EVABELLE

Evabelle didn't know when the chaotic sensation ended, but the next thing that she was able to register was a still silence. Opening her tightly shut eyes, she found herself wrapped in the strong arms of an unconscious angel. Evabelle gasped, staring down at Lucis, his face turned away with his eyes closed. "Lucis! Lucis, are you okay?" She moved a little, causing one of his arms to slip off her and down to his side. Evabelle gave him another urgent shake. "Lucis, please be okay!"

Those beautiful eyes scrunched for a moment before finally opening. He turned his head to look at Evabelle and give her a little smile. "Yes, don't worry, I'm..." He trailed off and those blue spheres widened as a faint flush lit his cheeks.

Evabelle suddenly became very aware of her position on top of the Anahalian. She made a very unflattering squeak and rolled off of him. "I'm so sorry!" She muttered. "I-I-"

"You're fine." Lucis shushed her as he pushed himself into a sitting position. "You have no need to be sorry...I was just..." He petered out again, as he ran his fingers through his windswept hair.

Evabelle did her best to look anywhere but at Lucis. She turned her head this way and that, taking in their new surroundings. They appeared to have landed on a sandy beach on a lone island. Water lapped up on the shore about ten feet to their left, and to their right resided a beautiful forest, that was a little hard to make out in the dark night.

"I guess we hit one of the barriers, I just hope we made it to the right Isle." Lucis spoke her thoughts from behind her.

Evabelle took a deep breath and turned back. Even through the dim, she could make out the sand in his hair and embedded in his arms. "Are you sure you're alright, Lucis? That doesn't look very good."

He easily shrugged it off and began brushing the sand away. "It wasn't a perfect landing, you could say." He said with his little smile.

Evabelle returned it. "Yeah, when I said it was a good place to fall, that wasn't quite what I meant."

Lucis laughed. "Well, you can't deny that it wasn't an interesting experience." He leaned back on his hands and Evabelle caught the faintest flash of pain flare behind his eyes before it vanished again, as he moved his arms to wrap around his knees instead.

"So you did get hurt!" She gasped, crawling back over to him.

Lucis blinked at her. "No, I'm fine."

"Stop that!" Evabelle scolded as she rose to her knees to look down at him. "Stop pretending like your fine to stop everyone else from worrying! If you don't tell anyone what you're feeling then no one can help you!" She shook her head, clenching her fists. "Del was right, you can't forget about yourself! You need to know that you matter too!"

Lucis's mouth had dropped staring at the suddenly angry girl. "Where is this coming from all of a sudden?" He murmured.

Evabelle hadn't realized how riled she had become. Taking several deep breaths, she tried to calm herself down. "Where are you hurt? Please let me help."

Lucis opened his mouth to no doubt tell her he was fine again, but looking into those shimmering gold eyes, he thought better of it. "It's just my shoulder. When we fell, I landed on it and skidded a little. Seriously, it's not a big deal. It's just a little bruised."

Evabelle nodded. She knew it was more than he was letting on, but at least he had admitted to it. "Well, could I still heal you? It would give me good practice too."

The Anahalian smiled and almost consented, but then stopped. "Kai said that the walls would knock out our power, so I don't think you could. He said we'd have at least a day before it came back."

Evabelle's spirits sank. "Oh, yeah," Then she remembered. "Del and Kai!" Swiveling her head back and forth, she squinted into the darkness, but she didn't see anyone else lying on the beach. "Do you think they're alright?" She looked back at Lucis.

Lucis did his own little glance around. "I would think so." He replied. "Traditional elves don't take lives. The barrier was to disarm us, not to kill or seriously injure."

"Then where do you think they are?"

Lucis shrugged, and Evabelle saw the same brief flicker of pain for only a fragment of a second. "I would guess that they'd be somewhere on the same isle. That magic was pretty wild, so they could be a ways off, though." Lucis glanced around again.

A faint breeze passed over the two of them. Although it was light and unaggressive, Evabelle braced herself as though it were about to whip her about again. It didn't of course, but it made her shiver. An idea occurred to the girl at that. "Maybe we should start a fire."

"Hmm?" Lucis asked.

"Kai isn't here to lead us anywhere at the moment. We'd just be wandering around in the dark, literally. So, perhaps for now, we could settle in for the night, until morning and we could actually do something." Evabelle explained.

Lucis opened his mouth, but then closed it. "Actually that sounds good." He began to rise. "We need to collect some firewood."

"Please let me!" Evabelle exclaimed, putting her hands up. "You should rest. I can't heal you and I know you're exhausted, so at least let me do this." She pleaded.

Taking a deep breath, the Anahalian sunk back down. "Alright, just be careful."

Evabelle nodded hurriedly and ran up the small hill to the trees. She was careful not to go too deep, and just skirted around the edge of the foliage, collecting some dry wood she thought would work well. She kept an eye out for the other two and called their names a few times, hoping that they would at least have each other. Once her arms were filled to capacity and her nail beds itched with the splinters, she finally headed back to the boy she had left to rest, only to find that he hadn't, of course. Two large logs had been pulled over to a ring of large stones, marking their fire pit.

"Lucis!" Evabelle dropped the wood by the rocks and put her hands on her hips, glaring at the Anahalian sitting peacefully on one of his log benches. "I told you to rest. Why didn't you listen?"

The blonde man grinned a little sheepishly. "Well, we needed somewhere to sit and I figured that we needed to keep our fire enclosed if we could."

Evabelle sighed and began to create a teepee from her branches. "You can't go two minutes without helping someone, can you?"

"Is that a bad thing?" He asked as he knelt beside with a handful of tinder.

Evabelle scrunched her nose at him. "I don't know anymore. I didn't think so until I've seen you do it when you know that you're the one that needs the help."

"Helping people, helps me." Lucis smiled.

"Well, then you're smothering me. Don't I have to learn and work things out for myself sometimes?" Evabelle said exasperatedly.

Lucis leaned back, with his hands up. "Alright you can make the fire, then."

Evabelle froze, suddenly very aware that she had no idea how to do that. Most of her memories resided in the big city. Her mother had never been a fan of camping, so Evabelle had never been, and therefore had not learned more than a few basic tips from Aza, who had had a little experience. "Umm..." She licked her lips. In the movies they rubbed sticks together and that usually did the trick. Hesitantly, she reached out to take two of them, when her angel gave and annoying chuckle before he was back at her side with the now lit tinder in his hand, which he placed in the middle of the teepee and blew softly to feed the small flame.

Evabelle fell back against one of the logs with a grunt. "You know there's such a thing as being too perfect." She muttered.

Lucis glanced up at her, a grin spreading up his face. "Did you mean to say that out loud, princess?"

Evabelle crossed her arms, her cheeks growing warm. "And your hearing it too perfect too. Normal guys wouldn't have heard that."

"As flattered as I am," Lucis reached behind him and showed her a sandy backpack. "I didn't do anything special to start the fire." Reaching into the bag, he produced a box of matches. "Calandra packed us some survival supplies."

Evabelle's mouth dropped. She had known that. Calandra had told her that, and here she was trying to start a fire by rubbing sticks together. Evabelle buried her face in her knees. "I think I'd like to go and drown now."

"Hey, you didn't know about the backpack. It flew off of you when we were falling. I found it when I was getting the logs."

Evabelle lifted her head and looked at Lucis over the small fire that continued to climb. "Yeah, I guess that's true, but that still doesn't mean you're not smothering me."

Lucis, still smiling gave a sigh, then leaned back on the other log, tilting his head up to look at the stars. "Old habits," he murmured to the sky. "I just have to do what I can. I have to do what's right."

"It's one of the things I admire about you." Evabelle said, still watching the Anahalian. "I really need to basically be you. You'd make a good prince to the Anahalians."

Lucis chuckled and tilted his head to the side to look at her with those limitless eyes that started to make her heart race. "Me, a prince?"

"Why not?" Evabelle shrugged. "You are Mr. Perfect, in other words, the perfect prince."

Lucis really laughed that time, making Evabelle's heart swell. "My goodness, how adulating you're being." A long yawn stopped him from going on.

Evabelle straightened. "I'm so sorry, you've still got to be dead tired after the jetting and the magic wipe out. I can keep watch, while you sleep for a bit if you'd like."

Lucis sat up again, glancing behind him into the dark forest. "No, that's fine."

Evabelle crossed her arms. "Can't you let other people take care of you?"

Lucis's smile fell for a second, and a painful jab stabbed Evabelle's heart as she realized it. After Averno had revealed his true colors by killing the King, almost everyone had turned on the twins. The little boys were mistreated and hated. "I hate being hated!" No one had really taken care of them for years. Lucis and Del had only had each other. Evabelle swallowed. "I—"

"Of course." Lucis broke through, his smile back on his face. "Kayne, Calandra, Velrose, Shaundee. So many people have helped me. Honestly, Evabelle, if I was so against the notion, I'd sleep outside and hunt for my food. Do you really see me doing that?" He chuckled.

Evabelle let out a breath, giving a small half-hearted smile.

"It's just that it's probably not the best time to sleep. We'll have time later. And speaking of food, I'm starving." Lucis grabbed the backpack again and pulled out a package of hot dogs and some extendable roasting sticks. "Calandra really did think of everything, didn't she?" He grinned.

"She didn't happen to pack a nice Caesar salad by chance, did she?" Evabelle asked.

"Not a fan of hot dogs?" Lucis raised an eyebrow.

Evabelle shrugged and stretched her legs out, letting the fire warm her feet. "Not particularly."

"I've only had one once." Lucis confessed. "When Del and I were searching for you, we stopped at a vendor and tried out the famous New York dogs. Personally, I thought they didn't disappoint."

"So they don't have hot dogs in Jovis?" Evabelle asked, crossing her arms.

Lucis shook his head and pulled out a bag of marshmallows. His eyes widened and his grin spread. "I've heard of these!" He exclaimed excitedly, making Evabelle actually laugh. In a split second the strong, mature Anahalian reverted to the child who was so thrilled to be in the king's palace that he could barely contain his delight. "You cook these over a fire don't you? I've heard they go all puffy and then end up melting in your mouth!"

Evabelle laughed harder. "Yep that sounds about right. If Calandra packed any graham crackers and chocolate then we could make some s'mores. They're really good, but I've only done it microwave style or just over Aza's stove." She reached over and took the bag, popping it open as Lucis extended the roasting sticks and checked for crackers and chocolate.

"Hah! She did!" Lucis held up the food in triumph.

Evabelle passed a few marshmallows to him, still grinning like an idiot. Strong, wise Lucis was great, but this always felt right, when he wasn't so stiff.

Lucis stuck a raw one in his mouth. "They're okay, but they're not what I was thinking at all." He mumbled.

"They taste better after they've been roasted." Evabelle stuck two marshmallows on her stick and held it a safe distance from the flames, but close enough for them to start cooking.

Lucis followed her example, except he also had a hot dog on one side. "I'm sorry you don't like hot dogs. I didn't see anything else besides the water bottles. Hope you're alright just having desert until we get to King Lir."

Evabelle shrugged. "I'm alright." She wanted to ask exactly how they were going to get to the elven king without their guide, but there was still something else on her mind. "So if they don't have hot dogs or marshmallows in Jovis, what do they have? I haven't really got to ask, but how does Jovis really work? How do you know so much about humans without being around them?"

Lucis was quiet for a moment, slowly rotating his roaster, his marshmallow, already cooking far too perfectly for someone who had never cooked one before. He gave a thoughtful glance at Evabelle. "About how much do you know or remember of Jovis?"

One of Evabelle's marshmallows was going a little too dark, while the other looked completely raw. She flipped her stick over. "Well," she said slowly. "I know that is was created to separate the Anahalians from the darkness of the Earth. It's a pocket dimension, not another planet. It's relatively small because the Anahalian population is far smaller than humans. I also know that is doesn't have a sun. How exactly does climate and day and night work?"

Lucis nodded at each of Evabelle's snippets of knowledge. "Yes, it's a small dimensional rift, created by Anahalians that lived thousands of years ago, which means it runs off of our power. Everyone must donate their time and munera to keep it running. It's like a civic duty. Everyone has a turns to go to the central core of Jovis with others to keep it going for a day, then it's another group's turn. It can be pretty exhausting, but you only have to do it once a year, once you turn sixteen." Both the marshmallow and hot dog were looking spectacular on Lucis's roaster. He continued to spin them a little longer. "As for the food situation, Jovis is more natural in that area. We don't need factories or require all the processed food, because as you stated, the population is far smaller than Earth's. However, even with the fewer amount of people, we do have all races and ethnicities just as the humans, although our culture can follow the humans, we have a few of our own traditions that link all of us. We learn all the human languages in school, and our information for things like that come from..."

Distracted by Lucis's explanation, Evabelle caught herself, too late, as her stick dipped right into the flames. Pulling them back quickly, she blew out the fiery marshmallows. "Oh, perfect." She grumbled at the dark sticky treats.

"Oh, here you can have mine." Lucis quickly offered his golden-brown puff ball of perfection.

Evabelle wrapped herself around her roaster, nearly burning herself on the heated half. "No! My marshmallows."

Lucis laughed. "Honestly, it's fine. I've never had s'mores before, so I won't know the difference."

Evabelle shook her head, as she reached for the graham crackers. "I made them, I will eat them. You're not going to take away every screw up. I'm just going to have to take me lumps." She gave him a hard stare. "Don't argue with me on this, Mr. Perfect."

Lucis rocked back and laughed harder. When he rolled forward again he gave a little bow from his sitting position. "Of course, you're Majesty. I would never dream of it."

Evabelle scrunched her nose, giving him a good nudge with her foot. "Shut up and eat you're s'more. I want to see what you think."

Still chuckling, Lucis did as he was told, grabbing the cracker and a square of Hershey, just as Evabelle had done. He set his hot dog and bun in his lap, then slowly sank his teeth into the desert snack. His eyelids, drifted shut as his chewing slowed. His entire body seemed to melt back against the log, as a moan escaped his lips.

Evabelle grinned.

"Heaven," Lucis mumbled. "This must be what it tastes like."

"I told you they taste better when they're cooked." Evabelle said before taking a bite of her own. Granted hers didn't look as good as Lucis's, but it was pretty hard to go wrong with s'mores.

"Now, we may not be on Earth, and many do think that we've abandoned everyone, but we do still keep an eye on everything." Lucis started up again, as he began to eat his hotdog. "There are what we call Earth houses. To best describe it, would maybe be to compare it to Calandra's communication room. You step inside and all the walls, the floor, and ceiling are all images of people from earth, living their lives. We go there to study and learn, adapt to it in case we ever go back. That's how we follow language and culture changes. We also use it to continue our calling. We watch over humans and do what we can from our position. In that case, though, Anahalians visit it every day to do what we can. And once again, this all starts at age sixteen."

Lucis's words started to fade in Evabelle's ears, just an abrupt spike of pain behind her eyes hit. Suddenly, she stood in a room just as Lucis had described. The room made Evabelle think of tons of televisions on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Each one of them had a different setting. One of them was farmland where, Evabelle could see a family working hard, herding a large group of cows. Another one showed a suburban neighborhood, where several kids raced on their bikes. Then there was one where a group of tribal women chanted in a beautiful green landscape. New York's skyline was also one of the images. There were no people in it at the moment, just the picturesque view of the skyscrapers against the magenta sky of dusk. A tall, thin woman with peppery wings of white, black, and gold, the colors meshing together in a way that Evabelle had never seen on a Anahalian, stood with her back to Evabelle, staring at that particular one.

A hand rested on Evabelle's shoulder. And a very small Evabelle looked up to see Zion. "Do you remember this place, Eva?"

The younger Evabelle nodded. "Yeah, it's our Earth room. We watch over humans from here." She replied quickly.

Zion smiled, but there seemed to be something off about it. "That's right. This place is very important. You haven't been in here a lot yet, though, have you?"

Evabelle shook her head. "No, but usually it's only for old people anyway."

She expected Zion to laugh at the comment, but he didn't. "Normally, when you turn sixteen, this place becomes a large part of your life." The grip on Evabelle's shoulder tightened. "But it's going to be a little differ—" He stopped and little Evabelle thought her dad's normally tan face looked rather pale. Young Evabelle opened her mouth to ask if her dad was alright, but Zion spoke again. "Do you think that you would ever want to go to Earth, Eva?"

The little girl was so startled by the question. "Daddy, what do...?"

The memory began to fall away, the voices faded, and the image darkened, but not all the way. Zion's disappearing face began to change to a flickering dancing orange light. The fire between Evabelle and Lucis popped, sending a swirl of sparks into the air, snapping Evabelle out of her trance.

"Evabelle?"

Evabelle looked over to the Anahalian, who had started to crawl towards her. "Yes, I was just remembering something." She said quietly.

Lucis stiffened. "It wasn't good, was it?"

Evabelle looked down at her hands. They were shaking just a little bit. Her eyes stung, and for a moment her hands went blurry. "Did you know that my dad knew he was going to die?" She whispered. As a child, Evabelle did not understand her father's actions or words that day, but now she did.

"Yes." Lucis replied solemnly.

Evabelle's head snapped up to gape at him. "What?" She gasped.

Lucis sat back against his log again and stared into the fire. "The prophecy that Del gave about you saving the Anahalians and stopping Averno was only witnessed by one person. King Zion was trying to help train Del in his gift and happened to be the one that was there. Del was young and his power unstable. All he remembered was that he passed out and awoke with Zion trying to help him. He hadn't realized he had proclaimed a prophecy. Zion did, but we didn't find out until after his death. He told Kayne, and the two of them arranged everything with sending you to Earth. Zion gave some of his power to Kayne to seal your power, and keep a magic shield over you, so we couldn't even see you in an Earth house. Looking you up in any sort of human archives would also be impossible, which was why finding you was such a challenge. He knew that you had to live, but he knew Averno wouldn't stop looking. So he did everything he could to make sure that you stayed hidden for as long as possible. The sixteenth birthday is a very significant one. You take on the responsibility of an adult, like watching over humans. Your power couldn't be contained beyond that point, and you know the rest there." Lucis took a deep breath. "It was just before you were sent away, Kayne read a letter to you from Zion. It was the prophecy."

Evabelle struggled for a moment. She knew the gist of the prophecy, but she had never heard it word for word. Opening and closing her mouth several times, she finally decided to ask about it later. She didn't know how much more she could take in that moment. She definitely didn't want to hear anything about 'neither could live while the other survives' crap. Instead she grabbed another marshmallow from the bag and impaled it with one of her prongs. Evabelle held out a second one to Lucis. "Do you want another one?"

Lucis watched her for a second. "Is that even a question?" He gave her a small smile, accepting her offer and understanding her wishes.

After various amounts of s'mores for the two teenagers and a pleasant topic change, Evabelle was feeling quite a bit better, a little sick from the chocolate, but happier none the less. It was amazing how a conversation could be so light and plummet into darkness, but then rise again, all in a matter of minutes. But with Lucis anything was really possible, however his next words made her choke on her swig of water from one of the bottles. "You knew?" She exclaimed through watering eyes.

"That you had a thing for my brother? Yes." Lucis stabbed at the new logs on their ever growing fire. "You're pretty obvious." He gave her a quick glance along with a small side grin.

Evabelle struggled to speak again. "Am I really?" She hung her head. "Oh, gosh." She looked up once more. "Did he know?" She whispered.

Lucis rested his roaster against the log beside him and leaned back. He gave her a long look. "Do you really want me to tell you?"

Evabelle groaned and flopped forward again. "This is a disaster." Then she popped back up. "But it's not like that now. I like Del, but not in that way. I don't see him as anything more than a friend and don't have any romantic interest. He's just..." She faded off, realizing she was rambling.

Lucis just laughed. "Well that's good to hear, I think by Del's behavior as of late, he might be interested in a tall, pale, thin, vampire friend of ours. He was just desperate to be alone with him. Did you see how quickly he rushed to him this evening? Can you just imagine what they're doing right now, all alone together in the dark woods?"

Evabelle laughed so hard that she actually snorted. She gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth, but Lucis just kept laughing. Evabelle grinned embarrassedly. Lucis's real laugh was beautiful. It made Evabelle so happy to hear. She never heard it enough.

Evabelle was curious if Lucis was aware of the kiss that had been shared between his brother and her best friend. He had to be aware of the tension between the two of them. Evabelle had to say that now that she didn't view Del in that way anymore, those two were certainly the obvious ones. But perhaps from an outward perspective people caring for someone else, was something that couldn't really be hidden. If Evabelle was so obvious, she wondered, if Lucis was aware of who her new affections were starting to grow for.

The princess glanced up through her lashes at the angel, whose laugh was suddenly cut off short. Lucis grunted and broke into a harsh coughing fit, as if his he had swallowed one of those crackers whole. His head snapped onto Evabelle only for her to see that those sapphire eyes had gone black, and they were filled with a terrifying anger. She gasped and tensed, but just as quickly as it had happened, it ended. Lucis clenched his fists and closed his eyes. He took several deep breaths, turning away from Evabelle.

"L-Lucis?" Evabelle asked tentatively.

The Anahalian cleared his throat, and turned back to her, a kind smile back on his face. "Sorry. I must have gotten something in my throat."

Evabelle stared at him, feeling a pain in her chest. It was back to that bitter fake smile that Lucis used most of the time. Why? Evabelle's mind screamed. Why is he doing this? "You don't trust me." She said plainly.

Lucis's eyes widened. "What?"

Evabelle sat up straight and tried giving him a hard look. "I want the truth. I'm not talking about Del being the Oracle. I'm not talking about your father being Averno. I'm talking about you. You are hiding something, and you refuse to tell me. You don't trust me."

The sound of the fire crackling between them, the ocean waves rolling up onto the shore, and the wind rustling the leaves in the trees were the noises that filled the gap. Lucis stared straight faced at Evabelle, who didn't plan on budging this time. "Lucis, I trust you with my life, I trust you with everything. It's only been a little more than a month and a half for me since we met." Evabelle broke through. "But you've had years. I know that we knew each other before, yet still you don't trust me. If I'm supposed to be your queen someday, I need my people to trust me. How am I supposed to do that when you don't even trust me?"

Lucis swallowed hard. "It's noth—"

"No! It's not nothing!" Evabelle cut him off in a shout. "I don't want to hear that excuse! I'm done with that!"

Lucis gritted his teeth, watching Evabelle for a few more moments before finally letting out a sigh. He hid his face in his hands. "You deserve to know. Of course, you do, It's just that I'm...I'm...afraid." He whispered the last word that struck a chord in Evabelle.

Lucis was so strong, and impenetrable. Evabelle was suddenly reminded of their discussion about him feeling invincible. But this, seeing him curled forward, head in his hands, and the way he just said the word, oozed out vulnerability.

Evabelle shook herself and set her jaw. "Well, I'm not. I'm not afraid because I know whatever this is, my feelings toward you can't be changed."

Lucis's head whipped up. It may have been a trick of the low-light, but Evabelle could have sworn she saw his blue eyes glisten, as though there were tears in there. However when she blinked, they were merely staring at her in shock. The Anahalian blinked a few times himself, then turned his head back to the fire a dark expression marking his face. "You don't know that. You can think that you know someone, but once you find out one little thing, it can change everything."

Evabelle knew what he was talking about. It was the people of Jovis again, and their discover of the fallen Anahalian and how they had all turned on his sons. "I'm not them." Evabelle said.

Lucis let his head fall back to stare up at the stars. "The truth is complicated, but I have to tell you. You do need to know." Taking a deep breath, Lucis pushed himself onward. "Evabelle, the truth is...that...that I—"

Evabelle leaned forward, not realizing she had held her breath, but then a slight movement from the trees somehow managed to divert her eye. A glimmer from the fire light flickered off something metallic as whatever was there adjusted its aim. "Lucis, look out!" Evabelle screamed as she leapt up.

The Anahalian jumped to his feet, doing a one-eighty, sending a spray of sand over their small fire. His wings spread wide, nearly blocking the creatures from Evabelle's view.

Three lightly armored elves stepped out of the woods, each of them holding a strange weapon. The design was that of a small crossbow, and their ammunition appeared to be similar to large blow darts. Evabelle swallowed, suddenly remembering when the werewolves had attacked them. They had had darts very similar to these. None of the elves lowered their charges as they eyed the two interlopers.

"An Anahalian." The middle man said, his long earthy hair trailing blue vines and his narrowed olive eyes flashed at them. "What would an Anahalian be doing here, and with a human no less?"

"That's an excellent question." Said the elf on the left, the closest to Evabelle. His ice white hair was shorter than the first, but still it swayed lower than his shoulders. He had a bright red flower hanging at its end. "But a better question is what should we do with them? They are trespassers. They should be thrown in Paraq to rot."

"I have an idea, how about we talk to them and see what they want." Lucis said with his wings still raised protectively. "They might just have something important to say."

The first two elves glared at Lucis for speaking so unfavorably. The last one, however, approached him. This one was smaller than the other two and had oddly shorter hair. "You have hit the barrier, have you not?" This one quipped, raising his weapon a little higher. "That means you are powerless against us, so dare not speak unless spoken to, traitor. This dart holds poppyera, a strong sleeping potion, that will put you out like that." He gave a little snap for good measure.

Lucis's eyes flickered down to the roaster leaning against the log, but didn't attempt to go for it. "And if we come willingly?" Lucis asked softly instead, staring down at the little elf dauntingly.

"Willingly?" The elf hissed. "Do you honestly think that we would believe that?"

Lucis lifted his hands out in front of him as though to be bound. "We wish to hold council with King Lir." He glanced back at Evabelle, giving her a small nod, telling her to follow suit, which she did, tensely.

"His Majesty!" The first viney haired elf exclaimed. "We'll have to see about that. Jylo put out the fire and take their supplies. Pom tie up the prisoners."

The other two elves nodded. The short elf that had spoken to Lucis tore himself away and crouched down by their fire. He began muttering softly, appearing to actually be speaking with the flames. And the flames were rather compliant. The light died and the five of them were plunged into near darkness. The second elf, the one with the flower in his hair, tied up Lucis quickly enough, then went to Evabelle. They seemed to be normal ropes, but they itched like crazy.

The outline of the first elf, or the leader, it seemed, beckoned them forward. "Come on, let's go. And we'll decide what do to with you."

~(A/N:  GAAAAAAAHH!!!!!! I'm sorry for the really late update!!! This chapter has been a real struggle for me!! I know the quality of this one has not been my greatest. I'm just sort of fed up with this one so, I put it up. I know there's a boat-load of flaws, and I just want you to not be afraid to point them out! If you find any sentences with awkward wording or anything PLEASE TELL ME!!!! I KNOW THEY ARE THERE (my brain is just too fried to find them myself.)

So besides all the mistakes, did you understand and enjoy the chapter?

I know you all want to know what happened to Aza, but unfortunately you're going to have to wait a little longer. But I'm curious of what you thought of this new character Roaul. I'd really love to hear your thoughts. And also, tell me what your thinking about the Lucis and Evabelle part here (the whole thing). Was it entertaining? Was the timing weird? Or was anything off about it? (This second part is mainly the part I feel is kind of crappy. I wrote it and liked it, then my computer screwed up and deleted it, so I go frustrated and now it's just blech)

Sorry no challenge this week! And I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up, I'll try to get it done soon, but I hope you'll stay tuned!!...lots of exciting things are coming. I can promise the next chapter you're going to see a special vampire's view of things and the struggle of coming to your old homeland, where they actually hate vampires... Oh and there might be a few issues of...thirst...I mean hello? We are talking about a vampire!!Mwahahaha...it should be fun!! >:D)~