Ocean's Flame - Recently Updated Pages

Chapter Fourteen: Winter's End

superclare7 — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:37:30 CDT

Eseth glared at Junin. His wing had been healed for several weeks now, and they had spent that much time irritating each other immensely. She did not like Junin, but didn't hate him like Kaza did. She'd grown to despise him in their weeks alone together. His huge, white wings got in the way of everything like Redwing's never had. He was taller and broader than Redwing as well, and apparently needed to eat more. Eseth found herself dreading the sight of his blond head and green eyes every morning.

Junin felt much the same about Eseth. A common trait of Pyromancers, her temper was quick to flare, and she had an exceedingly loud voice and punches that hurt. She was quite unlike the noble girls and ladies he had seen in the various upper-class parties and houses of Wing. Tall, broad-shouldered, with bright red hair, dark skin, and a rough mannerism, Eseth was like no one he had ever seen before. It wasn't that he hadn't seen an elf before. His duty as one of the Guard for the swan angels during the angel rebellion had taken him all over the world to see many strange creatures, but Eseth, well, she was Eseth. One-of-kind, loud, irritating Eseth.

They couldn't stand sharing space with one another for very long. Over the rainy spring, Eseth found herself going even more stir-crazy than she had been in winter. Fortunately, she could visit Kaza and Redwing more frequently now, although she didn't do it often, as Ocean's Flame seemed to like rain a lot. Subsequently, Eseth was stuck inside with Junin.

"So," said Eseth, as they sat at the table for dinner. "Anything different happen today?"

Junin rolled his eyes and didn't bother answering. They both knew that nothing interesting or different had happened that day. This island was terribly boring and nothing ever seemed to happen.

Eseth scowled. "You could at least try to be civil." she snapped. "Otherwise we'll like you even less than we already do." Junin narrowed his eyes. "I don't particularly care if you don't like me," he retorted. "I'm going to try and leave soon, and where I go won't matter to you."

She glared at him. "It might matter to Redwing." she said without thinking. "He might want to go home."

Junin cried "Of the three of you, I like him the least! Don't you understand, you idiot elf, Rustfeathers are born scum! They're thieving, moronic troublemakers who care nothing for themselves, and I will be glad if I never have to see him again!"

Eseth recoiled. "'Rustfeathers?'" she hissed. "Maybe I should call Swans Danderwings! I don't care what you call them when I can't hear, but while I'm in earshot, I shouldn't be hearing anything like that! Gods above, you'd think that such an advanced society would at least lay off the racial slurs!" she turned away from him and scrambled up the ladder that lead to the roof door.

--

"Humph," grunted Sazel Fhekul, leader of the Sun Wings division. Again, he consulted his map. "Island, island, island," he muttered. "Next time we fly, I want a map that doesn't show islands that aren't there." Major Fhekul had been sent on a search-and-rescue mission, the Sun Wings division acting with the Fifth Degree Red Angel Locators, or the RAL five, for short. The RAL five had lost one of their group in a storm, and now the Sun Wings had to help find him. Unfortunately, all they had to go on was a map with an island on it that was either too small to see or didn't exist, and a vague direction in which to go to find the lost man.

Major Fhekul rubbed his temples. The Sun Wings were a search-and-rescue group, more or less, but this was ridiculous. It wasn't even the RAL five's fault, as they got their orders from the Council of Generals. Sargent Afikanir Juyall, the leader of RAL five, floated up next to the Major.

"Look," said she. "I don't like to lose someone and then not find them, but I think this is pointless. We have no idea where he is or where we're going. The man's been missing for nearly five moons. I think we should pack up and go home, at the risk of despair from my people. What do you think?"

The major rubbed his temples again. "You're right," he said grudgingly. "But aren't you their commanding officer? You can't just leave one of your men behind, even if he has been missing for three moons. He might be--"

Juyall ran a hand through her dark red hair. "I know, Major, I know," she said, gritting her teeth. "But we won't be able to find him if he's fallen into the sea, will we? I told you, we lost him in a storm, and--"

"Major, Sargent!" both the major and Sargent Juyall looked around. "What?" they bellowed in unison.

"Land ahead, sir, ma'am." it was Private Ahknirr, who had been Private Levordah's best friend before they lost him. The major looked back around; this was Sargent Juyall's affair, not his. "Where?" asked she. "Are we heading in the right direction, or--?"

The private nodded. "We only need to change the formation a bit, Sargent."

"Major?" said Sargent Juyall. "Does the island match the location of one on the map or not?"

The major examined the map. "Well...actually...yes!" he exclaimed, sounding surprised. "I'm amazed we could find it at all, considering all the stories about the island say the place moves when you try to find it."

Sargent Juyall raised an eyebrow at him, then waved to the rest of the formation to make a slight turn.

The rest of the crew was positively bubbling with excitement. After many months of fruitless searching they had finally found that mystical island. Private Ahknirr chatted eagerly to Private Yuyav, who grinned at him and nodded.

Sargent Juyall and the Major flew slightly ahead of the main formation, guiding the rest of the group towards the island, which currently was a large, green blot on the landscape. Biting his lip, the Major said "We sent someone back to redirect the airship, correct?"

Sargent Juyall nodded. "It's a Sunwings airship, so I sent that one girl...um...Private Loyza to tell the crew where to go. Gave her the exact coordinates and everything."

The formation had left the airship behind at a specific point to fall back on or rally to in case they got split up. It was a typical tactic of the Swan Angel military. The Major bobbed his head approvingly. "Good, good. I think it's about a half hour till we reach the island, so the airship should have plenty of time to get near."

Smirking, Sargent Juyall said "Oh, but what if the island vanishes while the ship comes?"

The Major glared at her. Attempting to keep a straight face, she said "Sorry, sir."

--

The four of them lounged on the shale beach, Kaza and Redwing leaning against each other's shoulders, Eseth laying on her back, soaking in the sunlight. Junin sat a little ways apart from them, wings folded tightly against his back. "You do realize it's still practically winter?" asked Redwing.

"Not really," said Eseth. "It's spring."

Kaza shrugged, and Junin didn't do anything, but stared up into the slightly cloudy sky. Narrowing his eyes, he gazed out over the sea. Looking the same way he was, Eseth said "What's that?"

"What's what?" asked Redwing, following her gaze. "Looks like a bunch of birds," added Kaza. Narrowing his eyes, Redwing exclaimed "Doesn't look like birds! I think they might actually be Angels!"

"Ooh, that's all we need." muttered Kaza. "Can you tell what kind?"

"No, though judging from the look on this idiot's face, I can guess." said Eseth through gritted teeth, pointing to Junin, who was smirking.

Redwing ruffled his wings nervously. "Don't you think we should go to the forest or something? Just so they won't bother us?"

"That sounds like a brilliant idea." agreed Kaza. "The tree, or the secret passage in your tower."

"Why?" asked Junin, who was grinning. "I'd love to go home. With you lot coming along, too. Especially that Red Angel."

Redwing scowled at him, and Eseth rolled her eyes. Kaza snarled "That settles it. We're going into the forest."

They packed up the remains of the lunch that Redwing and Kaza had brought and darted off the beach, Eseth dragging Junin rather forcefully behind her. "Honestly, I don't know why we're bringing him." said Kaza. "So he doesn't help the other Angels find us if they land." said Eseth in reply. "Anyway, where are we headed?"

Pondering the question, Redwing said "I'd like to go back to my tower, but I don't know if that'll work for four people. It's pretty big, and the passage it actually pretty small."

Kaza bit her lip. Smirking at her, Junin exclaimed "Did you know you have an overbite?"

"Shut up," Kaza snapped. "I think we should go back to the treehouse. I can seal the windows and doors and things, and if we have to get out for some reason, I think I can shape an escape."

Eseth nodded. Redwing said "That sounds good to me." Junin scowled fiercely, and attempted to shake off Eseth. However, Eseth was much stronger and bigger than he was, so he didn't succeed.

When they got to the treehouse, Eseth, evidently preparing for a long siege, checked their food supplies and other necessities while Kaza set to work sealing the windows and door, Redwing watching dismally. Junin sat and the table, looking more frustrated by the minute. By the time Kaza was finished, it was so dark that Eseth had to light her homemade lamps so they could see. Redwing shuddered. "What's wrong?" asked Eseth.

"Nothing." he muttered, glaring at Junin. Kaza, reading the look on his face, put a hand on his shoulder. He smiled at her, and Eseth rolled her eyes.

"Tell me again why I have to be here with you idiots instead of outside," muttered Junin. "Honestly, I don't know what the problem is."

The others ignored him, though Eseth glared fiercely.

---

Sargent Juyall was not very happy. They'd gotten on the island, and were in fact on the shore. The ship was right behind them. All was going well. This made her nervous. She was convinced that at any moment something would go horrifically wrong, as things inevitably did.

That Junin, he didn't seem worth the trouble. He disappeared months ago. She was just as grieved as anyone. He was in her division, after all, under her command. But this had gone on for too long. She had shoved Junin to the back of her mind after the first two weeks, until the Major had showed up. She really had no idea why he was suddenly so interested in what happened to the boy.

She considered sinister reasons, such as revenge for something Junin had done in the past or using Junin as a reason to waste resources finding the island, but those seemed improbable. The Major seemed honorable enough, for all his annoyances.

List of People and Places

Kaza999 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:29:08 CST

People:
Kaza Judonis-Hydromancer-co-main character
Eseth Sevahn-Pyromancer-co-main character
Redwing Androson-Hawk angel, introduced in Chapter Seven
Junin Levordah-Swan angel, intrduced in Chapter Eleven
Nirunei and Juzinir Judonis-Kaza's mother and father
Enarsir Lusinda-Kaza's would-be fiance
Inasi Faya, Seri Siona, Diona Catsmi-Kaza's three friends
Ashji Jinla-Eseth's friend
Tyi and Lyrs Sevahn-Eseth's mother and father(father is deceased)

Places:
Vissa-Kaza's home town
Nanir-Eseth's home town
Wing City-hometown of Redwing and Junin
Ocean's Flame-island
Tzuna-Terra Exemplar city
Terra Exemplar-Large, kingdom, history dates back several thousand years
Lisil-human kingdom, younger than Terra Exemplar
Nhurza-Temple City
Temple Council-Nhurza's Council, active government

Gods:
Len-min-(major)god of water
Karsh-(minor)god of protection from inconveniences
Doyz-(major)god of fire
Nui-(minor)god of healing
Ulen-(major)god of skies, twin of Unlen
Jiner-(minor)god of candles
Afiker-(major)god of rebuilding

Goddesses:
Tu-ei-(major)goddess of water
Noni-(minor)goddess of coming of age
Nen-(major)goddess of fire
Zana-(minor)goddess of stone
Unlen-(major)goddess of stars, twin of Ulen
Sevai-(major)goddess of air
Afika-(major)goddess of destruction

Plot Ideas

superclare7 — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:25:29 CST

Only add to this page if you are a writer, please! If you would like to add to or critique and idea, you may.

1. Okay, if you've read Relationships, you'll know some of what I have in mind. Junin falls(not quickly) for Eseth, but she does nothing in return. We all know Kaza and Redwing are all syrupy around each other, so we don't need to get into that.

2. I have an idea for the end of the series. I don't want to give up Kaza and Eseth and Redwing too fast, so it will be in a good while, and circumstances will probably change. Okay, I want everyone except Junin to die in a massive epic battle involving the angels and politics and violence thereof. Unfortunately, according to the angel city's Oracle or whatever, they haven't finished what they were supposed to do, and will be reincarnated. And Junin has to find them. He basically has to find them by searching for each and every misfit in the world.
Or something.

3. Beeeg war.

4. Kk, in summer, when everyone's cabin fever and broken wings and things are all over, they will all go and look in the secret paths under the island. Basically, there's a network of paths under the island, all of them, except the one in Redwing's tower, connect to each other. We get enough info from the passages, and other connected lighthouse/tower things on the other side of the island, and we figure out what the whole deal with the island is, and why Eseth's mother had the map in the first place.

5. ok so i was thinking....what if Kaza and Eseth like met a god or godess? Any one it doesnt really matter. just one of the major ones that is important to both of them. The god/godess would call them to duty at some task of divine importance like stopping a war. Ok so here's how this idea would happen in the story:

Kaza goes down and explores the tunnels under OF. she finds an old water talisman with some writing on it that leads her to a ruined altar that nobody had prayed at for thousands of years. She realizes, as she reads some writing written in some old forgotten language, it's an altar of the water people, used for summoning divine beings in cases of extreme distress or if someone needs an answer to a question or something. So she figures maybe she can get everyone off the island and back to the real world if she summons the goddess of water. The goddess of water comes down from heaven (or whatever they call the place where the gods dwell) and is like "I'm not sending you back to your land so stop bothering me." and then Kaza begs her and begs her until the finally the goddess gives her a magical gift of some sort to improve her water bending ability.

Hmm...I don't know about that one. Gods getting involved isn't usually a good idea. I mean, Tamora Pierce can pull it off pretty well, but that's because her gods always cause so much trouble. Anyway, I don't think that a god can manifest itself on Ocean's Flame because there aren't any Temples or Holy Ground there. Gods have rules too. If you make up the storyline yourself, I'll consider it.

6. They could meet a unicorn and... lol JK
They should like LEAVE this god-forsaken island and find out whatever the crap Is going on in the rest of the planet.. Eseth should be dying of tottal boredom by now.. The Guys could like Bond with each over while kaza and eseth go do whatever.. Then Junin's search party could come and find him.. He could deny his relationships with Redwing, be welcomed into socety again and Redwin would be kidnapped and Eseth and kaza would go to find him. Kaza could express her un dying love for redwing and wach him get killed.. Eseth could Got to Rip Junins head off for betraying them and end up getting killed. Then Junin would realise he was biotch and try to find the re-encarated eseth kaza and redfeather...
OMG that's an incredibly great idea! I shall use it, but they shall not die. Um...lessee...Junin's search party finds him, he hands redwing over, and kaza as well for some trumped-up aiding and abetting the enemy charge...eseth goes and kicks the crap out of him and forces him to help rescue them, however, kaza and redwing have the rescuing angle pretty much covered. No dying, pa-leeze. I have decided that.

Chapter Thirteen: Sadly, Uninterested

Kaza999 — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 11:14:05 CDT

Kaza sighed. It had been quite a few weeks and countless visits to Eseth and Junin since she and Redwing had discovered the secret passage in her bedroom. Kaza knew that Junin's wing was almost healed, and was extremely grateful, even though she knew they wouldn't be able to look for another place for him to live until the snow melted.

In the past few weeks, Kaza had discovered that even with a hidden passage under your very feet, you could still be six kinds of bored. She had also observed in her countless visits to Eseth and Junin that whenever Junin talked to Eseth he seemed happier. Well, happier than when he talked to her. But Kaza was never exactly pleased to see him, either, so it wasn't surprising.

She and Redwing had told Eseth about the passage. Eseth was exceedingly curious, but had protested loudly going as far as Redwing's tower with all the snow on the ground.

Midwinter had come and gone. They hardly noticed, except that Redwing and Kaza visited Eseth, showing up with a basket of food. Now, it was another month till the new year, and Kaza was thoroughly bored.

She lay back on her bed, staring at the ceiling. The maps she had found lay on a shelf, weighted down so they wouldn't curl up. Despite being a Hydromancer, who manipulated ice and snow as well as water, she found winter profoundly boring. Even practicing the most advanced Hydromancy moves she knew got old after a while.

She stared at the cracked and crazed plaster of the ceiling, and suddenly sat up, intending to go downstairs. On the stairs, she nearly ran into Redwing, who was ascending them. "Oh!" she gasped. "Sorry."

Redwing stepped back a few steps. "It's fine, fine." he muttered, blushing slightly. Kaza felt heat rising to her own cheeks. "Um-lunch is ready." he said, his voice slightly louder. Kaza smiled, relieved, and followed Redwing down the stairs.

Kaza found that she wasn't very hungry, but she had lunch anyway. There wasn't a whole lot else to do, after all. If Ocean's Flame had a fault, it was that the land was exceptionally flat. You couldn't even go sledding, not even in the moderately hilly forests where you might find a good hill but it was probably filled with all sorts of trees that you could bump into.

Kaza poked at her piece of smoked meat. "Find anything to do?" she asked dully. Redwing sighed. "Nope," he said. "This is always the most boring part of the year. I don't like going outside when it's this cold. It's bad for my wings. Actual birds have more sense. They migrate."

She shrugged. "Why don't we just go into your courtyard?" asked Kaza. "It's more sheltered than anywhere else, and there's not a whole lot else to do, after all." Redwing nodded, and after they finished their food, they donned their heavy winter gear and headed outside.

Outside, the massive trees that grew along the stone wall were coated with fresh snow. Likewise, the ground. "It's very pretty." said Kaza. "Not very helpful though." Redwing shrugged. "I suppose not." He crouched down to the ground, scooping up a handful of snow. "But at least it's more fun than sitting inside all day!" And with that, he threw the snowball at her. It got her back, and she squeaked in indignation. Grinned, she formed her own snowball, and threw it. It promptly hit Redwing's face.

The resulting snowball fight was the worst the little island had ever seen.

An hour later, Redwing and Kaza breathlessly made their way back to the tower, disheveled and soaking wet. Kaza tutted at their state, and snapped her fingers. The melting snow on their coats, faces and hair dried instantly, turning to steam. Redwing raised an eyebrow at her. "It's a trick I learned," said Kaza, her normally pale cheeks flushed. "Back at home. Oh, dear." Redwing's wings were still streaked with water. "I guess it doesn't work with feathers."

Redwing shrugged. "Oh, well. It's not too bad. Nothing like the state I was in when I came here. They'll be dry by the morning."

Kaza pursed her lips. "Yes, but you'll probably get sick. Come on, even if I can't fast dry them, I can at least get the water out." And with that, she dragged the protesting Redwing upstairs, to the kitchen. Once there, she forced him down onto a stool and stood behind him. "This might feel a bit funny," she warned, and ran a long, pale finger along the ridge of one with. Beads of water stuck to her hand like iron filings to a magnet.

Kaza sighed. "This'll take longer than I'd like it to be, but I can't help that." she diligently removed water from his wings for about half an hour, then sank down into a chair to admire her handiwork.

"Why is it that your wings are like that, anyway?" sighed Kaza.

"Like what?"

"Most bird's feathers are waterproof. The oils in their feathers make the water bead off in a few minutes. Is there a problem with your wings, or something?"

Redwing shook his head. "It's very common. Swan angels are the only ones who don't really have the problem." He stretched his wings out, flapping them gently. "Angel's feathers are very long, and they can't lie flat against your back. It makes it harder for the oils and things to waterproof them. Ever notice your hair takes forever to dry unless it's short? It's the same thing. It doesn't help that hawks don't usually deal with water, so their feathers don't have as many oils on them, either."

Kaza tucked a strand of her own white hair behind her ear. "And the Swans don't have the problem to this extent because swans are water fowl." she nodded. "That makes sense."

Angels had originally been a magical accident. Mutants, of sorts. The story told in the history books was that, maybe nine thousand years ago or so, there had been a huge magical war. The result was that there was an insane amount of magic that soaked into the land, and had somehow combined several different types birds with a wandering tribe of humans. Angel anatomy was tricky and volatile for a while after the incident occurred, because it could be more like either a bird's or a human's, so angels were exceptionally delicate, even after their anatomy and brains had settled into a pattern.

Kaza and Redwing sat awkwardly in the kitchen. "Soo..." said Kaza uncertainly. "Do you want to go visit Eseth or something?"

"Not really," said Redwing. "It's too cold to go further than the courtyard."

Kaza nodded, and the conversation ceased yet again.

---

Eseth suppressed a shriek of boredom for what had to be the fifth time that day. It turned out that even a healthy Junin, even one a week from getting the cast off his broken wing, was a really lousy conversationalist. Sometimes, Eseth got so bored that she wished she'd never left her little village.

Then, of course, she'd get angry with herself and dump all of her mother's jewelry out of the box that Eseth had taken. It was actually pretty fun, but, unfortunately, one of the few things to actually do. She hunted at least three times a week, so they at least wouldn't starve to death, during or right after the winter. However, Eseth had never been much of a reader, and even if she was, there wasn't much to read.

So, she was pretty much limited to cooking, hunting, talking with Junin and ruining her mother's jewelry (not all of it, mind you, just the things she didn't like. Eseth actually liked jewelry, provided it was all metal).

She didn't even have any boys to distract her. Unlike Kaza, Eseth wasn't shy about boys, or kissing, for that matter. She'd spent many a boring winter at home throwing about kisses (she'd only ever gone farther than kissing with one boy, and that was only once) like they were party favors. She thought of it as a fun hobby, rather than a lifelong relationship. The only guy she lived with was a boring blonde angel, at least in her mind.

So, sentenced to boredom, she sat down at the table, mournfully chewing on a piece of dried meat. Junin was up in his room-loft thing that Kaza had made for him, and Eseth was left to contemplate her predicament.

It was going to be a long, long winter.

---

Kaza lay curled up in her bed, trying to keep from shivering. It was cold. It was so cold that she actually couldn't sleep. She knew Eseth never had a problem with the cold, but that was because she was bigger than Kaza and was a Pyromancer. Kaza preferred heat over cold any day. Eseth didn't like the cold, but didn't really notice it, either.

Kaza was contemplating asking Redwing if he had any more blankets, but the thought of being even colder than she was now stopped her. Finally, she compromised. Sitting up, she wrapped her blanket around herself, and stumbled to the stairs. The stairs were pitch black, at least until she got to the floor under her, which was Redwing's room, which was also much warmer and lighter than her own, owing to the working fireplace that sat in the wall that was between the stairs going up and the stairs going down.

Luckily, Redwing was awake. Sitting in a chair next to the fire, he was deep into one of his old books. Kaza walked quietly over and tapped lightly on his shoulder. He started and turned around. She smiled sleepily, and said "Any more blankets? My room doesn't have a working fireplace yet. It's really cold up there."

Redwing nodded, and said "I'll be right back." He went down the stairs, and Kaza, shivering slightly, took his seat by the fire. True to his word, Redwing was back quickly, bearing a few worn comforters and a threadbare blanket. Kaza smiled greatfully at him, and held out her arms for the blankets. "Thanks. It really is cold up there."

The blanket she'd been wearing over her shoulders slipped off. Kaza gave a sigh of exasperation, and attempted to bend to pick it up. However, Redwing got to it first. He offered it to her, then, seeing as her arms were laden with blankets, settled it on her shoulders again. Kaza smiled again, and walked awkwardly up the stairs.

It was somewhat difficult climbing up the stairs, but she made it. Throwing the extra blankets on the bed, she sat down heavily, sighing, overcome by a sudden surge of homesickness for two places at once. One stab of homesickness was for the tree that she had shaped and that she and Eseth shared. Another was for her hometown. What were her mother and father and supposed fiance doing now? It was winter there, surely.

She climbed into bed and pulled the cover up to her chin, and closed her eyes after blowing the lamp next to her bed out.

Five minutes later, her eyes snapped open again. She burrowed deeper into the blankets, trying to find a comfortable way to sleep. It was no use. She was so tired, the cold had sapped the energy from her limbs, but she couldn't sleep. After about two hours of tossing and turning and staring out the window, she was ready to cry with frustration. Her mouth twisted into a lemony scowl, and sat up.

She rubbed a hand over her face, then decided to go down to the kitchen in the hopes of finding something to eat. She wrapped a blanket around herself and walked down, through Redwing's room, the dining room, the living room, and finally the kitchen.

Kaza rummaged through the cupboards until she found a jar of dried peaches, it seemed. Pulling a few slices of fruit out of the jar and putting the rest back, she sat at the table and chewed dully on a piece. After a few moments, she heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs. She whipped around in surprise, a piece of fruit still in her mouth.

Redwing smiled absently at her. Kaza smiled back. "So, you couldn't sleep either?" she asked, biting her fruit.

He nodded. "I always find it hardest to sleep during winter nights."

She shrugged. "Well, it's not so much the cold, as it is..." she trailed off.

"Is what?" he prompted her.

"Nothing. Just a bit homesick is all." said Kaza, apperantly unaware that her face was getting steadily redder, a telltale sign of a sobfest coming on.

Redwing bit his lip awkwardly. He was unaccustomed to dealing with emotional people. "If it's any help, I miss my home too." he said softly.

Kaza glanced at him in surprise. He smiled ruefully.

"It was a nice place, it its own way. The sunsets were beautiful. And the people I knew were nice." Redwing gazed off into space, caught in old memories. "I miss my sister, Skyfeather. She was older than me, you know. Braver, I think. Silly, funny girl."

"You must miss her a lot." Kaza sighed and thought of all the people she missed,.

Redwing nodded. "She left our city a few years before I did. I don't know how far she..." he trailed off.

"She's dead, isn't she?" asked Kaza.

Redwing nodded again. "The city didn't like to let any of us out, after a while. When the Rebellion started, it didn't matter, because no one was paying attention."

"Oh," Kaza bit her lip and looked away. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged, blinking furiously. "Anyway, are you all right?" he asked. "Your room really is cold, even with the heat from the fires down here."

She nodded, eager to change the subject. "I'm fine. I don't get cold easily."

Redwing glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I'm a Hydromancer. My Hydromancy teacher explained it to me. Each Mancy class has several resistances, abilities, and weaknesses even before they are taught."

He leaned forward, genuinely interested. "Such as?"

"Pyromancers can stand hotter temperatures, handle hot metal, and can occasionally walk through fire. They are. however, made weaker in the cold, at sea, or high altitudes. Terramancers are generally stronger and can stand more physical damage than an average being. They can also work with metals very easily, like Pyromancers. Also like Pyromancers, they are made weaker at sea or at high altitudes, though most temperatures don't affect them at all." Kaza rattled these facts off with the ease of long practice. "Aeromancers can breathe in any air, poisoned or otherwise. They are faster and lighter than the average being, and high altitudes don't affect them at all. However, of the Mancy classes, they are the most affected by temperature and physical damage."

He nodded, fascinated. "And Hydromancers?"

"We can stand cold temperatures, breathe underwater, drink any kind of fluid, poisoned or otherwise--"

"Like the Aeromancer ability to breathe anything." interjected Redwing.

Kaza nodded, and continued. "Yes, like that. However, we can be weakened by hot temperatures, get dehydrated more easily, and have a slightly lower body temperature than that of average beings, making us hard to heal. This is a problem with Pyromancers as well, as their body temperatures are slighter higher than average."

He nodded, and they fell silent again. Kaza furiously wiped her watering eyes. Why was she homesick in the first place? She was the person who wanted to leave. She sniffed. Redwing noticed. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Fine, fine." she choked. "Oh, curse it," she muttered. "Now I can't even talk straight."

Redwing hesitated, then put an arm awkwardly around her shoulders. "Homesick?" he asked.

"Yes, but I can't figure out why," she hicupped. "I was the one who wanted to leave."

He shrugged. "I don't know why that is. I guess it happens to everyone."

"I guess." Kaza wiped her streaming eyes and took several deep breaths. "Okay, I'm alright now." when Redwing moved to take his arm from her shoulders, she extracted a hand from her blanket cocoon and placed it on his arm. Redwing, needless to say, put his arm back, slightly nervous as she leaned against him. Then he relaxed.

It was very cold, after all.

end

Chapter three: Well, Finally, People

Kaza999 — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:02:08 CDT

"Kaza!!" a shrill voice shrieked in her ear. Kaza screeched and bounced out of bed.

"Wha-?"

"It's your birthday, stupid!" yelled Nahzeem. "Get your butt out of bed now!"

"I am out of bed! Get out of my room and go get the hairbrush!"

Once Kaza had dressed and brushed her hair, she went into the kitchen, where she was instantly assaulted by several shrieking persons.
The persons in question were Diona, Inasi, and Seri, all three about a year younger than Kaza herself.

"Ye gods!" Kaza yelled, pulling her friends off her. "What goes on in this town? It's only my birthday, for Tu-ei's sake!"

Diona giggled and said "It's your eighteenth birthday, Kaza! What did you expect?"

"Not to be attacked by my friends, that much I know!"

Seri and Inasi laughed.

"Come on, Kaza. We're really here to get you ready for the ceremony, and you know what that means!" said Inasi.

Kaza's eyes lit up. "Do we get to go picking dresses?" she hated wearing dresses, but she loved picking them out, even if she had to wear them later.

"Nope! Come on, we got all the things we'll need!" Seri explained.
Seri pulled Kaza's arm. "Okay! Okay! I'm coming!" cried Kaza as she pulled out of Seri's grip.

They ate breakfast, then the other girls prepared Kaza for the ceremony.

"Hold still!" snapped Inasi, her mouth full of pins as she tried to fix a piece of Kaza's dress.

"Do I really need to wear this stupid dress?" complained Kaza.

"Yes, you do! Your mother said so, and anyway, I thought you liked dresses." replied Seri, who was fixing Kaza's hair.

"I like picking dresses, not wearing them!" Kaza said, wriggling again in her pale blue dress and Inasi repeated "hold still!" and pulled the final pin out of her mouth and stuck it in the dress.

"Finally! You're done pinning this thing!" cried Kaza with immense relief.

Diona smirked and said "Well, we're not quite done with everything else yet. We still have to make sure that the dress will stay that way and your hair will look nice and everything goes on straight. In other words, don't relax yet. In fact, try not to relax for the next forty-eight hours."

Kaza moaned and hung her head, which promptly jerked back up as Seri tugged on her hair.

---

"There! All done!" announced Inasi, proudly viewing her handy-work. "You look absolutely amazing. Turn around so I can make sure your dress isn't rumpled."

Kaza turned all the way around to let Inasi look her over. "I feel awful in this dress and these dumb shoes," she said, gesturing to both her dress and high heeled shoes. "But if you consider me presentable I can die happy." she laughed.

"And Diona and I are done with your hair," proclaimed Seri.

"It looks wonderful!" added Diona, adjusting a comb slightly then stepping back and looking at their work.

Kaza giggled and said "At least you managed to do something with it."

"Girls, the ceremony starts in an hour," Kaza's mother called from the kitchen. "You had best get to Tilgen's Square now. Kaza, your father and sister and I will be there in a bit." The girls hurried Kaza out of her house and out into the roads of the water village.

***
Eseth screeched as her mother dumped a whole bucket of water on her.

"Come on, we have to get you ready for your Birthing Ceremony, Eseth." she said, her voice calm as ever as she watched her daughter splutter on her bed.

"I know, but you didn't have to dump water on me!" Eseth replied "I hate water!"

"Then why were you friends with that Kaza girl? She is a Hydromancer, is she not?" asked her mother curtly.

"Yes, but-" Eseth tried to explain, but her mother cut her off by snapping "We've no time for chit-chat Eseth! We must be off to your birthing ceremony very soon and you still need to pin on your dress and fix your hair." Then she made her usual stately exit, swooping out of Eseth's bedroom like some huge, elegant hawk.

Eseth sighed and thought of Kaza. She hoped her birthday wasn't going like this. Then she thought of herself. She hated dresses. She hated anything to do with dresses, plus it always hurt when her mother did up her hair.

Just then Ashji entered the bedroom.

"Eseth! Oh Eseth! Your birthing ceremony is today!" She squealed.

"That's right, Ashji. Calm down. I've already been reminded by a bucket of cold water." Eseth laughed bitterly while Ashji giggled.

After that, Ashji retreated to the kitchen so Eseth could take a bath. No sooner had she stepped out of the bathroom, Ashji pounced on her, bearing dress, shoes, makeup and hairthings.

"Ashji!" yelled Eseth "I don't want to do it right away!"

"Too bad!" giggled Ashji while she pulled Eseth to her bedroom. "Your Birthing Ceremony starts soon!"

Ashji sat Eseth down in front of her vanity(Eseth honestly didn't know why she kept the wretched thing in her room), and started tugging at her hair with a thick brush.

"Ouch! I thought you knew how to do this!" cried Eseth.

"I do know how, but we don't have a lot of time, and if you sat still it wouldn't hurt so much!"

Ashji was pulling some of Eseth's red-orange hair up into a bun, pulling the rest into an elaborate confection of ribbons, pins, and masses of red hair. To Eseth(who still wouldn't sit still) it seemed like she was trying to yank all of her hair out.

Next time-If I have any hair left after this time, she thought sulkily-she was going to do her own hair, that was for sure. She yelped loudly as she felt a particularly sharp pin jab at her skull.

"I never said it wasn't going to hurt." Ashji said, jabbing yet another pin into Eseth's hair. Eseth yelped again, wondering exactly why she had asked Ashji of all people to do her hair. What had she thinking? This felt exactly as if her mother had done it, only a hundred times worse.

But then, she remembered, at least Ashji puts up with me. Mother never does.

Ashji placed a final pin into her hair, and said "All finished!"

"Finally!" Eseth exclaimed "You're done yanking all my hair out!"

"Well, if I had yanked all of your hair out, you probably would have passed out by now. Your hair looks wonderful, by the way." Ashji replied reasonably.

"But how am I going to get this dress on?" inquired Eseth.

"Well, all you do is step into the dress. Then I play with it, you know, adding things, fixing the hem, stuff like that." replied Ashji.

Eseth moaned.
***
Kaza stumbled along the road to Tilgen's Square, coming very near to tripping over her dress.

"Kaza!" snapped Inasi "Do you know what we went through to pin your dress on? If you ruined it by stumbling into the mud we would probably kill you."

"Inasi, I know. I'm not going to ruin this thing anytime soon, because it would mean that I'd have to go through pinning it over me again." she replied, shuddering. "If you helped me along in these stupid shoes, maybe we'd be there faster."
Inasi giggled, her good mood restored, and she and Seri grasped Kaza by the elbows and helped her through the street. It did go faster after that, and before long they were in Tilgen's Square.

"Soo..what do we do now?" asked Kaza, looking around.

"Um..I don't know," said Seri "Maybe we should just..wait around for a bit."

"Have either of you been to a Ceremony?" Kaza said to Diona and Inasi. They shook their heads.

"Well, we'll just have to wait around, I suppose." said Inasi. "Oh, look, here comes someone." Inasi waved to him, and he walked over.

"Are you the girl who's going to have the birthing ceremony today?" he asked Inasi.

Inasi laughed nervously and said "No, that's Kaza here."

"Yeah, me right here," said Kaza "Would happen to know what I'm supposed to do? And if you don't mind me asking, who are you?"

The stranger smiled and said "My name is Janen. I'm in charge of the ceremony. All you have to do now is wait a bit for us to set up." he smiled warmly at them.
"By the way, congratulations. Your eighteenth birthday is very important, you know."

"Thank you." replied Kaza, smiling politely "Um-where should we wait?"

"Your friends can wait there." Janen pointed to several chairs set up by the fountain. "That's where the family and friends are. You can wait up there," he said, and pointed to a stone ledge raised about two feet off the ground "That's where the ceremony will take place."

Kaza had to resist rolling her eyes at the obviousness of it all, and said "Thanks. Hey, Seri, Inasi? Help me up to that stage thing. I told you these shoes were a bad idea."

Inasi and Seri grinned while Diona said "You're going to have to figure out how to walk in high heels sometime, Kaza."

"Well, it won't be now. Help me over!" Inasi and Seri laughed and helped Kaza to the stage. As soon as she was there and had made sure there was nothing on the ground to ruin her dress, she sat down cross-legged on the stage.

Her friends went to sit on the chairs that had been set up for them by Janen. When others arrived to watched to watch the ceremony-her parents and sister, her relatives, other friends-she stood up and stood awkwardly on the stage, waiting for the cermony to begin.

Janen, whom she recognized as the village priest, gave her and encouraging smile before turning to the crowd and saying "We gather here today to witness the coming-of-age of Kaza, daughter of Nirunei and Juzinir. A Hydromancer, she is here to cross over to adulthood."

Kaza felt vaugely uneasy. The priest then took out a flask of holy water blessed by the Hight Priest and Priestess of the goddess and god of water, Tu-ei and Len-min, and poured a few drops over her pale hair. Kaza spotted a make-shift bridge in the center of the stage. The priest offered his hand to her and announced to the crowd "This girl will cross the bridge of youth into the proverbial land of maturity."

Kaza took the priest's rough, worn hand and crossed the bridge. Everyone clapped as if she had passed some secret test of womanhood. She blinked in confusion. Was that all?

"Kaza, Hydromancer, daughter of Nirunei and Juzinir, I pronounce you an adult and a woman! You are now allowed to travel the world as you please, or stay to marry and live in the village." Said the priest, his voice reverberating throughout the square.

Kaza still didn't really understand. Then she realized. Her parents must have set her up in a marriage, and this was merely a formality. Her friends, Diona and Inasi and Seri were smiling as if they knew exactly what was going on, and they probably did.

Janen the priest motioned for her to get off the stage, which she did. Once she was on the ground, she kicked her shoes off and left them where they lay.

Everyone was standing up and stretching. Nahzeem came over to her, a nasty smirk on her face.

"Your ceremony was different from mine. I suppose they want to marry you off. If I was of any value to them, they would have done it to me earlier than now. They probably will, sooner or later. They don't want some pathetic, deadweight daughter to take care of forever."

"But you're not useless deadweight, Nahzeem!" protested Kaza. "I just can't understand why they would want to marry me to someone, and not you. Do you know-?"

"No, I don't. I'm really sorry, Kaza. I just don't think they'll let you go. You're pretty, you're a greay Hydromancer and medicine woman, and to top it all off, a lot of the boys in town like you." Nahzeem said, sounding a bit softer towards her sister. "I guess you'll just have to wait to find out who. I am sorry. I know you wanted to look for that friend of yours."

Kaza looked away, and walked over to her parents, trying to keep calm. Marriage was not the feared beast it was in other places, as many Water Elves(which she was) disliked travel.

But sometimes a parent would use a gifted child's marriage to their own ends.

Her mother and father smiled when they saw her. "Kaza," began her father. "I am so glad this ceremony was successful."

"You knew it would be successful. Nahzeem said that hers was different, and that you want to marry me to someone," she took a breath and threw a scathing look at her mother, who often ignored Nahzeem. "She also said that you think she's deadweight, and that's why you never married her off."

Her parents looked shocked for a moment, then her mother smiled. "I think Nahzeem might simply be jealous of your good fortune. Yes, we are indeed planning to marry you. To a very nice young man, in fact."

Kaza said "Do Inasi and Seri and Diona know?"

"Yes," said her father. "We thought it would be a fun surprise for you."

"But why?" asked Kaza. "Arranged marriages are beastly, and they're against the law in some places!"

"Kaza, we made sure that everything was all right. It's fine." said her mother, looking sternly at her daughter. "You'll be able to meet him today, in fact."

"Who-?"

"Juzinir, go get him, please." Kaza's mother said to her father, who smiled and turned to leave. After a few moments, he came back, walking with a tall boy with oddly tan skin and yellow-green eyes.

"Enarsir, this is Kaza. Kaza, this is Enarsir." Kaza stared at him for a moment, and wiped all of the makeup on her face off with her sleeve.

"Hello." she said dully. He blinked amazedly at her.

"Um--hi."

"Mother, Father. I think dear Enarsir and I will want to speak alone." she said through gritted teeth. Her mother gazed curiously at her for a minute before taking her husband by the arm and leading him away.
Kaza stared at the crowd of her relatives. She saw her friends, who saw her and waved, giggling. She spotted Nahzeem, sho shrugged. The whole crowd was trickling slowly out of the square, so she and Enarsir were relatively alone.

"You don't really want to marry me, do you?" she asked him, her ice-blue eyes still focused on the crowd.

"Um. I don't know really. I'm just glad that I'm marrying someone, I guess."

"Why?" it wasn't that she didn't like him. Not at all. But she couldn't stand the strange feeling of betrayal that she felt about her parents and her friends.

"Well..."

"I don't want to marry anyone. I want to go away."

"We could-um-leave together, I s'pose." she looked at him, her blue gaze boring into his own. He averted his eyes.

"Really? Would you really do that for me?" she asked. Maybe this wasn't as bad as she thought it was.

"Well, sure. If you wanted to go live in the next town or even in Wavewind, I'd come, I guess."

She almost smiled. "That's not what I meant. I don't really want to live anywhere. I want to travel. Everywhere. Anywhere. Like the nomads of the Nusen jungles.

"What?" he exclaimed, staring at her in sudden shock. "We couldn't do that!" It would dishonor both of our families, maybe even the whole village."

"But why? Why do you care? And it's not like we wouldn't come back." she crossed her arms.

"Kaza, don't you understand? You're a Hydromancer-you can't leave! They need you here!"

"Where is that written? And why would you need to stay here?"

"I don't want to leave. And you know they need Hydromancers here. They don't have many."

"they can do without. It's not like we're in the middle of a drought here."

"But why would you want to leave anyway?"

"I have a friend."

"Everyone has friends, Kaza."

Kaza scowled at what she supposed was him being thick and said "I know that, Enarsir. You know that Fire family that lived here until a year ago? My best friend is their daughter."

"You haven't seen her in a year! She's probably forgotten about you!"

"What?!" she yelled, and, in a sudden rage, she hit him across the face. Not a slap. A punch. That hurt.

"What was that for?" he snapped, clutching his rapidly-purpling face.

"Don't you dare say things like that about Eseth, you Nhidni!" she shreiked. "Understand?"

"But why--" he started, but Kaza never heard the rest. She was halfway across the Square.

***
Eseth jammed a pair of shoes on to her feet. They were the only high heels that she could find that would fit her large feet.

"Sweet Karsh, I hate these shoes!" Eseth moaned, rubbing her toes where the shoes pinched them.

"Eseth, stop complaining," Her mother said, coming into the room and fixing Eseth's hair some. "You don't have to wear them for that long. You look wonderful."

Ashji ran back into the room, carrying a small box.

"I found It!" Ashji exclaimed. She opened the box and began digging through its contents, most of which was jewelry, and pulled out a gold chain with what looked like a flame as a charm.

"Oh, no... What did you find?" Eseth asked, somewhat curious, mostly dreading whatever it was that Ashji had pulled out. Ashji held out the necklace for Eseth.

"Where did you find that?" Eseth's mother asked. " I haven't seen it in a long time."

"Well, I figured that youre jewelry wouldn't work for Eseth, what with her skin and hair and eyes and stuff being a different color and all, so I figured I'd go up to the attic to see what I could find, and dug through all the old junk and stuff up there, which is all really old by the way, and-" Ashji stopped for breath. "-And I found that box. It has a whole lot of really nice stuff in it."

Suddenly Eseth's mother snatched the ornate box out of Ashji's dark hands, obviously having spotted something she didn't want the girls to see. She took the pendant necklace out and thrust it at Eseth. "Here!" She said distractedly. "Wear it if you must, but be careful with it! If you break my jewlery, Eseth, something very bad will happen to you."

Eseth blinked. "Well, uh, okay." she said, making a note to take that box as soon as she could.

"The ceremony's soon, Eseth. You have to head to Noni's Chapel. I'll join you shortly." said Eseth's mother, turning her back to them. Eseth looked at Ashji, who shrugged. "Come on, we have to get going." said Ashji, tugging on Eseth's arm.
---
Noni's Chapel was a pretty building, most often used for coming-of-age ceremonies. It was made of reddish orange clay, like most other buildings in the town, and had the fire goddess Noni's symbol painted in red and yellow on the door.

Eseth was inside, standing on a platform in front of a small audience, including Ashji, her mother, some friends from town and some of Eseth's relatives.

Unlike Kaza, Eseth had no had to wait long for the ceremony to start. It had begun a few minutes after she walked in the door. Now she was on the stage, and Sekoyi the priestess stood next to her. They stood facing each other as Sekoyi spoke.

"-And now, I bind Eseth, daughter of Tyi and Lyrs, to the world and to these lands-"

"What?" Eseth said, her voice carrying above that of the priestess.

"I am to magically bind you to these lands, Eseth. It is what happens if you are bestowed with the Gift of the Dragons, or Pyromancy." replied the priestess calmly, as if this were a perfectly ordinary part of the ceremony.
"No. I'm sorry. You can't keep me here just because I have Pyromance." Eseth snapped. "That's stupid."

"It was your father's last wish that you would be bound to this land, even when he knew that the Pyromancers are bound here anyway."

Eseth snarled. "No." she would not be held anywhere!

"Get away from me!" she yelled, as the priestess reached out a hand, a patronizing smile on her face. Eseth summoned fire to her hands. "Leave me alone! You will not keep me here!"

She kicked off her shoes and extended the fire to the rest of her arms.

She ran. Lighting fire to the interior of the Chapel as she went, she ran out.

Eseth ran all the way home, making the fire leave her hands as soon as she got there, and tore off her dress, pulling her hair out of its elaborate shape. She put on a bright red tunic and dark pants in place of the fancy dress.

Eseth grabbed her leather bookbag from the top of her dresser, and started tossing stuff into it. When she had filled it, she slung it over her shoulder and went into the kitchen. She pulled a knife out of a drawer and held her long hair in one hand as she used the knife to cut it. She let the bright red strands fall to the floor, and, in a fit of fury, threw the knife at the wall.

She then remembered her mother's box. Eseth quickly ran to her mother's room, and found the box on the nightstand. She snatched it up and dashed out of the house. While going out of the door, she absent-mindedly grabbed her boots and bow and arrows, which lay by the door.

Before she had gone twenty paces, she ran into Ashji and her mother.

"Eseth, come back, we don't need this." snapped her mother.

"You knew, you knew about this!" Eseth screeched. "Leave me alone! Both of you!" she summoned the fire to her hands again and ran past them. She didn;t know where she was going, but she wasn't going to stay here.

***

Kaza dashed back to her house, thinking over what Enarsir had said. Well, it wasn't true, simple as that. If they didn't want to let her go, she would run. Someday she would come back, but she couldn't stay here much longer

She ran to her house, and changed her clothes to something more practical. She put her white hair up in a thick braid, and grabbed a bag and stuffed essentials into it, then started putting other things in it. She grabbed her bag of medicines and herbs and several cloaks, donning one of them.

The sun was starting to set and neither her parents nor Nahzeem had come home.

Kaza considered taking one of the town's horses, but she decided against it. She didn't really know how to take care of a horse, and she'd need a lot more food than she had right now to keep the horse with her.

Grabbing a pair of boots and jamming them into her bag, Kaza attempted to lace up her sandals one handed and finally managed to get them on.

Making sure no one could see her, she fled out, into the gathering dark of the forest.

END

Glossary of Terms

Kaza999 — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:57:55 CDT

Magical Terms:
Hydromancer-alternative term for water mage
Terramancer-alternative term for earth mage
Pyromancer-alternative term for fire mage
Aeromancer-alternative term for air mage
Wildemancer-alternative form for a mage not associated with an element
Tree shaping-advanced form of Hydromancy
Flame healing-basic skill of Pyromancy

Calendar:
Ice Moon-January
Savage Moon-Febuary
Pale Moon-March
Thawing Moon-April
Flower Moon-May
Green Leaf Moon-June
Cloudless Moon-July
Fire Moon-August
Picking Moon-September
Red Leaf Moon-October
Harvest Moon-November
Snow Moon-December
Midwinter-equivelant to Christmas
Darknight-winter solstice
Brightnight-summer solstice
The Thaw-first day of new year(first day of Thawing Moon)
Moon-month
Full Winter-year(also reffered to as 'year' as well as 'Full Winter')

General terms:
Hawk/Red Angel-Lower class in Angel society
Swan/White Angel-Middle class in Angel society
Raven/Black Angel-Ruling class in Angel society

Home

Kaza999 — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:12:56 CDT

Welcome to Ocean's Flame.

If you have come across this site just by surfing the web, welcome! I really hope that you will enjoy the stories!

If you have come here via the link from Lakefire, I must warn you that the two main characters(Viska and Eseth) will be different. Viska's name is now Kaza, though Eseth's name has not changed. Lakefire isn't some weird mystical place, but is a small island named Ocean's Flame with an unknown past and bizarre geography. Eseth and Kaza are a whole lot younger(eighteen instead of the late twenties-early thirties they were portrayed as in the original. The backstories are different, many characters were just thrown off, and the romance between Redwing (not Redfeather. Oh, and the whole angel thing is different, too) takes a whole lot longer than one crappy chapter and isn't insanely sappy and awful. Oh, and though they don't say it (yet), they all know what birth control is. Which means Dusk doesn't exist (worst character I ever invented). Magic is actually defined and much cooler, Kaza and Eseth live in a tree, Redwing lives in an abandoned lighthouse thing, and this other angel dude, Junin, regularly engages in screaming fests with everyone (except the oblivious Eseth), and fairies are as annoying as hell.

Well? What are you waiting for? Start reading!

RULES (these only apply if you want to be a writer; other than that, these don't matter too much):
1. Please do not trash-talk our site. Constructive critiqe is fine, but no insults.
2. If you are signed on to our site, you MUST add onto the current story-in-progress.
3. You MAY NOT add onto a finished story. All stories have a set date of when they will end, and after the deadline, they will be locked. The deadlines will become sooner and sooner the more people we have.
4. If you want to add a new character, please PM me with the character's bio(personality, gender, name, eye and hair color, ect.) and I will try to slide the character in. If I believe that the character is weak, a Mary Sue, or just needs to be revised a bit, I will send the bio back to you with notes of how you must change it.
5. NO CHATSPEAK! My editing skills will only go so far. Please try to spell and use grammar correctly.
6. DO NOT flame or bully other writers. If I find out this has been going on, I will ban the person who has been doing it.
7. I hate to sound like an idiotic schoolteacher here, but if you see any flaming or bullying that has been going on, tell me.
8. Try to have fun. If you get bored, don't complain to me. There's a reason why this is called a writing site.
9. Please don't add a new chapter. If you've done that, I'm afraid I'll have to delete it.
10. Read all of the chapters before adding onto the current one.
11. Don't create any pages without writing on them(this applies to only the Mini Stories, as you can't add a page anywhere else), or they will be deleted.

Random Links:
NetDisaster- a really fun game! XD
Fanfiction.net- what does it sound like?

And Of The Angels

Kaza999 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:45:53 CDT

Author's Note: This is not applicable to the story at all. Just the story of two angels.

Mother, will you tell me a story?

Of course, my child. What would you like to hear?

Tell me...of the Hawk and the Swan, Mother. Tell me of them.

Fellen Xin Mal sighed, leaning against the wall. So sparring went terribly again, as usual. His parents would get angry, as usual, and his father would crush his cage slightly tighter, as usual. He didn't care. It didn't matter. Every day was the same, so why should this day be any different?

He wished it were. He wanted something else, something wild, something unexpected.

Fellen knew he'd never get it. Ever. The Xin Mals were a highly respected family, high in both Swan and angel hierarchy, and as the first son, he knew he must marry and inherit. He didn't want it. Any of it. He wanted...he didn't know what he wanted. More, less, freedom, chains. He didn't know. He just wanted something...else.

Sighing, Fellen changed out of his sparring outfit and went to his rooms. Once there, he stepped out onto the balcony and spread his wings. Jumping off the edge, he soared into the sky. Looking down at the city, he smiled slightly, seeing how beautiful it was.

Daydreaming somwhat, he didn't notice when he flew over the Swan and Raven districts, and into the angel-filled sky of the Hawk district. However, the other angels noticed him and flew nervously away. Fellen came to himself with a start, and looked surprised and slightly disgusted.

The expression was wiped from his face when a Hawk crashed into him.

They fell a few feet together, then flew apart. The Hawk clapped her hands to her face and said "I'm sorry! I didn't-I mean-" she looked at his face, and her eyes widened. She gasped, and flapped back a bit, as if to flee. Fellen was siezed by a sudden longing to be her, to be free, even the underclass. "No, it's alright." he said. "It's fine."

The Hawk lowered her hands and stared at him in obvious surprise. "What's your name?" asked Fellen curiously.

"Bloodsky Tzena, m-my lord." she said, averting his eyes.

"oh, I'm not a lord, not at all," said Fellen hurridly. "Please, it's all right to look at me."

Bloodsky glared at him from under her lashes, uncertain whether this was a trap or not.

Fellen noticed, and said "It's really alright."

"If it is alright, may I ask your name?" Bloodsky asked slyly.

Fellen said "My name is Fellen Xin Mal." Bloodsky gasped, and was about to back away, when she said "Curious place for a Xin Mal."

Fellen nodded. "I guess I was...distracted."

She scowled at him. "Because none of your kind ever come here on purpose," she said nastily.

"No, that's not what I meant," he said hastily. "I'm...different than my family."

She gazed at him suspiciously. "If you are so different, meet me in the Writer's Guild Square of Raven district, tomorrow at three hours after sundown."

And she left.

---

Fellen complied with Bloodsky's wishes, donning a cloak and setting out toward Raven district after dinner, the darkness of the night masked by the blaring lights of the city below. He hoped she hadn't lied to him, or wouldn't come. He liked her, even though he had met her for all of five minutes,

He alighted in the darkened Writer's Guild Square, and looked around furtively.

"I wondered when you'd come." Bloodsky's voice rang out across the square. She sat on the rim of the fountain in the center of the square, her long, dark hair pulled back into a braid. "I was pretty sure you wouldn't."

She jumped off the rim of the fountain, and said "Come on, I want to go somewhere a bit more-concealed."

Fellen followed her as she darted across the square, to an alley at the side. "I figured we ought to meet somwhere public, so you could find it, then go somewhere else." she continued. "I did want to meet you, you know. I wasn't sure if you were the real thing or not." she glanced at him with narrowed eyes. Despite her carefree tone, she was extremely catious.

They stopped at the back of the alley, which was surprisingly clean, though very dark. He could only see the vaugest outline of Bloodsky's body.

"So," said she. "you are different."

Fellen nodded, then considered the fact she probably couldn't see him, and said "Yes."

She grinned, then, white teeth flashing in the darkness. "Then let us talk."

Fellen and Bloodsky talked for long into the night. They learned of each other's family, and, haltingly, of each other. Bloodsky found that she liked Fellen's shy, somewhat bashful way of talking. Fellen found that Bloodsky's somewhat rough ways and wolfish grin had been the different he was looking for.

When they left each other for home, they promised to come to this same place the next night.

The next night went much the same. On the third night, Fellen asked "Why is your name Bloodsky?'

"When I was born," said she, her eyes taking on a dreamy cast. "The sun was rising. The sky was all red and orange. My mother named me for the sky on that day."

They smiled at each other.

Night after night, they met, talking. They found that they loved each other, after a while. Fellen found that his life wouldn't just mean nothing without Bloodsky, it would be nothing, like a fish without water. Bloodsky knew this, and knew that she felt the same.

One night, in the middle of the Cloudless Moon, Fellen and Bloodsky flew together over the city. Bloodsky found herself admiring Fellen's large, white wings, and noticed Fellen looking at her own red-tinged brown ones. She grasped his hand, and he smiled at her.

So the nights went. Eventually, their meetings began to creep into the day. Suspicious, Fellen's younger sister, Fellah, followed him one night, to the alley where he and Bloodsky met. So wrapped up in each other were they, that they did not notice Fellah spying on them. Fellah, who followed her family's beliefs and openly hated Hawk angels, was dumbfounded that her brother could have a Hawk for a friend.

Or, she thought, as she flew back to her home to tell her parents, a lover?

Neither she nor her parents cared. Fellah knew Bloodsky's name, and her parents were inclined to think the worst. An execution was planned before Bloodsky was even arrested.

When Fellen found out, he did everything in his power to stop his family's doings. Pleaded, raged, promised, but he couldn't stop them. Bloodsky was arrested, and was executed as planned.

Fellen's father, who had disowned his son, made Fellen watch.

The angel's death penalty is hanging. Fellen watched, his eyes streaming with tears as Bloodsky bravely strode up to the gallows. But then, a flash of fear appeared in her eyes as the noose was placed around her neck. Her eyes found his.

She still had the strength to cry out.

"I love you, Fellen! I love you!"

Fellen, his face now streaked with tears, called back.

"I love you, Bloodsky! Always!"

Bloodsky's own face was streaked with tears, now, as she cried out one last time to Fellen.

"I love you, I love you, I lo-"

The trapdoor swung open. And Bloodsky was dead.

And that is the story of the Hawk and the Swan, my child.

Oh, Mother, I feel so bad for them! Whatever happened to poor Fellen?

No one is sure. Some say he died, killing himself soon after Bloodsky's death. Some say he lived, heartbroken and cold. Still others say that he fled the city, searching for peace, for an ease to his mind. No one really knows.

That's so sad!

Indeed it is, my child, indeed it is...

end

Chapter Twelve: Ever Deeper

Kaza999 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:41:31 CDT

The next day was colder than the last. Eseth climbed down from the loft, shivering as she relit the fire, after which she clambered up to the second hollow to check on Junin. He sat uncomfortably on the makeshift bed, his broken wing not allowing him to lie down. He smiled faintly at her.

She yawned. "How's the wing?"

"It's okay. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night, though."

Eseth nodded. "You can probably expect that. Oh, Kaza's going to see if she can move in with Redwing for a bit, so she won't be able to check up on your wing as much, but you'll be able to come downstairs without her snarling at you."

Junin scowled. "The red angel? Why does she want to-" it appeared almost too distasteful for words. "Move in with him?"

Eseth frowned. "Because she hates you and likes Redwing. That's why." she said bluntly. "I'm going to make some breakfast, okay? Kaza's probably going to come check on the wing in a bit." she added, and climbed down the ladder.

Junin sighed as she left. He somewhat enjoyed talking to her, even if he didn't know her very well.

A few minutes after Eseth left, Kaza came up, scowling. "Just here to check on the wing," she muttered, glaring at Junin. Lightly touching the cast, she frowned. "Anything wrong?" asked Junin tentatively. Kaza shook her head, and went downstairs.

After going downstairs, Kaza went to the sleeping loft and rolled up her bedroll.

"Packing?" asked Eseth, not looking at her.

"Yeah," said Kaza. "I'm sorry, I just can't stay here."

Eseth nodded. "Want sime breakfast?"

"Sure."

---

After breakfast, Kaza continued packing. All of her things amounted to two bags and a bedroll.

Opening the outside door, instead or just using the trap door, Kaza stepped out into the snow. Eseth followed close behind, shivering in the snow. Kaza turned to her and said "I really don't want to do this, you know."

Eseth nodded. "I know."

Kaza's lips trembled, and she suddenly threw herself on Eseth in a ferocious hug. "Augh!" cried Eseth. "Oh, Eseth, I'll miss you!" said Kaza.

"That's great, I'll miss you too." said Eseth, her voice slightly muffled. "See you."

Kaza grinned and stepped back. She closed the door, leaving Eseth inside, and set off into the forest.

Eseth sighed, turning away from the closed door. Now what was she going to do? Kaza was going to be gone for the next few weeks, and Eseth's only company would probably be a Swan angel she disliked.

She sighed, and went upstairs. What else did she have to do, after all?

---

Kaza plodded through the snow, carving out a path for herself and pulling her bags behind her. After about a half hour of doing this, she sighed and fashioned an ice sled for herself, which she found sped her progress immensely.

She sighed. She didn't really want to leave Eseth, so soon after they had settled into the tree. She scowled as she though of Junin.

At least she was staying with Redwing.

Eventually, she reached the bridge to Redwing's tower-island. She crossed over without much difficulty, but took a few minutes trying to find the door into the walls surrounding the island. When she did, she went over to the tower and knocked on the door. Not sure that the knock had been effective with the big door, she pounded it harder, right after which it opened.

Redwing, looking tired, said, startled "Oh--hi, Kaza. What are you doing here?"

"I'm moving in with you. That is, if you don't mind?"

"No, I don't mind at all!" said Redwing. "But why--?"

"I don't want to stay with that angel." she said.

Redwing nodded, understanding. "That's perfectly alright. I wouldn't want to, either. Do you need any help with your bags? I have an extra room, but it's near the top."

"Oh it's fine, thanks anyway." said Kaza cheerfully.

Redwing smiled. "Follow me, then." they went up the tower's stairs, going through the entrance hall, Redwing's room, a kitchen, and finally arriving at Kaza's room.

"Here you are. I started fixing it up right after I met you and Eseth, just in case you guys wanted to stay here the night, if something happened to your tree."

Kaza smiled at him. There was a single bed stand, which seemebed standd to be made out of pieces of twisted metal. "I found that on the other side of the island," said Redwing, referring to the metal bedstand. "There's a few more attached watchtowers and things over there. Hang on, I'll get you a mattress. I have one or two around here somewhere," he said, going downstairs and returning a few minutes later with a battered futon. He placed it on the bed, and said "I'll let you get settled. It's almost noon, so I should probably make some lunch."

Kaza beamed at his retreating back, and put her bags down on the bed. Out of one bag, she pulled out her clothes and some blankets, which she placed next to her bedroll. Out of another, she pulled a few jars of spices, a few books, some dried plants and an extra pair of sandals. Out of the last bag she pulled the map of the island, a necklace, a pair of slippers, and a journal. She considered writing an entry but decided against it.

She put her clothes and things away on the shelves that sat along the walls, and put her bedroll and blankets on the bed. Looking around the circular room, she found the walls were painted a faded, pale blue. There were two windows, shuttered for the winter. They still had glass in them, though it was cracked and dirty.

She glared at the window, resolving to help Redwing collect some sand to make new glass. It was lucky they had a Pyromancer on the island. Hopefully, Eseth could make some glass. It wouldn't be as clear as true glass, but it would be better than what was currently in the window.

Kaza sat back down on the bed. Her heavy coat lay discarded on the floor, and Kaza supposed she should pick it up. Doing so, she noticed a piece of the floor that looked...odd. Like a trapdoor, except there was no handle anywhere. She poked around the odd space, finding there was a trapdoor, but cleverly disguised so it looked like part of the floor. Wondering if she could somehow use her Hydromancy to pick up the door, she found a slight indentation in the floor that looked somewhat like a handle.

Yanking on it, she found that the door came up easily. Putting the door aside, she looked into the darkness below. Lumping down into it, she found a short passage, little more than a crawlspace, lit easily by the light from her room.

At the end of the passage was a rope ladder, leading up into darkness. Kaza furrowed her brow, and tugged on it. It seemed sturdy enough. She grabbed a hold of it and climbed up. As she climbed, she wondered if Redwing had ever found this place.

She soon arrived at a landing, and gasped. The landing was brightly-lit, not by windows or lamps, but by strange, glowing stones. A pair of maps was tacked up on one part of the wall, and several books were stacked on a shelf. Kaza shivered as she saw a pair of well-worn boots, and some old clothes, as well. Kaza looked at the maps.

Written in Lisili, they were a bit difficult to read, but not impossible. The title of one read "Under paths of Ocean's Flame." It looked like the map that she and Eseth had of the island, except different. Instead of the forests and beaches of their map, this one looked like a collection of intricate tunnels that included the secret passageway in this tower, as well as ones in several other towers that she hadn't known existed.

The other map merely said "Ocean's Flame." It seemed to be an updated version of Kaza and Eseth's own map, that included this tower-island, as well as several others on the other side of Ocean's Flame itself. It also listed a village, near Soul's End.

Kaza furrowed her brow, and went back down the ladder. She had to tell Redwing about this, assuming he hadn't already found it. On going back to the trapdoor, she found Redwing looking curiously over the edge. Kaza raised her eyebrows.

"I didn't know this was here," said he. "Anything interesting down there? I was going to get you for lunch, but found this instead."

Kaza nodded. "There's a secret room down there," she said, pointing down the passage. "Come on, I'll show you." Kaza ducked back into the crawlspace, not looking back to make sure Redwing actually followed her.

Redwing hovered in the trapdoor and then followed her, first through the crawlspace, then up the ladder. She heard Redwing gasp, and said "See, there's some Ocean's Flame maps, a whole lot more detailed than the one I have."

"They have my tower on them," Redwing observed. "And others.

"Yeah, they do, and look!" Kaza pointed to the Underpaths map. "All these tunnels are mapped." Kaza traced the tunnels with her fingernail. "There's a few more towers, on the other side of the island. And a library, and some other things. I don't think we could get to any of it now, but maybe we could, in spring."

Redwing nodded. "We should go eat lunch. It's going to get cold."

Kaza glanced at him. He'd picked up one of the clothes and was looking at it intently. She nodded. "I guess so."

They went back down the ladder and through the tunnel. Kaza shoved the trapdoor over the opening, but leaving a space open so she could find it again.

Then they both walked down the stairs to the kitchen, where a table held an array of food.

Kaza sat in one of the ramshackle chairs, taking a sandwich from one of the plates. "Thanks for lunch," she said. "Just don't expect me to cook, not unless you want food poisoning."

Redwing smiled. "I'll be sure to remember that."

Kaza looked at her sandwich. "How in the world did you make bread?" she asked. "Is there wheat and things on the island, or something?"

Redwing nodded. "It's really crude. Only unleavened flour and things, and not a whole lot, at that. Some wheat grows in a field in the summer, but I don't have any salt, or sugar, or yeast. It's pretty much flour and water. I could show you and Eseth, sometime."

Kaza absent-mindedly munched on her sandwich. "That's two things to do this summer," she said. "Look in those passages, and show Eseth and me how to make bread." she looked at him. "I wonder how she's doing right now?"

---

Eseth sighed. This was boring. Boring boring borrrrriiiingg. That's all she was doing, looking after an obnoxious Swan and cooking. Great. Lovely. She'd personally find him a place to stay after his wing was healed, and she would make sure it was underground. yes, underground and on the far side of the island.

That way they wouldn't have to listen to him. She ran a hand through her bright red hair, sighing again. It was going to be an excrutiatingly long couple of weeks.

In spite of the cold and the snow, Eseth walked outside. Maybe she could find something to do.

---
end

Pictures

Kaza999 — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:32:34 CDT

Kaza999's art thing

xbrokenangelx's art thingy

Dolls of the characters! Whee!

Kaza Eseth Junin Redwing
And their genderbended selves!
"Kioz" "Esen" "Jiona" "Dawnwing"

ME! [lizzie/xbrokenangelx] In my sweater, I put the words on my self. Cat took the picture on my phone and didn't tell me I looked really horrible. I tried to take a pic of her in it but you could only see 'EASLE' so uhhh yeah, I'm not fat I just happen to bigger than her.

...And this is Kaza, AGAIN.

...And this is Eseth, AGAIN.

These are Just some random little things I did today out of boredom.. they may not be accurate, and Eseths hair color is off in all of themm... its supposed to be the last one (modern outfit) =] It goes Regular, Dressed up, and Modern..
-lizze

Same as I made for Eseth only the hair color all maches =] Its kaza =]

Links

Kaza999 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:28:59 CDT

Clare's very interesting wiki

An awesome site =]

Ocean's Flame RPG

funny cartoons

Relationships

Kaza999 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:32:34 CDT

Author's Note-This is relevant to the main story, though not set in a timeline and not applicable until a few chapters later. This is basically the tree of (romantic-ish)relationships among the four of Ocean's Flame.

***
1.
Junin loves Eseth. This he knows.
Her lovely, dark face is the first he saw when he first washed ashore. It was she who insisted they take him in, and though it was Kaza who helped heal his broken wing, she was the one who watched him and cared for him and helped him in those first few weeks.
He knows her anger, the delicately raised voice until a shriek, the fiery glitter in her eyes, the dark scowl. These things he respects.
He knows her sorrow, the homesickness, the betrayal, the hidden tears, the shadows under her eyes. These things he almost understands, and does his best to comfort.
He knows her joy, her wide, wolfish grin, the laughter in her dancing eyes, the skip to her step. These things he loves, and feels they are sacred.
He sees the way she walks across the ground, with the limitless, bounding energy of a wolf, and the silence of a cat. Her muscular, healthy body, gliding across the forest floor like a panther. He sees the way she moves, her smooth, sleek, jolting, sudden Pyromancy as beautiful and yet more terrifying than anything else about her. He sees her golden eyes that seem to sparkle with hidden strength. Her bright red hair, unevenly laying across her shoulders, her refusal to let Kaza cut it to a more even length. Her dark, flawless skin, that stands out from the backround in summer or winter.
He knows her fire, her passion, her mind, quick and clever. Her emotions, changing quickly, never slowing or lessening in strength.
To him, she is flawless. To him, she is the most beautiful person in all the world. To him, she is sacred. To him, she is untouchable, for he knows what she would say were he to confess his love for her. So for now, he goes slowly, slowly, a gentle, comforting wing here, a kind word here. He goes slowly, and hopes for a smile.

2.
Kaza loves Redwing. This she knows.
She is shy about it, and she knows he is somewhat confused and overwhelmed by her emotion. But that's alright, because she feels the same way about him.
She loves him, his gentle, cheerful voice, his soulful brown eyes, his long, dark hair. She loves his gentle nature, his habits, his mind, which goes at a pace that anyone can understand.
She loves his soft smile, which always seems to merely touch his face for an instant, but still linger after the touch is gone. She loves how sweet and gentle and kind he is, even after the horrors of his life.
She loves his red-tinged brown wings, which bear him into the sky as easily as walking. She, tired of waiting for him to take her hand, takes his own and smiles as he blushes.
She loves his hands, so delicate when working, so strong if he happens to carry her up into the air with him.
She loves him. Soul, mind, heart, body. And she knows he loves her back. There are no words needed. They fit together, like pieces of a puzzle. And she knows that she will always love him, whether or not he will always love her back.

3.
Redwing loves Kaza. This he knows.
Both she and he are shy about it, and though he knows she watches him, and waits for the moment, he is confused. Confused about her emotions, her thoughts, her voice and words. Powerful and terrible as a hurricane to those that would threaten one she loves or is in her care, gentle, sweet, and kind to the rest, and the roaring river of love and sorrows and dreams she saves for those close to her.
Confusing.
But oh, oh so beautiful and wonderful and amazing, he doesn't know what else to feel towards her but love.
He loves her bright blue eyes, a splash of color in her colorless face, alit with a special glow she saves just for him. He loves how she moves, always graceful and quick, though sometimes she moves slowly, like the spots of a river that the current doesn't touch. He loves how strong her thin, frail-looking body really is. He loves her long, soft white hair, and her long, clever fingers.
He loves her mind, brilliant and darting, yet which slows enough for him to catch up. He loves her smiles, her laughs, her songs.
He loves her soul, gentle yet powerful, kind yet terrifying.
He knows she will always love him unconditionally, and it is because of that that he will love her still.

4.
Eseth is alone. This she knows.
She knows that Redwing and Kaza love each other. It makes sense. Anyone could see that. They fit together like the pieces of a puzzle, similar, but different enough to compliment without clashing.
She knows that Junin loves her, or maybe just the beauty and strength she posesses.
And she doesn't care.
She doesn't care for his smiles, his trying to get closer, his pale green eyes that almost glow when they turn on her, or his strong white wings or his elegant hands.
She doesn't need him. She needs no one, except maybe Kaza. She knows this.
She doesn't need him. She doesn't want him, or love him. She hopes Junin knows this.
But that is all she hopes for.

Mini Stories

Kaza999 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:21:14 CDT

This are stories that don't actually have any connection to the storyline. They're just little oneshots that were fun to write, but you could never fit into the storyline.

Mini stories could include:
Humourous
Parody
Modern Eseth and Kaza

Feel free to add on to the list.

Slightly different rules apply to the minis: you are allowed to create your own page, so long as you create it from here. If you make a page, however, you must add to it within twenty-four hours or it will be deleted. If you write your own story, no one will edit it.

Chapter Eleven: The Second One

Kaza999 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:28:21 CDT

Bounding along the shale beach after a night and most of the day of being cooped up inside felt like the best thing in the world. Being able to run freely without being hindered by snow was, apparently, the next best thing. Kaza and Eseth leaped along like over energetic children, Redwing lagging behind somewhat, as he stopped more often to pick things us.

Therefore it was Eseth who saw him first.

She stopped for a moment on the beach, looking toward a crumpled mass of feathers and flesh shaped into the semblance of a man. "What's that?" she asked Kaza, who had stopped when Eseth had.

"What's what?" asked Redwing, who had stopped hovering over the rocks and now walked up beside them. Eseth pointed.

"It looks like...a person. Angel, maybe." said Kaza. "We should go over and check. Whoever they are, they don't look good." and set off running. Eseth dashed after her as Redwing took to the air and followed.

When Kaza got to the person, she hissed. He was completely out of it, dilated pupils of a high fever and all. It also looked like his right wing was broken. In her hurry to help him, she didn't notice the shade of his wings.

They were white. Or they would be, once he got them clean. Eseth arrived a mere seconds after Kaza, and, like her, didn't notice the shade of the angel's wings. Redwing did, however.

"Oh, no..." he muttered, and started to shake.

"What? What is it?" asked Kaza, who had taken off her heavy fur cloak and placed it over the angel. Redwing pointed to the angel's wings. Kaza looked, and understood. "Oh my..." she grimaced.
"What should we do with him?" she asked softly. Redwing shrugged. Eseth glanced up at them. "What bit you two?" she asked.

"That's a Swan." said Redwing. "And he looks important."

Eseth asked "How can you tell?" before lighting her hands, then spreading the fire more evenly over them. The starting technique for flame healing.

"What are you doing?" asked Kaza worriedly, Eseth's question forgotten.

"I'm healing him. Or the worst of that fever, anyway. What does it look like?"

"But why?" asked Redwing, who now nervously hovered over the rocks.

"Because I can't let him die. No matter who he is, we can't just let him die. And with that wing, he's not going anywhere. He's not going to be dangerous to you, or to anyone else."

Redwing nodded shakily, and stopped hovering. Kaza went to his side. "Are you all right?" she asked him quietly. He nodded, then shook his head. "No," he said. "Not at all."

"You said he looks important. How can you tell?" she asked softly.

"His clothes," said Redwing in reply. "Swan angels have a caste system among themselves. Politicians and military leaders at the top, artists, writers, and musicians at the bottom, and everyone else in varying positions in the middle depending on family, money, connections, politics, and who marries whom. Each caste has a particular uniform, and the material gets better and the clothes fancier the higher up the ladder you go."

Kaza nodded and looked toward the angel. They stood there for a few minutes as Eseth healed him, nervously shifting from foot to foot.

Finally, Eseth stood up. "I've gotten rid of the fever, though he'll probably be really weak for the next few days, and I can't heal broken bones, even hollow ones like his. We'll have to set that wing."

Kaza nodded. "But are we going to be able to get him back to the tree?" she glanced at Redwing. Any hope of the angel staying in his tower was out.

Eseth grimaced. "I can't pick him up without damaging the wing. I think you'll have to either drag him back on an ice-sled or something, or we have to wait until he wakes up. Hopefully, he'll be able to stand up and walk around."

Redwing said "I think that's the best thing-" but was cut off by a groan. The angel had woken up.

"Where am I?" he asked sleepily, and tried to stand up. Eseth placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "Don't get up just yet," she said. "Or, at least, don't get up that way. Your left wing is broken. Get up very, very slowly, and don't move it at all." the angel did as she said, inching up as if he were swimming through molasses.

Kaza glanced at Redwing. She sighed. "You're hovering again," she said quietly. He glanced at her. "I know." he muttered back. "It's a nervous habit." the other angel looked sharply at them, and gasped in pain. Eseth snapped "I told you to move slowly!" but the angel ignored her. "You're a red angel," he sneered. "So we were right after all."

Eseth scowled, and Redwing's face turned white. "Listen here, you," Eseth said. "Redwing is a Hawk angel, but that doesn't matter, because you're not in your city any more. As far as we know, we're the only ones living on this deserted little island. We're the ones who saw you, and we're the ones taking care of you. Save the rivalry for later."

The angel glared at her, but said nothing. Eseth glared right back, then said to Kaza "I think we have to use that ice-sled idea. He probably shouldn't be walking."

Kaza nodded, and summoned a sheet of ice from the nearby ocean and slid it under the angel, who gasped in surprise. Kaza inched it along, helped by Redwing and Eseth, who pushed it from behind. It took so long to get it from the shore to the tree, the angel fell asleep. "Good," said Kaza when she noticed. "It'll be easier to brace that wing." she turned to Redwing. "How exactly do you brace an angel's wing, anyway?" she asked.

"You have to turn him on his side and try and straighten it out. Then you brace it as you would someones arm."

Kaza nodded and set to work once they reached the tree after they placed him in the newly-shaped hollow that Kaza had created after the blizzard. Redwing looked at the darkening sky. "I have to get going. I can't see at night." and took off. After bracing the wing(Kaza was extremely glad that the angel was asleep), Kaza told Eseth to keep watch over him.

"I'm going to shape this hollow so it connects to the main one," she said, and placed her hand on the floor. In surprisingly little time, the hollow had a hole in it which connected to the main hollow. Kaza then shaped a ladder down the hole, and sealed the opening in the hollow which served as a door.

"There!" exclaimed Kaza, stepping back to examine her handywork.

"That's really great, Kaza," said Eseth. Kaza smiled. The angel blinked wide, suddenly awake eyes. eyes.

"What are you staring at?" asked Kaza nastily, looking behind Eseth toward him. Eseth jumped and looked over her shoulder. She scowled. "You could have let me know you were awake," she informed him. "How's the wing doing?"

"Better, I guess." Kaza noticed he looked young, probably as young as them. He was tall, with a more muscular build than Redwing, with very white wings. He had pale green eyes that slanted slightly downward, accenting a softly triangular face. His hair was short, and a fair shade of blonde. His long fingered hands looked as elegant as a pianist's. His skin was fair, though not nearly as pale as Kaza's.

His thin lips were pursed, as if in disapproval when he looked at Kaza. "Who are you?" he asked, confusion coloring his voice. "Where exactly am I? I was trying to get to an island-"

"Oh, you're on an island, all right." Eseth commented. "Ocean's Flame, we think it's called." I'm Eseth, by the way. Eseth Ba Leigh. Her with the white hair over there is Kaza Judonis. The Hawk angel you saw is Redwing Androson."

The angel frowned. "We were right, after all..." he muttered.

"What?" asked Kaza.

"I found a map of this island, though on our maps it's Pyro Oceania*. I took it to my superiors, who decided that red angels could be hiding there. Something went wrong, I got caught in a storm-"

"Never mind that now, what's your name?" asked Eseth impatiently.

"Junin Levordah. Second Degree-Fifth Rank, Red Angel Locators."

Eseth raised an eyebrow. "That's a long name."

Kaza bared her teeth. "He's part of a group to hunt Hawk angels." she growled. "Why?"

Junin looked at her, surprise clear in his face. "We can't have them go unpunished, or burden them on other nations." he said. "They instigated the Rebellion, and, as such, we can't let them go. I found this island on a map in some of our oldest files. My superiors told me to scout ahead of the main group, but I think that everyone got blown off course."

Kaza nodded, glared at Junin one more time, and climbed down the ladder to the main hollow.

Eseth bit her lip. She hadn't expected Kaza top be that upset. "Don't mind her," she told Junin. "She's just angry that you'd treat her boyfriend so badly." she glanced at him. "Mind you, I'm not happy about the angel society, either. I think it's pretty horrible."

Junin glared at her, then raised an eyebrow. "Boyfriend?"

Eseth flapped a hand. "Okay, so they're not boyfriend and girlfriend yet. But they're pretty close."

Junin stared at her. Heappeared to be struck speechless. Eseth said "Surprised that I'm actually talking to you?" she grinned. "I like to talk to my patients, regardless of where they come from."

Junin shrugged, bewildered. Then he grimaced in pain, a hand darting to his broken wing. Eseth noticed at once.

"Don't touch that!" she snapped. "It's a broken wing. You don't want to mess around with it."

Junin lowered his hand. Eseth said "Be back in a minute. I'm going to ask Kaza if you need anything else for that wing." and clambered down the ladder. Junin attempted to stand up, but deciding against it when his shoulder started aching.
He sighed, and sat back down.

Eseth came back up the ladder, with news. "Apparently, you don't have to do anything with that wing unless it hurts you. That's about it."

She sat, propping her face on her hands. She scrutinized him carefully. "So what's it like in that angel society of yours?"

He glanced at her. "It's been a bit different since the Rebellion." said he.

"Your government doesn't try to hide it?" she asked carefully.

Junin shook his head. "They do say that the Red angels started it all." he shrugged. "I'm not surprised."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, they're not very..." his voice dropped to a whisper. "Civilized, you know. Cause fights and things whenever they can."

Eseth narrowed her eyes. "Oh, really?" she asked, her cheerfulness vanishing. Junin didn't notice.

"Very violent. That's why they started the Swan Murders and the Rebellion, you see."

Eseth nodded grimly. "Now, have you ever actually met a Hawk angel?" she asked delicately.

Junin looked shocked. "Of course not!" he spluttered. "I'm a Swan! A Levordah, as well! I come from an old family that doesn't muck about with--with rubbish!"

Eseth glowered at him. "Rubbish indeed," she muttered. "Well, if you've never met a Hawk angel, how do you know that they're horrible?"

Junin rolled his pale eyes at her. "Everyone says so," he said. "And if Leader Minyahn Jevorn and the Council of Fourteen say so, it's true. That's all there is to it."

Eseth rolled her own eyes back. "No, it isn't." she snapped. "My, how stereotypical of you."

"How is it stereotypical of me?" asked Junin. "If anything, the Red angels make themselves into stereotypes. Not us."

Eseth sighed. "You misunderstood me. You're being a racist noble. Honestly, I don't know why I bother talking to you."

Junin scowled at her. "I'm not a noble," he told her. "And it's not racist if it's true."

"But it's not true." Eseth pointed out. "Hawk angels aren't that bad."

Junin glanced at her in surprise. Changing the subject, he asked, "Why do you call them Hawk angels? No one else in the city does."

Eseth raised her eyebrows. "Really? Everyone else in the world calls them that. You're a Swan angel, the class right below you is Raven, and below that is Hawk." she narrowed her eyes as she thought. "I think there's also Owl angels, and Nightinggale, Eagle, and Osprey, but that's all I know."

"Oh." Junin seemed surprised.

"Eseth!" Kaza's voice called from below. "Come down now, or else you'll be eating the food that I cook!"

Eseth cringed, and climbed down the ladder into the main hollow. Climbing down, she told Junin "I'll bring you something to eat soon. People with broken wings should probably get as much food as they can."

Junin nodded, and watched her go.

---

Kaza glared at the new ladder as soon as Eseth alighted on the floor of the main hollow.

"I don't like keeping him here." she said as Eseth pulled out a pot. "What are you making?'

"Stew," said Eseth in reply. "And you know that Redwing can't keep him, and he certainly can't be on his own just yet."

"I still don't like it," said Kaza unhappily. "And that wing will keep him here for at least two moons!"

Eseth sighed. "If you dislike him that much, you could probably stay with Redwing until his wing heals and he finds a place to stay."

Kaza considered for a moment, blushing slightly at the thought, and said "Maybe I should."

Eseth nodded, stirring meat and herbs into the pot of boiling water.

"Smells good," said Kaza hungrily.

"Thanks," said Eseth. "Could you set the table, please?"

"Sure," sighed Kaza.

Over dinner, Kaza said "D'you think I should ask Redwing if I could stay with him tomorrow?"

"Yeah, you can." said Eseth, rolling her eyes. "Though I'd advise you to go there. I'm pretty sure he won't be hanging out here for a while."

Kaza nodded pensively. They spent the rest of the meal in silence.

end

*Pyro=fire
Oceania=one of the three ruling dictatorships of 1984(the book, not the year)

Chapter Ten: Winter

Kaza999 — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:17:45 CDT

"'So comes winter,'" quoted Kaza.

"What?" asked Eseth, who had just gotten up and was groggily stumbling towards the table.

"Oh, just remembering part of a poem I read."

It was two weeks after Eseth had caught the deer, and it had snowed lightly a few times since. There was only an inch or snow still upon the ground, but the tempature had dropped considerably.
Eseth absent-mindedly finger-combed her hair as she stood up and went to make breakfast, groping on a shelf for a jar of pickled onions.

Kaza raised an eyebrow. "What exactly are you making?"

"It's an old family recipe. You can, in fact, make an entire meal with a jar of pickled onions and some spices." was Eseth's reply, getting some dryed rosemary from another shelf.

It turned out Eseth was right. You could make a whole meal out of rosemary and pickled onions.

***
Redwing stopped by later that day, mostly to chat.

"You might want to be careful this week," he said.

"Why?" asked Eseth curiously.

"For some reason, after the first few light snows, there's an enourmous blizzard. No idea why."

Kaza raised a pale eyebrow. "That's inconvenient. But I suppose it couldn't hurt to stick around here for the next few days."

Eseth growled. "I hate staying inside."

"Nobody said anything about staying inside," said Kaza. "Just stick near the tree. It's not that hard."

Eseth sighed heavily. Redwing patted her on the shoulder, smiling, and got up from the table.

"Leaving already?" asked Kaza.

"Yeah. I should probably get the tower ready. Just in case there is a blizzard."

"Need any help?" asked Eseth. Redwing shook his head.

"No. Thanks for asking. I only need to move things around a bit and barricade the windows." he donned his coat and hat, waved, and climbed out of the tree.

Eseth sighed again. "I think this is going to be a very, very, boring couple of days."
***
Eseth's words proved true. Every once in a while, she would restlessly prowl outside, getting a bucket of water or extra firewood. Kaza contented herself with shaping the inside of the tree, adorning the walls with carvings and smoothing the floor and steps out.

When Eseth's restless boredom reached its peak, she asked Kaza "How do you do that, anyway?"

"Do what?"

"The tree-shaping. You're so good at it. Honestly, is there any part of your magic you're not good at?"

"Oh." Kaza shrugged. "The tree shaping is actually easier than the normal Hydromancy. I don't know why. With ordinary Hydromancy, I lose my grip on the magic all the time, and it's insanely tiring. With the tree-shaping, I just...ask the water in the tree to go where I want it to go, and it does." she shrugged again, and contunued shaping the wall. Eseth gritted her teeth. That was just like Kaza, to answer a question and then go back to whatever she was doing and not say another word.

Right after they ate dinner, they heard the wind howl viciously. Eseth groaned.

"I guess Redwing was right, after all." she said. Kaza went about the hollow, checking to make sure everything was sealed and closed tightly. Eseth dimmed the fire in the lamps, and banked the fire in the stove. She cleaned her teeth, and practically jumped under the covers of her pallet. Kaza went to bed a few moments later, not wanting to stay up in the chilling tree.

The wind howled long and hard, and the snow built up.
***
The next day, the wind had died somwhat, but snow was still falling. Eseth got up first, lighting the lamps and starting the fire.

They were quiet as they sat down to another pickled-onion-and-rosemary breakfast, until Kaza broke the silence with "I've never seen anything like this. I hope Redwing's all right."

Eseth shrugged. "He'll be fine. He's seen two winters like this already. And he did saw the weather it wierd here. It might be beacuse it's an island."

Kaza nodded, still looking slightly worried. "It might be that the big storms like this are blown in from off the coast. It's not a very big island."

Eseth nodded. "Any idea what you want to do today?"

Kaza shrugged. I had an idea to extend the tree to the stream, and then dilute some of the water for a pond, or something."

Eseth raised her eyebrows. "Interesting idea." Kaza nodded. "See, it'd be kind of like a hotspring, if we managed to heat the water up, and since the stream's, like, two yards away, it wouldn't be that much of a stretch."

"Well, I think wall you need to do is dilute the come of the stream one way, and maybe we could dig a pond and line it with stones, and maybe I could keep it heated somehow..."

The spent the rest of the time waiting out the storm talking of their plan. At one point, Eseth said "You do realize we're talking about building some sort of bath, right? Do we have anything else to talk about?"

Kaza shrugged. "It's still snowing, I don't feel like shaping the walls any more, and we don't have anything else to talk about. Face it, it's really, really boring during a blizzard."

Late in the afternoon, the winds stopped howling. Kaza jumped up the steps and looked out of the top of the tree before Eseth could stop her. "Oh my." Kaza gasped.

"Oh, what is it? It's only snow," said Eseth, climbing up beside her friend.

Everything was covered in snow. Ice coated the surface of the nearby stream, and the ground was coated in a good foot of powdery snow. Eseth sucked in a breath. "First off, we should clear a path to the stream." she said.

Kaza nodded. They went back inside, and grabbed their winter gear. As soon as they were ouside, Eseth grabbed a bucket and waded through the snow to the stream, placing a flaming hand on the surface of the water to melt it. Kaza took a somehwat more graceful route with another bucket in tow, scooping up handfuls of snow and placng them in her bucket.

After placing the two buckets inside, Kaza started shaping the many branches of the tree as Eseth started melting the snow outside the tree. She glanced up at Kaza, who seemed to be shaping a new hollow, smaller than but still conected to the main one.

"What exactly are you doing?" Eseth asked.

"Nothing, really. I just need something to do." replied Kaza, her voice muffled by a thick scarf.

"You could help me with this," said Eseth, gesturing to the path she was creating.

"You know, you could just scoop up snow insteadof going all the way to the stream," said a voice from above them.

"Redwing!" cried Kaza as he decended, not actually landing on the snow, but hovering over it.

Eseth grinned at him. "See, I told you he was fine!" she told Kaza. "She was worried about you. No idea why."

Redwing blushed slightly. "Um...oh." he said. Kaza climbed down from the tree and said "So, were you as bored as we were?"

"Probably more so," said he, looking relieved that the subject had been changed. "When snowstorms set in, I usually work as much as I can on the tower."

Kaza nodded. "We ended up talking about making a bath."

"For two hours!" added Eseth.

Kaza ignored her. "We do need one, but it's not really an interesting topic."

Redwing nodded. "It's true. Baths aren't that interesting, even if they are useful." he set down lightly on the path cleared by Eseth, and said "Want to comb the beach?"

"Why?" said Eseth. "There's no point."

"After a storm, things will usually wash up on beaches. It's kind of fun."

"That sound vaugely interesting." said Kaza. "We should do it. It'd be more interesting than what we're doing now, anyway."

Eseth rolled her eyes. "Just about anything's more interesting than hanging around here any more. Even combing a beach right after a blizzard."

So they meandered to the edge of the island, melting and sweeping aside snow. Redwing mostly hovered above the ground, earning himself several envious glares from both Eseth and Kaza.

When they reached the rocky shore, they found that most of the snow had been washed away. Leaping among the huge shale slabs decorating the beach, they picked up several interesting things.

Including a person.

end

Chapter Nine: Preparations and Conversations

Kaza999 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:58:34 CDT

Kaza and Eseth had been on the island for about three moons, and, along with shaping their tree and gradually moving into it, they visited Redwing about once or twice a week. Lately, he had taken to visiting them and helping them with moving into the tree.

All three of them explored the island, mainly to build up Kaza and Eseth's winter stores. Redwing showed them how to tan and cure furs and hides(at least, he showed Eseth. Kaza didn't want to learn) and helped then hunt meat and gather plants and herbs for the coming winter. He and Eseth had hung two hammocks in the tree for her and Kaza while Kaza shaped a storing place for their meat(smoked and salted), herbs, and furs.

"Wow...this is hard work..." smirked Kaza as she finished shaping the store house for their meat. Redfeather rolled his eyes at her. "Sitting on the floor doing some magicky thing isn't hard work. It's just useful." Kaza grinned at him. "It's better and more energy-draining than curing hides. And less smelly." she retorted, referring to the thick furs he was in the process of curing.

The storehouse was right outside the tree, positioned so it could be accessed from the inside or the outside. Redwing said "well, these are almost done. They'll probably be done by tomorrow afternoon."

Eseth, who had just come from the inside of the tree bearing three plates of food, said "Good thing, too. The winter will come soon. It is the Red Leaf moon, after all." Kaza and Redwing murmured in agreement, and each took one of the plates that Eseth offered them. Kaza gnawed hungrily on the meat portion of her meal, and Redwing rolled his eyes at her again. "For such a skilled Hydromancer, you eat horribly." he told her.

Kaza shrugged. "Hey, I told you that playing with magic makes you hungry." she replied.

Soon after Redfeather had finished eating, he said "I should probably get going." nodding towards the furs, he said "Just let those sit till tomorrow afternoon. Not much has to be done with them now, but you should probably leave them be for a bit." he spread his rust-red wings and leaped into the air.

"Bye, Redfeather!" called Eseth as Kaza waved. They each sank into sitting a sitting position on the ground. "What a day." sighed Kaza. "Yeah." agreed Eseth staring at the furs, "We'd better get some sleep now. It's almost dark." Eseth and Kaza hastened to the sleeping alcove that they shared. Kaza had shaped it inside the tree. It was something of a loft, shaped right above a lantern-holder that held a glass ball. There were steps shaped into the wood of the tree that led up to it, and Kaza and Eseth shared it.

After they had both gotten into bed, Eseth snapped. The glass balls that had been softly glowing throughout the tree were extinguished, except for one that Eseth held in her hand. Kaza merely turned away from Eseth on her pallet. She was used to this by now. Eseth reached onto the shelf behind her and pulled out a scorched, oddly curved-looking piece of wood. She was experimenting with Pyromancy and seeing if she could carve the piece of wood with fire alone.

Eseth lit a single finger, then spread the fire until it encompassed her whole finger, effectively dimming the light and, instead of a single flame on the tip of her finger, it glowed and sparked with enough heat to scorch wood, but not to set things on fire.

She spent about half an hour on carving it in a vague portrait of Kaza, then turned out the light.

Outside the hollow tree, everything got colder.

***

The next day, a thin layer of frost lay on the ground. Kaza grimaced, and Eseth sighed heavily. "I hope the furs weren't damaged..." said Eseth, walking over to the furs in question, which Redwing had hung on two tree branches that Kaza had shaped at his request.

Eseth felt them. Apart from being slightly stiff from the frost, they appeared undamaged. Kaza tiredly helped Eseth make breakfast on the ramshackle stove that they and Redwing had put together from scrap metal.

Redwing arrived right when they were finishing breakfast. Kaza snickered when she saw him. He was entirely smothered in furs, hides, and cloth. Eseth raised her eyebrows. "It's not that cold, you know," she pointed out. Redwing only shrugged, and set to work on the almost-finished furs.

The day passed without event. Kaza enhanced both the inside and the outside of the tree, making the sleeping loft and storage spaces slightly deeper so as to allow for more room. Eseth hunted for more meat, and the occasional herb, and spent the rest of the day preparing what she had gotten for storage.

That night, right after Eseth had turned off the light and prepared to take her carving out, Kaza said "Eseth?"

Eseth started, almost dropping her lamp. Kaza almost never talked after lights-out. She placed her lamp in her lap so as to make sure not to drop it. "Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

Eseth raised an eyebrow. "Sure...as long as it doesn't have to do with emotional problems. Or relationship problems."

Kaza smiled slightly. "You're out of luck then."

Eseth groaned. "Who on this entire island is there to have relationship problems with?"

"Well, it's not so much of a problem as, um..."

"Spit it out, Kaza."

"Do you think that Redwing likes me?" said Kaza, very quickly, blushing bright red.

"Kaza, why is it so hard to talk about that sort of thing?" asked Eseth, raising her eyebrows. "You're certainly old enough to have talked about it plenty of times."

Kaza shrugged helplessly. "None of the boys in the village ever interested me. I never...um..."

Eseth rolled her eyes. "Ye gods, you're eighteen and you're still a virgin. And you've never gone out with anyone. But to answer your first question, I actually have no idea. He's probably as shy about it as your are. More, even. He did bash you in the head."

"Oh." said Kaza. "Well, thanks, I guess. And I told you, no one's ever interested me. I never really gave it any thought. Before now, I mean. 'Night."

Eseth blinked. That was Kaza for you. She was impossible to talk to at night. Instead of carving, Eseth merely turned out the light.

***
"We have a problem..." Kaza said, looking out the open door. "What is it?" asked Eseth. Kaza only pointed outside.

There was about an inch of snow on the ground. And it wasn't melting. "I guess winter comes more quickly than we thought," said Kaza. Eseth replied "Let's get to work. You might want to seal the windows. And the door."

"You want to use the door I made at the top of the hollow? You know, to get out and stuff?"

Eseth shrugged again. She had told Kaza to seal the windows and door shut because she figured it would keep out the cold. "If you want. I plan on staying here today, and attempting to do something with those new furs that Redwing gave us."

Kaza nodded agreeably. "It's just an inch of snow, you realize. You could still go hunting and things. You probably should, actually. I'll take care of the hides, and the other ones he gave us, as matter of fact."

Eseth sighed. She hated cold, even as little cold as this.

***

"Ooh...this is horrible." moaned Eseth the second she stepped out the door and onto the freshly snow-covered ground.
Though actually it was very warm for late autumn, thinking about how cold it could get made her feel colder than she actually was.

"Eseth!" called a voice from overhead. She looked up, a gloved hand shielding her eyes from the early morning sun. "Oh, hi, Redwing. Kaza's inside." He landed heavily next to her, and inspected the tree. "Um...how do I get in, exactly?" he asked. Eseth pointed to the stairs shaped into the side of the tree, and said "Just go up those stairs. There's a door on top that you can pull out and put back in. It makes the tree warmer."

Eseth hitched her bow and arrows higher on her shoulders, and added, "You should probably bring a bucket of water in, if you're going inside." she pointed to a crude wooden bucket hanging on a tree branch, then waved to Redwing, and trotted off into the forest.

Redwing grabbed the bucket, filled it with water from the nearby stream, and clambered up the steps to the hatch in the tree. He set the bucket down next to him, narrowly avoiding splashing the contents on himself, and pulled the door off. Placing the bucket on the stairs on the inside of the tree, he climbed down, and pulled the door closed.

Kaza glanced up, a pin in her mouth. "Hey there, Redwing." she said, her voice muffled somewhat by the pin. "Hi Kaza." replied Redwing, cheeks still bright red from the slight cold outside,"So what's that you're doing?" Kaza rolled her pale blue eyes, "I'm sewing."

"Well how am I to know? I haven't seen anyone sew since...well, since before my mother...died.." his voice, which had started cheerfully enough, grew softer.

"Oh." said Kaza. "So, you haven't seen anyone sew? Then how did you make your clothes and things."

Redwing grinned ruefully. "Oh, that's not real sewing. I can't actually sew, though I can stich things together. It usually looks horrible though."

Kaza smiled at him. "You can take off some of those clothes. It's not that cold in here, you know. It's not even that cold outside."

Redwing shrugged off his hat and coat, and sat on one of the few chairs in the room that wasn't directly shaped from the tree.

"Oh, by the way," he said, reaching into a bag he had just sat down next to him. "I brought a few more glass things. And some books." Eseth could blow glass, though she usually only made glass lanterns with the products. Her Pyromancy ensured that she wouldn't get burned while handling the hot glass.

Kaza smiled at Redwing. "Thanks. Just put the books over there." she pointed to the bookshelf.

They sat in somewhat awkward silence for a while, shyly avoiding each other's eyes until Eseth came through the roof.
"Hey there!" she said, clambering down the steps.

"Hi!" replied Redwing. Kaza merely waggled her fingers at Eseth, apperantly deep in concentration. "Didn't you catch anything?" he asked, as Eseth had nothing in her hands.

"Oh yeah, I did, actually. Caught a whole deer. Don't know why it happened at this time of year, but I just need a knife or something." when Redwing looked questioningly at her, she said "To cut it up, so I can get it in here. Would you care to help? You know more about skinning and gutting a large animal than I do. And four hands are better than two."

"Of course I'll help!" said Redwing cheerfully.

"Then don't stand there gawking! Come out and help!" replied Eseth, just as cheerfully.

Kaza smirked and said "I'd watch out if I were you."

Redwing turned to her. "Why?"

"It's always a bad sign when she's cheerful."

***
Later, when Eseth and Redwing had finished with the deer and were packing bark-wrapped pieces of it into the storage(Kaza had opened the it on the outside, by their request), Eseth said "Can I ask you a question?"

"Alright." said Redwing dubiously.

"How was marriage handled, where you came from?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, was anyone allowed to marry off their station? Were weddings big events, or small, or did it depend on the type of angel?"

Redwing sat down, and stripped off his blood-stained gloves. He got a bucket of water from the stream, and said "Would you mind heating this up?"

Eseth obliged, and they washed their things in the hot water as Redwing explained.

"You weren't allowed to marry off your station. Having a lover or intending to elope with someone above or below you was illegal. Not that it happened much. Once, I heard that a Swan fell in love with a Hawk, and the Hawk was killed, while the Swan was made to watch. The Swan was said to have grown a heart of stone afterwards."

Eseth shuddered. "That's horrible."

Redwing nodded. "A friend of mine, Cinder Mimdah, fell in love with a Raven. He only ever told me about it, though. He eventually married Loveblood Nerrah, and had a child. That was the last I heard of them before the Rebellion. The marriage, though," he said, a smile touching his face. "The marriage was amazing. Everyone in the district came, I think, and I'd never seen Cinder smile so."

Eseth smiled. "That's nice. Not bad, nothing terrible." then she grinned. "What sort of name is Loveblood, anyway?"

Redwing shrugged, picking up the bucket of washwater and dumping it under a nearby tree, far from the stream. "Marriages are celebrations. I don't know how they were treated by the Ravens or the Swans, but they were huge and happy with us."

"Are there any arranged marriages?" asked Eseth curiously, drying her soaking coat and gloves at a touch, then doing the same with Redwing's.

"Yes, actually. But mostly among the Swans, I think." picking up his newly dry coat and putting on his gloves, he said. "I should probably go. It's getting dark."

Eseth nodded. "See you tomorrow!" and climbed back into the tree. Kaza had finished sewing the furs, and she was now hanging the finished product on a hook. She had made them into cloaks, sewing the inside with some of the hide that Eseth had cured, and, for lack of a clasp or buttons, she tied the openeing shut with a leather strap.

Eseth asked "Which one's mine?"

"Whichever you want. How'd it go?"

"Oh, it was fine. Redwing told me about angel marriages, and we have a lot more meat than we did yesterday."

Kaza rolled her eyes at her friend. "You asked him about marriages on behalf of me, didn't you?"

Eseth nodded gleefully.

"Fine." Kaza sighed. "Tell me."

end

Chapter Seven: We're Curious as to Why

Kaza999 — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:32:34 CDT

Eseth sat up and stretched, and turning to find Kaza's bed empty, as usual. They had been on the island for five weeks, and Kaza had regained her strength. They had settled into a routine, Kaza getting up early to shape their new tree-shelter, as Eseth tidied up their current shelter and got breakfast and water.

Fortunately, she had gotten enough food from yesterday's hunt to last them another day. She had been lucky, and gotten four rabbits in one day. She was a good cook, and had managed to make the rabbits last the whole of yesterday and still have some left over for today.

She fetched water from the now-familiar stream and began heating it over a quickly-created fire.
---
Kaza had taken at least a week to regain her strength, and had taken at least two days after that without doing any magic. After this, however, she had leaped out of bed and she and Eseth had walked down to the stream.

They had found a small grove of young trees that Kaza could influence to make a new shelter. Since the trees were relatively young, as trees go, she could meld all their bark and branches together to make one huge tree without damaging the trees as a whole.

A lot of the magic was experimental, as her teacher had only taught her the most basic of tree shaping, and she had made quite a few mistakes, that, while not costing the trees/tree its life, didn't make it the most attractive home around, but Kaza hoped to fix that when she learned more.

Today, the tree was an enourmous, many-branched but single beech, with twisted branches and warped bark. It was seamless, though hollow, and today Kaza decided she was going to make a doorway in it. Pulling a knife out of her bag, she stabbed a deep hole in the tree, and, when she felt the knife go through to the hollow inside, dragged it down about two inches before pulling it out. Sap dripped from the open gash, and Kaza gritted her teeth. She hated having to do this to the tree.

She placed the knife back in its sheath and put it on the ground. She placed her hands on either side of the gash, forcing it to heal without closing. Then, slowly spreading her hands out on the trunk, she tore the gash open, but no longer damaging the tree. When the gap was about a foot wide, she dragged her hands down, spreading her arms out even farther as she brought the gash to the bottom of the tree trunk. When she was done, she had a somewhat narrow door, about three feet wide at the bottom and about four feet tall.

Kaza surveyed her work without taking her hands off the bark, and then pulled her hands up over her head, stretching the door to about six feet tall. She now had a door that someone even as tall as Eseth could walk through. She finally took her hands off the tree trunk, and sank down to the ground, breathing heavily. Doing a magic like that was easily tiring, as it required much concentration and power to make it exactly the way she wanted it.

She took a drink of water from her water skin, and walked into the interior of the tree. It was beautiful, in its own way. There was only one small chamber, and it closed at the top, forming a watertight ceiling. Unfortunately, the only light in the room shone from the door. Kaza pursed her lips. She could possibly ask Eseth to make some torches(it was actually harder than shoving a stick in the fire, at least if you wanted a long-burning one), but they were smoky and flickery. Their best bet for light would be the glass-ball lanterns that Eseth had brought with her until Kaza could make windows that wouldn't leak when it rained.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to her. She quickly made a single window on the same fashion she had made the door, but this time, she didn't take her hands off the bark when she was done. She closed her eyes and kept her hands on the bark for about ten minutes, until branches started to creep over the open gap.

Kaza opened her eyes and looked out of the window, and straight into several vines which, while letting light in, would keep insects and rain out, hopefully. She looked at the branches, and took a bunch of them, melding the as she had done with the original grove of trees. Now she had one square, thick branch, she moved it so it was right over the window. Then she melded the branch to either side of the window, and, at the same time, fit the window to fit the branches, effectively shutting out all light from the window.

Then she took her knife, cut a straight, slightly jagged hole in the shutter branch(as she thought of it), and then placed her hands on it, making a seam down the middle of it, splitting the shutter into two parts. Then, experimentally, Kaza teased the shutters open and shut and found it took very little energy to do so.

She grinned, white teeth flashing in her pale face. She couldn't wait to tell Eseth.
---
Eseth had eaten her breakfast, and still Kaza hadn't come back. She wasn't worried, as this happened often when Kaza was working on the tree, most often in the first few weeks when she was melding the grove of trees together.

She merely picked up a bowl of rabbit stew for Kaza and walked to the stream. She found that Kaza wasn't outside the tree, but when she had walked around the whole thing, she found about three windows and a door less door-frame.

Eseth was slightly surprised, but went inside the tree anyway. She instantly noticed that the hollow inside was considerably smaller than the outside.

She found Kaza with her hands placed against the wood of the tree, making the wood move back from the hollow and making it bigger, and making the excess wood into chairs and a table shaped right from the wall. Eseth waited until Kaza was done, and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Wh-oh, hi there, Eseth." said Kaza. "What do you think?"

"It's very nice." said Eseth. "But you should make that doorway have a door. Here," she said, thrusting the rabbit stew at her. "I got you breakfast."

Kaza gratefully accepted the food and sank down onto the freshly-made chair. After smoothing out some of the bumps in it, she began to eat, and explain her plan for the house to Eseth.

"Well, I think I'll make a door, but, unfortunately, it can only be opened with Hydromancy, which you might not have available all the time. So, I figured I'd make a door in the roof," she said, and pointed to the ceiling, which had a perfectly circular door in it and stairs seemingly carved out of the very wood. "See, the way it works is I pulled the wood out of the ceiling, made a handle on both sides, and stuck it back in the hole. I made sure you could take it in and out, and made stairs on the outside of the tree as well."

Eseth shook her head. "I can't believe you're not fainted after doing all that magic. Do you know how tree shaping works, exactly?"

Kaza replied "No. Sorry."

"Oh well. Hey, do you want to explore the island? I think we're near the coast, so we might be able to walk around the island."

"Maybe..."

---
Kaza and Eseth had been walking along the beach for a few hours(for Eseth had been right, and they were near the coast) when they saw it.

"My sweet Zana!" cried Eseth. "What is that?"

They were looking at a bridge, secured to the island by means of steady metal pegs, thrust deep into two rocks, deeply embedded in the shore. The bridge was a rickety, old thing, still usable by the looks of it, but leading straight out into the ocean. On the other and was a miniature island less than a mile in any direction, with thick stone walls and a high stone tower rising out of it.

"It's exactly what it looks like, Eseth. A tower on the ocean with a bridge leading to it."

"Yes, but why?"

"Maybe it's a watchtower. Or an abandoned lighthouse."

"But don't you think it would have been mentioned on the map?"

"Maybe they forgot to put it on. Or they didn't want people to know. Either way, maybe we should go look at it."

Eseth cringed. "Are you kidding? That bridge looks like it's about to collapse any minute!"

Kaza smiled. "I can fix that."

About a half-hour later, most of the bridge was secured by sturdy ice that rose right out of the ocean, and Kaza and Eseth were almost all the way across. Kaza had to keep pulling water out of the ocean and freezing it, which tired her greatly. Eseth kept her hands on on her shoulders so Kaza wouldn't fall in if she happened to faint.

Eseth scowled. "You shouldn't be doing this. I think that the tree must have tired you out more than you think."

Kaza shook her head wearily. "No, I'm fine." she panted. Eseth sighed. "Look, we only have to go a few more feet. Stop now, before you wear yourself out like you did with the ice-raft."

Kaza nodded. "All right." she sighed, clearly wanting to keep going. They made the last few feet without the aid of Hydromancy, and entered the walls that surrounded the edge of the island.

"Ooh..."sighed Kaza as she sank in a sitting position on the ground. "I guess you were right. I'm a whole lot more tired than I thought.

"Okay, just sit down for a bit...jeeze, you'd think you'd learn that you can't keep big magic like that up unless you're a serious master." said Eseth, sinking down next to Kaza. They were both silent for a long time until Eseth broke the silence by saying "This island gives me the creeps. It's like...I don't know, mystical or something. As if something weird is going to happen at any minute."

"You're right. It feels kind of wierd here." replied Kaza. "By the way, what in the world does 'jeeze' mean, anyway?"

Eseth flapped a hand at Kaza and didn't reply. They sat quietly for a while, until Kaza stood up, dragging Eseth up with her with some difficulty.

"Ugh, what'd you eat this morning, rocks?" asked Kaza. Eseth scowled at her. "No, I'm just bigger than you are. Anyway, what is it?"

"Want to explore the island now?"

Eseth shrugged. "Sure. By the way, did you bring any sun sweetener? You know how easily you burn."

Sun sweetener was the herbal equivelant of sunscreen. The people who used it most often were usually rather pale, like Kaza. Eseth's dark skin ensured that she didn't need it.

"Yes, actually," Kaza replied, patting a small pouch hung on her belt. "In here. I also have insect repellant, but I don't think I need either."

Eseth shrugged again. "Suit yourself. Just don't ask me for a flame-healing for a sunburn."

Kaza grinned. "I'd never. Anyway, let's get going."

They walked into the wall through a large, open arch near the end of the icy bridge. On the inside were planted enormous trees whose roots and sometimes branches worked through the crumbling stone of the wall. The tower, however, seemed to be in near-perfect condition, at least, from what they could see. It was encompassed in thick vines, some of which were flowering. Eseth turned to Kaza. "Why don't we go inside? Not on the upper levels, but the lower ones should be stable enough."

Kaza nodded eagerly. She would love to see the inside of this place.

To their surprise, the wooden door swung open easily. It made Kaza nervous, though she didn't tell Eseth so. The inside of the tower was one chamber, with a single staircase winding around the wall, and up the next floor. It looked like a small, well-kept sitting room, with an iron coatrack bolted onto the wall next to the door and a somewhat ragged couch on the other side of the room. Kaza trembled slightly. The coatrack had a decent-looking fur coat hanging from one of the hooks, and a bookshelf next to the couch was half-filled with both handmade and printed books.

"Eseth?" she whispered. "I think we just found someone's house." Eseth nodded slowly. "Let's...look upstairs."

Unbeknownest to Kaza and Eseth, someone had hear them come in. He'd known they were inside the house the moment the door had opened. They didn't bother to keep quiet, so he'd heard all their footsteps. He was waiting from them at the top of the stairs, hammer in hand, poised to strike.

He hadn't noticed that they spoke with the harsh accents of those that came from the elven lands. He'd hardly noticed they were female. To him, their soft voices were as colorless and vile as those of the Swan Angels, the leading, vicious caste in Angel society.

So no, he wasn't thinking all that clearly. But, then again, who was he to think clearly about the unknown?

Kaza went first up the stairs. She had no idea what hit her across the back of the head, only registered something like a study before she felt a terrible pain in her head and all turned dark.

"Kaza!" cried Eseth when she saw her friend fall. Hands blazing with fire, she raced up the stairs, almost running into Kaza's assulter.

He jumped back and dropped his hammer. He attempted to speak, and managed only to stutter out "Pyromancer!"

She nodded slowly and said "Who are you?" while kneeling next to Kaza. The fire dimmed in her hands as she placed them across the back of Kaza's neck, performing what was known as a flame healing, unique to Pyromancers and also a basic skill of Pyromancy in general.

"I'm terribly, terribly sorry," the man stammered. "I thought you...I had to make sure you weren't..."

Eseth cut him off. "That's not what I asked." she said. "Who are you?" she said, not taking her eyes off Kaza.

"Redwing Androson, Hawk Angel." he spat out automatically. Eseth stole a glance at him before going back to work on Kaza. He had shoulder-length, dark hair pulled back in tail, and badly stitched together clothes, made of both cured hides and patched cloth. He was tall, but thin, looking almost underfed and much unhealthier than the elves in front of him. Large, red-brown wings extended from his back, and his skin was a light tan.

"Okay then, mister Redwing," said Eseth. "Do you have a bed or something I can put her on? That's a nasty bump to the head you gave her." she said, completely forgetting about the couch downstairs. He nodded, and led her upstairs. Eseth picked up Kaza and followed. Redwing pointed to a bed on the far side of the chamber. Eseth placed Kaza down and turned to Redwing.

"Now," she said. "Could you please explain to me why you hit my friend with a hammer?"

Redwing rubbed his face with his hands. "It's...kind of a long story."

Eseth crossed her arms. "We have all the time in the world." she said. Redwing raised an eyebrow. "Let me get some chairs." he said.

END

Chapter Eight: Redwing's Story

Kaza999 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:11:09 CDT

Redwing sighed. He and Eseth were sitting on two cushions(he couldn't find two chairs that he could drag upstairs, and Eseth hadn't bothered to help him) that were exeedingly large. More like giant pillows than cushions.

Redwing had made tea for himself and Eseth, and was nervously rolling his cup between his palms as Eseth stared at him, sipping at her tea.

He tried to meet her gaze and failed. "Do you know about the Rebellion of Angels?" he asked.

Eseth nodded slowly. "The lower and middle classes revolted against the higher class. No one was really sure what was really going on, or even which class was which. You angels keep to yourselves, don't you?"

Redwing nodded. "Or, at least we do. The Strix Nation. So, you don't know about the caste system?"

Eseth shook her head.

"It's simple, really," said Redwing forlornly. "Hawk angels are the lowest class, Raven angels in the middle, and Swan angels at the top."

"Red, black, and white." murmured Eseth. "You're a red-sorry, Hawk angel?"

"Yes." said Redwing, still not looking at her. He smiled, suddenly. "My parents didn't have much imagination. They were Dawn and Flyhigh, and thought that my sister and I didn't need complicated names."

"So, is it only Hawk angels who use word names? My village had a white angel pass through, and his name was Emerla."

Redwing nodded. "Actually, it's only the Swan angels who use only sound names for their first names. Hawk angels use word names, and Raven angels use a combonation of both. I knew a Raven angel, and her name was Lilith-on-Sky. Her mother and father were Gamith- and Nero-on-Sky."

Eseth nodded. "What does this have to do with the Rebellion of Angels?" she asked, still sipping her tea. Redwing hadn't touched his.

"Well, I'm a Hawk angel. Born and raised to be the lowest. I didn't actually mind. It was the way it had always been, and the Raven angels, at least, tried to be kind to us. The Swan angels, when we met them, were a bit cruel, but didn't pay much attention to us. Yes, we weren't the happiest or most privileged, but we were content."

Eseth said "How unlike the humans. They hate any caste or class system, and will never be content unless they are all, to an extent, equal."

He nodded, and started fooling with the edge of one wing, nervously preening the feathers with his long fingers. "Something happened to change the Swan angels' minds about us. I think it was Rani Maimai, their new leader. Anyway, they turned mean. Rude to the Ravens, and downright horrible to us. They'd usually ignored us, or walk right by if we were cleaning a street..but then it got bad. A friend of mine, Silvermoon, got...mobbed...by a bunch of Swans. It was awful. We tried to just get through it, tell ourselves it was just a phase...but more of us got hurt. Some even got killed, and the Ravens...the Ravens became afraid. They didn't want to be seen with us, for fear of the Swans. That was when we knew it was getting worse."

Redwing shook slightly, and took a sip at his now-lukewarm tea.

"And then...then there was the murders. The Swan Murders. Swans kept showing up dead, in the river or hanging from a tree or with their throats slashed in an alley. So the Swans thought it was us. Rani Maimai had convinced them we were the scum of the world, and now he convinced them that we were evil killers. When the Executions began..." Redwing shuddered. "It was awful. Worse than anything you could ever imagine. My mother got executed when I was fifteen."

Eseth asked "How old are you now?"

"Almost ninteen years. You have to understand, the Rebellion didn't happen for a while. The Swan Murders kept going on and on...as did the executions. Then Rani Maimai got killed, in his own home. That's what set the whole thing off. There was fighting in the streets, the Swans attacking any of us they could find. The Ravens tried to stay out of it, but since they did, both Swans and Hawks turned on them, believing them to be the enemy. My father was killed, and my sister had fled. That's when I left. But, the Swans were after me, you see. Not me personally, just a fugitive Hawk angel that they probably came up with a bunch of accusations for. I flew, and flew, and flew. I wanted to get as far away as I could. Then I found this place. I came here two full winters ago. I haven't left since. I fixed this old place up a bit, and stayed her for the whole winter. It's much more sheltered than it looks."

Eseth nodded slowly. "You thought Kaza and I were Swan angels."

"Yes. Maybe. I had to make sure."

"I can accept that."

"You can?"

Eseth shrugged. "It's probably what I would have done."

A groan interrupted their conversation. Kaza was awake. Eseth went to her side. "Hey there," she said to Kaza. "How do you feel?"

"Like a drunk donkey ran me over. How am I supposed to feel?" asked Kaza testily. Eseth grinned. "About that terrible. It'll wear off in a bit."

"Care to tell me what happened? The last thing I remember is going up the stairs."

"Our new friend here could explain."

Redwing gulped, and stepped forward.

END

Chapter Six: Ocean's Flame

Kaza999 — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:47:09 CDT

Eseth collapsed on her pallet. She glared at Kaza, who had been asleep the moment Eseth had set her on the ground. She stared at the trees overhead, when she suddenly realized she wasn't tired. She felt like she should be, after traveling what must have been hundreds of miles by ice raft and carrying Kaza and all their baggage into the forest, but she wasn't.

She glanced at Kaza, who was out cold, breathing softly as she slept. Eseth stared at the sky again, then sat up. There was no way she was going to be able to get to sleep. Maybe she could later, but it didn't seem to be working right now.

Eseth stood up, and put on her boots. If she wasn't going to spend this time sleeping, she might as well spend it doing something useful. With another glance at Kaza, she left the clearing where they she had decided to spend the night.

Eseth scowled. A clearing was a terrible shelter. They needed to find somewhere else to live, for the moment, anyway. She wandered back down to the beach where they had landed, and looked along it to see if there were any caved or cliff sides that they could stay in. There weren't.

She sighed in frustration, and tromped back into the forest. Eseth walked back to their clearing, and found Kaza sitting against a tree, eating a plum.

Eseth blinked. "I thought you wouldn't be up for days!" Kaza smiled sleepily at Eseth and said "I'm not up. Not really. I was just really hungry."

"You should probably go back to bed soon."

"Yeah, I know. Oh, by the way, you might want this." Kaza tossed a rolled-up scroll of paper at Eseth's head. It landed about three yards short of its destination. Kaza threw her head up and moaned half-heartedly.

Eseth picked up the piece of paper, which was revealed to be the map of Ocean's Flame, and walked across the clearing to help Kaza back to her sleeping bag.

"Dear Everflame, Kaza, you'd think you wouldn't want to get better." Eseth muttered as she half-dragged Kaza across the clearing.

Kaza's only response was to grin tiredly. When she had gotten Kaza back into her bed, Eseth went tramping around the forest again to see what she could see.

She tried to walk as loudly as she could, in an attempt to scare anything that might think she was good to eat off. She knew that most animals wouldn't eat elves, but she didn't know anything about the wildlife here.

She unfurled the map of Ocean's Flame. According to it, she was in the Shadowed Emerald Forest. Eseth wondered if anyone lived on this island. It was small, maybe about twenty miles across at the widest part, and possibly fifty or so miles long. She wondered how she and Kaza were going to live here, and tried to guess who could have possibly made the map with such accuracy without living here.

Maybe there was something about her mother she hadn't known. Eseth snorted. Her mother had probably inherited the map from her father, who had died years ago. Her mother would never come to a place such as this, no matter how amazing it was.

Eseth glanced up at the trees, then back at her map. She'd have to relabel the forest later. Shadowed Emerald Forest was a terrible name. Maybe she'd just name it Eseth's Forest or something. Unfortunately, that constituted a complete lack of imagination.

She sighed and moved on, trudging through the forest, map in hand. She checked the map every so often, making notes of streams and ponds. She noticed that as she walked on, the forest seemed to get narrower and narrower. Eseth supposed it was the structure of the island. The farther east you got, the narrower the island got.

Every so often she stopped for a break, knowing that she couldn't walk forever. Eventually, she saw the sea. It was a silvery strip that shone between the trees, and she stared incredulously at it. She couldn't possibly have walked across the entire island in a few hours!

According to the map, she had. Right now she was at Soul's End, a place that eventually tapered down to a point a few feet across. Eseth walked a little farther, and the trees began to thin somewhat. The forest took up most of the island, and she and Kaza had somehow landed on one of its borders. The rest of the island was taken up with plains and beaches, though there was nothing on the map that suggested inhabitants.

The possibility that no one inhabited this island was unlikely, but it was possible.

Just then, she heard a leaf rustle slightly. She jumped and turned at the sound, just in time see to a miniature, slim, blue figure dart into the wide leaves of a shrub.

Eseth sighed. Fairies. Just what she needed. She scowled at the hidden creatures and moved on. Maybe she and Kaza should start a notebook about this place and all its oddities.

She trudged on, wincing as the fairies giggled shrilly pulled at her hair. Eseth made no attempt to swat them away, as they were ridiculously fast and had sharp teeth.

I'd better get back to Kaza, thought Eseth Just to make sure she doesn't try any more magic, because she'll probably be awake by now.

She hiked quickly back acrooss the island until she got to the clearing where they were staying. When she returned, Kaza was sitting up, sleepily rummaging through her bag. She saw Eseth and asked, "Where you been?" in a drowsy sort of way. "Exploring the island." Eseth replied, "I've concluded that there are annoying fairies here, there are no caves and that we should so rename this forest."

Kaza laughed and said, "I'll get right on it."

Eseth asked "What are looking for?" as Kaza rifled through the bag some more. "Well, I know I've got a boom or something in here somewhere," she said, "I can't just sit around sleeping all day, now can I?"

Just then they heard the unmistakable sound of soft footsteps in the forest behind them. Both started and turned swiftly towards the sound, regardless of fatigue.

The footsteps passed them by, and faded in the distance. Kaza shivered and said, "Well, now we know there's people here."

"Or monkeys..." Eseth mumbled, even though she was pretty sure it was a person of some sort.

Kaza glanced at her. "Monkeys?" she asked. "Why monkeys?"

"I don't know...I just like monkeys."

"You're crazy." said Kaza, though she was grinning.

"Well at least I didn't stay in bed half the day," retorted Eseth.

"By the way, did you find any better shelter than here?" asked Kaza curiously.

"No. Of course, it would have been nice if we'd brought tents."

"Oh, didn't I tell you? Isobel gave me a canvas for a tent. I don't know where she got it. She gave it to me when you were hunting for something, I think. It's in my bag."

"Well, get it out. Anything is better than sleeping in the open like this."

Kaza frowned. "You get it out," she said, tossing the bag to Eseth, but having it fall pitifully short. "I'm bedridden."

Eseth rolled her eyes but consented and opened the bag to find a tan colored canvas folded neatly inside.
"Well, here it is,"said Eseth, "But how do we set it up? I mean, we don't have tent-pegs or anything."

Kaza frowned for a moment then said "You could find a place you could drape it over. I don't know what'd keep us from getting wet, though."

"Good enough." replied Eseth, who was now walking round trying to find a place to drape it over so at the very least they'd have a moderate shelter.

"Maybe, in a few days, I could make a better shelter...sometimes you can manipulate trees with water magic." said Kaza.

"Don't worry about it now, you need your rest." said Eseth gruffly. "If I have to take care of you for another week, I will be very upset."

Kaza smiled at her friend and dozed off again. It took Eseth at least an hour to get the canvas adjusted so it could actually be considered a tent.

Eseth shook Kaza gently awake, and said "I'm gonna move you under the tree." in response to Kaza'a sleepy question.

She picked up Kaza's light, somewhat fragile body, and moved her under the canvas. Eseth took all of their supplies and moved it under the canvas, taking extra blankets and making a makeshift floor with them.

Eseth fiddled with their shelter for a while more, but when the light began to dim as the sun set, she decided to stop. She lay down next to the still-asleep Kaza, and attempted to sleep herself.

She was asleep almost as soon as she lay down.

END

Chapter Five: Out of the Forest

Kaza999 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:33:36 CDT

"So...I guess we're going to get there after all." said Eseth, who looked up at the clear blue sky, then back at the forest edge.

"I do have a question though. Why is it that the directions to this place are all in Lisili, but the rest is in Elven?"

"I have no idea. I do know that we're about one-third there, though." replied Kaza. "We're almost to Tzuna. I think the coast is about two days' walk away."

Kaza had shed her blue cloak, and wore a practical outfit she associated with practicing Hydromancy. She had lent Eseth some of her own clothes, Eseth's being tattered and mud-saturated.

"Good." said Eseth. "I'd like to get some new clothes. By the way, what happened to the ones in my bag? I can't really remember."

"Your bag leaked and they got all muddy. I'm still cleaning them, and your sleeping pallet. You should be doing it, not me."

"And you need to do something about your hair. Cut it short, or something. It's really kinda weird."

Kaza flapped a dismissive hand at Eseth and said "Well, at least we're out of that stupid forest."

"Yeah, I'm sure glad of that. Stupid forest."

Suddenly, there was the unmistakable sound of stumbling feet in the scrawny bushes behind them. Sseth whipped around and wielded her bag like a weapon. Kaza had taken out a piece of cord with a rock attatched to it. Eseth raised an eyebrow.

"Uh...Kaza? If it was a slingshot you were going for, it's not quite there yet."

Kaza scowled at her friend. "This happens to hurt quite a lot when you bash it against someone's head."

Eseth opened her mouth to reply, but was prevented from doing so by the girl who came tumbling out of the bushes.

The girl(who was revealed to be a human) stood up, brushed her dark green Temple habit off, pushed her short, curly red hair back and said "Hi there!" in a slightly high-pitched, cheerful voice. "Are you the guys the Temple told me to find?"

Kaza blinked and said "I don't know. Why are you here, anyway? Tzuna, and even the temple city near it are two days walk away. Who are you, anyway?"

The girl, who looked to be a bit younger than themselves, grinned and said. "I'm Novice Isobel. I'm the person they send to find travelers, because they might be the people we're looking for."

"What, you mean potential Dedicates?" said Eseth, confused.

Isobel shook her head. "No. It's for something else, but I'm not sure what. It has to do with a map of some kind."

Kaza and Eseth glanced at each other.

"Well, hi, I guess." said Kaza. "By the way, this is Eseth and I'm Kaza. Will you be-uh-taking us to the Temple city, or to Tzuna?"

Isobel smiled widely. "The Temple city. Nhurza. Oh, and by the way, if you have any magic, the Council wants to see it."

Eseth and Kaza exchanged another glance.

"How'd they find us?" Eseth asked.

"They scryed for the travelers, and they found you two. They sent me because I'm the only person who knew these woods well enough to find you before you got to the Tzuna."

"Why don't they want us to go to Tzuna?" asked Kaza, her foreboding growing.

"Because it's such a big city, and they wouldn't be able to find you there."

"Ah."

***
"Hey, look, there it is!" cried Isobel, pointing to a smooth gray wall in the distance. It appeared to be the border to Nhurza.

Eseth looked up, she saw the thick wall in the distance, and sighed loudly. Kaza glared at her.

"Please, please don't tell me the rest of the city is going to be that boring." Eseth groaned.

She was used to color and noise, and in her opinion, life without it was pointless. Eseth was the sort of person who got bored extremely easily.

Isobel giggled in that extremely annoying fashion and said "No, silly, it's not nearly as boring on the inside. Nhurza's cooler than Tzuna, but a lot of people don't think so. It's all lovely gardens and fields, and there are dormitories and loomhouses and smithies everywhere, and it's so pretty..." she continued to chatter, but neither elf was really listening.

Eseth moaned. Kaza sighed with relief. She had always hated large cities. She had a severe case of claustrophobia, and she'd never liked cities because of it.

Eseth scowled. She was going to be bored in seconds in that place. The only things that sounded remotely interesting were the fire-shaper's house and the smithies. She wondered about the map, and what these Temple folk wanted with them. She and Kaza hadn't gotten the chance to look through her mother's jewelry box yet, either, and she wanted to see if there was anything worth her interest in it.

The trio reached the border of Nhurza, and reached the gate. Isobel spoke to the tall, lanky guard, who then called up to someone on the other side of the wall and the gate opened to admit them.

The site was breath-taking. There were beautiful meadows filled with flowers, there where fields where green and orange robed Dedicates worked, there were even a few ponds. Kaza smiled happily with a far-off look and walked along with a spring in her step.
Eseth was less appreciative of the marvelous scenery and asked bluntly of Isobel, "Where are the smithies?"

Isobel, still smiling, despite Eseth's poor manners, pointed to the northern wall, where there were a few rows of buildings.

"The smithies and Fire Dedicates dormitories are over there. Where I live is over there," she pointed to the eastern wall, right across from them. "And where you'll be heading is there." she pointed again at a high tower next to one of the larger ponds. It somehow stuck out in the landcape without marring it.

"So, is that where the council will want to meet us?" asked Kaza, suddenly brought back to earth by the prospect of meeting a council full of humans. Humans made her nervous, even ones that were Temple Dedicates.

Isobel smiled again and cheerfully stated "Yes. That's where we're headed."

Isobel skipped happily in front of them, leading them to the tower. The door was marked with a strange, spiraling square which shimmered silver in the afternoon light. Isobel pushed the door open and led Kaza and Eseth inside. They emerged in a perfectly circular room with five doors, each painted with its own symbol. A stone spiral staircase was planted in the middle of the room. Isobel pointed to it.

"You have to go up there."

"Aren't you coming with us?" asked Eseth.

Isobel shook her head. "I'm only a Novice. I'm not allowed unless they invite me."

Not for the first time, Kaza and Eseth glanced nervously at each other.

"This is great.." Eseth said "Want to bet what we should do from here?" She looked up the staircase. It looked ridiculously high. Both Eseth and Kaza hated heights. They really had to wonder why the council was up so high.

With a sigh, Eseth began to ascend. Kaza followed close behind.

Whe they reached the top, they found an airy, light-filled room. Four people sat at a table placed close to the wall in front of them.

Eseth gazed around the room, noting that the huge picture window across from the table was perfect for watching the sunrise.

A man clad in dark blue robes stood up. "You are the travelers we sent Isobel to find?"

Kaza, who had emerged from the staircase, nodded. The man smiled. "We muct ask you something. We believe you have something of interest to us."

A woman in pale green added, "If it is what we think it is, you will have some interest in it, too."

Another man, this one in a bright red habit, glanced at the woman and said, "What we are looking for is a map. A map of a place called-we believe-Ocean's Flame?"

Kaza and Eseth looked at each other. "Um, yeah, we do have it, actually." said Eseth. The last person who had not spoken, an old woman in a yellow habit of varying shades, raised an eyebrow. "We would like to see it, if you please." she said.

Eseth glared suspiciously at the council. "What for, exactly? I'm sure you don't need an island, this temple here being very nice and all."

The council seemed to gasp collectively. Kaza narrowed her eyes. "Yes, why exactly do you need it?"

The woman in green stood up. "I don't think you understand. We want to go there. It is probably one of the only safe places left for-certain people."

Eseth stiffened. That didn't sound right. "Somehow I doubt that."

Kaza smiled pleasantly and said "I think we can find our own way there, thanks. Come on, Eseth. Lest's go."

Eseth waved mockingly to the council, and followed Kaza down the stairs.

Surprisingly, they got out of the temple city without being bothered or stopped. However, once they were beyond the great walls, Kaza had a troubled expression on her face. "Suppose we were wrong, and they were right?" she asked Eseth.

"I don't think so. Anyway, the world's a big place. There can't be only one safe place for someone."

"I guess you're right. Hey, do you think if we went around the temple, we could reach the coast? I think I know how to get to the island from there."

Sure enough, at the eastern end of the temple, they could see the coast. Actually, the temple was built right on it. It was built on a large cliff, where a waterfall fell to the sea. Kaza grinned.

"I know exactly how to get out there, Eseth. Hang on tight, and don't lose the map!"

Eseth grabbed her arm just as Kaza jumped over the edge of the waterfall.

"Kaza!" Eseth shrieked, her voice lost in the roar of the waterfall. "What are you doing?"

Her only response was laughter as they fell. Suddenly, their descent became controlled as Kaza slid down an enourmous sheet of ice that had suddenly appeared under their feet. They didn't even slow down as they reached the sea, Kaza now moving the ice with her power.

They didn't slow down for an hour. Eseth couldn't even see the coast when they stopped. Kaza collapsed onto the ice raft(which had shrunk considerably on their ride), laughing.

Eseth fell down next to her and attemped to dig her hands into the ice. "Don't ever do that to me again! We could have been killed!"

Kaza waved a hand at her. "Sorry, but it was fast, you have to admit. Is there anything to eat?" Eseth handed her a piece of dried meat and a peach, which Kaza devoured hungrily.

Eseth glared at her. "Where to now?" she asked.

Kaza pointed. There was a misty, distant shadow on th edge of the horizon. "I think that's it, over there. I think we're far enough out that no one comes here. I also think that I could get us there in a couple more hours or so, going really fast, anyway."

Eseth rolled her eyes. "You're going to wear yourself out, doing all that magic."

Kaza, who had stood up to get a better view of the island, laughed again. "Of course I am. But we're going to get there faster."

"You're an idiot."

"Why thank you." Kaza replied, and shoved the ice forward. Eseth moaned as the ice raft gained speed.

***

"You know what?" Kaza panted as they reached the edge of the island, "I think we're there." she then promptly fell on the beach.

Eseth rolled her eyes and picked Kaza up. "Come on, we have to keep going. I am never going near the ocean again."

Kaza giggled weakly. "Okay." she said.

Eseth stared at the forest in front of her. It was a gorgeous, almost unnatural sight. There was the beach here, and then there was an evergreen forest at the height of summer. She shrugged to herself. They could explore later. Right now she had to find shelter.

"Pretty, isn't it?" said Kaza quietly.

Eseth nodded. "I guess we're here after all."

END