Role Playing!

[Lady Jillith]

As they walked back to camp, Erk tried to talk to Sarala.
"Sarala, I wanted to tell you that I'm really sorry about--" He stopped speaking as the princess glared at him. "Um, I mean, well . . ."
Sarala sighed and looked down at the ground. "No, you were right; there was nothing I could have done to save my parents. You probably saved my life, not letting me stay there and try. But it's hard, you know? Accepting the fact."
They entered the camp. Sarala quickly ended the conversation. She spread out a blanket near the fire and was asleep before anyone else.

occ--I forget, are the Dark and Fire generals still trying to kidnap Doelcm and Sarala? Are there any other things we've mentioned in other posts that need to happen?

[rr339]

Occ: they are still trying to kidnap them. But the ones on your tail right now are you parents and shadow!

[Jason]

Erk stared glumly at the fire. His conversation with Sarala hadn't gone quite as he'd hoped. True, it had gone better than he expected, but he wished it could have gone better. True, he knew it was hard. To leave behind someone you love . . . Erk thought of his own parents, trapped on Earth with Lucrecia now in control. What had happened to them? Would he ever see them again?
Erk got up and wandered away from the encampment, feeling hopelessness coming over him. How could he ever hope to stand strong in the face of all that was happening, without, it seemed, much support? Sarala was angry at him, Shilm was still on touchy terms with him, Tarak and he hadn't gotten along the best, not to mention Tarak was still worried sick about Doelcm, and with Doelcm gone, someone Erk had always known he could count on to be a stable voice . . . Erk sat down on the grass and wrapped his arms around his leg. He had never felt so alone before. More than anything, now, he wanted his parents. Silently, Erk began to cry.

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

Tarak lay by the fire, wrapped in his cloak, but he couldn't sleep. He gave up on sleep and got to his feet. I've been sittng around all day worrying about Doelcm, and what good has it done me? None. I can't just wait for her to get back, I need to do something! Tarak paused and thought for a moment. But what can I do since I can't go to her? Looking through the darkness at the edge of the campfire light, he saw that Erk wasn't asleep either, but sittting with his back turned to the fire. Well, won't help me find Doelcm, but I could always practice my fighting. We still have Lucrecia to defeat. Tarak started walking over to Erk, but as he neared him, he noticed that Erk was crying.Why's he crying? He wondered. He and Sarala made up, didn't they? Hm. The former bandit looked up at the waning moon. The night was more than half over. I guess I'll train tomorrow, he thought. He went back over to the fire and was soon asleep.

[Lady Jillith]

Sarala stirred in her sleep and woke up. Although no messages were being purposely sent, the princess could feel Erk's distress through their link. Sighing, Sarala got out of bed and walked over to him; he hadn't gone far. Erk quickly unburied his head from his arms, a little startled, as she sat beside him.
"I'm not still angry with you, Erk," Sarala said. "I know you did what was best; I'm just sad that it had to be that way. I mean, my own parents . . ." her voice quaked slightly. "As for your parents, I wish I could say something to make you feel better, but know what's going to happen. But we will find a way to get you and Doelcm and Kor and Emiko back home.
"Oh, and sorry about reading your thoughts; you were feeling them too loudly for me to ignore in my sleep."

[Jason]

Erk gave a small, sad little laugh.
"Sorry, didn't mean to be so loud. I, just . . . " Erk sighed, pulled his knees up and laid his chin on his knees. "I want my parents to be alright. I want them to be safe. And I want to be strong. I want to be able to protect everyone, to be there and help, to make everything right . . ."
Erk stopped talking as his voice began to quaver. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Sarala looked off into the night, pulling her knees up against the cold as well.
"I'm sorry, Sarala. I should be stronger. Not just sitting here crying."
"No, Erk, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten as upset as I did. I really wish there was something I could do to help you with your parents."
"I know. I know." Erk sighed again. "What happens, happens, and there's nothing we can do about it right now. All we can do is wait for Doelcm to get back."
"I suppose so." Sarala paused and stared into the dark horizon for a while. Then, she asked, "How long do you suppose this will go on? How long until we manage to defeat Lucrecia? How many more lives will be lost?"
Erk was quiet for a minute. He didn't know what to say. Not sure what to do, he finally reached out his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. Sarala leaned against his shoulder, and he held her close, together staring off into the dark, both of them sharing thoughts about what might be before them, and taking what comfort they could from each other.

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

"So fire was needed for the jewel to work," Alira said.
"Apparently." Doelcm put the dagger back in its sheath and lay down. "I wonder how early sunrise is here. Since we now know where we're going, I'd like to get an early start. I want to get back to help the others as soon as I can.

***
Day came just as suddenly as the night.
Doelcm instinctively pulled her blanket over her eyes. She heard Alira stand up, and she got up as well.
"Well, when this place decides to do something, it certainly does it," Doelcm commented, stretching. She and Alira ate a small breakfast of bannanas, then set off in the direction the dagger's fire-arrow pointed. Neither Doelcm nor Alira could say what cardinal direction they were going in, since they couldn't tell where the sun was.
A few hours later, the two came to a small river, its bed full of rocks and boulders. Doelcm noted the boulders with approval.
"These rock will make a good bridge," she said.
"They would," Alira agreed, "but it might be easier to walk across that log." With Erk's dagger, she pointed to a tree that had fallen across the river.
"Ah, good idea."
When they had gotten about halfway across, Alira slipped on the spray-dampened log and fell. She grabbed on to a branch and managed to not fall into the rocky river.
"Alira! Are you okay?" As she said this, Doelcm expanded some of the boulders so they were only a foot below the the tree, making so Alira wouldn't fall into the river if she slipped again.
After carefully standing up, Alira nodded. With her eyes on her feet and her hands clasped in front of her, she said, “I’m not hurt, but I dropped the dagger.”

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

Alira kneeled on the platform of stone that Doelcm had made, peering into the water, searching desperatly for the dagger.
How could I be such a fool? Alira berated herself. A flash of memory hit her and she squeezed her eyes shut against it, her hands on the wet stone clenching into fists. But her mind's eye still saw. Alira saw when she fell. She saw her right hand, dropping the knife so she could grab the branch that saved her from the river. Lady Doelcm needs that knife to find her crystal! What will happen if we can't find it? Alira shook an unpleasant image from her mind and kept searching.
After a quarter hour of searching, Lady Doelcm sighed in frustration. "Just looking through the water isn't working. I think I'll have to divert the river." Standing on the tree bridge, she scanned the riverbank that they had recently left, looking for a good place. She found a place, and began her work. Alira watched as Lady Doelcm lowered a section of the bank and the nearby forest. Useing small hand movements to help her concentrate, Lady Doelcm raised a stone wall about twenty feet long, making sure the river stayed out of the search area. After reconnecting the river at the end of the search area, Lady Doelcm climbed down onto the former riverbed. Alira hurried after her and the two continued searching. After a little while, Alira started hearing grumblings from Lady Doelcm. Since they were searching a few feet away from each other, she couldn't hear much, but caught occasianal words like "stupid" and "lousy." Alira renewed her search with great eagerness, but it was Lady Doelcm who found the dagger.
"Alira, I found it. A rock must have gotten knocked on top of it when I made the platform." Without another word, she put the dagger in it's sheath and started climbing onto the bank.

[Jason]

(OOC: Okay, it's deleted. Sorry.)

[rr339]

Lucrecia's darkness began to spread throughout the universe, and almost all the light was being taken from all of the universe.

" I'm tired of not having fun...I should pay those empowered ones a visit, they make life so interesting." Lucrecia opened a portal to where the empowered ones were.

Erk and Sarala turned toward Shilm and noticed him having difficulty breathing...they ran towards him and wondered what was going on.

" I think it is the darkness, it is suffocating me. It is so cold and so dark." said shilm

Sarala fell to her knees because she too couldn't breath...Erk was about to help Sarala up when he heard a silent wind begin to rise, and he noticed a portal begin open.

" Oh...no it is lucrecia!!" said Erk.

[Ranger Melinda]

The geeebot, unexpectedly, chased emiko, even though both rachael and emiko had planned for the geezbot to chase rachael. so, it chased emiko, giving everyone a bit of a surprise.
"you keep it going after you, and somehow, stop it, and then i'll come and finish it off!" rachael yelled.
"how am i suppsoed to do that?" wondered emiko, not having the slightest clue about what a tigre, let alone a geezbot would do to slow down.
"well.... i guess i could let it eat me, i would just have to make sure that i was small enough to go down in one gulp. and... lets see here, ah yes, i do indeed still have the letherman that i stole from erk before he got all gushy with sarala. good, it will help significantly when needing to get out, cause i dont think that rachael has anything. we never got around to sparing, and even if we had, we left the swords back where we met up with the geezbot, running in fright. hm... guess we'll see if this works then, shant we?"
so, with those thoughts all going through her head, emiko became the smallest ball of person that was manageable for a 20 year old girl. no, not all that small, but then, the geezbot didnt particularly care, cause he was big enough it didnt matter anyhow.
eat up emiko the geezbot did. it thought that she was a delicious meal.
"now lets just hope that this leatherman will be strong enough to get me out, and that somehow, i can kill this thing from inside. and that rachael will be able to find something to help me get out after its dead. on second thought, lets just get this thing dead first, and then we will worry about the rest of it later."
emiko started to explore the inside of the geezbot, and looked for a way to pierce the heart, and make sure that the geezbot ended up dead immediately.
meanwhile, back at the ranch, rachael was searching around the forest for something, anything that would be able to help emiko. not knowing exactly what it was that emiko was going to do to stop the geezbot, she needed most anything to help her out.
"so what i need," she pondered "is something that can work for most any job. how about... ah ha!" and with that, she picked up her implement of destruction.
"now to find emiko and the geezbot, and help get it stopped."
rachael went looking, and came upon the geezbot, apparantly just getting done with a meal of some sort.
"where's emiko?" she wondered. "she should be around here somewhere, shouldnt she? wait... do i see... movement inside of that thing? umm... EMIKO!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!?!?!"
the geezbot, being to preoccupied with the strange sensations and sounds comming from its stomach, didnt notice rachael yelling at it, or, more like at its stomach.
"i must have eaten something bad," thought the geezbot, "either that, or i havent been hunting recently enough, or done enough running like that and so i ate too soon after doing all that running. wow, this feels.... blah. i think i'll take a nap, and see if it will help to feel better. i do hope it does." so, the geezbot laid down, and took a nap, completly unsuspecting of the impeding danger that was upon it.
"RACHAEL!!!! is that you out there that i hear?!"
"EMIKO!!!! where are you? i dont see you anywhere, and what do you mean by 'out there'?"
"i'm inside the geezbot. i'm looking for a way to stab its heart from the inside, so that it wont suspect anything, and then we'll have a meal. how's that sound. in about, oh, five minutes, if i dont say anything, come and cut open the stomach of the geezbot, and get me out. i dont know if this thing is going to try and digest or not, so, just in case..."
about three minutes later, emiko found a way to stab the heart of the geezbot from the inside, and did so.
"meal time!"
"okay rachael, i'm going to need your help in getting out of this thing. i've got erk's leatherman, so, i'll start to cut him from the inside, and you start to cut him from the outside, maybe we'll meet, and everything will turn out okay."
so rachael, with her handy dandy stick that she had picked up, started to try and cut emiko out, whilst emiko cut herself out with erk's leatherman. in a couple more minutes, emiko was out, and they cut off the geezbot's head, and were ready to cook dinner. "yes! time for a meal. i think we deserve it, dont you emiko?"

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

Alira watched Lady Doelcm carefully as they continued through the jungle.
When will she punish me?she asked herself. And what will the punishment be? With her powers, Lady Doelcm could do any number of things. I hope she doesn't do. . . whatever she did when she defeated me. The memory came all too vividly to her, the feeling of breathing but suffocating, of slowing losing consciousness, like her life slipping from her. Alira shook the memory away, but kept worrying. Lady Doelcm hadn't mentioned punishment--as far as Alira could tell, she had forgotten about Alira's foolish mistake and how the dagger had almost been lost. But Alira didn't believe it. What she had done was too serious to ignore. Lady Doelcm must be thinking of a suitable punishment or waiting for the right time.
Rubbing her forehead, Alira thought, I hope it comes soon. The wait is a torture by itself.
"Hey Alira."
"Yes ma'am?" Alira forced herself to stand with her back straight, not showing her fear.
With a half smile, Lady Doelcm said, "It's weird for you to call me ma'am; you must be older than me. How old are you?"
"Twenty two."
"Ah. I'm twenty, so you're not much older than me." Sitting on a nearby boulder, she continued, "Anyway, I stopped because it's getting about lunch time. Are you hungry?"
Alira nodded and the two women ate the rest of the bananas, along with the few other fruits they'd found on the way. Alira ate distractedly, arguing with herself.
Lady Doelcm's being very friendly. Maybe she won't punish me, part of her said hopefully.
Don't be ridiculus another part argued. You heard what she said at the river. She said I was stupid and lousy. I won't allow false hopes that will only be dashed to the ground. Lady Doelcm finished eating and stood up.
"I'm ready to go. Are you?"
"Almost." With her heart thudding almost painfully hard, but not allowing her gaze to drop, she said, "I would like to take my punishment and get it over with."

[The Honourable Ninja-san]

Doelcm scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion.
"Punishment for what?"
Now Alira looked confused and didn't speak at first.
"Oh, you mean for dropping the knife?"
Alira nodded,her eyes dropping to her hands in her lap, and tensed, appearently bracing herself.
"I'm not going to punish you."
Alira looked up again. "What?" she asked, not believing.
"I'm not going to punish you. I was never even upset at you. It was an accident, and we even found the knife, so it's no big deal." After a moment of thought, she continued, "I can't think of anyting that would deserve punishing you for, so don't worry about it."
"But I heard you when you were looking for the knife. You said I was stupid and lousy."
"No, I was talking about the knife or the river or something. I was annoyed by the situation, not you. I'm sorry you thought I called you those things."
A shaky breath escaped Alira, who immediatly pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes.
She's crying? Doelcm thought in suprise. I wouldn't have thought the Time General would cry at anything. She hovered over her former enemy, wanting to offer comfort, but afraid that giving her a hug or something would only make Alria feel worse since she values strength so much.
After a few minutes, Alira stopped and wipped her eyes. "I'm ready to go now."

[Jason]

'Oh, not good,' was the first thing that went through Erk's head as he saw the portal opening. 'Not now. Please, not now.'
But no amount of him hoping otherwise would change anything. What do to? He had to do something . . . he couldn't run and hide, because Shilm and Sarala were collapsed on the ground, and the last thing he would do was leave Sarala. He looked to his right, where Tarak was standing, a sword in one hand and a large rock in the other. Tarak saw Erk looking at him and gave him a small smile and a nod of the head. He would stand with Erk against whatever came their way.
Erk turned back to face the growing portal. He had only a few minutes left. He could try and create his own portal, but he didn't have the time, nor did he know if he had the energy. He hadn't tried creating a portal since he had regained his powers, and now was most definitely not the time to find out if he could or not. Besides, without Shilm to help him, he might drop them in the middle of a star, rather than a planet. He still couldn't tell the difference between masses floating in space.
A frontal attack would be useless, that was for sure. Lucrecia was too powerful. Surprise would have to be his ally. Jumping behind a clump of trees to his right, he motioned Tarak over. He then created two images of them, standing ready to fight, out of fire and light. They weren't perfect, and at close range it was obvious they were fakes, but he hoped that it would distract Lucrecia enough.
'Hold on, Sarala, I'm going to try.'
The portal finished opening, and Lucrecia stepped through, alone, which Erk thought was a little strange, but quickly shrugged aside. Instead of waiting, he caused his two images to move, as though they were going to attack. A bit of each fake flew at Lucrecia, as if Pseudo-Erk was throwing fireballs and Pseudo-Tarak was throwing daggers. Lucrecia easily blocked them, then threw several shafts of dark at them. Pseudo-Erk dodged in time, but Pseudo-Tarak took a direct hit and blew apart. Erk knew then that his time was running out. Concentrating, he began to gather energy in his right hand, preparing for the one shot he hoped he could get.
Pseudo-Erk took a direct hit and blew apart, and Lucrecia lowered her arm and looked around. Spotting Sarala and Shilm lying on the ground, she smiled and began to walk towards them. A cold fury came over Erk, and he began to redouble his efforts, pouring even more energy into his arm. Next to him, he could sense Tarak tensing, building up his own strength, preparing to hurtle the rock he had.
Erk felt a connection to his knife, which was still with Doelcm. Energy began to flow from it into Erk, powering him even more. He could sense that the connection was weak and that the amount coming through was limited, but every little bit gave him a bigger chance of perhaps getting off one good shot, enough to perhaps distract Lucrecia enough for him to shove her back through her portal and close it.
It was time. He had built up all the energy he could, and Lucrecia was almost to Sarala. He nodded to Tarak, then threw forth his hand and let fly the energy built up within it. Tarak's rock flew straight through the center of Erk's inferno, instantly becoming a hurtling missile of instant death, giving off such intense heat that the grass under it's path shrivelled. Lucrecia turned to see it flying at her, and raising a hand knocked it aside. Erk's blast of energy followed close behind, but all it managed to do was singe the edge of her sleeve before she quenched it. Erk sagged in defeat, though Tarak hurled his sword at her, only to have it dissolve half-way there.
Lucrecia sent out little feelers of energy which encircled both boys and drew them to her.
"So, there you are. I knew that wasn't you two earlier."
Tarak struggled against the grip of darkness while Erk simply stared at Lucrecia.

[rr339]

[glow=blue,2,300]Jason - post currently under consideration/revision - storyline paused[/glow]


Shilm was overcome by the intesity of the darkness that we was no able to get up.

"what can I do?" thought Shilm to himself as he saw his cousin on the ground, and the others being drawn to the evil queen.
"Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!" Yelled Shilm as he tried to gather as much energy as he could.

Lucrecia didn't even turn around to look at Shilm, she only said " I'll deal with you and your cousin soon enough."

"I'll teach you, not to keep your back to the enemy!" Yelled Shilm as he launched a powerful ball of light. Lucrecia threw knew that attack was coming and place Tarak in front of the powerful attack. Tarak yelled in pain as the intensity of the light burned him.

"Stupid boy...." said Lucreica as she threw Tarak to the side.

"Tarak!!!" yelled out Sarala, Erk, and Shilm.

"You witch!!" Said Shilm

"How could you?" Said Sarala

"awwwwww!!" yelled Erk, as the feelers of darkness began to squeeze harder on Erk.

"Stop!" Said Sarala " you are hurting him...please stop!!!!" continued Sarala as she began to cry.

"Shut up Child! I'll deal with you later!" said lucrecia as she lifted Sarala with her powers and threw her through the portal that led to Earth.

"Now to deal with you Shilm" said lucrecia as she lifted Shilm and lifted him up high into the air and let him drop. Shilm passed out from the fall.

Now the only one consience was erk.