(We just found the man who's soul Elegost's character took, and then we decided to travel off the road, and I just sped everything up, so now it's night, and my character has just asked if we should stop and make camp. Hope that caught you up.)

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I'm back!

((ALRIGHT! thanks, Artemis! *huggles*))

Miya nodded absent mindedly. Yes, she was tired. It was time to make camp. But, even though her body screamed at her to speak her thoughts, Miya didn't utter a word.

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

Ewaviner made his way towards the main throne chamber of the Archfiend. Two burly guards guarded the door. They crossed their spears as Ewaviner approached. He hissed, "Do you have any idea who am I?"
After a while, the knowledge of who the visitor was penetrated their abnormally thick skulls and they allowed him to pass.
Ewaviner coldly passed the stone pillars as he made his way towards the throne. Behind every pillar was an elite guard, sworn to protect the Archfiend. At last, he approached the Archfiend himself. He knelt on the ground and said, "What is your will, my master?"

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I was cured all right.

(BTW, I think I forgot to post this before, but anyone can play the Archfiend if they need to use him in their posts unless someone would like to play him for good.)

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I'm back!

Radearle ignored Damien's nod. Almost every problem currently in her life had been caused by males - the less contact with them, the better. It wasn't that she was biased against them; she simply prefered to consider them guilty until proven innocent. She remounted and caught up with the rest. The finding of one man didn't necessarily warrant the entire party traveling offroad, in her opinion, but that seemed to be the general consensus of the group.

She sat well away from the men in the party - thank the gods most of the Chosen were women - until late in the evening, when Erillyn proposed making camp.

"It's about time," Radearle replied quietly, drawing her horse up to the brown-haired elf in green. "We must conserve our strength, and that of our mounts. Running water would be nice." She stopped Vigoroso completely. Over the past few days, she had realized that part of her gifts was the innate ability to find water, if she could just Listen. Her hearing had not been enhanced - it was more an exercise of the mind.

The woman concentrated. "This way," she said abruptly, and turned her horse sharply away from the direction they were taking. A ten-minute ride brought them to a well-proportioned clearing, with a grassy slope bordered by a stream, and sporadic rock formations overgrown by brush. Vigoroso headed straight for the water and submerged his head.

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

(Actually, I changed my mind. I think I will be playing the Archfiend. But if for some reason I am not able to post and one of you guys needs to use him, by all means do so.)

The Archfiend sat in his throne, intently contemplating this news he had gotten. Well, it wasn't even news really. It was more of an annoyance like a fly buzzing around his head: irritating, but easily dealt with. If he had been anyone else, he would have laughed at the thought of these Chosen Ones, but he did not laugh.

Wanting to take a look on these pitiful new enemies, he relaxed and called forth his power of Sight. His breathing slowed and his black eyes glazed over a bit. Colors swirled in his vision, until finally the picture came into focus, showing him what he wanted to see.

A group of ten, eight females and two males, were settling down to make a camp. He smiled condescendingly at the picture. This is what the mages had thought to defeat him with? He had bested the Great Ones, and the mages thought to best him with commoners they picked up off the streets?

Suddenly, he heard a voice, calling him back to reality. A little irritated at being interrupted, he let the vision fade away. Then he saw who interrupted him, and his irritation dispelled. "Ah, Ewaviner," he said in a voice as cold as ice, "Just the Demon I wanted to see. Something has come up. A slight complication, I should say. I need you to take care of some business for me."

------

Erillyn let a small smile come to her lips when they reached the clearing. It was a beautiful area. It reminded her much of her home before it was overtaken by the Archfiend's minions.

She dismounted and led Firefoot over to the stream. Then she bent and filled her now almost empty water skin with the cool water from the stream. When it was full she straightened back up and began to take a long drink.

But as it touched her lips, she had a strange feeling. She lowered the water and looked around warily. It was as if they were being watched. Slowly she walked a few steps away from the others, looking around. No one was in sight, but she couldn't shake the feeling.

And then as suddenly as it had come, the feeling was gone. It was as if a presence had been in their midst for a moment and then was drawn away. She looked around at everyone else, confusion and apprehension painting her face. "Did anyone else just have a strange feeling?" she asked quietly.

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I'm back!

Maria looked around with the feeling she too was being watched hearing erillyn's question she spoke up and said,"Yes, I did have a strange feeling but then....it was gone," taking a drink she kept a constant eye on her surroundings even though the feeling was gone she could not help but to keep thinking that someone was still out there.

After letting Flame (which she had chosen to name her horse)and herself get a drink from the stream she went down to her new found friends and stood quietly.

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"Is all that we see or seem in a dream, but a dream?" -Edgar Allen Poe

[: ? # = $ ^ ~ +]


Normal is for Muggles!

Miya nodded, and even dared to speak.

"Aye... I did feel a bit strange just now... But its entirely gone." She said this, shrugged and tied up Rhiesan.

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

"I've felt strange all my life..."Alythrya said, smiling slightly as she and Snowfire stood besdie Miya and Rhiesan. "Or at least, called that, I guess."

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Just became a college freshman; be on sparingly

"Your will is my command, my lord," Ewaviner said. "Tell me what needs me to be done."

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I was cured all right.

Damien, unsaddling Blight, felt a prickly feeling on the back of his neck, a sure sign that something was watching him. He ignored it. Most likely, it was one of his companions, trying to figure out why he seemed to disdain their company.

They could wrack their minds over it all they wanted--he didn't really care if they found out the answer or not. He was here to get a job done so that he could go back to his people, and he tolerated them because he couldn't leave them. That didn't mean he had to be social, though.

He set Blight's saddle on the ground and brushed him down, paying attention to each burr or plant that he found on the horse. A lot of times they could provide helpful information. He had seen the plants that all of these came from, though, so this time, they simply confirmed his thoughts. He would be standing guard tonight, regardless of who else was appointed that task. Hopefully the Healing power he had been gifted with would cleanse him of his weariness on the road tommorrow--they might be attacked then instead of this night.
As he stood up to go and examine the ground around their camp, he noticed that the prickly feeling was gone, yet no one was behind him. There was almost no chance that anyone had moved from behind him to in front of him without him noticing, either. He definitely was going to be watching tonight.

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Alythrya glanced over at Damien as she tied up Snowfire beside Miya and her horse. Alythrya sighed, thinking, That man looks disgusted with the rest of us. I'm going to have to talk with him sometime...

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Just became a college freshman; be on sparingly

The Archfiend smiled an icy smile that would have sent shards of fear into the heart of even the bravest warrior. "Good," he drawled. He regarded Ewaviner with his piercing black eyes as he took a drink of his wine. "Before their deaths, these mages chose successors of a sort, people they thought would be able to supplant me." Anger boiled up inside him as he thought about how they had thought that he would be so easily dealt with. "There are ten of them. I want them dead. Every last one." He paused a moment to make sure that Ewaviner knew how important this task was. "Right now they are traveling west towards The Grainayar." He smiled as he said that name. Even if they were somehow able to make it to The Grainayar, they would never be able to survive it. The Grainayar was part of his realm. "Find them and eliminate them," he continued, "Take whatever help you need, although I do not think you will need that much. These ten 'chosen ones' are nothing compared to the power of us."

----

Erillyn was a bit uncomfortable that everyone had seemed to feel the same thing that she had. It had been an odd sensation, lasting for only a moment, but its taint still lingered with her. She sensed evil.

She rolled her shoulders and shook her head, trying to relax a little. Then she began unsaddling Firefoot and getting him ready for the night. She kept the saddle nearby and easily accessible, for she knew that if an attack came in the night, they would have to be ready.

When everything was settled down, she walked over to a tree and sat down. She placed her pack at the base of the tree's trunk and rested her head against it. Still, she didn't sleep. She knew that if they were to be aware the next morning then everyone needed their sleep, but she didn't think that she would be able to.

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I'm back!

"Ay, what's this?" Radearle had finally convinced her gelding to abandon the stream. As she slipped out of the saddle with a groan and began to pull his tack off, she noted with displeasure that the others had started to bed down for the night.

By the gods, were they to be murdered in their sleep, especially if they truly had felt something unusual?

"None of that, now," she snapped. The lord of An's daughter had been on enough journeys to know the routine. "We need a rotating watch, two on each shift, switching off every two hours. And supper. We won't make it far on empty stomachs. A small fire, concealed, nothing big, nothing smoky. Now, are there volunteers for the watch, or do I have to make assignments?" Elves! Did they think they were invincible because they were immortal?

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<center>Nothing but the Rain</center>

"Consider it done," Ewaviner said who had remained on bent knee through the entire time. He got up and went straight to his citadel. He ordered one of his servants, "Open up the cages and prepare the Shadows." The Shadows was a name that Ewaviner gave to his elite soldiers. They were trained mages, fearsome warriors, and cunning assassins. Ewaviner made his way to to top of his tower where he could see the scores of bat-like creatures that flew towards the "chosen ones". He smiled inwardly.

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I was cured all right.

Cu'scath strode down the hallways of the citadel, on an errand important to none but himself. He paused as he passed Ewaviner. "Trouble?" he asked casually, watching the dark creatures wing their way from the citadel.