you absolutely certain that Afree Redwood is an importance to the Cycle because of her own path in life, or because of how you feel about her?"

If Hakari had any more room to lean back, he would've. However, his tails were in the way; he had to sit sideways as he contemplated the old man's words. That was the same question he had been asking himself the whole time ever since he met that elven woman. Yet, every time he asked it, he couldn't fathom an answer. It was easy to dismiss one's own question to themselves, but hearing the same question posed by another was much more difficult to dodge.

"I don't know," the Demon finally admitted. The great Demon of Balance, the head of the Kitsune, the Nine-Tails of yore, had no answer. He silently cursed himself for this, and a scowl pushed his brow down to reflect this. He didn't have enough tails to recall anything that would help him find the answer. But, Zaraxzo slowly rose out of his chair after taking a sip of his tea, and bent over to gently lay a hand on Hakari's shoulder.

"It's okay," he reassured with a warm smile. "It's all part of being mortal. Perhaps this is one of the many lessons you are here to learn. All mortals make mistakes. I've had a few in my days. Trust me. Its not all about your tails, and what comes with them. Its about your own experiences that makes life worth living.

"Just think about that, Old Man," Zaraxzo finished with a pat on Hakari's shoulders. "Sometimes, you have to do something for yourself once in a while. The world can wait."

"How do you know this?" Hakari asked innocently, his long eyelashes beat down several times blinking in sudden wonder.

"Just ask any of my three wives, if they were still alive."

"Three wives... at once?"

"Heh, I wish."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"Let her go, eh?" The warm sun beat down on his red hair, and the black robes almost made the heat too much to bear. If he wasn't used to desert regions, like those back where he was born, he would've found something much more cool to wear. Though running around in a loin cloth would've made him feel sexy, he felt that his choice in wardrobe for today was more fitting for how he felt on the inside.

As he walked through the town square, about an hour after his meeting with Zaraxzo had blissfully ended, he could hear the whispers amongst the townsfolk. Their mundane conversations had cut short upon sighting him. Things such as 'is that a Kitsune? I've never seen one. I thought they only had one tail. He has two. Is it a he? Hard to tell at this distance. Does it matter? What's wrong with him? Or her?'

"Rumor has it," one villager spoke to another, "that he was spotted at last night's arson."

"You think he's responsible? Kitsune are rumored to be firebugs."

"No, you're thinking of something else. They're like wanderers."

"Tricksters."

"Hedonists."

"Nomads."

"Charlatans."

"Romantics."

He knew that his Children were all of those. The rumors about his Kitsune were a little biased and misconstrued, but for the most part, he found the words amusing. The sidetrack of the conversations he heard about his people were a sweet relief from the grief he was feeling. We are anything we need. All of those and more. Lovers and fighters, tricksters and thieves....

"Thieves," he muttered, which quickly brought his thoughts back to mourning the loss of someone he felt dear. Though they only met twice, he felt that somehow he'd made an actual connection with that elf.

Al'aundro must've made a connection with that woman, too, he thought. Though he knew Afree disliked her own kind, there must've been something about the boy that caught her eye. Potential, more than likely. What grief that elven boy must've been going through, as well.

And, what part did that Elemental Lord play in the whole scheme of things? His thoughts finally drifted back to his role. He thought he recognized that firebug, but at the time, he didn't. It took a good night's sleep and a deep conversation with the old wizard to remember. Memories were vague, but he finally recalled meeting him on some plane of existence a long time ago (if time had any relevance back then). A distraction? A catalyst? He didn't quite see the big picture as of yet, and he looked forward to meeting with everyone involved with the caper to figure out this puzzle.

The Amulet.

The people involved.

Afree Redwood.

"Let her go, eh?" he considered aloud again. Then, the roller coaster of emotions came to an abrupt halt with an explosion. The dull thud was heard across town, and an icy wind blew through the village. Hakari's hair blew around his face as he shivered, causing him to draw up the collar of his robe. But, his ears perked from the sense he felt. Magical energies were carried upon the icy chill. They were gone, along with the freeze, as fast as they had come.

"Let her go, eh?" he growled this time. This was no fluke, as his gut told him. He let both of his arms hang back behind him as he leaned forward into a run. Bounding off of a railing, he leaped up to a rooftop and bounded from peak to peak, gaining elevation to the top of second story buildings. Having a good vantage point, he continued to leap, vanishing in a blur and reappearing at his landing on the next roof, until he was able to see what all the commotion was about.

He found an inn not far from the burned husk of the museum. A portion of the wall on the second story looked like it had sucked inward, and drifts of snow had accumulated along that side of the building. Despite the heat of the day, people stared in awe at the wonder. Snow hadn't fallen in this city for decades, and yet here was a testament to how magic could break the norm. Flipping to the ground, tucked and rolling to his feet, he sprinted up to the crowd.

Carefully, he squeezed his way through. When he reached the other side, he could see that the town's authority had already arrived and cordoned off the area. This wasn't going to stop the fox's curiosity. Backing out again, he leaped up to another rooftop, and bounded over to the inn. Silently, he grappled the roof's edge, and flipped himself down into the imploded room.

The place was a blank. No furnishings, no accommodations. Nothing. All except a glowing opening in the very fabric of space itself. It hung there, bending the rules of reality. Nothing could be seen through this portal, so it was a mystery as to where it led. Sniffing around, however, Hakari noted the scent of a goat.

Thinking this was strange, aside from the fact that there was an unexplainable phenomenon staring him right in the face, he continued to search the room. He figured that if there was the smell of goat here, then it had to have been part of whatever opened the gate. As he searched the room moreover, he found a scrap of parchment. It had a bite mark taken out of it, but it had been torn from the violent implosion/explosion.

What Hakari read of what was left of the document made his eyes open wide in surprise. Apparently, from what he could gather, goats were involved with whatever was needed to open this gate. Either that, or he was reading a shopping list for someone so frugal they wanted cheap milk.

Explosive milk?

"This was meant to happen," he muttered quietly to himself. "But, why here? This could be bad. Only one way to find out."

As he leaped through the portal, not only was he getting a familiar feeling of the place he was about to end up in, but a final thought crossed his mind: Let her go, eh? I don't think I can.

[~Arx Fatalis~]

"Afree died doing what she loved. We commend her for it and hope she finds peace in the Afterlife."

*sniffle*

Al'aundro wiped the tears from his eyes as the man finished his sermon. Afree was gone... he sniffled again as the realization sank in. He had only known her for a little bit, but she had comforted him in his time of need at the museum when the buisness with that guard happened. He could still see her sink into the lake...

In the dissipating crowd around the pit dug for Afree's missing body, he saw the man that pulled him from the lake. His blue and gray eyes still pierced his very essence, sending a shiver up his spine. The man's hood was down to the point where he couldn't see a bit of his face other than his chin.

Al'aundro walked up to the pit. A single tear fell into the hole and left a dark mark on the dirt inside as Al turned from the hole, not wanting to think about it anymore.

He could still make it on his own, he knew enough to survive. But he would need some minor help. Al walked up to the man and said, "I need your help."

[~beflexor~]

(OOC: I did a time skip after Afree's 'funeral' but I can do a little workaround on that Arx, hope you don't mind ^_^)

Weave (the real Weave) could always find Al'aundro at Afree's grave.

Throughout the two weeks the master thief had made it very clear that the young elf was a welcome member of his establishment. He was not to be questioned, and he was to be treated with as much respect as one would treat Weave himself. He didn't ask much of the boy, and wasn't asked much in return, so he was a little surprised about the boy's asking for help.

What else could he give?

The thief crossed his arms under his cloak in through. He could tell Al, tell him that it had all been a farce, that Afree had betrayed him. Even Weave himself had been in on it, letting Afree borrow his guise for the duration of her funeral. Of course, there was honor among thieves, and Weave didn't feel it was in his place to tell the boy about his friend's trickery.

Still, he was a child.

Weave put a hand on Al'aundro's shoulder and squeezed it. "Al, there's something you should know-"

A blast of icy cold air blew out from the city and Weave turned, his eyes searched the buildings, the grey one seeing far more than what an ordinary human should.

"Al" he said, turning back to him. "What is it you want? Is it the truth? I can't give you that, but I can help you find it." He pointed toward the city. Toward the inn.

~

Snow.

Snow was the first thing that anyone coming through the portal would see. It fell in torrents of big, fat snowflakes that stuck even before falling. The biting, icy air was the next thing one noticed, causing breath to come as a fog.

The third was the buildings.

Huge, exotic buildings towered into the sky topped with golden spires and painted in bright, garish hues of blue, tan, and yellow. The structures were crurved, unlike the squared hovels of human construction back on the other side, giving the city a more natural, flowing grace. Glassless windows stared out like eyes from the walls, the snow pouring in and letting observers see simalar architecture within. It had more of a desert function rather than one for such a cold climate.

There were gardens everywhere. Trees studded with every color and shape of fruit imaginable, flowers as small as a pin to as large as a housecat, vines grew every whichway. Everything was still green, suggesting the cold had been sudden rather than the gradual sleep of Winter.

The most unsettling of all was the silence.

There wasn't a single sound save for the gentle falling of the snow.

Two pairs of tracks, one that of a goat's, and another that of a humanoid's, headed into the city.

~

"Upside."

Afree breathed the word for the thousanth time, watching her breath. A city, seperate from cities, from the world, from everything. The birthplace of the Amulet.

The elf's feet finally reached solid ground and she collapsed on it, glad to be walking on something other than that snow. It was everywhere, yet she'd read that Upside was been a paradise. Did these people really enjoy the freezing temprature?

Her eyes began to wander and nearly fell out of her head when she saw the bowl of gems on a table. She reached over and, looking around suspiciously, began to pocket each and every one.

This place was so extravagant, closer inspections had revealed diamond-studded doorways, golden handrails, tapastries of the finest silk.

And no one to enjoy it.

Clothes, equally intricate, sat in dressers or on made up beds. Kitchens were stocked with cheeses, fruits, breads, all of it frozen by the cold, preserved forever.

There were things though. Things Afree had no idea what they were. Most were made of metal, some even glowed with strange lights. She found yet another of the strange objects and picked it up, thinking to herself.

What happened here?

[~Arx Fatalis~]

"Al" he said, turning back to him. "What is it you want? Is it the truth? I can't give you that, but I can help you find it."

"The truth? What do you mean?"

The truth, Al'aundro thought. Does that mean something else happened, something that I'm overlooking?

The man, as far as Al could tell, was pointing to the city, more specifically to the inn. The same inn that he met Afree in. This brought another tear to his eye... he had only known her for a short time, but he felt closer to her than any of the others. This may have been because she was the only other elf he had seen since he left his home for glory, but he felt something different about her.

He nodded at the man and began walking toward the city.

((I'll post more later, right now I need to sleep.))

[+transcon+]

The tracks wandered onward for what seemed like miles. Hakari lost track of time as he pushed forward in hip-deep snow. He held up two fingers of his right hand to the chin while concentrating on his Ki. He was managing to cut down the bitter bite of the cold on the wind and snow, but he was getting tired fighting his way to the city he could see in the distance.

One set of tracks seemed to be rather deep with a bowl-shaped groove between them. This belonged to a goat, he imagined. However the portal was opened, the goat had been taken through from the apartment in the city he followed these tracks from. The other set were made upon the surface of the snow, sinking no deeper than six inches in places. The embodied demon did his best to stay in the rut the goat made to lessen the amount of work it took to trudge towards his destination. He knew that the tracks he was following beside him were made by an elf.

It was speculation, but his gut was telling him that they were Afree's tracks. He only heard the yelp and a splash outside of the museum as he made his own escape. Hakari never witnessed the aftermath of that particular scenario.

He couldn't remember much about the Amulet the elven woman wanted other than it was dangerous in the wrong hands. Though how he figured she would have used it could've been dangerous, his instinct told him that the path the Amulet was on was the correct one. The fox man figured that if he only had more than just the two tails, he might have been able to recall more information. Instead, he only had his intuition to rely upon.

It was only a matter of another half hour passing before reaching the gates of the abandoned city. Indeed, it was a gorgeous sight to behold. Due to the great and tall structures, the snow drifts were severely less than they were outside the city walls. Tired, the fox man fell to one knee and released the technique that was keeping him warm. At least the surrounding structures provided a wind break; he no longer felt the icy teeth of the bitter cold threatening to steal whatever heat he had left.

His red-slitted eyes behind snow-covered lashes surveyed the city from his low vantage. Never before had he witnessed such things, at least as far as he could remember. But, a word did come to the edge of his lips:

"Skyscrapers?" he hoarsely whispered, his breath visible upon the frigid air. The word sounded foreign, but was familiar to only himself. Something within his mind was nagging at him, as if this place should have been familiar. Yet, as he focused on that sensation, no memories of this place, or anything similar for that matter, came to surface. "I must know something. I know the word for what I see, but it's origins escape me."

Finding his footing again, he rose to his feet and looked down upon the street. The tracks seemed to have disappeared at this point. The snow continued to fall, but with it being so shallow here, and less wind, the tracks were covered up and lost. Clenching his fists and grumbling some profane syllables in the Oriental tongue of his people, he strode forward and scanned the area before him in hopes of finding anything significant.

He picked a direction and walked. The strange thoughts from before began to invade his mind. Hope that she was safe. Hope that nothing stupid happened to her. Hope that he'd find her. However, as each step passed beneath him, that hope began to fade. The city was larger than any he had recently visited, and without tracks or a map, he was practically lost.

How he wished for his own accompaniment to have been with him. Tebiki and Naki would've figured out a way or two to navigate the city streets and alleyways. Aside from them being twins, they held a significant symbolism behind why they usually traveled with Hakari. One female, the other male. One of light, the other of shadow. Hakari had walked between them, and there, there was balance. But, for now, he was alone in a strange and desolate desert city covered in frost, ice, and snow.

After another hour of wandering, passing by open doorways and snow drifts, he finally came to a two story home in a residential district. Without knowing why, he found himself walking inside. Like everyplace else, it was deserted. Yet, the residence was strangely left untouched and furnished. The house was decadent in both layout and possessions. He found himself walking over to a sofa and sat down upon the frosted cloth cushions.

It was uncomfortable at first. The tails got in the way, so he canted his hips and leaned to the side. But, the more he leaned, the more he was inclined to lay down. Next thing he knew, he was laying on his side with a cold pillow under his face. Both of his tails curled up over his bare ankles. The more he laid there, the more warm he felt. It was a nice place to take a nap, he figured.

Hypothermia was stalking it's prey.

"No!" His eyes flared open and a red aura coated his body as he drew up a hand seal to his chin. The exhaustion he was feeling was an illusion created by the cold. With the quick flash of heat, he had minuted to find a solution. His survival knowledge kicked in.

Being that the place was abandoned with everything in tact, he found a fireplace. In it was a few partially burned chunks of wood. Before doing anything with it, he noted what kind of wood it was, and where it could've been from. He then turned back and took the low table in the middle of the living room and began to kick at it. A few kicks caused the tabletop to splinter and break.

Focusing more of his Ki, he picked up the thick legs of the table and brought his fingertips midway around the trunk of the leg. With a sharp hiss through his clenched teeth, he split the leg in two. It only took him a few minutes to break the table down into kindling.

Next, he knew he had to have tinder. He found his way to the master bedroom where he located clothing hung in the armoire. Skip it for now, he thought before taking a nice deep whiff of the scent of the women's dresses hung within. She'd look stellar in those. Hakari found the male's clothes and yanked them off of their hooks in the back of the closet. On his way back to the fireplace in the living room, he shredded two tunics he found hanging in that closet.

Everything in the fireplace was prepared. The tunics were threaded under the logs and through the kindling upon the iron rack inside. Finally, he rubbed his palms together and formed a hooked finger over his lips. Pursing his lips taught, he blew through the hook of his finger causing a small jet of flame to spew onto the tinders.

The fire was dim, but it caught. A few more minutes, the fire spread and began to thaw the kindling. Another twenty minutes, the logs were beginning to catch. Satisfied, he looked for more clothing to wear and layer beneath his robes.

By then, the fire was burning well. He had generated more firewood for later and raided the kitchen. The nice thing about food in a freeze was that it was well preserved. However, he couldn't recognize some of the foods that were stored in the pantry. Regardless, food was food, and he was hungry.

The fire and the scent of food would serve two purposes, he knew:

1) Though the surroundings may have been taller and could've obscured the view of the chimney smoke, the smell would attract the attention of those that made the tracks he followed into the city.

2) If they were like him, they'd be hungry and come looking for food.

Unfortunately, the likewise would've been the same had there been any unwanted guests come lurking about. Regardless, it was a signal for safety from the bitter cold of the city, and the house made a good location to become a base from where the demon could orient himself if he needed to go forth and search for his elven friend.

[~RejjeN~]

'Dammit! What is taking them so long!?' Azarias yelled in his mind as he slammed his right fist into the wall of the inn room. He had been waiting for two weeks for those blasted scouts to report to him so he could continue with the "preparations". Although he had not really put up a sign saying "Elemental Champion here" on his door he'd think they should be able to find him by his rather unique essence. But it did not really matter, the preparations should be about done soon, several scouts had infiltrated the military of every country and large community in the vicinity, even though they did not doubt they would win the war that would follow they wanted to avoid unecessary bloodbath if possible.

A sudden change in temperature from an area close to him made Azarias stand upright instantly, and despite the wall blocking his sight he looked in the direction of the portal that were showering torrents of snow onto the streets. As a half-elemental Azarias was connected to the elements around him, and because of that small, but abrupt changes in the asmosphere or temperature around them could alert it to their senses. The amount of cold that was suddenly spilled into this rather warm atmosphere was not naturall, either it was a prety powerfull cold spell, which meant a "heathens" magic, or some kind of gate that lead it there, either way he had to investigate. Azarias slammed the inn door open as he rushed out on the streets and looked around, he couldent see the source yet, but that hardly mattered, he could feel it clear as day like if someone had slammed it in his face.

After a few minutes of running Azarias came up alongside the inn with the imploded wall, with masses of snow laying around everywhere. 'What happened here...' Azarias thought, as he looked around and finally noticed the gate. 'So thats where it came from... I wonder what is on the other side...' His thoughts was interrupted when he heard something interesting from the gathered crowds though. "Did you see that Kitsune dude go into that thing?" "Yeah! You think he did it?" "Nah, he got here after us, I wonder what is in there though..." "We might find out if he return"

After that Azarias stopped listening, so that Hakari guy had jumped into it eh? This could be interesting, and even if the climate behind it was harsh for normal mortals, that was not a problem for a half-elemental like Azarias. He decided to enter it. Parting the crowd infront of him Azarias walked up the small mountain of snow that had formed like if it hardened under his feet, this compelled some of the humans to try to walk up it too, only to notice that the snow was soft and collapsed under them. Not paying attention to the pathetic humans Azarias then jumped up and gripped the floor inside the broken wall and pulled himself up, using the snow laying around as something to drag himself up with, it hardening under his grasp. Being a quadra-elemental had its perks, no doubt about it.

As he finally got up there he started looking around for some kind of clues to what happened, but only found a now wet scroll with a animal bite in it, hardly of any interest. He then started inspecting the gate, wondering if there would be any markings on it signifying where it went, but unfortunately he could find none, atleast none he recognized as marks. Well, he could not find anything else about it, so he might as well go already. He was just about to jump into the portal when he heard something that sounded like a childs voice from the crowd, a voice he recognized... His name was... Al'aundro? He turned to the crowd again and looked for the source.

OOC: Left a opening for little Al, if Hakari had problems with the cold there Al wont survive it (naturally) so I decided to maybe have Azarias lend a hand

[~beflexor~]

Weave followed Al into the city and the crowd of people who had gathered at the inn.

He smiled to himself, noticing that the guards in the area didn't seem to notice him and the elven lad. The boy had done a good job of keeping quiet about the museum heist, and so was able to roam the city freely as a result.

Weave himself was just brilliant when it came to hiding in plain sight.

"You didn't think I was going to let you go all alone, did you Al?" He said to the boy after several minutes. "You have a perchance for getting into lucrative adventures, of course, this is all based on your previous adventures. I hope you don't disappoint." He winked.

His eyes flicked over to the source of the commotion. Yes, it was just as he thought. Weave paled considerably.

The portal.

So this was it. It had to happen sooner or later though and, from what people were saying, someone had already gone in. It was too late to close it. The Kitsune creature to be more specific. Yes, he could close it and was sure that both the fox demon and Afree would find a way out somehow, but there was Al'aundro to think about.

He couldn't proverbially kill off Afree to the boy again.

~

"What is this, Winter!?" Afree shouted to herself as she flexed her hands to keep them warm. While the fact that she kept moving and the layers of Upside loot were keeping her warm, the cold was starting to seep through her thin, silent clothes.

Afree leapt through a window (none of the windows had glass, or even shutters for that matter) and slid her way into a bedroom. Then, finding a set of drawers, she opened one and began rifling through.

All the clothes seemed to be for far warmer wather. All. Of. It. With a frustrated growl she slammed it shut. Thieves hated it when they couldn't steal something they really wanted.

An bowl of oranges sat on a table of the finest mahogany, she grabbed one and chucked it against a wall. The frozen fruit flew and hit the wall like a rock, leaving a small depression next to the amoire.

Ohmigawd! An amoire!

Afree grabbed the handles of the large, furiture piece and threw the doors open.

There was a fur-lined coat inside.

The elf ripped it off the hangar as fast as she could and yanked it on. She wiped snow off a mirror and made a little pose. The coat was a knee-length affair in a sage green trimmed with the softest white fur imaginable.

Something heavy was in the pocket and Afree pulled it out. Another of those funny metal things. There was no way those things could be valuable! She brought her arm back and whooped as she threw it frisbee style at the orange-crater in the wall.

It hit dead on and fell to the ground, then a tiny green person popped out of it.

"Hello?" She said, kneeling down to the person standing on the device.

The tiny person was not only green, but their clothes were too, and the tiny furniture as well. Oddly enough, the furniture looked exactly like the big stuff in this room.

The tiny person, who happened to be a lady, made a weird noise, like she was hissing, before speaking normally. "Kshht-...days now, we have no idea what's causing...kshhht...have tried to stop it with what we have but the snow doesn't seem to be st- kshhhhht..."

The tiny person stood there for a moment in silence and Afree used the opportunity to try and grab her. She knew that Brownies could get her some big bucks if she managed to catch one, maybe this was some kind of Upside Brownie. Afree's hand closed around her and the person flew apart into a dozen little squares until she moved her hand out of the way and they reformed back into the tiny lady.

She looked very sad and Afree couldn't help but feel sadness as well...mostly because she couldn't catch the tiny person.

Then the lady said one last thing "We should have listened to the Kitsune" before she disappeared.

"Hey!" Afree shouted, shaking the metal device. "Get back out here, what do you mean 'the Kitsune'!?" She thumped it against the floor. "Are you talking about Hikari? Why are you wearing a tiny version of my coat -which I aquired through legal and honest ways- huh?"

No matter how much Afree asked her to come back out though, she didn't.

Afree threw it again, hoping for the same results as last time. It hit the mirror she had been using, causing a crash sound to echo through the otherwise silent world. It showed reflections of everywhichay.

Including a place through the window where smoke was rising.

She grabbed the tiny person's home and set off toward the smoke. Realzing where there was smoke, there was fire.

Oh, and people too, probably.

~

Afree hopped into the kitchen of the building several minutes later. She could tell that someone had been through it, with the exception of place she'd been through, this was the only other one that had been disturbed. It was definitely warmer in this building than the rest of it as well.

That was what caused the snowy footprints to melt on the floor, and the water was what caused her to slip.

She went tumbling into a shelf where pots and pans were hanging, they clattered noisily and she instinctivly grabbed onto the shelf for someting to stop her, the shelf tore off the wall and she accidentally threw it into a glass cabinet full of glass plates. The surviving plates, in turn, rolled out and knocked open a shallow chest of gold dining utencils that spilled off and fell to the ground, each one hitting the floor pratically like a gong. Afree, meanwhile, skidded over and grabbed onto a bowl before finally hitting the ground. The bowl rocked side to side before finally giving way and dumping a plethora of various frozen fruits onto the elf, each one causing a shriek of pain as they hit.

"Ooh! Ah! Eh! Ow! Augh! Unph!"

She groaned and rolled over to face the counter rather than who could have possibly heard her.

In Upside, fruit bruise you!

[~Arx Fatalis~]

"You didn't think I was going to let you go all alone, did you Al?"

Al'aundro smiled when he heard this. "I'd hoped not... I can't hand that much on my own..." Maybe this person wasn't so bad after all, or at least, not as bad as he had seemed when the museum caught on fire.

"You have a perchance for getting into lucrative adventures, of course, this is all based on your previous adventures. I hope you don't disappoint."

"I'll do my best," he said. As they walked up to where the large ruckus had been, Al's eyes grew wide.

A Magical Portal.

He'd heard stories of portals and what they could do. They lead to wonderful places where fairies and little creatures played in the warm spring sun, then watch the moon fall into the sea on cool cloudless nights... or hellish wastelands filled with demons and cadavers, stinking to the point where you would vomit. He hoped it was the first option.

"I guess we should go through..." Al said, gulping and taking a small step closer to the portal. He was shivering in his tiny leather suit, gripping his short sword with both elven hands.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and stepped through.

===============================================

On the other side, the first thing Al did was take another deep breath; everything smelled ok, so he wasn't in the hellish wasteland scenario... but it was too cold to be the fairies in spring scenario either. He opened his eyes to see a frozen world, snow coating everything in sight. He gave a small shiver as he pulled out his bow and notched an arrow. Hopefully, he wouldn't need to use it.

"W-what should we do now, mister?" Al said behind him, assuming the man had followed him through the portal.