Yuki,+Magical+Girl+of+Love,+Spends+a+Harrowing+Night+in+the+Woods...With+Friends

Walking back to Lyrabar through the quiet nighttime forests, Yuki, Magical Priestess of Love, felt...miserable. She sighed... Dew drenched her once beautiful white silk robes, leaving her shivering with wet and cold. She'd lost count of how many times she'd stubbed her toes over roots and rocks, sending her flying towards the ground but for Shri's ready arm. Somehow this made her feel all the worse. That didn't even count the number of wet branches whipping back, stinging her face and arms! But she didn't complain. She was too tired...and too sad...and kind of hungry!

PLUS THE FORESTS WERE SCARY TOO! There were all these strange sounds she didn't recognize. And she kept expecting cultists or BEARS to jump out at her at any minute! And there was a silence...that wasn't really a silence...that hung behind it all... She didn't quite understand but it felt...heavy. Like it was telling her...she wasn't really welcomed. She didn't...belong.

Glancing up, Yuki's eyes traced Erevin's strong shoulders in the moonlit darkness. They gave her...confidence. Nothing would happen with Erevin here. He knew forests. He understood them, loved them. Why, she couldn't quite understand but...he moved like someone who seemed to be enjoying himself, relaxed and sure. What did he see in all this that she couldn't, she wondered, wishing, not for the first time, that she could see the forest through his eyes... Maybe...then...it wouldn't feel so scary and lonely.

Her eyes slid over to the shadow that was Shri in the darkness by his side. They walked ahead of her...Shri and Erevin, not touching but moving as one, easily and silently through the moonlit night...speaking a silent language only they seemed to understand... Goddess! She was beautiful...

BUT...she was pretty too...dammit... No...she was BEAUTIFUL! Then why did....every graceful, sensual step the dark skinned elf took cause this irrational heat to burn into her. She was even a priestess...just like her... Then why... Why did Erevin... What about her... What about...Yuki? ...was there really...nothing there for her...at all...

Behind her, Wren and Kale walked, hand in hand, heads bent close together, talking intimately in the ways lovers do... Every so often they'd laugh and Yuki's cheeks would burn, feeling a little...like she had intruded too closely on their privacy... Quickening her step, she'd give them a little more room, only to trip over a root again and go flying, catching herself this time on Mari's thick fur coat. Yuki sighed and petted the wolf gratefully... "..thank you..." She murmured...

But... But...!

WAAAAAAAIT.

WHAT WAS UP WITH THIS...ATMOSPHERE!!???

Yuki glanced back at Wren and Kale then up ahead to Shri...and finally Erevin... And her heart...sank.

Wasn't this SORTA...KINDA...feeling...like a...DOUBLE DATE?!?!?!?!?! NO WAY!!!! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!!! A...AND if...IF...Shri and Erevin and Wren and Kale were on a double date then...THEN THAT...MADE 'HER'....THE FIFTH WHEEL?!?!!?!?!! Her eyes pricked with tears. Oh...Goddess...

Her only hope was to reach Lyrabar soon...fall into her bed and have a good cry or fall asleep, whichever happened first. WORST NIGHT EVER!!! Really... Yuki sighed... Could she feel any more miserable?!

Little did she know that a rather perturbed...Prince of Sune awaited his slave's return...in the darkness outside her rooms...in the Temple of Sune...

Wren hung back chatting with Kale, grateful they had survived. That was horribly close... she shuddered thinking about the tentacle mask coming for her face... if Erevin's arrows hadn't taken out that priest when he did... she shuddered again. She glanced up toward the others, and noticed Yuki trip. She smiled up at Kale who nodded, removing his arm from her shoulders. She slipped her hand into his and moved up together as she put her arm around Yuki on her other side, "Thank you for coming to save us, Yuki!" She cast little motes of light around the young priestess to help her see in the dark of the forest, and hugged her.

She quickened her pace to drag Kale and Yuki with her nearer to Erevin and Shri, "Thank you... all of you! I... I don't know that we would've made it out of that one... without you." She smiled, "so thank you for looking for us and helping to get us out of there. ...I think I'm going to burn every purple dress I own." She laughed softly.

"On the bright side... we found them... I wonder if they're responsible for Vivian's capture... or if there are still more nearby."

"It seems likely...that this was a small group of them..." Kale said, walking easily beside Wren as they talked. "And there are probably more...groups like this tend to form small cells. And none of them know of the others just in case they are stumbled upon, like we did." He remembered the cultists burying themselves rather than getting captured. "And...they had a plan in place to bury any evidence. I'd say..this Ghanadaur cult is growing in the area."

"I wonder if they've spread up to Myth Cora....ugh...." Kale suddenly leaned heavily against a nearby tree. He steadied himself, shaking his head.

"Are you alright?" Wren asked...reaching out her hand to his shoulder before she too...felt...a wave of dizziness and nausea assail her...and she sat down because the world began to spin.

Yuki...and Erevin too felt it...it was difficult to stand...and suddenly they felt as weak as newborn kittens. Only Shri seemed...unaffected, rushing over to steady Erevin. Yuki felt like she was going to be ill...but then...after a moment or two...the feeling...vanished.

"What the hell...was that..." Kale said....

"It's not poison or...disease..." murmured the priestess, frowning, obviously after checking for each... "...some kind of...vertigo?"

Wren sat on the ground a minute longer, her hand on her head, and looked around at everyone else as the spinning passed. Kale's words before the spinning echoed in her thoughts, Myth Coramanth... I hadn't even considered it... has the cult already spread... home? She looked up at Kale and shook her head, "I don't know what that was either..." She turned to Yuki, "That hit all... almost all of us at once? ...so strange. Have you seen that happen before?"

She accepted Kale's hand to help her back up to her feet, "You don't suppose it was part of their ... burying the evidence, do you?" She turned and looked back toward the tower they had walked away from. She felt out around them for any magical presence.

She stood beside Kale trying to remember anything that happened that might have triggered that feeling... was there something in the air? a feeling from the ground beneath my feet? ... why was Kale the first to feel it, was the closest to the origin? and Shri... why didn't it effect Shri? She looked around the area...

Erevin considered Wren's words while steadying himself... nodding a thank you to Shri for her assistance. " These Ghanadaur cultists seem small but are certainly growing bolder. The attack in Lyrabar against the "red" mask proves that. They may have a presence in Myth Coramanth... " Feeling his strength return Erevin stands back up and examines his surroundings... listening more than watching. The ranger seemed to be noting the sounds of insects and nocturnal birds listening for indication that they too had felt the "Push". " I have a bad feeling all of this cult activity has more than just a little to do with that sphere filled with the tentacles we see from the ship, between worlds."

"Its getting late... and we still have a ways to go... we should probably get moving... His eyes fell to Yuki as he seemed to examine her current state. Small scratches from biting twigs and branches, scuffed boots and shin guards from numerous stumbles. His eyes settled on her face... a light welt already beginning to raise across her cheek. " Oh... tomorrow that will be nasty... Here... let me... " He glanced about the ground and picked up a tiny white flowering weed and plucked the petals from it and began to mash them between his finger and thumb.

"Ah!....Erevin...! You don't have to do... ah...I can just he...eal...my...sel...f..."Yuki's sentence trailed off as he stepped closer and steadied her face with his left hand and gently wiped the residue on his fingers onto the welt. His strong callused warm hands seemed somehow soft against her face. At his touch, her cheeks began to burn...and her heart...raced. He was...so close. She could feel his breath hot against her cheek. Her eyes traveled up and along his face, his sharp chin, the tattoo the scrolled down his perfect cheek... And his eyes...fixed on...her... They were so blue - the colour of fissures in ice mountains... And so kind... Why did he have to be...so kind... The residue applied to her cheek immediately began to cool the stinging red stripe on the cheek of the priestess. "There... that will help." He glanced at the others for readiness.

"Okay... we should move"... He glanced over to Shri... there was an unvoiced exchange... and Erevin offered his hand to Yuki... "Come... step where I step..."

The young priestess paused only a moment before gratefully slipping her soft hand into his, "...thank you...'Erevin'..." she murmured softly, squeezing his hand tight. Following his lead, she was SOOOOOO grateful the darkness hid her blushing face, realizing only too late that elves....see well in the dark. SO EMBARRASSING! Still, she kept her eyes on his back...and her steps in his... He was being kind. That was all! She mustn't misunderstand. She must never misunderstand... He was being kind... She mustn't be happy over such a little thing...

Clearing her throat, Yuki nodded slowly, "...I...can't help but think the same...as Erevin. About that NASTY tentacle world." She suppressed a shudder, "At first I thought maybe that sick feeling...was some sort of targeted disease spell...an area effect... Such magic is pretty potent icky necromantic stuff! And I remembered that necromantic drow cult we ran into a bit ago. But...well...it isn't that kind of spell. I wonder if we triggered some sort of protective glyph...?" She looked up, "You know... So the cultists would know someone was coming near... But...that doesn't feel right either. I mean it doesn't match the craft of that kind of spell. And...actually, I don't think it was a spell at all. So...something else. That feeling is more... Mmm... Don't you think there's...a strange aura here?" She glanced back at Wren, "...can you feel it Wren? Isn't it...well...WEIRD!? Didn't Rosche say...Destiny couldn't stay in Lyrabar for long because of that...whole weakening of walls between the worlds thing? Remember? "That this area was...especially weak...? I wonder if we walked through a weakened area? It does have that...strange vertigo feeling that comes with teleporting sometimes...but different too...DEFINITELY strange! What...I...don't understand is why all of us felt it but...Shri...didn't. What do you think?"

//"I think...that he should take his hands off of your far too round face....."// Shri thought to herself //"...And that you should stop looking at my Erevin like some simpering...love struck puppy that he's found abandoned in the woods"//. What had happened...the tall, beautiful drow wondered as she observed the two. Had...had Erevin taken a human lover when she'd been...lost. It had only seemed like a couple...weeks to her...that seemed out of character for him. She trusted him...but her...that sweet innocent face didn't fool the experienced drow at all. She knew a temptress when she saw one!

And yet...here he was...practically...fawning over her...and she him. Clearly there was more to this than either of them had let on. Was this why the young woman had been avoiding her on the ship on the way back. Too afraid to face her for trying to steal Erevin? Shri smiled...but there was murder in her brilliant eyes. When the young priestess reached out and took Erevin's hand, she had to suppress the urge to cut her hand off. She

She kept her face absolutely neutral though...she wouldn't give the cow that satisfaction. Instead she smiled slightly and said. "Perhaps...someone in town...a more experienced priest...could tell us more about this...aura..."

Yuki nodded seriously, letting the drow's all too accurate sleight wash over her, "...You're right...of course... This isn't something I know a lot about, I'm afraid... Sorry... BUT! I can ask my seniors back at the Temple! I'm sure Axton and Helena might have some ideas! Or even the High Priest though he's awfully busy with the whole map mess... Erevin?"

She glanced up into the Ranger's handsome face, drawn to his eyes again, "Couldn't you ask Lady Anna's priests back at the Elven embassy? And...", nodding to Shri, "...your senior priests of Ellistrae as well...since you and I seem to be in the same boat." The Sunite priestess tried to stay calm but... What she'd felt right then was jealousy...wasn't it? Radiating off the Drow like white heat, possessive and...deadly... Passionate! Surely, her love for Erevin was passionate and deep... Surely, she loved him...very much... Then...what exactly...was 'she', Yuki, doing...here...holding this hand...accepting this kindness... What was she doing... "Ah!" Slipping her hand reluctantly from the ranger's warm calloused fingers, Yuki smiled, nudging him forwards, "I'm fine now, Erevin. Thanks! Isn't that...the dawn? I can see...much better now."

Erevin let her hand slip from his... noting the sudden change in the tone of conversation. "Certainly ... we'll seek the help of any who can." he cast his gaze back at the group... "But I doubt this is divine in nature and we'll be better served by a Mage or Lore Master." He paused again... looking around and skyward ... he inhaled slowly through his nose... " Its going to rain soon... this ground is going to get wet and slippery fast." With that he turned back into the woods and set off at a brisk pace... " I've got point.... we need to get back.... so everyone.... keep up." The pace was tough... not a run... but not a stroll through the woods either. Over and and under fallen trees... up steep hills... crossing fallen trees over wide streams...

Wren looked back and forth between the two priestesses, and glanced up at Kale. She kept quiet as she thought about the aura that had surrounded them as she walked hand in hand beside Kale behind the three.

She nodded to Erevin, "Perhaps we can inquire those at the magic shop about their take on it as well." Her voice got a little lower, "It makes me worry for what my mother may be getting herself into a little more though..."

Wren walked quickly behind Erevin's pace, used to the woods, but she didn't know them near as well as he did. It wasn't the first time she had to follow a fast pace... like when Loch was pissed about something, and she was just trying to keep up. She had learned to master her witchy hex of flight though, and she was very light, even for her slender elven form. Not that it seemed to matter with Kale's strength. She walked hand in hand with him, as he occasionally just scooped her up by her waist with one arm, and stepped over large logs with her. She tried to help Yuki as much as she could, keeping the young priestess ahead of them.

She froze as they got to the wide stream and looked up at Kale. She looked back at the group and sighed. "We should chain across to make sure no one gets swept..." she kept Kale's hand in hers, afraid to let go, "maybe put the strength as our main links... Shri, if you're comfortable leading us across... Erevin you can chain hands with her... and we'll put Yuki in the middle of you and Kale... and I'll take last." Inali leapt from Wren's shoulders up to Kale's and settled in... Wren frowned at her, muttering, "thanks for that vote of confidence..." Inali licked Kale's cheek.

If ever Yuki regretted letting go of a hand it was now... The pace the ranger now set for them through the strange woods was punishing and, even in the grey dawning light, she couldn’t quite seem to catch her footing, slipping and sliding everywhere. Tripping over...roots and vines... Rocks and sticks sending her sprawling with high pitched squeaks and painful yelps.

And still they kept moving.

If she had been a bit miserable before...she felt pitiful now. And tired... So very, very tired. She could barely keep up with Erevin and Shri’s long strides and the lovey dovey Wren and Kale kept pushing her from behind, keeping her in front of them like some KIND of....particularly SADISTIC TORTURERS!!! Why couldn’t they just...JUST....let her slow down A LITTLE!!!! Just for a moment... She could keep up. Really she could! She just needed...a little...break...

She thought continuously about using her ribbon to transform into a sexy ranger chick! HA! Then she’d SHOW THEM! But...without knowing how far they were from Lyrabar, she feared the body numbing exhaustion that came after she used her ribbon that way. Her ability to hold the forms was getting better but the time they lasted was still too short and the toll...too great. She didn’t want to be a burden... And she wanted to show....she could be strong too... And so...she kept trudging miserably on...but...

WHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

What had she done to deserve this...THIS HELL!

She was a CITY GIRL! CITY! CITY!!!

CITIES had streets! They had rules. They were polite! They didn’t have new spring branches whipping back across her face out of nowhere! Or...OR evil grouses startling suddenly out of bushes, flying malevolently towards her precious head...eyeing (SHE WAS SURE) her eyeballs hungrily. She wanted her bed... Her soft, glorious bed...back in the Temple...with its pink silken sheets...and mounds of goose down pillows... And a bath... A really, REALLY hot bath...with steam...and citrus oils...and a deliciously rough scrubber... She sighed...miserably...

And seriously! WHERE WERE THEY?!!! She didn’t recognize ANYTHING!!! And...wasn’t it a MUCH shorter trip in to that old broken tower than out?! She had a pretty good sense of this survival thing and there was NO WAY it had taken THIS LONG before! WAS EREVIN TAKING THEM SOME SORT OF SCENIC RANGER ROUTE BACK HOME?!!!!! She glanced up at him, wondering what was going on...behind that strong back...as he led them back towards Lyrabar...

Erevin.

Erevin...led them.... The thought gave her a lot of confidence. But...somehow...like this... Didn’t he seem...far away...than just a little before...? ...when he had held her hand...so warmly... Her heart clenched...

NOTHING about THIS was fun...

And when they’d finally stumbled out of that accursed brush to find themselves standing on the banks of a ROARING river with no means of crossing but a treacherous old rotten tree spanning it, Yuki crumpled to her knees like a rag doll...muddying the skirts of her already sodden white robes... Why did it have to be climbing...?!! Dimly she could hear Wren...talking about chaining but...the priestess was too exhausted...to care...

Sune, she prayed, staring balefully up into the threatening sky, protect me...

And...the sky answered...with rain....

Huge slow drops began suddenly pelting down on them from above, soaking her through...her white robes clinging to her beautiful body...betraying more than was decent. The negligee-like mantle which SHOULD have protected her from EVIL provided no protection WHATSOEVER from the elements... If ever there was a time to use her ribbon it was now... After she rested...just...a little longer... Just...a few more minutes...in the mud...

Shri stood there chest heaving taking deep breaths as Yuki fell to the ground at the sight of the fast moving stream. Shri's hands went to her knees to support herself as she tried to catch her breath and between gasps for air she called out... "Erevin... wait.... we cant keep this pace." Her snow white hair hung about her flushed face as the rain began to fall. Standing on the log stretching out over the stream, slowly Erevin turned... taking in the state of his group. Yuki was spent... Shri not far behind her and the seeming unstoppable Kale even looked winded tho he had been supporting more then half of Wrens weight for the last half mile. They looked to him and a smile began to stretch across his face as he began to walk back toward them. The ranger was exhausted... " No... no we cant" he replied. "We can not continue this way... if we are to continue ... if we are to survive... we must respect each other... we must move past picking at each others weaknesses and instead rely on each others strengths... " his eyes moved purposefully to Shri and Yuki... " we must trust each other." Erevin moved past them to a large grouping of bushes near the stream and reached in with his arm and pulled them aside... revealing a view of the animal sanctuary in Lyrabar... they stood high above looking down from the top of the waterfall that fell into the park. " We must become family"

"I didn't think you guys were ever going to break... I had to take you halfway around the city before one of us dropped. Shri ... Yuki., Wren... I am impressed. Kale... I expected no less from one of Eltrue's favored.... Now that, that is out of the way... lets go home."

Wren stood there, tired from the fast pace, and holding tightly to Kale's hand as she looked at the raging water before them. She looked up as Erevin came back along the fallen tree toward them.

Her mouth fell open, "You mean it was all... just a test?" She glanced back out at The Refuge and then back to Erevin... she stood there for a moment staring at him, and then laughed. All of the crazy tests Loch had put her through in the woods washed over her memories... and she laughed again, shaking her head at the ranger. "You're as crazy as the one who taught me to survive in the woods... but I trust you, Erevin. I was willing to follow you across even the raging river that I had no memory of crossing before..." she shook her head and laughed, "...and I would be happy to call all of you my family." She nodded, hoping the others would take his test as well as she did.

At least I didn't nearly drown and die... and I don't have to try to get home delirious and diseased. She turned and looked at Kale, and smiled at him like he had just pulled her out of a river... her own personal hero.

"So..." she looked over to Erevin, "Will we be taking a little easier route to go home then? And there's no need to cross that?" She flashed him a smile and gestured toward the water behind him.

"...aye... we are already there...." The ranger gestured towards the South. " That marker stone... " Erevin walked about thirty feet over towards the cliff near a large round stone covered in moss and overgrowth, and began clawing at the moss with his gloved hands. There beneath the vegetation ... carved into the stone was the word Lyrabar..." Its just an old Marking stone ... probably from back when the town was first settled. It marks an old stairway carved into the rock of the rise. It leads down into The Refuge. We'll be home shortly..."

Staring at the round moss-covered stone, Yuki looked like she was about to cry... It was all...some sort of...lesson? The scratches...her exhaustion...THOSE SCARY WOODS for...HOURS?! All of it some sort of...

Slowly picking herself back up, Yuki dragged her ribbon out from around her muddied skirts, feeling sooooo tired...she called out, "Heart. Power. Make-up...Clean Priestess of Sune Protected from Rain!!" Her voice was strong but it held little of her usual perkiness. Even the motes bursting out around her, creating little rainbows in the downpour, seemed to lack their usual sparkly enthusiasm...

In a moment, she was herself again, shimmering in white robes beneath a beautiful wooden handled parasol. "Please." She tried to smile at her laughing friend but she couldn't seem to muster the energy. "Sorry everyone but...could we... I...just really...need to sleep now."

Somehow, she managed to rally the energy for the rest of the walk home but she didn't meet Erevin's eyes. Her own looked on the verge of exhausted tears.