Gerrard and I started running--no sprinting--away from the figure that was rising from the old man's body. I was horrified; it was like a snake emerging from the inside of a human body. But what was even more frightening was the fact that the figure knew my name. How did he know who I was?

"And where do you think you are going?" we heard the creepy voice say. I turned to look behind me, but saw no one. I turned my face forward and saw the man standing a few feet in front of us. Gerrard and I skidded to a stop, nearly losing our footing in the sandy ground. We stood panting--me more than Gerrard--in front of the man.

He was tall and lanky, probably over six feet. He towered over us with jet black hair and tanned features. His beady black eyes were lined with black eyeliner and he had a thin mustache going around his lips and connecting down to the stubble on his chin. He wore a long black tunic that opened up like a jacket. Underneath, he was wearing a shorter black tunic with gold embroidery on it and black pants. Who was this character and how did he know our names?

"Why are you running?" the man asked.

"Well, it could have been because you're over six feet tall and you just transformed out of a human body!" I exclaimed sarcastically, gesturing towards the remains of the old beggar man's body behind us.

The man chuckled.

"Who are you?" Gerrard demanded.

"Who are you?" the figure mimicked in a high-pitched voice.

"We asked you first!" I exclaimed.

"We asked you first!" he repeated.

Gerrard and I glared at him and chuckled gleefully.

"Fine, if you want to do this the hard way..." Gerrard threatened, summoning up an orb of energy with gusting winds swirling around it.

"Oho! I wouldn't do that if I were you!" the man said, grinning almost evilly at us.

"Who are you?" I demanded again, getting ready to conjure up my own energy orb.

"The question is, who am I not?" the man said. We looked at him, confused.

"Look, you have exactly three seconds to tell us who you are before I destroy you," Gerrard said.

"You kno-ow, you should really learn how to control your anger," the man said in a sing-song voice.

"Three..." Gerrard began counting.

"Now you're counting! How utterly fearsome!" the man cried, laughing. I conjured up an energy orb of water.

"Two..." I said.

"Oho! You, too!" he cried.

"On-" Gerrard and I both started saying, raising our hands to launch the orbs.

"Wait!" the man said, putting his bony hands up before we threw the orbs at him.

"Tell us!" I shouted.

"How about I show you?" the man suggested.

"What are you on about?" Gerrard hissed.

"Hee hee!!" the man said gleefully.

The man stepped back a few steps and then, with a swish of his cloak, he transformed. There, standing in front of us, was Jameel.

"What in the name of Merlin--" I began, not believing what I was seeing.

"Amrikan!" the Jameel standing before us cried. I glanced at Gerrard, who didn't seem to be as perplexed about this as I was.

With the flip of his turban Jameel turned into the bitter lady at the reception desk in our hotel, complete with black uniform and heels.

"We can only accept credit cards," the lady said. I felt my eyes widen.

Then, he turned back into the old beggar man that we had seen just a few moments ago. And finally, he transformed back into the looming figure clothed in black.

"So you see, I am many people and things. It is quite difficult for me to explain exactly who I am," the man said.

"You're a shape-shifter," Gerrard stated.

"Shape-shifter?" I asked.

"It's just as the name suggests; it's someone who can transform into whatever or whomever they want without the use of a potion," Gerrard explained. "Are you a descendent of the Lokis?" Gerrard asked the man.

"Anoki-Loki, at your service," the man said, bowing his head to Gerrard. "You may call me Anoki," he added.

"Loki? As in the the Nordic god?" I asked, thoroughly confused.

"To some, Loki was a god; brother of Thor. We Magi believe him to be a simple trickster made by the original witch. The originial Loki was an experiment done by the original witch. He got out of her control, though, and went on to create his own line of shape-shifters. They typically serve no purpose in the chain of Magiis. They simply create mischief for the sake of mischief," Gerrard told me.

"So you know our names because we told them to you when you were Jameel?" I asked Anoki.

"Precisely," he said.

"And you've been following us?" I asked. He grinned and nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us who you were earlier? Surely you knew we were magic users when you met us," Gerrad asked.

"I had an inkling, but I was not completely certain, which is why I continued to follow you. You proved yourselves as Magii when you tried to put a spell on me at the hotel," he explained.

"Tried?" I asked.

"Because they're shapeshifters, magic doesn't affect them unless they are in their pure form," Gerrard told me.

"Is this your true form?" I asked Anoki.

"You may never know!" he responded, chuckling.

"Shape-shifters typically don't ever reveal their true forms. They may take up a certain form consistently, but it's not necessarily their true form. It's for protection," Gerrard told me.

"So that Magii won't know whether or not they can put spells on them?" I asked. Gerrard nodded.

"Ok, well now that we know who you are and what you are, can you tell us why you've been following us?" Gerrard asked Anoki.

"It is a lonely existence, being a shape-shifter so far from home. It is not often that I meet a Magii. Half the fun in being a descendent of Loki is to reveal our shape-shifting abilities to people because they have much the same reaction as you two did when you were running from me. But I cannot do that with normal people. At least not out in the open," Anoki explained.

"So you followed us just to pull a prank?" I asked. He snickered.

"And I wanted to know what you were up to," he added.

"What?" Gerrard asked.

"Why are you here?" Anoki asked.

"We're looking for Magii," I said.

"Yes, but why?" Anoki asked. I pursed my lips, not knowing whether I should respond. Could we trust this creature? Was he evil or just a trickster? Was he reliable? I figured that I should just let Gerrard do the talking; he seemed more familiar with the situation than I was.

"That isn't of your concern. If you can help us, we would appreciate it. If not, then we need to get going," Gerrard said.

"He is a hard one to crack, is he not?" Anoki said to me.

"He's a smart one, if that's what you mean," I replied.

"I will help you on one condition," Anoki said.

"What?" Gerrard asked.

"That you tell me at the end of our journey what it is you are looking for," Anoki said. Gerrard contemplated this for a moment.

"Fine, but no more shape-shifting around us," Gerrard said. Anoki and I looked at him. "It's weird," he said.

"I can agree to that," I muttered.

"Oh, all right. But you are taking the fun out of it!" Anoki said.

"I'll live," Gerrard said darkly.

After a few hours of traveling with Anoki, we realized a few things. One, he had no idea where he was going. And two, he was terrible at keeping a promise.

"Caley, there's a snake!" Gerrard yelled for the third time. I jumped aside before I could get bitten by the treacherous reptile, which then turned out to be Anoki. He transformed and guffawed at the livid expression on my face.

"I swear to Merlin, if you do that again, I will set fire to you," I threatened.

"Uh-uh-uhhhh. No magic, remember?" Anoki said.

"We can easily leave you and go on our own way. You have no idea where you're even taking us!" Gerrard exclaimed.

"Don't I?" Anoki replied, stopping and gesturing towards a tall, narrow building made of dried clay bricks and cement.

"What is that?" I asked. It looked like all of the other buildings we had passed.

"You'll find o-out!" Anoki sang, skipping forward to the entrance of the building. Gerrard and I glanced at each other warily before following suit.

We followed Anoki to the door of the building and stepped in after him. I found myself in a shabby lobby of sorts. There was a fat man sitting lazily at the front desk, reading a magazine with some scandalous pictures on the front cover. Anoki went up to this man and spoke something in Arabic, pointing up. The man nodded, reached down and pulled out a key. He handed it to Anoki, who told us to follow him.

We piled into a rickety old elevator that I didn't wholly trust. Anoki pushed a button labelled as an Arabic numeral that I couldn't read. The elevator jerked sideways before starting its ascent. I held onto the side of the elevator wall for dear life. The ground beneath my feet shook dangerously and I silently prayed to Valeo'mons, the Mountain God that the people of Sylvanterra prayed to, which was the only god of magic that I knew of.

When the elevator came to a shaky halt and the doors pulled open, I scrambled off of it, running in front of Anoki and Gerrard. Gerrard rolled his eyes at my behavior and Anoki giggled in glee.

We followed Anoki down a dark, dimly lit corridor. The floors were carpeted with what must have been a very nice carpet back in the day when the buidling was first built. Now, it was dusty and faded, with patches of holes in it. Anoki led us to a room that was also labelled with Arabic numerals that I couldn't read. He told us to step back a bit, out of the view of the peep-hole. He shifted his shape to become shorter and knocked on the door in a pattern. Two fast, sharp knocks, one soft knock, three fast knocks. He stepped back slightly and we waited, holding our breath. We heard the sound of someone at the door peering through the peep hole. When they couldn't see who it was, we heard the sound of a door unlocking and being pulled open.

A man wearing a long, white thobe (the robe that Arab men wear) stood there and peered at us with dark brown eyes. Immediately, I performed a power check and felt his energy. He was a Magii.

I glanced down at Anoki and smirked slightly. So he really wasn't good for nothing.

"Who are you?" the man asked, his voice thick with an Arabic accent, looking between me, Gerrard, and Anoki. I realized that from his perspective, our group may have seemed a little more than strange and out of the ordinary.

"Let us inside and we can explain," I said.

The man called inside, saying something in Arabic. From what I could guess, he had asked if we were allowed in.

"Le, Magii," the man replied to whoever had responded. I knew that 'le' meant 'no' in Arabic. And Magii was obvious. From what I could deduce the man inside had asked if we were normal humans and this man answered that we were Magii. He probably performed a power check on us, too, just as we had for him. The man inside gave the man who answered the door the authorization to let us in. He stepped aside and we followed Anoki inside the dingy apartment.

The man gestured to us to follow him and we did. He led us into a small living room where the man inside had been sitting. The man was sitting in the shadows, with his face and torso hidden in the darkness. The man that had opened the door for us said something in Arabic to the one sitting. The man in the darkness responded; his voice was deep and resonating. It was a voice of authority, that was for sure.

"You are American?" the sitting man asked. "Only English?" he asked.

"Yes, we can only speak English," I replied.

"Speak for yourself," Gerrard mumbled next to me. I rolled my eyes. Gerrard could speak almost all of the European languages.

"Why are you here?" the man asked.

"How about you show your face and then I'll answer your questions," I snapped. Gerrard glared at me for being so impatient and rude. I scowled back at him and turned my attention back to the man sitting in the chair. He let out a low rumble of laughter and then stood, his upper body still hidden in the shadows.

"Not a very nice girl, are you?" he asked. I crossed my arms over my chest expectantly.

The man stepped forward into the dim light filtering in from the dirty windows. I took a small step back, feeling slightly perplexed. The man was well over six feet tall. He had dark skin like Oralie's that gleamed in the light. He had a broad build and bulging muscles that made him look menacing. He had the red and white checkered scarf over his head, but what was most frightening about this man was his face. Around his left eye, he had a scar in the shape of a flame, encircling the outer part of his eye from the end of his eyebrow to the upper part of his cheek.

"Better?" the man asked. I gulped, glancing at Gerrard with fearful eyes. Gerrard, as usual, seemed unperplexed.

"What is your name?" Gerrard asked the man.

"Ahamet," he replied. "And yours?" he asked.

"I am Gerrard and this is Caley," Gerrard replied. "And that's Anoki," he added, nodding at the shape-shifter that was standing quietly by the window, away from the group.

"You have blue in your eyes," Ahamet noted, looking at Gerrard. "And you, your eyes are fully blue," he said to me. I noticed that his eyes were a luminous amber color. He was most definitely a fire master.

"Caley is a water master," Gerrard said.

"I presumed as much," Ahamet said. He stepped forward, grasping his hands together and cracking his knuckles, examining me closely. I tried to stand my ground, but all I really wanted to do was run away. I had a bad feeling about this guy. Not only was he residing in a shady looking building, but he was large and scar-faced. He seemed like an outlaw Magii to me.

"You know, my people have never had a very fond relationship with the Aquainos; the water masters," he told us, sending me a menacing glare. I felt dread fall over me.

What had Anoki gotten us into?!

_________________________________________________________________

A/N: Yet another cliffhanger. Whoops! =P

I'm procrastinating. Big time. I have a 10 page paper due this week that I haven't started yet. Plus finals in all of my classes. I'm so screwed, so I decided to write this chapter. I'm terrible at making good decisions...

As always, I still have that MCAT to take, which is June 20. Don't expect regular updates until after I take that test. I will be spending the next two months intensely studying for this exam. So please, I ask again, be patient.

Do you think Ahamet is going to kick Caley's ass? Can I just say that it was incredibly amusing to read all of your guesses in the last chapter as to who the old man was. I got some crazy answers, for sure. =)

Leave me a comment! And vote!

P.S. Thanks for XxJeRosellaxX for making me the wonderful banner on the side! If anyone else wants to make me a banner, go for it!

XOXO