Roar of the Elemental Feather: Part One

In the dark of night, when the stars twinkled gently above Jamaa, there was but a darkness scheming near the Mira Statue.
A phantom held a small, glistening stone in its grip, the glow coming off of it almost identical to the subtle corona enveloping the Mira Statue. Copper and crystal reached for each other through bushes, yet the phantom wasn't focused on this phenomenon.
Hours before, the Phantom King, vile as he was, had told his minion about this particular stone and how it was relevant to their plans.
"This is a stone Cosmo once possessed, but while he was traveling and fighting dear Abigail, we took it from his home and have since experimented with it." the rattling hiss of the king repeated in the minion's head. "It has the soul of Mira within it, embedded while she tries to regain power. Although she is now too powerful to simply destroy the statue, and she is beyond the point of recovering from enchantments at this state, I trust you that this plan will work. You are worthy enough, minion, but do not think I praise you in any way. If you fail, I'll send the elite Troopers to execrate you."
The phantom nervously flipped through its mental memory of the spell it had to cast. The King assured it that the spell was foolproof, yet the Phantom was worried that the spell would fail, it'd be discovered, both, or the spell backfired and launched a volley of cannibal enchiladas at it while it warbled "Geryon-yeeha!"
As the last of the night owl Jamaasians trickled out of Jamaa Township.the city yawning alongside their open maws, the phantom, his black pupil bouncing around his white eyeball to check for any witnesses, slunk out of the brush. Leaves fell around his dark, gooey body as he made a face with his eye at some rainbow goo somebody left behind, probably from Brady's filthy lab set. That Twoleg scientist's concoctions ranged from brilliant to decent to oh-my-Zios-I'm-going-to-hurl, probably because he was more of an animal researcher invited by Mira (just like Tierney Thys), not a chemist.
Unfortunately, the Phantom had to slosh through some of the latter concoction, feeling the sticky and warm liquid grope at its skin.
Every leaf blowing around the corner was a prying eye to the phantom, every creak of Jam Mart Clothing's ancient door was a gasp by a bystander, every rustling sticky note on the bulletin board a growl of animosity from a Jamaasian Hero. Although the silence of the once-lively city was untouched and blessed, the Phantom couldn't help but shudder at every substantial noise, polluting the air further with its untimely musk.
After what should've been a minute but was fifteen, the night gave way to the sparkling, shimmering statue of Mother Sky herself, as if a partition were being swiftly removed by invisible hands.
"Zooks.." muttered the phantom, so mesmerized it came out as barely a whisper.
The spread wings of Mira seemed to carry promise of a great land of hope, as the forces of Light strove for, the closed eyes emanating serenity, her copper and turquoise feathers individually breathtaking, her legs bent and claws closed as if a slippery fish were being held in it. Her arched neck and round head seemed to be as sharp as a dagger, yet compassionate and forgiving at the same time. On its pedestal were weathered engraved bronze words reading "MIRA, MOTHER OF EVERYTHING IN JAMAA."
Although millenia of graffiti covered it, her shrine's marble columns still stood tale and pale, crumbling yet venerable. The arches seemed to let in positive energies, the vines all thriving as if life itself bled from Mira, the cobblestones very chipped yet as sturdy as an old tree.
A fleck of dust hit the Phantom's black skin, jolting it back to reality.
"Hello, nameless phantom, wake up, I'm getting bored of you just float there. Seriously, do you fart rainbows like Nyan Cat? No? Then wake up!" it seemed to chide.
The night started to brighten, and to the Phantom's horror, the noise of the day before slowly but surely began to revive itself as yawning Jamaasians trickled back into the Township to advertise their events or to simply wake up. It felt the spirit of Jamaa Township begin to awaken alongside them in leaps and strides.
The phantom's seven tentacles started to undulate in panic, while the eighth held up an opaque yellow stone as if to present it to the side of Mira's body, and began to chant nervously.(The phantom, not the tentacle. Should I whack you with a sword repeatedly to make your IQ go up?) The stone had appeared out of thin air, either pooped out by the air or summoned from the Duat.
Probably the latter.
As the phases of the incantation lapsed by, a persistent, blue and white fire grew inside the stone, first an ember, then a flame, then an inferno licking at the sides of the stone, clamoring to escape, to devour everything in its path...
No.
This flame was controlled.
Mira was the goddess of order, peace, in a way, the anti-Apophis. Although Zios did not originally intend for Mira to be the anti-Apophis, she now essentially was.
From the chest of the statue, a blue orb emerged with a droning humming sound, a light twinkling from within. A cool breeze swept over the Township, and from the clouds above, a beam of light spotlighted the levitating orb, specks of energy peeling off of its exterior.
Sweat of black goo dripped down the brow of the Phantom as the spell Cosmo searched for unfolded before it.
Cracks of purple energy not unlike a boomseed boulder's spread across the orb, and larger flakes of the orb came off like eggshell pieces, revealing a blinding white light from within. From the orb spread holographic wings that resembled Mira's, yet were transparent, had flecks of every color of the rainbow dancing within it, and were tipped with a faint yellow glow.
BASHIIING!
Blinding light coming from the orb radiated outward like a shockwave of sheer energy (which it was), inducing the growl of thunder high above. Lightning struck the Mira Statue, sending up clouds of dust. A bonfire of light enveloped the entire shrine, sending the few Jamaasians nearby in wonder, confusion and shock. The very spirit of the Township seemed to hold its breath.
When the dust finally settled, the statue was still standing as the legendary bane of the Phantoms, but the corona was now gone, marking the statue as a normal artifact to even the most impaired. The shrine still buzzed with the life of Jamaa, the magical veins of the Duat still branching out from Mira's power, but no longer did all of her power stay in the statue.
Like a blot of ichor, the golden blood of immortals, cracked, blackened glass had formed around the statue, as if Jamaa had shattered in those moments of wonder and shrunk to wrap around the pedestal.
Where the phantom had been, a shallow crater doted with evaporating time energy drops smoked, the smoke billowing up before dissipating.
Apparently, the Jamaasians would be wondering what had happened for a while.
Where the orb once had been, a white wolf stood, intertwining marks on its fur glowing with power, and a  mysterious pink scar running over its eye, as if its very being had been scarred, not just its pelt.
The wolf took flight.

Evada was training with Greely and her friends when the terrible news arrived.
She had had a rough day, since traveling through the Duat (and ending up in the Phantom Vortex twice for no apparent reason) had been harder than anticipated, since Apophis was growing in power and his magical presence was messing up her power. When they'd finally arrived at the Alpha Hut, though, mid-walk to the Alpha Hut, Pink had collapsed suddenly, and they'd had to lug her the rest of the way frantically.
Cosmo had taken Pink into his custody after winking at Evada, and afterwards, Lisa had deployed them for some "enrichment training", aka "Let's Go Beat Up Straw Dummies" day. By Lisa's stern and weary face, Evada'd guessed that the Phantoms were growing in power, destroying some of the last safe havens outside of the borders, and that Pink was in a critical condition but she didn't want her comrades to know.
So, she'd been forced to stand outside in the sweltering heat (which she suspected Greely'd made just for their personal torture) for hours, training to make avatars of Miroza, Mira, Zilch and Zios to overcome various obstacles, using Twoleg weapons to impale dummies like shish-kebobs, and cast various spells that ranged from elemental tricks to cheese-throwing.
Evada quickly learned that cheese-throwing was an art to fear and admire when Tempest had nailed her with a large slice of cheese that exploded in her face.
Just when she wanted to scream out loud, two things came out in the form of the words of the grim-faced Marco, who'd stepped outside the hut to break the news.
First of all, a powerful entity had been spotted flying from the wreckage of some explosion at Jamaa Township, flying towards the Forgotten Valley, estimated to be headed towards the Mira Temple - and Ekrol, a mysterious rogue buck.
Evada's throat had went dry when that news had arrived.
But even worse, more personal news had arrived.
Pink was dead, taken by her illness.
Matilda and Gleam had nuzzled Evada with their scaled snouts, apparently fresh from baths that Harper personally had given them, but the shock quickly formed into thoughts even without their warmth.
She'd witnessed Pink unwillingly slay Savior, one of Pink's best friends, and seen the coffin go into the deep Duat, never to be seen again. Although Pink's cyborg parts and her organic parts had been warring for quite a while, she'd hidden her pain, misery and desperation for a cure. Evada had heard her friend moaning inside her room, cursing Frost and her assumed "friends" for everything that had gone wrong in a while.
It wasn't right, but she knew that bitterness had been Pink's only true supplement, seclusion her only true drink. She'd lived on the power of hatred, bitterness, grudges and tears to keep her going... until now.
She suspected that the illness, alongside the backlash of her hatred and the grief of losing Savior, had killed Pink in the end. Evada knew that Pink would probably rest in peace even though she'd died of her own "supplements", judged by Moon the Wise and purified where her "friend", Snow, had been cleansed, then sent to a ethereal paradise in the Land of the Dead where she'd party forever and be revered by generations of ghosts to come. She knew that the horrible fate of roaming the world as a Core, maybe a Prelate if you were lucky, probably wouldn't fall on Pink's shoulders.
But "probably" wouldn't be enough in the world of Jamaa.
Waves of worry lapped against Evada's heart as she concentrated on improving her own skills instead of repeating Pink's grief over Savior, although lopping off straw heads provided little comfort for the cold claws of freshly reaped death.
She would never think of Pink again after that.

Magistream

I know this is spam and selfish, sorry, but could some peeps please view my eggs?
Just click the link. I know you want to.

Over the Darkness: Poem

Let the night come, before the fight's won
Some might run against the test
But those that triumph, embrace the fight cause
Their fears then prove that courage exists

I take no credit for this poem, I found it on a website and it is not mine. All due credit to the original writer, please.

New Plans

The lowdown: I'm thinking about rewriting some of my old stories as "Silver Editions", since some of them deserve some improvement. I think I'll focus on the more relevant ones, such as Frost's backstory on Moonirah, Fisher and Oreo, forming the Jamaasian Heroes, and feeding her relationship with Zion, instead of doing all of them, such as Truth or Death, Nanyte, or Ore Compass, since its also to get newer fans to know what is going on better. Thanks~
Frost

Comedy: It's Ekrol, Dangit

Ekrol: *walks around* Hum dee dum.
Tourist: Oh! Oh! A doe!
Ekrol: ...
Tourist: What's your name?
Ekrol: Ekrol.
Tourist: Eggroll?
Ekrol: EK-ROLL.
Tourist: Ack-rul?
Ekrol: Ekrol.
Tourist: Ack-roll?!
Ekrol: It's spelled E-k-r-o-l .
Tourist: Edrejol?
Ekrol: EKROL!
Tourist: Can you autograph this picture, Eggroll?
Ekrol: *facehoof*

Sigurd's Saga

In the brutal nape of an icy giant, two brown deer lay in the snow. One was of small size, the other obviously a doe that was battered quite hard.
Both were very much emaciated.
The rattling breath of the doe seemed to embody the heartbeat of the earth itself, in, out, in out...
And little Sigurd, curious as he was, peered around at his surroundings. His large, black eyes were as pure as the snow itself.
The doe nuzzled him weakly, her warmth barely warming them up in their nest within the wall of the cold castle. The howling winds of the winter around them battered the walls of the forttress, yet only hunger hit them.
Sigurd licked at the ribs poking out from beneath the once luxurious pelt of the doe. The lone tree they'd long since scraped clean of bark loomed ahead, like a beacon of hopelessness and hope in the winter around them.
Although Sigurd's mind couldn't process all of it at the time, he knew one thing stark clear in his mind:
If they didn't get help soon, they would die.
The low growl of the doe's stomach thrummed against's Sigurd's head, soothing like a metronome. Every night he fell asleep against his mother's stomach, feeling the warm flow of blood underneath the fur. Stubs of his antlers poked out of his head, yet he had nobody except for his mother to show them off to, as all of his friends had either died or departed to a better life in the lands to the south - south of the former grandeur of Corax, where all animals lived in harmony.
Long before, they had been part of a massive herd of deer, where food never ran out. The dominant buck had always been very fair, chosen only by seven trials of pureheartedness and virtue. Yet, one season, the leaf-bare came three moons too early, wiping out several of the weaker deer and bringing down their food to a trickle. The dominant buck had made a decision: he would travel with his most loyal followers to the lands south to see if they could forge out a better life in the world below. Although long ago, their Spirit Stone had been stolen by great evils and they were forced to live in the frigid expanse of Corax, he believed the sudden leaf-bare was a sign from the gods that it was time to move back.
His words were quickly dismissed as folly.
So it was, the dominant buck leaving for Jamaa and his followers trailing behind. A new, aspiring buck succeeded in the Seven Trials and began to lead the herd. However, that year, leaf-bare lasted much longer than usual, overlapping the usual start of greenleaf, skipping newleaf altogether.
This devastated the herd, exterminating 80% of the total population to starvation, hypothermia, and attacks by wild wolves. Those who tried to retrace the footsteps of the group going for Jamaa did not return, probably claimed by death, as they had promised to come back and take everyone with them once they rendezvoused with the original group.
Now, Sigurd and his mother were the sole survivors, and even they would die in a matter of days... or sooner.

Days later, when Sigurd was chattering his teeth in yearning for a good root to chew, he felt a sudden silence within him.
A chilling silence. A silence of pure despair, emptiness and misery.
Then, he realized the metronome was gone, replaced by an icy feeling spreading over him.
He turned his head towards his mother, and saw something he would never forget.
Ever.
The sight of her unblinking eyes stung his heart like an icy arrow plunged in mercilessly, speeding up the icy feeling spreading across his fur.
Suddenly, Sigurd, blinking away the grief as he always had whenever somebody he knew perished, realized his vision was dimming. His heart was slowing, his breath coming out as a wheeze, and his mind crumbling to an extremely addled phase.
His memories of better times whirled by like the brisk gust of a stormy day, one by one...
Wheeze.
The last breath.
The last, dreaded breath.
Sigurd was floating.

Sigurd awoke in a soft bed of animal leather, a brown orb laid gently on his chest and a warm feeling spreading through him.
He got up, and looked around.
Flutes, like the ones that his mother used to tell him about before the chill, were in his room. But these reed flutes were playing themselves, tooting out a pleasant tune with a background of water trickling in the background - the purposed lullaby of Cosmo, the koala Alpha of the lands to the south.
He got up, and realized his veins were flowing with power. The brown orb had disappeared, taking the sensation of pleasant feelings with it, but he still felt in his prime. A soft carpet of grass covered the floor, and when he ate some, to his surprise, he wasn't very hungry, and the grass grew back where he'd taken some from the soft dirt.
In the corner, on another cot of soft leather, his mother lay, sleeping peacefully. He almost cried out, then realized she looked deathly tired. It was best not to disturb her, as he'd learned the hard way years before.
His rump still ached from that wallop.
The temperature within the room was perfect, reminding him of gentle summer breezes in the grazing lands the herd traveled to during the summer. He recalled the cycle of lands, where they would go one place for greenleaf and leaffall, then travel to another for leafbare and newleaf while the other land rejuvenated. It had been a perfect cycle, at least until the chill.
Room?
He looked up, and saw that the ceiling was covered with painted clouds that really floated across the ceiling, paint birds flying around, sometimes disappearing into the walls, where they hid until they came out later. The sun radiated its painted rays, and he could actually feel its great warmth nuzzling his fur, and a breeze ruffle it. The clouds didn't go in a monotonous circle, either, hiding like the birds. Sometimes a few fat, blue drops of paint would splatter from a cloud onto the floor, where it was absorbed like real water. Where they landed, tulips, daisies, dandelions and other field flowers sprouted and grew in seconds, but never wilted.
The walls were a grassy green, with wondrous painted vines and trees on it, with the leaves moving in the breeze and the chirps of the birds coming out seamlessly.
There was only one explanation to that.
Magic.
He glanced at the door, and immediately it flew open. Incredible!
But first, he looked at a mirror propped against the wall, and gasped.
His eyes were rustic, his fur ruffled ruggedly, and best of all...
"I have antlers!" he cried.
He held up a hoof, which immediately hummed with energy. When he stomped it down on the ground, shockwaves spread through the ground, rattling the entire room.
He gasped again, then mentally chided himself for being so emotional. True bucks weren't emotional. Not at all.
Those were the true powers of a leader destined to lead. The stomp that could shake a legion head to toe.
His majestic antlers were much to look at, so he looked at the mirror again, butit was gone.
Huffing with exasperation, he went out into the hallway.. and saw something.
All of the Alphas rushing out of rooms (LaSalle had wires sticking out of her head for no reason, there was a cream pie on Graham's face and Peck was muttering "Awesome. Awesome!"), embracing Sigurd with open arms.
He was an Alpha.
The majestic Deer Alpha Sigurd, leader of Jamaasians.
He would lead.
He would fight the evils he'd learned about from fairy tales.
He would have worth.

Icy Universe: HalfBlood

The next month was hard. The words her BFF said kept ringing in her head...
"I will take your first born kit"
Those words kept running circles in her mind.

RedFeather had announced that in a weeks time the kits were to be living breathing creatures, so, Sir Gilbert and Greely were called in, as well as RiverClan (from Secrets), WindClan and ThunderClan. With 3 extra Clans, more space was required. Olivia and CaptainGut had dug out a bunny borrow style emergency den that could take 10 Clans if necessary. Greely and Sir Gilbert had sat outside the KitDen and waited for the birth, and the socalled BFF of Olivia to arrive.

Olivia received a call from her Mom, asking her to visit and since there was meat to be bought, Olivia decided to go. After she bought the meat, she headed to her parents house. Inside, they seated her down,
"Olivia," her mother said, slightly shaking,
"Your adopted." There was an awkward silence, her father took her hand and pushed something rounded into it, it was a ring.
"It was your parents, we dont know if it was your mothers or your fathers. The note said give it to you when your 13"
"What note?"
"The note that was with you when the adoption agency took you in" her parents chimed.
Olivia stammered a goodbye then left.

Walking down the street, Olivia absent mindedly bumped into Luna, and dropped her ring. The ring Olivia dropped was a replica of Lunas, except smaller. Luna saw Olivia's ring and noticed something she felt before while hanging out with Olivia, they looked the same.
It only took Luna to remove her gothic makeup to realize they were twins.
"That means..." Luna trailed off before grabbing Olivia's hand and making a dash to her house, a old castle-like house atop a hill. Once inside her house Luna knocked on the door to her fathers study, he allowed them to enter. He saw olivia, and rather supriseidly stammered a hello.
"Dad, as you know this is Olivia. Well..."
She put up the chain to which her ring was attached to and took up Olivia's hand, to which, exposing the rings. Her fathers mouth was hanging open.
"I never thought you'd find out..." he whispered inwardly,
"Find out what?" the sisters chimed,
" That your both twins."
......
"Well if we are twins, whos are father?" The was a short pause and tension crackled in the air, Luna's father looked awkwardly down at his leather shoes, refusing to look at them,
"Oh. My. God."


Olivia sat down and she was briefed on the fact she is a vampire, a incredibly rare form, and so was Luna. Olivia's stomach lurched at this thought and she almost puked, he father seeing she had turned green, asked what was wrong, and in reply she answered just stomach pains.
"I've got to go home now,"
"Cant you stay for dinner?"
"Er..."
"Shes got to go check on her Clan"
Olivia nudged Luna,
"Your Clan?"
"Yeah, I got sucked into a portal to a alternet universe and I got a Clan and stuff, since its winter and its freezing, theres no prey so I have to buy meat and bring it back." She held up a bag,
"Well, I'm happy to meet your Clan."
Before they left, Olivia made an excuse to go to the toilet, there she called Captain Gut, she explained about how Luna and her father were coming and to get the Clan into the old dens.
Back in Jamaa, the wolves from ShadowClan glared icily and growled at their soon to be enemies, Olivia shook her head to indicate that will be in the near future and they know nothing of what to come. She gave Luna and her father a tour of the basecamp, leaving out the emergency den, and they went to resign in Olivia's home. CaptainGut was sitting on the sofa watching a football game (American) and leaped up when the Wild Wolves beat the Black Panthers,
"Hey Olivia!"
"Hey Caps, this is my sister and my dad."
There was a long awkward silence, until it was broken by NightPaw rushing in and jumping up and down on the spot repeating,
"Im gonna be a apprentice!"
and everybody burst out laughing. Lilly and Jasmin walked in and casually said hey and dropped on the couch to watch a documentary about wolves.
"Whats this about being an apprentice?" Her father as curiously,

"Well, theres stages in Clans. The kit is basically a baby and youngster. The Warrior is the adult and Elders are well, the elderly."
"So what are you?"  Luna asked confused,
"Im the Clan leader, anybody whos name ends in 'star' is the leader. My warriorname is IceStar. Your warriorname would be MidnightFang, and dad, your warriorname would be..." She stared at him for a minute rubbing her chin, "BlackFeather, since your always wearing darky type clothes." She grinned. "Wanna meet the Clan?"
"Sure I guess"
Olivia stepped out onto the ledge infront of her door, turned into a arcticwolf and howled. The Clan slowed flowed out of their dens and looked at Olivia.
"This is Luna, my sister, and my dad." She gave a look so as they know not to looked as shocked. IronClaws and StoneHeart came up and introduced themselves, took the meat and went into the KitDen. NightPaw introduced himself to the new twolegs, went and sat with the crowd, then NightmareMoon came and introduced herself, and so on until the whole Clan were introduced to the newcomers. After Olivia's father and sister left, the whole Clan, Greely, Sir Gilbert, WindClan, ThunderClan and RiverClan sat in the emergency den,
"Are you being serious?" Greely growled, anger shadowing his voice, "They cannot be your family, you'll have to kill them -"
"I'll only have to kill Luna, not my father. That reminds me..." She grabbed her phone and called her father,
"Hello Mr. Jackson, I just want to say, Luna becomes evil in the future and she wants to... how do I put it, murder me -" The phone on the other line fell silent,
"Visit me now Olivia, bring your deputies and a few warriors and Captain Gut"
"Err, okay." She took NightmareMoon, RainStalker and SandFeather, alone with StoneHeart and IronClaws, CaptainGut, Lilly and Jasmin tagged along
Standing at the steps of the old mansion, it appeared that way, the ten youths glanced sideways at each other, casting fearful looks. Finally, Olivia pressed the doorbell. They were greeted inside by mr. Jackson,
"So, tell me all about this 'future evil' and all,"
he didn't look very old, maybe in his early thirties,
"Well -" Before she could continue, IronClaws spoke up, speaking in fast, quick paced words, told the story of how the Olivia was a soon-to-be-mother and how Luna visited her and gave her the frightful message. StoneHeart's mouth hung open. Olivia twiddled her thumbs,
"I get it. So what? You've got to end her life or something, I understand." They all gaped at him
"I had to do something similar to it, since im a HalfBlood"
"What, like the ones from the Percy Jackson books?" He nodded his head,
(by this time I was thinking she could be all like, "Omigod" and start flapping her arms and jumping up and down) She stared at him,
"Well in that case, do you have any weapons?" he nodded again and led them to the weapon chamber.

After a good hours worth of raiding, the wolves had stuffed numerous amounts of weapons into the furpockets, leaving the walls and chests bare. In camp, Olivia gave the swords to the warriors, making sure to tell them not to damage them, since they were her fathers.

Hours later, Olivia sat in the KitDen, talking to StoneHeart, doubled over, the air knocked out of her lungs, as she went into labour.

Hyrestia Tales: Sadness

A tear, gingerly yet warning of more to come, crept down Pink's cheek.
"Why? WHY?!" she screeched. Pink wrought her paws, distraught with what she'd done. The scent of eucalyptus faintly, but didn't, covered up the scent of blood.
Savior's eyes were glazing over, yet she was still smiling weakly. Elvis was licking at her wound, either trying to heal her (to no avail) or doing his impression of a hungry Bunnicula (ew).
"Pink... I can't believe it... We drifted so far apart during our travels, yet we are still friends. How that string didn't break while you were made 'ugly' and I wasn't on Earth very often, I dunno. But I'm glad I still see you for who you really are underneath that metal - a beautiful wolf." croaked Savior.
Tears were cascading down Pink's cheeks now.
"I... didn't mean to, Savior..."
Savior weakly grasped Pink's paw, examining it, despite the severe blood loss.
"You didn't mean to, but that doesn't matter." she said. "Carry on my legacy, Pink, and do try to keep control of yourself. You have inner power, Pink, and that is what matters."
She looked at Ledra, and weakly grinned.
"I shouldn't have sacrificed myself, huh?" she weakly whispered. "I always have been told that the wounds never are as bad as they look... but no amount of DNA alteration can save me..."
Elvis, now fully distraught, took a black orb from Savior's fur to Frost's awaiting paws.
"Frost, this is the Cheetah Spirit Stone. Sabre himself gave it to me to pass on to you. I don't know how to work it, but I think you'll figure it out."
By now, there was so much blood that the scene was eerily macabre. Amanda frantically worked her magic at Savior's wound, but Savior's chest was already ceasing to heave.
"I... see the judge's podium... I wish Jamaa were perfect, but I guess nothing is..."
With that, Savior's eyes glazed over completely, and her chest froze, never to heave again.
A wisp of smoke escaped from her mouth, and it plunged into the chest of Pink. Apparently, it was painless, as Pink only patted her chest and wiped a tear away from her cheek.
Evada, wanting to be useful for once, closed the eyes of Savior, and all was silent for a moment.
Then, Frost nodded at Evada.
A casket of wood, leaves and packed dirt formed around the body of Savior, and the blood tapered off. Frost twitched, and the blood formed into spiky, red ice across the floor. Ignacio, who was standing on it in shock, slipped and fell onto Vicky, who barely supported Ignacio's falling weight with a groan.
Dark purple and black swirled into a portal beneath Savior, and as the casket plunged into the Duat, Frost whispered a prayer to Savior's safe journey - then clutched the Spirit Stone hard.
A pillar of black fire enveloped her, and when she emerged, she was in cheetah form.

Frost surveyed her surroundings, then glanced at her grieving comrades.

"Okay, Evada, take Pink back to the main Jamaasian Heroes, alongside Ledra and Vicky. They'll be needed back there."

Evada nodded.

"No can do," she said. "We haven't been very useful so far."

Frost's eyes widened.

"Evada, you've been really useful, and I'm not being sarcastic. But I'm sure Mia would need help."

She looked at the place where Savior's casket had been.

"Savior was a great comrade, and we will forevermore miss her." she mused. "But we have to get over this loss; I can't afford to lose any more comrades to grief. I have a feeling our friends back home will need all the help they can muster to fight off the forces native to there."

Snowy and Tempest noticed that Frost didn't speak of the phantoms  by name in that remark. Despite knowing her well, they didn't know enough to know why Frost seemed to be moody recently.

She looked at Ignacio and Amanda.

"You came here for a reason, and I'll respect that. We can send you back to the human world, but its your choice. This is your crossroads; to continue this perilous journey or go back to normal life."

While Ignacio seemed to not be torn at all (by flinging his Rainbow Loom bracelet over his head and screaming "Of course!"), Amanda seemed torn.

"I want to get out of peril, of course... but I guess its better for us to stay.. hmm..."

Ignacio peered at Amanda with puppy-dog eyes.

"Pul-leaaaase?" he begged.

Amanda muttered a few things under her breath about mules trampling her brother while he was doing an Irish jig naked, then sighed in relent.

"Fine." she muttered. "But if we die, I get to tell you for eternity 'Ha ha! Told you so!'"

"Deal." said Ignacio. He held out a pinky, and Amanda reluctantly shook it with her own pinky.

Frost mrrowed with amusement.

"Reminds me of when I was young, playing with Moonirah." she muttered.

Tempest rolled her eyes.

"I would know about these things, and believe me, they're AN-NO-YING spelled B-R-O-T-H-E-R."

Snowy was the only one without an animated response. On the contrary, she stared sadly at her paws.

"You're lucky you all can remember your puphoods. I only have faint memories of robes and prayers."

Ignacio turned up his nose.

"I hate church, Snowy. I would hate your puphood, by the sounds of it."

Evada, oblivious to the exchange going on, spun her paws in a circle and opened up a dark, swirling portal right next to herself. 

Frost looked right at the portal.

"This is your last chance, everybody, to leave the quest and return home. Once Evada, Pink and Vicky leave, then you are unable to go anymore, because we've sent enough magical flares up to the Phantoms."

Tempest shuddered, either the humidity or Frost's words had got to her.

"I don't want to be dancing screaming 'HEY PHANTOMS! I'M RIGHT HERE! REARRANGE MY DENTAL WORK!'" she inferred.

Frost raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I wouldn't put it that way, but yes."

From a few yards away, Ledra sighed.

"I'm going with Evada. I have a feeling that Drakus will need me in Jamaa Prime." she said.

Frost's eyes widened.

"But Ledra! We need you here!"

"Look, Drakus needs me more. I have a hunch that there will be a war of much magnitude in Jamaa when Evada and we arrive, and Mia will need as much help as possible."

Frost sighed, her eyes dipping to her own paws.

"Fine... if you insist."

With that, the portal vanished, taking Evada, Vicky, Pink and Ledra with it.

Ataraxia's Story

Ataraxia woke up, but the ground was hard as rock and her vision was blurry. “This… this isn’t my bed.” She murmured softly. She got up and looked around, as her vision cleared up. She was inside a cell, but there was nobody else inside it. She looked out the bars, but there was a surprise that would’ve even puzzled Drakus. There were phantoms, many of them, in cells. All of the cells that she could see were filled with them. Ataraxia stumbled backwards. “I thought this was the phantom’s prison. I thought that I was put in here BY the phantoms!” she said to herself. She suddenly noticed that she wasn’t wearing her armor. “Drat, they took my armor. How do I get out of this place anyways?” Up from one of the lower floors of the prison, there was a scream from a male figure. Ataraxia couldn’t see where or who it was, but it was loud and clear. “Kill him! Kill them all!” another voice said. The shrieking got louder for a few moments, then silence. There were a few slurping and gushing sounds, then a small whisper that she couldn’t hear. She saw a flash of flames. It was definitely from something flying, but she couldn’t tell what it was. “Hmm… I can’t start thinking of what that thing was, I have to focus on escaping.” Ataraxia thought. She focused her elemental powers, and tried to blast the bars. It made a very noisy sound, almost like trying to throw a sledgehammer against a metal wall. It didn’t work all that well, it was only damaged it a little bit, but Ataraxia had to keep trying because the evil genius behind this whole prison must’ve heard it by now. Finally, blast after blast, she broke the bars. “RUN!” she thought to herself. She flopped to what seemed to be the exit, but it only lead to more rows of prison cells. Right in the middle of the long hallway, pain stung her back like a searing ember was just placed on her. “Stop it right there!” said a phoenix, gritting his break. He held his fiery wing on Ataraxia’s back, as she let out small whimpers of pain, tears shedding from her eyes. When the phoenix let go, Ataraxia’s back was scarred with ash. “And you really thought you could escape… such a pity. I knew your elemental powers wouldn’t work as well, because I filled the whole prison with Elemental Miasma. Those fumes can be very harmful to elements. As for right now, you are going to my chamber where I normally focus my powers. But- it is also where I extract others’.” “N-no…” Ataraxia said weakly. The phoenix just lifted her up and carried her to his chamber. Her paws were being chained to the floor… her tail was being chained to the floor… and her neck was being chained to the floor, too. “Before you steal my energy… What is your name?” The phoenix looked confused, but replied to her with “Aaron” like it was a stupid question. “Now, no more stalling. I summon thy elements to be consumed by my everlasting aurora. You shall now-“ he was interrupted by a voice at his chamber door. “DROP HER.” Said Harper the seal Alpha. Ataraxia was so glad to see her mentor, but she was chained down and could barely even lift her paws. “What makes you think that I would ever do that, foolish seal?” sneered Aaron. “THIS.” Harper lifted up an ancient-looking staff. Aaron backed away almost instantly, allowing Harper to unchain Ataraxia. They ran out of the prison, and weren’t followed by the evil phoenix, Aaron. Panting, Ataraxia asked a question. “What is in that staff? It made an enemy back off almost instantly!” Harper paused for a few moments. “You see… I can’t tell you. You may be brave and kind, but you are still an apprentice. This staff’s power can only be maintained by Alphas. I’m sorry.” Ataraxia frowned, but then looked at the sky. “Do you think I’ll ever get my wind armor back?” Harper didn’t answer, but just sighed. They kept walking towards the Alpha Hut, and there lay a surprise inside. “Hello Ataraxia! We overheard that the phoenix took your armor… and… we made you some more. Just like your old one.” Said Sir Gilbert. Ataraxia put on the armor, and went to sleep after her tiring day.

-goldcobra (Ataraxia)

Hyrestia Tales: Into the Darkness Part 2

"Got to me?" asked Frost. "You have the wrong Frost here, sorry."
Raika's eye was full of determination to die for her cause, if it meant taking down Apophis with her.
Agate growled in annoyance.
"Well, then, I ask of something else, gnat. Leave now, or Raika dies."
He held a cutlass to Raika's eye, who tried to get her body away from the tip, yet was too tightly bound and weakened.With a pang of her heart, Frost realized that her friend might not get out of this situation alive.
Long ago, Frost had been a Phantom Rebel, fighting for the cause of taking down Apophis. She'd left the group, even the mostly peaceful Turret branch, because she wanted to live a mostly normal life, alongside other concerns. But no matter what, she still was a Rebel by oath, and couldn't let Raika die unless it were for strategic reasons.
Her brain diverged into two parts, despite Icirrus egging her on to bring Agate a bloody murder. One part continued the conversation, while another leafed through various combat situations.
"Why leave?" she asked. "We're right here, where we can be killed by the tip of your sword."
"Its a CUTLASS!" hissed Agate. Apparently, he cared more about teaching the enemy about the wonders of various steel weapons than the mission, because he lowered his cutlass.
One for the Heroes, zero for the Phantoms.
Suddenly, Frost remembered something,and energy flowed through her veins.
Something that could save Raika and defeat Agate.
She still thought that things were going too smoothly, yet somehow anticipated that after Agate, something horrible would happen.
But whatever the cost for bringing down Agate was, it couldn't be that bad, thought Frost.
She would regret those words only hours later.

Behind her back, Frost concentrated her powers into an orb above the nape of her neck. She let go of her worries, and let all of her elation flow into the orb. She thought of vast meadows and glaciers, trickling waterfalls, the cool ocean lapping at her fur, and the sounds of the forest.
She glanced at Snowyclaw to continue the conversation, and her oldest friend seemed to understand.
"Agate, I love weapons too!" squealed Snowy, despite being an active peace activist. Apparently, Agate didn't appreciate anybody who wasn't devoted to whacking the enemy with death toys, and didn't do his research, because he startde to chatter about weapons.
"So, I love using statues as missiles of doom..." started Agate.
While the Twolegs fidgeted uncomfortably, Frost looked at Tempest, who also understood Frost's gesture from battle experience. She crept over to Raika, taking advantage of blind spots and her scent that closely resembled a phantoms, and looked for a way to unfasten the chains.
Keldeo, also clever, joined in Snowy and Agate's debate about the usefulness of khopeshes, jutting in words about various horseshoe uses and other weapons.
Frost smirked. Everything was going perfectly. While Apophis was wily, his servants? Not so much.
Pink seemed to be in pain, but Frost knew that it was best to just leave Pink be. That was the best she could do for a cyborg in a constant sickness.
Vicky was dejectedly standing around, but she noticed Pink and went to her side, stimulating the wolf with electric shocks. Pink said something about the death of a comrade of hers, but Vicky ignored Pink and kept on generating static.
As the hum of the orb grew louder, fear crept into Frost's bones. What if Agate noticed her or Tempest? All it took was one glance to break away from his stimulating conversation about the weapons of the day to send her plans into utter chaos.
Yet, nothing that wasn't planned happened.
The mirage of a feather surrounded Frost, transparent yet glittering. Frost felt a little bad that nobody was paying attention to her, not even Amanda and Ignacio, since they were listening intently to Agate's lecture about Norse axes.
Then the other side of her felt guilty for feeling bad.
Suddenly, the orb threatened to fizz out, but Frost flowed some thoughts of flower scents to stimulate its power.
Frost had no idea where she'd learned the enchantment, but there was no time to get lost in la-la land.
She looked at Agate, and let the orb loose.
Wisely, Keldeo and Snowyclaw chatted about the relevance of bazooka trajectory until -
"Hey! What's that over there?" squealed Snowy. It wasn't hard for her, apparently, to sound surprised, since she WAS surprised.
Agate turned.
"What's what?"
SMACK!
The comical sound sprung into the air just as Frost saw Agate get smacked by the orb, which seemed very pissed about nothing in particular. It would've fizzed out and done nothing, except Frost flowed the positive power of Icirrus into it. She imagined a flow of liquid icefire into the orb, and the white part of the rainbow orb came to life. A wave of rainbow exuberance spread from the orb, hitting Agate with a thudding sonic boom that deafened Frost.
Her clear aura fizzed out, and so did the orb. At the same moment, Tempest was helping Raika off of the board, who when she said could float, fell face-first onto the cobblestone.
WHOOOOOM!
Just as the ceiling caved in behind them, Frost and her comrades leapt into the doorway, with Agate screaming in terror, yet acceptance, as he was flattened behind them.

Pink awoke to find both Savior and Ledra leaning over her.
"Aren't both of you on leave?" she asked.
She could've done a million cheesier things, but instead, Pink said the practical thing. Despite her gift of prophecy, it wasn't powerful enough to get around the interruptions in time, so her foresight was blurry right now.
"Pink, I'm sorry about what I'm going to have to do." said Savior.
Pink tensed, then realized Savior was apologizing in advance, not about to hurt her.
Since when did Savior have the prophecies and Pink be advised, not vice versa?
Two blue rings on Ledra's forelegs glowed, and laser blades not unlike Mecha Snowyclaw's glowed.
The sad expression on her face said volumes more than Savior's cryptic words.
When Pink glanced at where Savior had been, she realized that Savior was gone.
A warm feeling spread through Pink's veins, and she realized that blood and data was pumping through again, as if Savior's vanishing spurred nature's course to resume inside her body.
Weird, and a bit scary.
"Please forgive us, Pink... but you'll meet Moon herself in time." sighed Ledra. "You'll see."
Suddenly, Pink felt herself flailing as if she were having a seizure.
Not good.
Ledra started to fade.
"It's time..."
An explosion of white blinded Pink.

Frost awoke to Ledra mugging her.
Well, not really, but Ledra was lying right smack-dab on top of her, which almost spurred a scream from Frost's maw.
Then she remembered she was a leader figure.
No leader in her right mind would scream.
Not even in delight.
"Ledra!" she cried.
Ledra was in a normal wolf form, no longer Arctic, and blue rings were taut around her foreleg ankles. Her red and white fur was as elegant as ever, and her top hat was in Frost's eyes.
"Sorry." muttered Ledra.
Frost felt a weird wave of electricity spread through the area, and she froze.
"Vicky? You okay?" she asked.
Vicky nodded. Why Frost could tell? Follow the rumbling stones.
"Yeah. I don't know who spread the EMP field."
Frost realized something was wrong. Why would Pink send out an EMP field when there were no electronics nearby? She wasn't that dumb.
"Is everyone okay?" asked Frost.
"Yea," said everyone, even the voice of Savior (whew), but Pink wasn't accounted for.
"Are you okay, Pink?"
Stones moved as Jamaasians tensed and got up, bracing for an attack.
But why?
Then, as Ledra removed herself from Frost and Frost got up, her joy for Savior and Ledra returning faded into the void of space.
Pink was in a attacking position, her mouth slathering with saliva and claws extended.

Snowyclaw had woken up in a state dubbed "aaaah!" by Yours Truly.
First, she'd felt two cool glass rings on her foreleg ankles filled with electric blue liquid, and when she flicked them, laser blades that cut stone (sweet) protruded from the sides of them.
She'd been piled on top of Savior, whose steel-fiber fur wasn't comfortable to lie on, and the moist passageway had no light in it except for the dim glow of her rings, and Ledra's identical ones.
Then, she'd noticed Pink.
"Pink?" she whimpered. "Are you okay?"
"RAAAAAAAAAH!" screeched Pink. Her eyes were still beautiful, yet a ravenous glint was in them.
That scared Snowyclaw more than any threat by Apophis could ever do.
While Vicky rushed Ignacio and Amanda away into an alcove to protect them from any threat Pink posed, Frost tensed.
Snowy, since she wasn't liking how things were going right now, called on the powers of Electro Chronos. The crackling electricity pulsed from her, and her costume was donned - then she unsheathed her laser blades and tensed for attack.
And when it came, at first Snowy thought that Frost were turning on her (gosh, her comrade was terrifying in her Power Out form), because the claws that raked her were unnaturally skilled, reaching for her neck.
Then, as blood trickled through her fur, Snowy saw the drooling maw of Pink upon her, reaching for a bite of Snowy-blood..
Retaliating, Snowy slashed her laser blades at Pink, who howled in pain. She prayed to Mother Sky to forgive her. Snowy pushed Pink over to Frost, who slashed at Pink.
"What has gotten into you?" asked Frost.
Just before she could get beaten up further, though, Pink was smart enough to lunge for Savior - the almost-sole healer in the group.
Just as Pink seemed to notice Evada, who had followed the convoy in near silence, Savior slashed at Pink's muzzle.
"Pink! Snap out of it!"
"Mrruuuuu-wuuuuu!" she snarled. Her pelt began to glow.
Only Frost seemed to recognize the threat in Pink. Raika had vanished off somewhere, although she was certainly not dead, and nobody else knew Pink very well.
"Guys, we have to defeat her! Pink is transforming - in her next form, she'll be invincible!"
Savior hesitated to hurt her more.
"She can't take more pummeling, Frost. She isn't battle-worn like most of us are."
Ignacio stepped out from the alcove, his face stern.
"I don't like it either, but we'll have to... you know."
Snowy felt her heart sinking. Like Frost, she'd been overconfident, and now, she was feeling like she was falling towards the ground from la-la land.
Somehow, Pink had gained so much power that she no longer needed to limit exposure to the Jamaasian Heroes, which even the veterans had failed to notice as a suspicious thing - even after she'd fallen deeply ill. Legend Pink hadn't appeared in a long time, as could be said for Basic Pink, but both formes were different now that her genetic makeup was altered - right?
But before anyone could react, Pink grew in size - up, up, up...
She roared in savagery as her power altered space so that she, at about 20 feet tall, could barely fit in the tunnel, which before, had been 8 feet tall, not counting how much debree was piled around. Hieroglyphs of power orbited around her, and her darkened fur was singed with - Snowy didn't want to know.
"Holy creeping crud." she whimpered. "Is that Legend Pink?"

Tempest's life already sucked before Legend Pink, so she wasn't too happy when a giant Pink invaded her life and turned a shindig of terror and sadness into crudpalooza.
First - oh joy! - Legend Pink sent her flying into a wall, which didn't really support her thoughts that she was being useless so far with any joy, like "Hey! Remember that time where you fended off the ice golem?". It was more like "Hey! Remember when you freaked out and farted on the face of the ice golem?".
Not really helpful.
Then - oh yay! - Evada felt so pitied on somebody clearly more powerful than she was to the extent of not trying to help her, but rather, extending a dimensional warp so that Tempest could watch the rest.
As if she wanted to.
Now - I'm so enamored to be in a crater! - Tempest was watching Legend Pink roar like Icirrus Frost had done not so long ago, and beat the shit out of her comrades while she was drooling in a crater in the wall, sucking her claw.
If she could attack herself, Tempest would've done it in that sucktastic moment.
She watched Snowy slash at Legend Pink with laser blades, but instead, a jet spray of poison nearly grazed one of Snowy's lavender antlers. Frost was firing ice balls at Legend Pink in increasing size, yet they seemed to just go "piff" on her pelt as if they were plastic balls, not deadly packs of sharp ice.
Evada was warping around Legend Pink, yet kept on getting zapped at before she could attack.
And Pink wasn't even breaking out a sweat.
Tempest realized in that moment that beneath the sophisticated demeanor of most Jamaasians, there was a feral side that Zios and Mira had barely been able to keep under control, even during the Golden Age of Jamaa. With just some tweaking, the Phantoms were able to take advantage of that using Dark Shell magic to make minions worse than any artificial creation.
They were simply exposing the true nature of animals.
Power Out, Legend Pink, Dark Shells... all formes of stripping away sophistication to harness the power of the true nature of animals.
Yet, when Tempest saw what happened next, her heart stopped, and blood covered the cobblestones.
She was yanked back to her body, shrieking.

Snowy couldn't believe what happened.
She was screaming, although she couldn't tell whose voice was with hers.
Blood was around her world.

Frost didn't remember the killing blow, the rasping breath.
Yet, as she lowered her claws, blood seeped into her fur.
But it wasn't hers.

Evada had been in the shadows, neglected for much of the journey.
But she was the closest to the disaster.
So it was upon her to run to the help of the bloodied body.

Ignacio played bloody games.
But he'd never seen so much blood in one place,
Nausea overtook him, and it was all he could do not to vomit on top of the blood.

Amanda nearly fainted from the sight of the red liquid.
She hated blood.
She hated Pink right now.

Why for her?!
Why?!
Ledra wept over the bloodied body.

Pink suddenly had blood on her claws, and she was in normal form, looking at the body of her former comrade.

Elvis was distraught.
Not even Keldeo's soothing hoof could soothe him.
Nothing could, in that moment.

To be continued...

Retracing Sabre: Finale

Savior found herself in a secluded grove, with Sabre looking at a blossoming lotus flower.
Lisa appeared from the holographic flower, her eyes serious and her clothing exposing... a bit too much skin.
In the distance, a volcano steadily had a purple fire coming from it.
Her heart sinking, Savior remembered the tale of the artificial volcano Greely'd sacrificed himself to stop. Mia had told her the story in a hurry, so she didn't remember much, but she did remember something about Sabre sacrificing himself to stop the volcano.
Great.
They were surrounded by plump trees that seemed as if they were filled with lots of water. If not water, pulp. If not pulp, air. And air seemed to infer something... weird. A pond that extended to the horizon was to Savior's left side, and a pathway covered with vines to her right. The musk of phantoms crept through the vines, which didn't bode well with Savior's lunch.
"Sabre, we're glad that you've chosen to assist us with our predicament. The Queen has chosen to seep into the volcano nearby, and the King is mustering power to fully form from his palace through a nearby portal. If we don't get the power of the Alpha stones on our side... well, then world go ka-boom, all is lost." said Liza.
Sabre grimly nodded, his beaded necklaces rubbing against each other in agitation.
(Not that they had minds of their own, that would be creepy yet possible.)
"I understand, Liza. I myself have seen the wrath of evil at its peak, and being an exiled prince, I do understand the complications of politics."
Liza pointed towards the vines, which furled onto the branch they were hanging from.
"The phantoms the Queen sent here are patrolling, and have poisoned our Chompers. I believe that if you plug the pipes that are crusting the river, though, the wells will purify and you can get the Chompers into working order again. Some of Graham's favorite monkeys have been captured, and we need you to rescue them, Sabre. They'll help you gain access to the cave the King is creeping through."
As soon as Liza vanished in a flurry of lotus-scented smoke that almost intoxicated Savior to the point of forgetting her troubles (ugh), Sabre trotted calmly out into wild grass.

Savior was whipped through time at top speed, and felt her lips peeling back - for the first time in her life, though, not to snarl.
Before, she'd been safely whisked (somehow) without traveling at top speed, but it seemed as if magic were loosening... or Sabre was weakening his grip on her consciousness and his own memories.
The thought scared Savior more than learning so much about the phantoms that she'd wanted to wake up in a pile of leaves and imagine it had never happened; meeting Ledra.
Her stomach spun in circles while her lunch sloshed around apathetically, and colors traveled by at breakneck speeds.
A warble escaped from her surroundings, a low noise that didn't seem to match any letter of the known alphabet.
Savior hoped it wasn't her.
Just as she felt like her eyeballs were going to fall out, Savior landed precariously close to a ledge that plunged into lava.
A portal of darkness constructed out of phantom material and ancient stones glimmered loomed near her, piles of debree piled nearby.
Regaining her balance, she looked up.
Teeth of crystal seemed to want to fall down and crush her, a sort of red fire glimmering inside them.
Not very helpful.
Around her, a thin layer of volcanic ash covered hard rock that extended for ten feet, then dipped down into a chasm filled with Phantom Pods and rivers of lava.
Sabre was next to her, carrying three glowing Alpha Stones - the green variety, not the fire kind.
"My salvatore, the end is near." Sabre mused.
Savior almost thought that Sabre was talking to the Alpha Stones, since he didn't look up.
"I will use my magic to bring the volcano down, at least until Agate and DarkBreath bring it back up... rather unfortunate. My efforts to find Marco would've been in vain... unless you continue my legacy, salvatore."
His dark eyes seemed to penetrate her steel fur, which unsettled Savior. She couldn't imagine him as a jolly shipmate of Marco's... unless he'd always been serious.
Serious was Savior's specialty. Maybe that was why Sabre seemed to had chosen her instead of a senior hero, such as Frost or Snowyclaw.
Then again, Tempest, Snowy and Frost soaked up much of the glory. She was glad to have some attention, even if was by a demented panther-prince guy.
"These Alpha Stones will prevent Apophis from regenerating... for now. Remember me, salvatore, and the Spirit Stone."
The black orb Elvis was clutching inside her fur pressed against her hide, giving off cold vibes. She shivered.
"My consciousness will go to be judged by Moon, former almighty goddess of Corax and now judge of the dead, but my legacy, my strength, will live on in you. Bear my torch, then pass it to the pink one..."
An eruption of flames burst in Savior's eyes, and she awoke sprawled on the dusty path of Coral Pathways, Sabre gone.
A chilly breeze blew across the path.
"Remember me, salvatore..." it seemed to whisper.

Echoes of the Darkness: Twilight's Story

Twilight sadly trudged through the misty forest, deep within the heart of the wildlands around Jamaa.
Pit pat. Pit pat.
Glops of rain matted his black, unruly fur, and the insignia burned into the sides of his body glowed faintly. It streaked down his neck on both sides ending at his tail, and circles of the ethereal line were burned on his haunches, with a patch of fur inside the circle's berth.
Thunder rumbled, and a flash of lighting revealed his blood-shot eyes, stress lines and lips curled back in an eternal snarl. The wings sprouting from his back did little to shield his fur from the rain, flapping every once in a while.
Anybody who was as corrupt and disdainful as 99% of the world was would've thought of him as a demented kookoo, a madman, the legacy of insanity.
But he wasn't.
The stripe on his fur glowed a dull grey, emblazoned on his fur like a grey fish among slightly less grey fish. It didn't stand out from his black fur extraordinarily well, but the skin was still there.
To the touch, it felt cool yet vaguely ethereal, as if something alive were underneath dead tissue.
The stripe reflected Twilight's mood, flashing red for infuriation (or less serious states of violence-prone anger), flashing purple for melancholy or other states of sadness, flashing yellow or green for elation or enamor, and flashing blue for charged up power.
And of course, grey for neutral, even though he felt all of the above.
Or maybe his stripe's strange properties were too overridden to do much else.
Throughout all his years, though, Twilight'd never seen his stripe flash white.
White for serenity.
White for purity.
White for security.
White for light.
Twilight gazed up at the sky, where the grey clouds billowed in the howling, hungry wind. Lightning, certainly no guiding light, yet strangely soothing, flashed. The trees bent in the gale, bowing to the storm as their leaves were torn off violently.
He imagined the trees were taproots, or civilizations, rather, of the world, the leaves all organisms. They bowed to life, yet one by one their supporters were taken, claimed by disaster and time.
He watched silently as a large, weathered oak stripped of its phalanx of leaves, was snapped in half by the wind, collapsing and taking other trees down with it.
After that, Twilight found it even harder than before to take every step, despite lack of sentiment and unfettered strength.
"Every leaf on a tree is connected." Ledra had once told him. "Just like a bundle of sticks, together they are unconquerable."
She had snapped some single sticks in front of them for effect.
"But divided..." she continued. "They, once united, are feeble and weak.
As discord silently roared through the wilds, Twilight sadly reflected that the world could learn some lessons from Ledra.
More trees fell, their cries of death unheard and quickly silenced by the tempest around them. Yet, their cries added to the requiem of the storm.
Ledra, his friend and comrade, had recently decided to join him and assist his dream of a restored Corax - but then...
She was a fraud.
She was a fraud.
A fraud.
A two-faced, goody-two-shoes, petty liar.
Ledra, shapeshifter and DNA bender, had been a shell of memories inhabited by Shade, revived love of Greely.
A shell.
A shell of the real Ledra.
But details weren't important now, though Twilight, as the cavern ahead loomed aggressively, the hollow, sunken "eyes" just about the cave mouth... well, hollow and sunken.
Hollow and sunken.
Hollow and sunken.
Hollow and sunken.
Was this how Twilight was now? thought Twilight. I, hollow and sunken? A soulless robot?
The cliff face cut off the wilds and the path of damp mulch he was treading on. Countless blisters on his pads cried out in agony to him even more as home awaited.
Home.
Home.
Home.
But was home a haven for rest... or where your fears resided and bloomed?
A tear trickled down his gaunt cheek (from sadness, probably, he thought, but it could be elation) as he, hollow and ragged, stepped inside, awaiting reprimanding words by...

Xaia.
Xaia.
Xaia.
The words echoed in his ears as he buried his face in a pile of soiled rags. The odor nearly knocked him over, but right now he didn't mind.
Twilight lay on a pile of soiled rags, his head buried in his paws.
He had been scolded like an insolent kitten, a failure. A retard, for failing to halt Frost's quest to follow the path of Icirrus Chronos.
Retard.
Retard.
Retard.
He didn't like that word, retard. It was meant as a kindly term like "Special Ed" for the troubled who were jerks and cronies (again, two words Twilight didn't like). But gangs used them for anyone "stupid", not the naturally deficit. Used like a sword; a tool for hurt.
Deficit.
Deficit.
Deficit.
He looked at Screech, who was spread-eagled on a pile nearby, guffawing about nothing in particular. The ragged, cream fur of his annoying comrade was terribly soiled, yet his green eyes were pristine - pure madness.
Ledra would've washed Screech's fur thoroughly, and fussed over Twilight's, too. He closed his eyes and imagined her coarse tongue de-tangling his fur like a hi-quality comb.
Resentment burned inside him, fueled on his bittersweet memories of Ledra.
He remembered his sword of ventus energies, or rather, gathered and concentrated storm spirits. The electrifying powers of the one-bladed sword arcing in the air; the storm front that growled forward to intimidate and kill. The blue tint of his stripe; the cool Hyrestian sand flowing through his claws, the brisk ocean breeze, the immense powers including teleportation the sword granted. The sword's cool edge, the soft leather grip meant for wolf teeth - his teeth -, and glaring into the eyes of Frost, former (and current) comrade of Ledra, her iron gaze returning the notion. The thick forest behind him, Ledra emerging from the wild grass with those sorrowful eyes - so sorrowful.
And discovering from the sad Ledra hat, in fact, she was a copy of the real Ledra he'd come to know and love as her comrades and his comrades fought. Ledra becoming nothing but a core floating up into the heavens, Twilight distraught. Then, Frost made him unwillingly promise to dissolve the Renegades, his group consisting of Screech, Xaia and himself, and sent him away. He remembered his old leader, the brash Fang the lion, and another goon he barely remembered - Howl, maybe? How me and Screech were the sole survivors of the mysterious death of Fang and the other goon, then founded the Renegades and made Xaia the malevolent spirit their leader.
He bitterly glanced at the pebble altar, he, Ledra and Screech had constructed. Xaia (if you didn't know, pronounced SHIA) sat atop it, etheral mist bubbling from a crack in her base stone, eyes serenely closed - yet giving you the feeling that when they opened, they would radiate much power and evil.
Base.
Base.
Base.
Her green eyes had purple pupils, the green dots of tormented Coraxese spirits dancing in orbit around her mouth and eyes - all images that were real and fantasy at the same time floating on purple mist.
Mist.
Mist.
Mist.
The cave wasn't much better than the outdoors, with a stagnant air inside it (so stagnant, in fact, that Twilight had to flap his wings just to get the worst out of his nostrils), a damp temperature (brrrr), and the rain blew in briskly and dampened Twilight's demeanor and fur. His stripe glowed a sickly purple, one of the only lights, if not the only one, within their home not-so-sweet home. Otherwise, a shroud of darkness covered them, alit only by lightning flashes.
With much sadness, Twilight reflected on how he had gained the power of the ventus, and then lost it to Frost, he imagined Ledra and he holding paws and whispering to each other, as they used to on frightful nights. But as sadness took over, the warm feel of Ledra slowly faded to cold, bitter air.
Much to Twilight's sadness, Screech had taken all of the rags from Ledra's nest to join his own mound of soiled majesty. He winced as Screech made the holes of boxer shorts talk to each other in exceedingly squeaky voices.
After listening unwillingly to the exchange, he realized Screech wasn't doing his impression of famous animals, but rather, two wolves he knew very well.
He and Ledra.
The less ragged hole talked to the torn up hole, and the torn up hole replied over the feigned snores of the large shorts hole - obviously Screech.
Twilight reeled at the thought of Screech overhearing his conversations with Ledra at the peak of the moon - midnight, rather. Unlike whatever his name inferred, he and Ledra didn't favor twilight for chat.
Twilight.
Twilight.
Twilight.
His corona of purple steadily flared, but inside, Twilight felt shattered. He didn't even remember a time where he was mindlessly fighting for his ancestral home - the frigid yet mystifying Corax.
Corax, a snowy expanse north of lush Jamaa, a vivid land he resided in and loathed; Corax, a lost civilization long gone and discriminated.
A once-utopia of snow palaces and mystery.
The first memory he'd ever had was being a timid pup, training under Fang. He'd never know his parents, although he'd had a faint memory of his mother's fur and other pups - none with his odd insignia.
Parents.
Parents.
Parents.
He and Ledra could've been parents of young pups, given enough time and more peace... alongside the awkward presence of Ledra's wedding ring. She'd always insisted to keep on a reminder of her marriage to Drakus the crocodilian, no matter what could've happened. The Coraxese Renegades had been battered by outside forces, from Frost's circle of friends and comrades, the Jamaasian Heroes; to Ledra's aforementioned marriage to Drakus....
,,,which she had never seemed bothered about, despite Twilight's obvious hints.
It had seemed fishy when she'd been his love of his life.
Until he knew the truth
Truth.
Truth.
Truth.
Ledra was a fake, and her real self was stirring somewhere in the dark Duat.
He had little purpose.
He had little memory.
He was being used.
Twilight's senses suddenly jarred to a stop, plunging him into darkness, then sharpened drastically. He came to a perfect standstill in his thoughts, relaxing his tensed haunches. As the colors sharpened around him, he could see everything was bathed in a white light.
Then he saw his stripe was glowing so brightly, crisply white that he was astonished Xaia hadn't woken from her stupor at the tingle of light.
White for serenity.
White for purity.
White for security.
White for light.
White for understanding.
Xaia was using his ambition to revive his homeland.... but only for her own purposes. As easily as she could speak in her ancient, booming voice, she could discard him and Screech on the side of the road.
Yet, the thought didn't simmer the anger within him. Instead, it only led to his senses sharpening to the point of perfection. Dull colors became sharp, and he could see a mouse scuttling between the rocks.
Xaia was using him for her own desire.
Her own desire for blood.
Her own desire for carnage.
Her own desire for darkness.
Her own desire for power.
Twilight gazed into the dull, green eyes of Xaia with new understanding.
He would not be used.
He would not abuse.
He would follow his own ideals.
He would follow his own truth.
Not as one mind.
But as one individual.
He would not be grieving over Ledra.
He couldn't embrace his hatred for Frost Miranda Sagearium.
He couldn't hate the child of a phantom and Mira herself; not a demigod.
Not a child of hope, serenity, order and balance.
Not a child of the Great Heron, Mother Sky.
He would persevere for Ledra.
For himself.
For the world.
No longer would he oppose Frost's quest.
The quest to go through trials in the lush dimension of Hyrestia, to follow the path of Kyurem, Icirrus and Electro Chronos.
To prevent Apophis from molding Maximus Chronos, the ultimate god, from darkness, not light.
To prevent Chaos from combining Icirrus and Electro, two great dragons, into a dragon of darkness and malice that would sink Jamaa and its neighbors - and rebuild Apophis's underwater domain.
He would embrace the quest.
He silently smiled and thought:
"Thank you Ledra, not just for our time together, but for opening my eyes to true light."
No longer would he look upon her wedding ring with jealousy and distaste.
No longer would he ignore that taking her away from her husband was wrong.
No longer would he avert his eyes from the truth.
No longer would he put up with Xaia's tyranny.
He would be his own person.
Starting with taking down Xaia.
He was the matador.
The bull was Xaia.
Twilight could, and would, overcome any challenge.
Twilight began to devise a plan.

News Flash

Since I'm overwhelmed with life (where oh where are my snowpants?) and I have other storylines I need to focus on, I'm cancelling the Thinner Legion installment of the Tales, since I haven't been devoted enough to it. Sorry, its going to be a noncanon stub. :(
Better news, though: I'm working on finishing Retracing Sabre before I post another Hyrestia Tales story, as Savior will play a key role in the last transformation of Frost.

Jamaasian Heroes Studio

I have my own Jamaasian Heroes Scratch studio! Please post Animal Jam - related projects here.

Tonsillitis :(

Hey Jammers,

Since I've got tonsillitis (tonsil infection), I'm gonna try write more for my new story. I recommend reading Vampire University, it's a great series and there's also amazing twists so I'm gonna start using those, we'll it is set in American University so after the stuff to get her pups back, Olivia's gonna go there.

Retracing Sabre: Part 3

Suddenly, Savior found herself in an overgrown forest. Lisa was talking to Sabre, who was even more crabby than usual.
"Unlike the koalas near Cosmo's den, Sabre, Bunny Burrow is under no Alpha's protection, not even Peck's. Harper is incredibly powerful for reasons unknown, but she isn't a valiant Alpha, and the others are... busied." she sighed. "We're doing as much as we can to stop the Queen, but this fort near Bunny Burrow is incredibly dangerous, protected by a Phantom Door. We've tried our best to evacuate the residents with Binky's help, but..."
"Stop talking!" snapped Sabre, his eyes full of impatience. Even Savior looked taken aback. "Aren't you EVER tired of your own VOICE?"
Lisa vanished in a holographic lotus flower that radiated a confident aura, and the vines covering a passageway nearby furled onto branches. Sabre only was slightly enamored, as if the ducks in the pond nearby had started to quack only a little more quietly.
"It's your choice, sciabola, but remember that the more field agents we send out, the faster the Queen tries to turn her prisoners into Dark Shells."
A bell of alarm turned on in Savior's head.
Dark shells?!
Sabre seemed to be thinking the same thing, as he pranced through the pathway to Bunny Burrow.

Before they went there, Sabre detoured into a grove hidden in the trees and opened a treasure chest.
Inside was a mighty sum of gems and a watering can filled with pristine water.
While Savior took the shiny coins, Sabre took the watering can in his teeth and carefully walked out of the grove and continued on to Bunny Burrow.
Savior was puzzled where the treasure came from and as how Sabre knew it was there, but she continued on in his lead.
After just a minute, they came to a stop in front of a wooden fence jutting out, with a sign that simply had the symbol of a bunny on it.
"Who comes there?" asked a white bunny in a yarn cap in a nearby tree. Yarn stars hung from strings on the cap, yet Savior knew it was some sort of youngster fashion fad.
"Hulaboloo!" Sabre grumbled, as if he'd gone over that many times.
"Welcome to Bunny Burrow! I'm Binky!" he said.
The rickety gate swung open, and both Sabre and Savior stepped through.

Through the gate, things weren't very impressive in Bunny Burrow.
It was mostly just a small village with four bunnies either sleeping, eating or chatting with others.
Savior had a feeling that
1. The river wasn't supposed to be covered with a thick crust of purple goo
2. The well water wasn't supposed to be poisoned and the plants smoking away from poison water
3. The population wasn't supposed to be so sparse and
4. The door to the only actual burrow in the town wasn't supposed to be locked. LOCKED!
Binky sadly looked at his neighbors, and Savior followed his gaze. Most slept on top of piles of leaves, but a bunny in a Scary Cat Hat was overlooking the river, playing with rubber jumping jacks.
"Hey, Harvey. Sabre's here." said Binky.
Harvey looked up from his intense game of jumping jacks.
"Oh, hi there, Sabre." he said absentmindedly. "Want to play with me?"
Binky smiled just a bit.
"Harvey, remember, he's here to help with our problem."
Harvey nodded vigorously.
"Right, right. So, this jumping jack is missing a leg, and won't jump properly-"
"Harvey, I mean the other problem."
"Right, right." Harvey replied hurriedly. He glanced at the river, then did a sweep of Bunny Burrow. Only then did Savior noticed other things.
For one thing, a shiny pipe was overlooking the river, and gunk was spilling out of it, fueling the crust on the river with... solidifying crust. Another thing was that a white and orange bunny was looking at the pipe, holding a cork in her paws. Savior also noticed that vines covered the exit to Bunny Burrow.
"Our problem that Binky is referring to is that our well water is poisoned, and when Pumpkin here-"
Harvey glanced at the orange and white bunny, who waved.
"-tried to water the plants, they went... poomf."
Savior didn't need much more of an explanation, since she could figure out the rest.
"We're running low on food, and we need your help to purify our water. We also would prefer it if you rid the phantom stronghold beyond of phantoms. Those guys probably did this; they're pesky."
Savior nodded, despite the fact that this was a sheer memory.
Suddenly, in a flurry of leaves and brambles, the other bunny in the compound (as Savior thought of it) awoke and smiled at Sabre.
"We've been expecting you, Sabre." he said simply. "My name is Buster."
After he spoke his name, Buster collapsed and started to snore.
Binky shrugged.
"Even my parents, George and Clover, can't wake up Buster during the day. During the night, though, he zips around Bunny Burrow like a sports car - not that we've seen any." said Binky. His eyes were alert, yet sad. "His sister, Cookie, disappeared into the woods yesterday, saying something about Mira's treasure chests. Personally, both of them are a bit cuckoo, but they're good people."
Savior wasn't satisfied, but it did explain the treasure chest in the forest grove, and a bit why there weren't a lot of bunnies in the compound.
"My parents vanished around the same time as Clover, vanished into the woods, probably. I think that their disappearance has to do with the Phantoms - as does the vanishing of my friends.."
Binky paused.
"Jack, Snowball, Oliver and Daisy."
Binky looked at Sabre.
"I'm going to take a nap now, if you don't mind. I need my rest here. I'll just conclude that once they vanished, the door to our house locked, so I'm borrowing Jack's nest for now."
And with that, he crashed on a pile of leaves indistinguishable from the others and started to sleep.

Sabre immediately fumbled with the can, then set it down near Pumpkin.
"Eh?" she grunted, clearly captivated with the bits and bobs of her cork.
"You can have this can of water. It'll heal at least one plant."
"Oh, good. I'm an avid gardener, of course, so I'll even give you this cork in return for the can."
Pumpkin took the can in her paws, and examined it warily, as if she were wary about watering cans rather than personal information.
Sabre, as quickly as could be, inserted the cork into the pipe, plugging it. The backup sewage of the pipe made much pressure, and created the explosion - well, you get the idea.
The pillar of sewage arced up into the air, vanished with no trace. The crust thinned, but only a bit.
"Thank you." muttered Sabre as the vines furled onto the branch, yet wards appeared to prevent any phantoms to enter but animals to freely enter and exit.

The scene changed.
Savior was in another grove, with vines blocking her path. The plump trees resembled the trees of Bunny Burrow, but her bearings were still outside the borders, but very far away from Bunny Burrow.
Sabre stood in front of her, all of his fancy jewelry intact, but he had quite a few wounds on him. She wondered if the phantoms had been vanquished... and images flowed into her mind, igniting a sensation of full freedom, yet down-to-earth feelings.
She saw Sabre plugging pipes with corks relinquished from phantoms he'd lured into Chompers, and opening the Arctic Wolf emblem with a bit of pressed power that resembled the power grid of any normal arctic wolf. Savior wondered how such an old relic got outside of the borders, then remembered a story she vaguely remembered of Chorus and Amelia.
The temple of Mira... "The Lost Frontier".. "The Miracle Gateway"... A land not really part of Jamaa but recently reclaimed just enough for most Jamaasians to access it at auspicious times of day... The place where a Mark burned clearly...
Somehow, something clicked in her mind.
Chorus was her ancestor.
But she didn't have much time to dwell on that; as more images flowed in. Finding a watering can nestled on the edge of every well in the area once Sabre restored the water to normal, and restoring the plants to normal. Crossing the river and finding that Cookie had opened every chest in the area, and had kept the gems to spend whenever Liza visited and took the Bunny Burrow citizens to Jamaa Township's bazaar. She hadn't returned only because the river was impassable just as she finished her hunt. Taking Cookie back to the Burrow, much to find that Clover and George had also returned since they had also been stuck on the wrong side of the river after picking flowers. Breaking through the door with a key that Clover gave to him for finding Cookie. Defeating more phantoms while hiding in tall grass, and taking keys to release Binky's friends just as the Queen was about to corrupt them to unleash on Bunny Burrow. Receiving prizes from Liza for his bravery, then being teleported to wherever he was now.
Savior glanced up at Sabre, and realized he was gone. A pulling sensation tugged at her, though, and she followed it (mostly by being dragged.)
To be continued...

I GOT AN NM SWORD! :D

I can't believe the person I traded didn't realize the value of her NM Sword.
I traded her a Rare Heart Locket, NM Bat Wings (they're a Monday rare now), and another small rare.
I got:
PINK NM SWORD! I'm so happy!

This Is How I Feel.

No more hellos, Im getting REAL cranky.

Guys, Im getting really pissed off about how nobody ever wants to be my friend or people are like "Ew, dont sit there im reserving this space for Bill (example)" or something worse. Heres a poem about how I feel about life. Right now I feel like braking into a fit of sobs.

Death

He lurks in the shadows, waiting for the moment, silent as the night and as sudden as dawn. He hides in your shadows watching you, taunting you. He hides in love, betraying you, hating you.

When you depart you body, he is there smiling, loving, only because your one of them.

I wrote that poem because whenever I try really hard at something I always get it wrong or im on my best behaviour and I get blamed for something I didn't even do or I dont understand something and I ask for help and I get laughed at. Its not my fault if something I didn't mean to happen happens, so dont go blaming me.

My favourite song are sad ones because sad is my style. Im incredibly shy, even if you dont think it, and im destined to be forever alone (meaning nobody will ever love me).

Long Train Ride

I take the long route for the views, and to try escape my fate. Nothing stops the train, even a injured dog. He soon joins us on our train ride to another world.

The Other World

In an other world, chaos reigns supreme. Even the good do evil here, for chaos reigns supreme. From all around the universe, creatures come here, for chaos reigns supreme, crossing paths not ment to be crossed, only because he reigns supreme.

I Might Quit.

Hi People Who Care To Read This Post,

Since nobody looks, comments or even READ my stories, I might quit. Im wasting my life putting effort into my writing and nobody even CARES about reading them, whats the point in writing them if nobody ever READS them. Im getting really ticked off about this so Im gonna quit unless theres a change (more people reading my stories). Theres only 6 days until I start school again so I hope I havn't wasting ALMOST A YEAR writing for nobody to read my stories. Farewell AJPR and Jamaas LoreClub, until I next time,

Genral.
Look, I know that this is frustrating, but this blog is meant for happiness and improving your writing skills.
Try using Google+ when you publish your stories, and join writing clubs. Sooner or later, we'll improve our skills.