The Earth Daughter.

Now, I know what your thinking. "Didn't this come about before?" And your probably right, but I have changed it so much I thought i'd post it again. So here it is, my work for your enjoyment.



1: Extract from Dr. Anybody’s “Understanding Familiars”.
“The existence of familiars has never been denied as they have a very definite form on this plane, they also appear to be undying as, should a Familiar be involved in a fatal incident they will simply re-appear later at their master’s side.

It has been debated that Familiars have a separate dimension that in which they reside while awaiting their master and it may also be where they go to recover from their fatal incident. As Familiars disappear at the death of their master this has given rise to the belief that there is a limited amount of Familiars, however this has been dismissed as the world’s population is growing constantly and so the Familiars would need to observe out planet and make a Familiar every time a child was born on here which would require a constant observation and the instant growth of a Familiar.

The second proposal is that a Familiar is a creation of the subconscious given form and that is the reason why they are so impossible to remove completely, however there are many Familiars that are almost identical and some have heard of or even know other Familiars so this along with there being no notable side effect to the mental health of the owner when the Familiar dies means that this theory has also been rejected.

While we can’t understand how Familiars came to be that does not mean we can’t classify them, Familiars have four different classes, as noted below.

First is the common Familiar that has few abnormal powers and only slight increase in strength over humans these are the easiest to summon making them the majority of the Familiar population.

Second is the uncommon class which are stronger than the common sect and possesses more powers. While being harder to summon they are possible for your first attempt if you have a good enough tutor.

Then there is Rare. Rare possesses a formidable increase of powers and strength over uncommon and some have the ability to manipulate their own bodies for several purposes such as making limbs into tools that fit the situation. They include a shield to guard against damage or a blade to attack the enemy but have a high difficulty rating and failure rate.

On the top of the Familiar hierarchy is the Familiar classed as Very Rare, these are some of the strongest standard Familiars and they possess the highest speed, strength, endurance and collection of powers of all the Familiars, they also have some powers solely unique to them.

There is also a rumour of a class that exceeds all the others, the Legendary Familiar, it is believed that Sean Kabal’s Familiar is not Very Rare but Legendary, this claim has never been proven before since Sean refuses to turn his Familiar for testing, and because his Familiar is, and has been for the past five years, the World’s Greatest nobody wishes to press the point.”


2: Jane sat on the bed; a layer of blood soaked into the sheets and stained them red. It soaked into her clothes and her hair and gathered in a pool around her apart from the few drops that got though the mattress and dripped onto the floor. The blood was caused by her but the reason behind it was her father, a small pudgy man who was scared of the world and made himself feel big by beating up his daughters and his wife. He did not tell anyone about this however because it was not exactly a thing you bragged about, but it still gave him the satisfaction.

Jane felt cold as the blood from her wrists ran out in a plentiful amount, she had cut her wrists again as a result of her father’s actions and Jane knew he was going to punish her for trying to kill herself but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. It annoyed her that no matter how she cut her wrists or how much blood came out she never passed on, there was several times when she bled so much that a normal person would not have a drop left in their body but she still awoke the next day.

She never knew why she had such a thin frame either, it was not like she was underfed-her father tried but she always got plenty of food to eat, mainly though Eliot’s adventures in the kitchen- but no matter how much she ate she always stayed thin and weak, it was like the world was taunting her with a combination of weakness and an inability to die.

The things the unconscious mind thinks of when you are nearly in its grasp are far beyond your own control. You just have to go along with the ride and hope it is not too bad. This time she thought of her second father-not an official father but one who had adopted the mantle none the less- and his Familiar. She thought of the times when Eliot and Silverfang messed around with each other, she thought of times when Eliot cooked a plethora of different foods, she thought of times when she watched a movie using Silverfang or Eliot as a cushion to lay her head on, she remembered times when her sisters, Beth and Nehvna, would come round and they would have a party, she remembered playing card games with her sisters and Eliot. She remembered happy days. It was better than thinking about where she was.

The blood had managed to get though the mattress in a much larger amount and was now pooling on the ground, despite her strange inability to die she was in no way immune to unconsciousness, something that happened to her in the middle of her memory of happy days.

3: Jane woke up and immediately saw that she was not in her own room, the room she was in was nowhere in her house which meant that she was in someone else’s house. Jane tried to run though the options of who would be able to get her out of her house and into their own when she saw bandages across her wrists. They looked fresh and they were tied in a way that kept them tight but did not hurt the cuts on her wrist. Feeling extremely confused she laid back on her bed, the way the bandages where wrapped around her wrists looked professionally done.

While thinking about her location she spotted a glass of water. Jane was feeling very thirsty from the blood loss so she stepped off the bed to grab it, her foot landed on something soft and warm as if it was a living rug of some kind.
“Ahhhh! I’m getting crushed!” The rug shouted, causing Jane to quickly pull her foot back onto the bed, the rug then stood up and revealed that it was not a rug but actually a person with an abundance of fur. “Ohh, I seem to have been sleep-changing” he said, the fur reseeding until it was all gone, the man that was left standing was tall and had broad shoulders that looked like they could carry a lot of weight without much trouble, he also had a goofy smile that never seemed to waver.

“Silver!” She shouted in surprise as he clutched his side, Silver’s appearance had told her whose house it was without ever speaking.
“I think your dainty feet broke my ribs” he said, breathing deeply before stretching his other hand out. “I can see the light, I must go towards the light” he said before looking like he was electrified, he then collapsed and spoke softly “It was a bug zapper” Jane had since realized that she did not actually do anything to him so she laughed, Silverfang was forever the comedian. This caused Silverfang to stand up and bow. “Thank you. Thank you” he said as he blew kisses to an imaginary crowd before turning to Jane with a suddenly serious look to him. “Now, to the serious business” he told Jane.

4:”....And then I woke up here” Jane told Silverfang as she finished recounting the events of the night.
“So why did you slit your wrists today? What was different?”Silverfang asked, rather surprised at this since it was not the kind of thing she usually did.
“Well it was worse today because my dad got a divorce letter in the post today, guess mum was tired of having to share a name with that pig and so she started the divorce and so my dad got really mad and...” She trailed off as she thought of all the things that had happened that night. If there was a way she wished that all those memories could just be erased from her mind.
“Want me to kill him?” Silverfang asked. He made this question a lot and every time he did he was totally serious about it.

“No because even if you could get past his Familiar, which you can’t by the way, what would his death bring? Eliot is too young to make an adoption without a partner I would go to my closest living relative which is my mum and since she did not take any of us with her when she ran away I don’t want to go to her now, and I would never be able to see you again which would totally suck” She told him, it was a good and rational argument but Silver still grumbled.
“Thanks by the way” she said to Silver with a shy smile.
“Thanks for what?” He asked. “Bringing me here, bandaging my wrists, getting me out of that bloody t-shirt” She said, reeling off each reason for thanks before she smiled and moved up close but just as she got to him he heard Eliot shout“Im home” so Jane quickly recoiled with shock but Silverfang caught her hand pulled her back, kissing her as she reached him. It was a warm kiss, different from anything she had ever had before. With a hint of dog breath.
She could feel her heart pounding against her chest as they locked their lips together. This was one of the best feelings she had ever felt and knew it must be that strange emotion she never thought she would feel. Love.

“Anyone home?” Eliot shouted again and Silver broke off the kiss to shout back.
“Yea I’m up here and we have a plus one” he told Eliot, who laughed.
“Plus one wouldn’t happen to be my baby sister at all would it?” Beth asked as Jane and Silver headed out of the room, Jane was transfixed on the feeling of Silvers lips on hers so Silverfang guided her down the stairs.

Eliot stood at an average height with an average build and average length hair. He was very average to look at but it was his heart that set him aside from everyone else, he never turned down anyone who needed help and never hesitated extend his hand to any who needed it. Beth, however, was physically Eliot’s opposite; she stood a foot taller than most people in the street and had a wide chest-with equally big breasts- and broader shoulders than most girls had, they were nowhere near as big as Silver’s shoulders but they were still big for a girl.

“Hello Beth, how are you?” Silver asked, as Jane managed to snap out of her trance and smile, hugging Beth tightly.
“I’ve been good thanks, work has been rather nice lately as we are fully staffed” She told him, hugging Jane back; she hugged her just as tightly but tried not to crush her with her arms. As much as Jane tried to hide it Beth always knew how her baby sister was feeling without her ever saying a word and right now there was something seriously bothering her but she decided not to press the point just yet.

“Where are Nehvna and Satyr?” Silverfang asked Beth as they followed Eliot into the kitchen as standby in case something he was cooking blew up, it was not easy cooking for seven people on your own especially when Eliot had a habit of experimenting with the cooking ingredients.
“Nehvna is trying to convince her little angel to come outside when we left, she told us she would catch up but she hasn’t yet. Satyr is somewhere else, probably reading a book or something” Beth told Silverfang as Eliot started telling them what he was going to cook and read out the ingredients needed for the dish, he always liked help in the kitchen.
5:
“Sorry I was a pain to everyone I really didn’t mean to be” Avrion said with a sad face that looked like it was about to cry, but then every face Avrion pulled looked like it was going to cry. That and the fact that her frame was more akin to a stick than an actual person made Avrion look very weedy but that was not the case. Nehvna usually sorted her out but she was too busy with Jane’s wrists, specifically the cuts on them.
“What the hell happened to your wrists?!” Nehvna demanded, nearly screaming as she saw how deep and far they went up her wrists.
“Oh nothing to worry about it” Jane said with a nervous smile, Nehvna was always kicking off about every little scrape or bruise so the six inch cuts running up her arms would spin her into a frenzy.
“That is some serious cut Jane, what do you mean there is nothing to worry about” she said before grabbing Jane by the hand and dragging her upstairs.

“First I need to get you some clothes while you get a shower” She told Jane and for the first time she looked down and found out that she was in her bra and panties, both where stained in blood.
“I have been a bit preoccupied to notice my clothing” she told Nehvna, the blood has started to dry around her back and it was not doing anything for her beauty.
“Into the shower with you, I’ll pick something out” she told Jane, walking into the bathroom and fiddling with the shower before getting it to a good temperature and pushing Jane in it.
“I’m showering already, you are so pushy sometimes Nevy” she said as the water coming off her turned red with the blood while brown tried to make an appearance, it had been a long time since she last had a shower and the events of tonight just made her even dirtier than she was before.

She let the water run on her body for a while before turning to the shampoo. She reached out for the bottle and squeezed some onto her hand before working it into her hair and washing it off, the soap came off the same red-with-brown as the water had, causing her to sigh. “Dam I’m such a mess” she complained to herself as she lathered up the soap again and worked it into her hair before washing it out again, the soap coming away more brown than red this time which was a good sign that the blood was getting washed from her hair. She repeated the lathering a few more times, cleaning her back in the process, until the water returned to its natural colour, she then grabbed the conditioner from the shelf and began to rub it into her mass of now pink hair.

When she was finished Jane turned the shower off and stepped out, rubbing herself dry with a towel before wrapping one round all the hair she could manage to fit in it. It was a good feeling to be clean and she did not get the feeling very often so every time she did she cherished it because it would be a long time before she got another chance. Jane then headed into the bedroom to check what Nehvna was pulling out of the wardrobe.

“You are one serious mess” Nehvna said as she took off Jane’s towel and began to blow dry her hair, Nehvna was not bothered in the slightest by the total lack of clothes that Jane was currently showing since she had been around her and other naked women a lot so she was comfortable with female nakedness.

Nehvna ran a comb though Jane’s hair as she dried it, making sure that each part was properly dried and combed before moving onto the next part and working on that. “You could definatly be a hair dresser or something to that extent you know” Jane told Nehvna who blushed at the complement.
“I am not that good Jane” She told her, it was not true since Nehvna was amazing with all things hair, Jane’s hair was originally brown but it was Nehvna who dyed the whole length of it pink.
It was extremely hard work considering how much there was but Nehvna managed to do it perfectly.
“You are better than good Nehvna, you are amazing” she said as Nehvna finished combing though Jane’s hair and switched the blow dryer off, she then picked up two sets of clothes from the bed and held them up so that Jane could see them, Jane picked the plainer set of clothes-a simple t-shirt and jeans- and put them on. Nehvna preferred the brighter, flashier style of clothes and so she always wore a long dress that complimented her tall frame. After Jane had finished putting the new clothes on, being careful of her wrist, and-with the help of Nehvna- gotten all her hair out of the back of her t-shirt she and Nehvna headed down the stairs, Jane’s layered mass of hair swaying slightly as she walked.

6. Back at Jane’s house her father had discovered that Jane had vanished from her bed and she was now shouting about it to Shadow, his one eyed Familiar. “Where is she?!” he demanded. Shadow made a sniff around the room a few times as he was trying to pin down a particular smell; he then turned back to Mark.
“Traces of another familiar hang around here, I would say that it is the Fang that has been here” he said, referring to Silverfang which caused Mark to get even madder.
“HIM!?” he screamed, he thought that Eliot and Silverfang was trying to steal his daughter from him and this made him very angry, he ignored the fact that he needed his daughter stolen from him because he was an idiot in that sort of thing.

“Where are they now?!” he demanded, causing Shadow to sigh, he thought that Mark really picked the short straw when it came to brains.
“He is at Eliot’s house right now, along with your daughter, I could lead you there if you want but I don’t know what you will achieve going there” Shadow said to Mark who seemed grumpy for a few seconds but then resigned to the fact that he was better off staying in the house. Shadow nodded at Mark and headed out of the door and down the road, waking at a pace that was brisk but not hurried. Shadow arrived when he wanted to arrive, even if he did not want to arrive at that time he changed the time he wanted to arrive to the time he had arrived.

7. Jane sniffed the air as she walked down the stairs, Eliot had obviously finished his cooking as it made the air smell rather nice, this does not mean the actual food was nice however, simply that it smelt good. “What you got cooking Eliot?” Nehvna asked as she walked into the Kitchen, leaving Jane to go to the front room where she quickly snuggled up against Silverfang, feeling very close to him now.
“Food. It will be done soon” Eliot said, he never gave a definite answer of what he was cooking before it was done.
“Well I hope you are not going to try that puke flavoured risotto again.” Nehvna joked as she got out a collection of glasses and began filling them up with different drinks.
“Don’t worry about that, I am making meat this time” he said, throwing a few more herbs in to the pan.

“Ahhhh, it has been a rough today” Jane said, not caring about proper speech as she snuggled into Silverfang who starred at her.
“Rough today? I think you need speaking lessons” Silverfang joked, earning him a punch in the arm from Jane.
“I am allowed to have crappy speaking.” She told him as Eliot came into the room with a massive plate piled high with nose-caressing meat.
“Grubs up” he said setting the large plate down and putting some smaller plates next to it.
Everyone attacked the pile of meat and piled their plates high with it before sitting back, despite the large amount everyone had taken there was still a fair bit left. Jane bit into one of the chicken pieces and the flavour exploded in her mouth, the herbs went perfectly with the meat and made the whole thing beautiful.
“This is great Eliot, you really can cook well sometimes cant you?” Jane announced loudly, backed by agreements from everyone else.
“Well I just got lucky that’s all. I threw a load of leftover meat into a pot and chucked in a ton of herbs. The result was not too bad” he said with a big head, popping a piece of beef into his mouth before there was a knock at the door.
“Who are we missing?” Eliot asked himself, heading to the door and opening it.

Shadow was stood in the doorway with a strange, mirthless smile.
“Hello” he said before punching Eliot with a great amount of force, knocking him back from the door and sprawling him out on the carpet.
“Shadow!” Silverfang growled before he sprouted fur, his fingers grew into claws and his teeth elongated. Shadow’s hands gripped a blade that was so dark it stole light from its surroundings; he also had a black tattered cloak and the eye that had been cut out took a skeletal style. Silverfang growled at him and Shadow simply smiled.

“What a cute little doggy” Shadow’s vindictive tone said with an equally vindictive laugh. Jane and Nehvna had both gotten up from the couch and backed up against the wall and where looking at the fight with a tone of fear, Jane looked worried as Eliot was groggily sitting up but she didn’t want to risk getting in the way of Silver and Shadow. Beth looked like she was cursing herself for something but Jane was a bit preoccupied to find out why. As the two Familiars were staring each other down an arrow thudded into Shadow’s chest, Jane looked around and saw Avrion reaching into a quiver that had appeared as suddenly as Silver’s fur and fangs and grabbed another arrow before nocking it into the bow that was holding.

Despite being around the Familiars for so long she did not know they could do this sudden transformation. A second arrow flew at him but Shadow batted it away with his sword before barely dodging a lunge from Silverfang’s claws. Shadow responded with a knee to Silverfang’s chin and jumped over his body, Avrion was nocking a third arrow by the time Shadow arrived, he cut the bow in half and kicked her in the chest, knocking her into the wall before turning to Jane and grabbing her.
“You’ve been naughty” He told her with his malicious voice as he grabbed her shirt and ran at the wall, going though it as if the wall was not there. Eliot was helping Silverfang up and they both groggily ran out of the door after Shadow.

8. They found Jane a few minutes down the road roughly half way between Eliot’s house and Jane’s, she was laying on the ground unconscious with a large pool of black blood sitting about a foot in front of her. Jane herself had no visible wounds to explain how she was unconscious.
“What happened here?” Eliot asked as spotted something on the ground and dropped down for a closer look. It was a broken half of Shadow’s light-stealing blade. He could not find the other half and so he thought that Shadow must have made off with it. Drips of black blood stained the road and indicated that Shadow had left with great haste, and something had forced him to leave without Jane, the very person he had come here to take.

“This is all so confusing.” Silverfang said, rubbing his chin. It was not just to make him seem like he was thinking more “We have an unconscious but physically fine Jane here, a large pool of black blood and a broken sword with no Shadow. It looks like a fight happened here and Shadow was seriously outmatched, and seeing how he just took us all out so quickly that is really something. He got his ass handed to him and then left. By the fact that Jane is here, Shadows assailant gave him the option to leave her and go, one that he took quickly by the fact that there isn’t many drops of blood in the road” Silverfang deduced, turning back to his human form and picking Jane up. Her body slightly tense but not like you would expect an unconscious person to be.

“It seems that someone knocked Jane out skilfully without her even knowing it was going to happen. I would assume that Shadow’s assailant knocked her out so she would not bombard the person with questions” Silverfang said, looking at the ground, there was a drop of crimson blood on the ground; it was far too vibrant to belong to a human and caught Silverfang’s eye. He stored it in his mind before carrying Jane back to the house.

For the second time in so many hours Jane found herself resting in bed, the key difference this time was that everyone was in the room rather than just Silverfang, he was telling everyone what he had seen and how he thought all the things fit together. He also told Avrion about the vibrant crimson blood drop he had found next to Jane.
“I am no expert but if you combine the ability to fight someone as strong as Shadow while keeping Jane completely unharmed with the extremely vibrant blood drop then you can really narrow down who the third person could be” She told Silverfang, pondering for a moment before snapping her fingers.

“Beth, how about you’re Familiar Satyr, she seems to know a lot more about the world than most people, almost like a lore keeper of some sorts.” She told Beth who nodded.
“That sounds good, Satyr is always bragging about how knowledgeable she is when it comes to all aspects of the world and the Familiars that reside in it.” Beth said, she then left the room and headed down the stairs, intent on contacting her Familiar and asking her about the third person in the group.
“I’m still puzzled” Nehvna said, it had been an extremely confusing situation and everyone was still puzzled, only Nehvna was the one to say so.
“What are you puzzled at?” Beth’s angel-faced Familiar Satyr asked, appearing in the doorway as. She did not have a strong physical structure but for some reason she looked stronger than most people.

“Hello Satyr” Avrion said before letting out a yelp as Satyr nearly tackled Avrion.
“Hey Moody, how you doing?” Satyr asked, her tone was rather teasing but very friendly as well.
“Confusing stuff” Nehvna answered.
“So I’ve heard. I have been going over the possibilities and have come to the conclusion that there is only one thing that could have happened, I don’t really know why though.” Satyr said, it was clear she had already solved whatever the problem was and now she was telling everyone else her about it. “To be able to stand toe to toe with Shadow you would need a Rare Familiar at the very least, to thrash him in the way you are saying needs something more than Very Rare and I know only one person in the world who has anything higher than Very Rare” Satyr told them which caused Silverfang to look rather confused.

“But why the hell would he be around here? Isn’t he busy being rich and famous?” Silverfang asked, the town they were in was far away from any kind of famous place so it was not like he was simply going slightly out of his way.

“Why don’t we ask him?” Jane said to everyone, smiling at them as if she had not just woken up from being dragged down the road by a crazed familiar.
“What happened?” Silverfang asked, ignoring her quip as everyone leant in to listen.
“Well Shadow was dragging me down the road when someone appeared in front of us, Shadow started shouting at the man but the man just walked towards Shadow so he locked these strange black shadowy things around my wrists and it cut off my arms movement, it just clicked around them and my arms went numb. Shadow then ran toward the man, I heard a loud clang and looked up from the floor” Jane stopped to take a breath before continuing.

“Shadow was stood with a broken sword and his shoulder had a massive cut in it, I thought it was going to drop off when I saw how deep it was. The blood that was leaking out made a huge pool below him and he seemed angry but scared, the man told him to leave and I got a look at his sword, it had a tassel on it with two colours, most of it was a pearly white but a small portion of it was a beautiful dark crimson red. The blade itself was the same dark crimson colouring to it and the way it sat in the man’s hand was like it was made for his hand, the blade had these amazing symbols etched into it as well and they made the sword that much more magnificent. The strange thing was that there was no blood on his blade, it was as clean so clean it could have just come from a museum or something” Jane went off track describing the sword the man had used until Silverfang gave her a soft nudge.

“Ohh, sorry about that. Anyway when Shadow had gone the Arm-Deader disappeared and I got up to go over to him because he saved me from Shadow and my evil dad. Then he pointed his sword at me and my nose started bleeding, it looked very similar to the colour of the sword but I did not have much time to think about it because as soon as the first drop it the floor I passed out” She finished, laying back on the bed.

“Scarlet Rose” Satyr said and everyone looked at her, expecting her to explain what she meant. “I am not surprised that he has The Rose as well as Balance, he is quite the collector, he is probably waiting to get Silverfang as well so he can finish the set” She mused which made Silverfang less than happy.
“What do you mean “Finish the set”?! I am not a part of any set!” He shouted.
Satyr just stared at him until he shut up.

“The three Familiars that have an innate ability to transform themselves partially or completely into bladed weaponry are a prize that people have been trying to get for decades, it is no surprise that one of the most famous people in the world would have two of the three. The three Familiars also hold a sort of regal position over the rest of the Familiars. Well Balance and Silver do, The Rose is more of a stand in since Sarasagi disappeared. Sara was the queen of blood but she has been replaced by Scarlet Rose since Sara disappeared, Silver is the king of wolves and Balance is....well I guess you would call him the king of Familiars themselves as there really is no familiar greater than he is so far.” Satyr told them, she always liked to flaunt her huge knowledge bank at any opportunity.

“Still does not explain why he is here, he is meant to be somewhere else, doing famous things” Eliot said, which caused Satyr to look deep in thought.
“That is a mystery I can’t solve, it is known that Balance has never liked Shadow that much but going so far out of Sean’s way to fight him is not something that he usually does, and he did not even use Balance for the fight” Satyr told them, trying to piece together the pieces of the puzzle.

“Well while you are doing the smart stuff I am hungry” Jane said stretching before getting out of bed.
“There is still some of that meat left” Silverfang said, leading Jane down the stairs and into the kitchen.
“So, now you’re a king of wolves. How does it feel?” Jane asked, slightly taunting him as she knew he had no idea what this whole king of wolves thing was about.

When they reached the kitchen Silverfang reached out to the microwave and opened it, a plate of meat was sat in the middle and so he took it out and handing it to Jane, ignoring her question with a rather blunt
“Eat”. Jane pouted but decided against more confrontation. She did not want to fall out with Silverfang after all since she really liked him and wanted to stay on his good side for as long as she could. While she was eating her meat Beth came down the stairs, quickly followed by Satyr who walked over to Jane with a pair of trainers in her hand.

“Put these on, we are going out” she said, nearly dragging her out of the door the moment Jane had finished putting the shoes on.
“Hand on, I’m hungry” Jane said but her pleas went unanswered.

9: “So where exactly are we going?” Jane asked, quite grumpy that she was dragged out without any food.
“We are going to see a man with a very large library; he has a certain book that might be able to shed some light on this confusing problem.” Satyr told her as Silverfang caught up to the three girls. “So where are you going?” Silverfang asked Jane, holding her hand lightly.
“To see some guy with a load of books” she said, translating Satyrs answer to her own words. “Right....why?” he asked, still confused about why they were going.

“I don’t know” she said with a smile, Silverfang laughed at her answer before smiling with her. The four walked down the roads to this man’s house, the journey was rather uneventful apart from some deep thought looks from Satyr and some phone checking from Beth. As they approached a rather large house Satyr announced that they had arrived.

“Swanky” Jane said, looking up at the large mansion like building, Silverfang shared her awe at the size of the house.
“Wait until you see the inside” Satyr said with one of her knowing smiles, this enticed Jane and Silverfang into thinking that there was something even bigger and flashier inside, so they quickly bundled inside to find nothing. The hall was completely bare, it had no carpets, there were no lights and there were no wall decorations.

“Hmmm, I was expecting some more flash you know” Jane said, looking around the barren hall. “The flash is further in” she told them, heading up the bare stairs to a bare landing, then across the bare landing to a bare door, Satyr opened a bare door and there was a man in the middle of the bare room. He was a big man, his muscles where rather large but not obscenely so. He had short black hair and only a pair of shorts on, every other part of his body was much like his house.

However the strangest part of all of this was not the fact that he was wearing hardly anything or that he entire house had absolutely nothing in it, the strangest part of all was the fact that the man was floating in mid-air with his eyes closed. He looked to have well toned muscles on both his arms and his legs; his hair was unruly and obviously left to grow.

“He is not a Familiar is he?” Jane asked, it was not uncommon to see a Familiar do something like this but to see an actual person doing this was very rare indeed.
“No, he is as human as I am” Beth told Jane, Jane did not noticed that she was going to say “As human as you are” but stopped as if it was a wrong sentence Silverfang, however, picked up on it.

However, before he could bring it to anyone’s attention a girl came into the room. “Niall you need to ge....Ohh, hello” The girl suddenly stopped in her sentence as she saw the new people in the room, Niall, the man who had been floating in the room opened his eyes and dropped to the ground, breaking into a smile that for some reason did not suit him as well as other peoples smiles. At first he did not see the girl behind Beth and so he did not say anything to her
“Hello Beth” he said, obviously pleased to see her again.

“Umm, who are you people?” The girl behind them asked, she had a rather strong voice but it was at the same time soft. Jane looked back at this girl and saw the most beautiful looking girl she had ever seen. This girl’s blonde hair was in two ponytails at either side of her head; the hair sprawled out of this attempt to contain it and ran all the way down her back.

She was wearing a pair of glasses and as Jane looked at the rest of her she saw the most beautiful dress that she had ever laid eyes on, not that she had seen many dresses but that did not make it any less beautiful. She had a ribbon wrapped around her neck and the top part of her chest was bare, it also had very short arms, not even coming down to her elbows before cutting off with a frilly pattern.

The top of her breasts had a frilly fabric look to it but this just made the dress all the better. It then carried on down to the stomach area where it was plain and fitted tightly to her, it looked to be offering support for the rest of the dress by the way it hugged her.

The actual light brown dress started around her waist and the sides had the same light brown fabric that with overlapping layers that the rest of the dress was made out of but the front seemed to be a separate part of the dress and was made of silk rather the taffeta the rest of the dress was made out of.

Roughly ten tiers of this pink silk ran down her waist part of the dress, each tier getting wider until it reached the floor. The dress was so long it covered her feet but from the sound she made when the girl came in she was probably wearing some sort of flat shoes with the small but wide heel on them.

As Jane stared at the new arrival Beth took the opportunity of silence to talk to Niall.
“We need a book” She said to him the girl in the dress blushed a deep red as Jane continued to stare at her.
“Really? And here I thought you came all this way to order a pizza” Niall said, the sarcasm was thick in his voice.
“Well the pizza can come later” She told him before Niall headed towards the door, Beth followed closely behind him. He then looked behind Beth and spoke to the girl in the dress.

“Lady Chiyo, you and your maid are welcome to stay here for as long as you wish.” Niall said as he passed the girl in the dress, she bowed her head to him as he left.
“You’re a lady?” Jane said, staring at her perfect face. Chiyo nodded before another girl appeared, this one was significantly taller that Chiyo, possibly a foot taller, and her hair was a lot shorter as well, while Chiyo’s hair ran down her back and stopped at the edge of her spine the girls hair barely reached her shoulders.

The clothing she was wearing was not as flashy as Chiyo’s dress but it was still rather grand. The headdress she wore was a dark black and it, like the rest of her uniform, seemed to mesmerize the observer with the sheer depth of the darkness. It was like starring into complete darkness. She had a frilly collar that ran from her chin to her collarbone.

The bare opening was a lot smaller than Chiyo’s dress as it was only a short a small portion of the chest area as opposed to Chiyo’s completely naked upper chest area. The opening was decorated in a frilly pattern and just below it was the same look as Chiyo’s dress, a crinkly look to the uniform made it look good but it did not seem to offer much support, that came from the two dozen laces that kept a corset like thing closed.

The arm sleeves where plain and short, cutting off around the muscle area, but they ended in the same frilly pattern the chest opening was made from. She was also wearing frilly cuffs tied with a single lace to keep them from falling off, one of the laces was pointing outwards but the other one was pointing inwards. She had a pure white apron over the bottom half of her uniform that ended in the same frilly pattern that seemed to be predominant in the rest of the uniform.

“I have found what you requested Lady Chiyo” The girl said, her hands where both held in front of her and her whole upper body was bent in a slight bow.
“Thank you Lilly” Chiyo said, smiling at her maid. Chiyo then left rather hastily with Lilly, leaving the group from Eliot’s house rather confused.

“So who is going to appear at that door next?” Jane said, making a joke.
“Me” A large bald man said, his muscles made Niall’s look small and he was easily topping six-six. His deep voice reverberated as if he had a base speaker in his throat and when he spoke Jane could feel his voice slightly shaking the ground like all heavy bass does. Satyr smiled and bounded up to the man, giving him a hug that looked more akin to a tackle, the large bald man took it as if he had just been hit by a plastic bag.

“Hey Glee” She said, cuddling into his girth before noticing the stares. “This is Mr Glee. He is Niall’s Familiar and takes care of the day to day activity of the house” Satyr explained.
“It looks like he has fashioned the house decoration to mirror his head” Eliot said, snapping off another joke.
“My head is bald because I am far too awesome to grow any hair” Glee said, it was a funny thing to say but he had a serious voice.

“What does that make me then?” the long haired Niall asked with his unsuited smile.
“Not awesome” Glee said simply which made Niall angry, he stormed up to Glee and grabbed him before dragging him out of the room, Glee’s muscles giving him no weight against Niall’s strength.

A crashing sound of fighting erupted from beyond the door as Beth walked back in with a book in her hand. “That is why there is no furniture in here” She said as the walls started crashing. “The walls are steel reinforced concrete as well, not much is getting though them which is perfect for when they start to fight each other since they can turn a normal house to rubble with one of their brawls” Satyr told them as Beth opened up the book and began flipping through the pages.

“So who is stronger then? Niall or Glee?” Jane asked, to which Beth smiled.
“Neither. They are both as strong as the other which is strange, usually the Familiar is a lot stronger than the human but this time they are equal and so the brawls never have a defined outcome” She said as a large crash rang out followed by silence.

“They are finished, it’s time to go now” Satyr said, leading the party out of the room and down the stairs, Niall was sat on Glee who seemed to be annoyed that he was being sat on, neither showed any sign of physical stress even though there was large red marks on the majority of their bodies.“Not staying for pizza?” Niall asked with a humorous tone.
“I need to get back, I left the children unattended” She told him before exiting the large mansion and herding the party back to Eliot’s house.

10. When they got back to the house Eliot was playing cushion to Avrion and Nehvna, it was so cute to see him being a cushion but it was ruined a second later by Beth and Satyr barging though the door, jolting the two girls awake.

“I’m up” Nehvna said as she sat up, Beth and Satyr went upstairs without saying anything to anyone and left Jane and Silverfang to deal with the questioning looks that Eliot was sending their way.
“We went and got a book” Jane said, simplifying the trip to Niall’s house to a couple of words. Eliot simply nodded and got up, heading up the stairs to go be nosey about what the girls were doing up there.
“I’m going to go be nosey” Nehvna said, heading up the stairs after Eliot, Jane decided to follow suit a few seconds later.

There was nothing to be nosey at when Jane arrived, Satyr was sat reading the book and Beth was looking at her, the book seemed to have a lot of names followed by strange symbols that Jane had never seen, Satyr did not seem to pay them any mind so Jane simply ignored them, passing them off as unimportant. Satyr flicked though the book for a few minutes before pointing to one of the names, Jane did not see it before the book was passed to Beth.

Jane noticed a paint pot next to Beth as she took the brush out and began painting the symbols Jane saw on the book. When Beth had finished painting the last symbol they glowed with a bright light before a holographic woman appeared, Satyr said something in a rather confusing tongue and the woman nodded before the symbols stopped glowing and the woman disappeared.

“You see? Nothing to worry about” Satyr told Beth, Beth seemed rather on edge about the whole thing but relaxed when Satyr comforted her.

“I was worried that we would get the wrong one” she told Satyr before standing up and seeing the confused looks on everyone’s faces.
“We made a phone call” she said simply before heading past them. Jane and Silverfang looked at Eliot who simply shrugged.
“You expect me to know what she means?” he asked so they all followed Beth and Satyr down the stairs like a game of follow-the-leader. When Jane asked Beth what she meant Beth stared looking rather annoyed.

“You use phones to call people. That is why it is called a phone call” She said, annoying Jane.
“Fine, keep your secrets” Jane said in a huff, returning to Silverfang who had sat on the couch.
“Sorry about your party idea” she said, snuggling into Silverfang.
“Don’t worry about it, today has been much more exciting” He told Jane, relaxing so that he would be a more comfortable pillow.
“Yea, and much more painful” she said, looking at the bruise on his chin from her vantage point.

While Jane and Silverfang where snuggling Eliot had not given up on finding out what Satyr and Beth had been doing.

“Tell me who you where calling” He said, giving up on asking for the content.
“Rose, I assumed that since she was the one in use then she would be the one handing things around here” Satyr told Eliot, ignoring his gormless look.
“Rose? You mean Scarlet Rose? How can you just call her?” Eliot asked, throwing several questions at Satyr who was beginning to look annoyed.
“Yes I mean Scarlet Rose, and I can just call her because I got the phone book from Niall and that allows me to call any Familiar registered.” Satyr said to him, shedding light on what she had just done.

“So you are saying that with that book you can call any Familiar in the world?” He asked to which Satyr simply shook her head.
“No, only the ones registered, Familiars are registered by default but people can opt to unregister them so people can’t contact them, don’t ask why though.” She said before heading into the kitchen, an obvious sign that the convocation was over.

“This day keeps getting weirder.” Eliot said, scratching his head.
“Give it time, the best is yet to come” Beth told him before following Satyr and leaving Eliot with a befuddled look.

After a minute Eliot gave up and walked back into the front room, flopping down on one of the chairs. “What is with Satyr being so cryptic?” he asked, rhetorically but Jane answered all the same. “Because she has a secret and you know how she is with secrets”. Eliot was not expecting an answer so it took him a second to realize that Jane was talking to her.
“But she has never been so……secretive” Eliot told her, sighing heavily, Jane-for her part- simply shrugged.

“Satyr, and Beth, are extremely greedy for knowledge, they are the kind of people that would destroy half the world if they thought it would give them the secrets of the other half” Silverfang told Eliot like he did not already know. “I know but that does not mean I am not annoyed about it” Eliot replied.

Jane looked at Eliot and Silverfang before smiling, she had no plans to return after what her father did to her. “So do you want to retry your night or do you think someone is going to interrupt it again?” she asked, the cheeky grin giving more weight to her words

.”Well since we are expecting Satyr’s guest whenever I guess we should just wait and not try anything that is going to get interrupted in an hour or so” Eliot explained so Jane simply shrugged and snuggled into Silverfang again.

10 ½. Shadow’s face screwed up as his last wound was stitched up.
“I can’t believe you got beat” the man who was stitching him up said with a slight amused tone. “Watch it Doc or you will be your next patient” Shadow growled but this did not stop the man from chuckling slightly.

“I believe we have not given this Kabal man the attention he deserves” the doctor said, cleaning the blood off his hands and leaving for the door. He opened it and turned back to Shadow.
“I think you are going to need a better sword, or a new partner, before you go up against him again” the doctor told Shadow who smiled an evil smile.

“I was thinking both actually, and it has already been taken care of” his voice had taken on a dark undertone to it.
“So I am to expect an addition soon then?” The doctor asked to which Shadow nodded.
“Always good” the doctor said, leaving the room.

Shadow stood up and rubbed the large shoulder stitching before picking up his tattered coat. “Working for a runaway to chase down a legend. How far can I fall?” he asked himself before leaving the room.

11. Jane woke up from her apparent sleep to see a new person in the front room, the hole in the wall had been fixed over the course of her sleep which made her ask how long she had been snoozing.

“About an hour” Silverfang informed her before catching the questioning look. “That’s Scarlet, she came down about ten minutes ago and has been talking quietly with Beth and Satyr for the past nine and a half” he told her, glaring at them, it was so bumming to be left out of a secret convosation. Jane looked at the new girl for a few seconds before she remembered something.

“Where’s Nehvna and Avrion?” she asked Silverfang scratched his head.
“I’m not sure, probably asleep somewhere, they looked pretty tired when they got here and today has been quite draining so I guess they crashed somewhere.” He told Jane who looked content with his answer.

“So this Scarlet person is one of Sean’s Familiars and has come down to chat with Beth and Satyr?” Jane asked rather sceptically, not believing that was all she was here to do.
“That is probably not all she is here to do but it certainly seems that way from where I am stood.” Silverfang replied so Jane simply shrugged and snuggled back into him.
“Wake me up when they let us in on the convosation.” Jane said with an underlying grumpiness before going back to sleep.

Jane was awoken half an hour after she went back to sleep.
“They are involving us now” Silverfang told her, Jane seemed groggy but interested.
“I have talked with Satyr and she tells me that you are the one Shadow tried to kidnap” Scarlet said, looking at Jane.

“Yea, he is my dad’s Familiar and so he tried to drag me back home” Jane explained, Scarlet simply shook her head.
“No, I’m afraid Shadow is no longer your father’s Familiar because your father no longer is” Scarlet said in a neutral voice, but with a slight tone of pity.
“Ohh, well then he was my father’s Familiar” Jane reiterated, seemingly unperturbed by the announcement of her father’s death.

“Well that was foreseeable, both his death and Jane’s reaction, since he was such an asshole I have no doubt that there was a thousand people trying to kill him” Silverfang said with a shrug.
“Actually it was Shadow that killed him” Rose informed them, slapping a confused look on everyone except Beth and Satyr’s faces.

“But I thought Familiars couldn’t be here without a partner” Jane said, stating everyone’s question. “They can if they have a new master before killing the old one” Rose replied, this did nothing for the confusion however.
“Familiars can change partners?” Silverfang asked before Jane could.
“Ahh, I forgot that humans and their Familiars where largely ignorant of the way in which Familiars work” Rose said with a slight smile, she looked as if she was going to speak but was interrupted by Silverfang.

“You make it sound like humans aren’t the only people that have Familiars” He said sceptically, unsure if this Rose was trying to trick him or actually though that people where really stupid.
“You’re an idiot” Rose told him, unintentionally answering his question. “The Orion–Cygnus Arm holds a lot more than just this system. And then there is the rest of the galaxy, and then the other galaxies beyond that. The universe is a big place, so incomprehensibly large that only a half dozen beings have true omnipotence within it and you are trying to say that you are the only race to reside in it, humans really are some of the densest sentient beings around” Rose told everyone, sighing slightly with vexation, she then spoke quietly to Satyr for a while, ignoring everyone else, before leaving.

“He’s coming soon” Silverfang heard before Rose left. Silverfang then approached Beth and Satyr with a rather unamused look. “I have a few questions for you” He said with a strained voice, dragging both of them upstairs despite Satyr’s protests that she needed to wait downstairs.
“Right, stand there a second while I work out where to start” Silverfang told Beth as he dragged her into the guest room.

“Start on what?” Beth asked, genuinely confused for one of the first times.
“Probing you for answers” he said before snapping his fingers. “At Niall’s place you where talking to Jane and stopped saying as human as you are and changed it to as human as I am. Why?” Silverfang asked, but he was only greeted with a shrug.
“I don’t know, it was just something I did. Is everything I have done going to be questioned?” Beth asked Silverfang, who did not seem happy with the answer.

“You did it on purpose, you stopping saying one thing and then say a different thing with a pause you where fully aware of in-between” He said, getting rather annoyed at this whole prospect.
“Look, I am not going to have all my actions scrutinized by you, I know what I am doing and we will leave it at that” Satyr said as a voice came from the doorway.
“Is there a problem?” it asked in a rather calm voice that had an underlying tone of such seriousness it would make the most prude man’s voice seem silly.

“No thank you Eliot, we are fine” Satyr said before noticing that the voice was completely different to Eliot’s, however when she looked over at the doorway there was no one there. Forgetting Silverfang for the moment-and he did not seem to mind being forgotten as he followed Beth-she walked over to the door and looked around. There was no one in the hallway and there was no sign that there had ever been someone there. With her curiosity now at extreme levels Beth headed downstairs, Satyr had the same expression as Beth had; one that thought it had seen something but nothing was there when she looked.

“Has anyone come in yet?” Beth asked with a confusing scanning of the room.
“Your Rose friend left only a minute ago, why would anyone be here yet?” Eliot said, answering her question with a question of his own and looking at Beth’s confused face with his own face of confusion.

“He has a point; it’s not like Rose is even where she is going yet. And people can’t just appear in houses with such a large group without anyone seeing them.” The calm, serious voice said, but the speaker was gone by the time Beth had looked around.
“This is not just me going nuts it is?” Beth asked but the looks on everyone else’s face indicated that was not the case.
“It wouldn’t be the first time you have gone nuts” The bodiless voice said, a hint of amusement entering its voice.
“I am going to kill you” Beth said with a very frustrated voice.

“Scary” The voice replied with no deviation from its normal tone. “You don’t mind if I draw on these walls do you?” It asked, and obviously didn’t wait for a reply because a second later a very realistic drawing of a Giraffe appeared on the walls. “Giraffe is such a strange name, but then so is Hippopotamus” the voice mused in a tone that was getting increasingly amused. Beth had already walked over to the cutlery drawer and was currently picking out a dozen knives.
“I like Dobermen, them massive dog-bear-things, the only problem is that things tend to get really hairy around them” the voice said, laughing at its own joke. Jane and Avrion also forgot the strange events for a second and laughed while the boys just stood with confused looked on their faces.

Beth then stormed over to the spot she was standing on and threw the dozen knives in the direction of the drawing. One of the knives thudded into something and the knife part turned red quickly, a sharp “Ow Adiunk” rang out, the second word was very different to any word anyone had ever heard before and the only one without a look of shock and confusion was Beth, who simply had an annoyed look on her face. “Et tu Bethee?” The voice asked before a thud rang out and the blade sharply moved up, the handle of the knife quickly turned red as well.

Beth waited for a second before walking over to the area where the knife was and looking down. “Now stop pissing about already” she said in a commanding sort of voice.
“Trust you to ruin my fun” The voice said as the knife flew up again and pulled itself out of whatever it was lodged in. The knife spun one and then it was devoid of any blood that stained it, however the blood was not on the carpet or the surrounding walls, it had simply vanished.
“You’re not seeing me though, I need to make my dramatic entrance, talking of which, it is pulling up just now” The voice said and a couple of seconds later the knife lost the fight with gravity and plummeted to the floor. Beth then proceeded to pick up the rest of the knives and did her best to ignore all the confused looks she was getting from Eliot and the rest of them.
“Wha?” Jane asked as Beth gathered the last of the knives and began to wipe them one by one and put them back in the drawer. Seeing that she would not get an answer out of Beth she turned to Silverfang.

“Wha?” she repeated, Silverfang shrugged but any speech he might have said was drowned out by the roar of an engine outside, it had such a powerful roar that Jane could actually feel the vibration of the noise. It then cut off and a few seconds later there was a knock at the door.
“Im not getting that, I remember what happened last time I answered the door” Eliot said, making Beth chuckle a bit as she opened the door.
“Hello” the man at the door said with a smile before Beth punched him in the face.
“Somehow that looks familiar” Eliot said, watching her punch the man.
“You have a very strange way of showing your affection to your older brother you know” he said, rubbing his nose.

“Yes well you are just very strange Sean, so I am allowed to have very strange ways” Beth told him before letting him inside to the ogling people.
“I’ve got a crush on him, he is so scruffy in hair and clothes but he pulls it off so well he looks better than he would in a suit. He devilishly charming and the most chivalrous person I have ever seen” Nehvna whispered in Jane’s ear. She looked at her with a smile before whispering back.
“Nehvvy, that just makes you like every other girl on the planet” Sean then walked into the middle of the room and looked around.
“Everyone loves me, everyone thinks I am awesome, everyone-“he began but Beth cut him off sharply.

“Don’t make he have to stab you again you egotistic maniac” She said, sitting down and ignoring the scowls she was getting from Jane and Nehvna.
“Well it seems I have won over the women around here, now all I need to do is win over you” Sean told Beth who scowled at him.
“I seriously will stab you if you carry on” she said, taking one of the knives out of her sleeve to prove it.
“Scary” he said in the exact same tone as last time.
“You can’t talk to him like that” Jane told Beth, her tone was an even mix of seriousness and humour.
“I can, he is my brother” Beth replied, this turned Jane’s face to confusion.
“Woah woah, wait. He is your brother? But then you’re my sister, so he is what?” Jane asked her.
“Nothing, he is my adopted brother and I’m your half sister so Sean is not related to you” She explained, passing the confusion to Eliot.

“You’re only a half sister?” He asked with a confused tone, Beth nodded and Jane decided to explain.
“Beth never lived with us, she just appeared at our door one day and told Mark that she was his daughter, he started shouting and she started shouting back so I came down to see what was wrong. Mark ordered me back to my room and Beth screamed back that I “had a right to know” so she told me that Mark used to be with someone else but left when Beth was about four. He never let her in but she did climb up to my window and I told her about Eliot, then we regularly met up here and got to know each other. I never cared that we had different mothers, I always thought of her as my sister, so that is how I introduced her and that is why you don’t know about it” Jane explained, clearing up Eliot’s confused look.

“Awww, I want Jane as my sister, we could have so much fun” Sean said, causing Beth to throw the knife at him. It sunk into Seans head and it rolled back before it returned to its original position.
“Dam that hurt” he said, pulling the knife out of his head.
“How..? How..?” Jane asked, her questions just trailed off to nothing.
“Well this is a book, so I can do anything I want” he told Jane with a “I know more than you” type of smile before holding up a book.
“How does that help you pull knives out of your head?” Jane asked again.
“It doesn’t. I wasn’t even talking about this, I just thought it was a good book and decided to show it to you all” Sean told them before lowering the book, it disappeared from his hand as his arm straightened out.

“Then what book are you referring to?” Jane asked, Beth was right; this day was getting weirder and weirder. Sean looked like he was about to say more but a very stern glare from Beth made him silent.

“Well enough about that, I guess I should get down to why I am here. And to help me I have brought someone you might know” he said, nodding his head to a man stood with a good posture. He was the mirror image of Sean with straightened hair and a posh suit. Even his body language was
different, the new man was standing serious and seemed like a “to the point” sort of person while Sean’s stance was a lot more chill and, as he had just demonstrated, looked to be the person to have some humorous banter before getting down to business.

“Balance, stop being a stiff” Sean said, Nehvna made a slight squeal as she found out who it was.
“I am, by nature, a stiff. I am the serious person, you are the bantering person. Together we make the team” Balance told him, there was the memory of his words but no memory of him actually having spoken.

“Stop showing off Balance, we can all do that, we just don’t because it is pointlessly showing off” Sean told Balance, his words made it appear that he was annoyed but his tone and body language showed that he was not.

“My apologies” Balance told Sean, this time it was a normal way of speaking. He then looked at the people in the room. Five of them where looking bewildered, one of them was looking annoyed and one of them was looking bored.

“Are we going to get to the Shadow problem yet?” Beth asked, she had heard then banter a hundred times and it was highly annoying.

“Ohh yea, the Shadow problem. He took out Mark so he must have a new master, Shadow is not the kind of person to do such a think unless he thinks it will get him further that staying with Mark” Sean said, stroking his chin to make himself look like his thoughts where more deep.
“I do that as well” Silverfang said, causing Sean to smile.

“It is an awesome thinking pose” Sean replied, before catching Nehvna’s eye. “Why is there some shy looking beauty staring at me?” He asked.
“She is mine as well” Jane told him, giving Nehvna a hug.

“Hmm, If I marry her then I could be Jane’s brother in law” Sean said with a scheming smile, Nehvna turned as bright as a tomato and buried herself in Jane’s chest.
“Sean. Focus” Beth told him, making two separate words and adding a large amount of emphasis to both of them. He spun round and spoke in single words.

“Yes. Shadow. Right.” He then returned to the use of proper sentences “From what I have seen already jumped ship, took him long enough as well. I’d head to Klass but I think it would weird them out” Sean told Beth, plastering the over used look of confusion on everyone’s faces.
“Who is Klass” Eliot asked, Jane had apparently let him do the speaking this time.

“Ahh, Klass, an old friend. He used to be a planet hopper, going from one planet to the next gathering holidays and festivals while spreading the holidays and festivals from the last planet; he takes about two, gives about two and then leaves for the next planet. He does this because he is a Thaui, a being that draws strength from being known. It is similar to Celestial style but require simple knowledge rather than prayer. I met him after one of his visits to a new planet and invited him into a….” Sean failed on the word and simply repeated “a” until Beth spoke.

“You are simply making more questions with your explanation” Beth told Sean.
“Yea that sort of happens a lot” he replied, looking at all the gormless faces, the only one that didn’t look like their brain had jumped ship was Beth, but she had heard it all before.
“He is a friend” Sean said simply, he disliked such simplicity but it was necessary for these people.
“Try keeping on track, Shadow is bad, tell us your plan” Beth told him, he glared at her before speaking again and keeping it simple.

“He has gone, I’m going to find out what he is up to and I want you to take them to Klass’ place, that is why I brought him up” Sean told Beth, but Jane piped up with a question.
“If Klass if a planet hopper” Jane spoke the word strangely, as if it was hard to comprehend herself saying it “Then where would his ‘place’ be?” She asked, fully expecting an answer she couldn’t properly understand.

“Off planet, I could tell you where but you would not understand where it was” Sean told her, it was not as confusing a reply as usual but it still shocked everyone.
“Off planet? You mean somewhere that isn’t here?” Jane asked, she was the only one who was not shocked into silence, but she was sufficiently shocked.

“Yes, somewhere that is not here. It may not be as glamorous as might think though, I don’t have a space ship down my pants despite what some people might think” Sean told them with quite a dirty look, Beth dropped a second knife out of her other sleeve and Sean quickly moved on.
“Umm, sorry about that, well just watch the birdy for a second” Sean then lifted up his finger and everyone was drawn to it, as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. It was Jane that first noticed the different surroundings.

“Why have the walls changed?” She asked, causing Sean to smile, he looked like he was going to go into a massive explanation when Beth starred at him and made him give the simple one.
“We changed houses, and islands, we are now in Ireland, I moved with a certain amount of subtlety since I want to stay relatively under the radar for now.” Sean explained.
“Is that how we are going to go ‘off planet’ then?” Jane asked, it was not in any way how she though planet travelling would be like.

“No, same planet travel is nice and quick but going to other planets requires a bit more, especially when you move with the subtlety that I am moving with” He explained again, he was doing a lot of explaining but then he liked explaining so it was all good.

“So what does this ‘bit more’ look like then?” Jane asked, she seemed to be the only person not completely stunned by the change of surroundings, but then she was a lot like Beth in that respect, she liked to know what was going on all the time.

“Well it is going to look like the insides of your eyelids, since you are all going to take a nice nap while I set it up” Sean replied, as he finished Jane yawned, she had not felt tired a minute ago but now her eyelids where so heavy and hard to keep open. Everyone around her started yawning as well, Jane was uncertain if they looked more confused or tired but she herself was too tired to think about that.

“What’s happening?” Jane asked in a slurred voice, hardly pronouncing the words. She felt like she hadn’t slept for a week and would like nothing better than to lie down and close her eyes but she kept them open with sheer force of will to at least get the answer from Sean before she crashed.
“I simply suggested that you should take a nice nap while I sorted the whole planet thing out. You are the ones who are now heeding my suggestion and taking a nap.” Sean said, his smile made it blatantly obvious that he was lying though his teeth but Jane could not stay away any longer stay awake. Several thuds where heard in rapid succession as everyone collapsed from extreme exhaustion. Beth and Sean where the only two left standing at the end of it, he smiled in a satisfied manner and turned to his sister.

“Mind giving me a hand? Planet travel is easy enough but when you have to cart such a large group of people around it gets slightly more difficult” Sean told her, she shrugged and got up.
“You know you didn’t have to be so forceful with them, it was even affecting me with the force you put into that.” Beth replied. The feeling of tiredness had gone from her body but everyone else was sleeping soundly, it would be nearly impossible to walk them up with the fatigue they were feeling.
“Well I don’t really have a guide to tell me what her resistance is, so I erred on the side of caution” Sean explained, pulling a candle out of his pocket, it was a very large candle, nearly as tall of he was, it looked extremely odd for him to be pulling something of that size out of his small pocket but Beth had seen the trick so many times before that it lost all amazement.

“Oversized candles, what can’t you use them for” Sean sat with a grin.
“Decorating a dwarfs birthday cake” Beth replied after a seconds pause. Sean laughed at the comment.
“That is overly true” He replied, lighting the wick at the top, it burnt with an orange light and with amazing speed, Sean, Beth and Balance where all staring at the flame as if it was vitally important. When the candle had burnt down to the ground everyone lost interest in it, the walls had changed again and the whole atmosphere felt different.
“Well, now that that is done I’m going out. Watch the kids” Sean said, heading to the door.

12 A dream. Jane was definitely in a dream. After all, real life didn’t have purple wombats with six arms. But then if she factored in the craziness of the day she had just had it would not surprise her to see them hopping around when she woke up.
“This is not how I usually have a dream, I know they are usually vivid but this is a bit to vivid” Jane said, looking at her hand, she clenched it and then unclenched it, for some reason she was conscious of her actions and they worked just the same as when she was awake. She took a step and felt the ground beneath her foot; she took a breath and felt the air in her lungs. Everything was so real that it was starting to be a little bit creepy. While she was walking on the oddly white floor she observed her surroundings. People of all shapes and sizes where popping in and out at regular intervals, they did not seem to be bothered by wombats hopping around and some people actually engaged in a conversation with them, further enforcing Jane’s believe that she had gone absolutely bonkers.

A person popped into the strange place and looked at Jane with a big smile, she didn’t recognize her but there was a feeling of knowledge about this person in front of her. The mystery was solved the moment she spoke.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here” The person said with a very jubilant tone, giving Jane a hug, Jane was to shocked to reply or even hug her back. After a few seconds the woman broke off the hug and looked at Jane.
“Are you alright Jane?” She asked, a tone of worry creeping into jubilant speech.
“Mum...you” Jane whispered, failing to finish her sentence, tears started to spill out of her eyes and roll down her cheeks. Jane’s mum pulled a tissue out of her pocket and began to wipe the tears away.
“No tears Jane, this is a joyous time, not a time for tears” She said as she finished wiping the tears away from Jane’s eyes.
“You left” Jane told her mother, still incapable of speaking anything more than a few words at a time.
“It was not a voluntary leaving dear, I came down with a slight case of death” She said with a slight giggle. Some small being that Jane had not noticed on her shoulder stood up and spoke with a voice that Jane would not have expected from someone so small.
“Elana, you need to stop hanging around the Kabals, they are a bad influence” The shoulder being said.
“Ohhh shush Enkia, Im trying to make sure my daughter is well looked after and the Kabals are the best ones for that” She replied, the shoulder being Enkia didn’t look pleased with the reply but he sat back down anyway, seeming to fade from view as he did so.
“Sorry about that, you know how Enkia is” Elana told Jane, who was still staring in disbelieve.
“You died?” Jane asked still completely shocked.
“Only a little bit, man didn’t know how to finish the job so I am here until I can get somewhere else to live.” Elana told Jane before realizing it explained nothing. “Think of someone burning down your house, you no longer have your house but you still have yourself” She explained, or at least tried to explain.
“Im….not going to try and understand.” Jane said finally, her mother simply laughed.
“Don’t worry, it is hard to understand but you will eventually get a grasp of it” Elana told Jane before continuing. “So, how did you get here? If you don’t understand how I am not properly dead then there isn’t much chance of you getting here on your own” Elana said, Jane simply shrugged.
“Well I was feeling sleepy because Sean suggested I take a nap, and now I am here” Jane told her mother, Elana seemed to understand what she meant though.
“Ahhhh. Well that I can explain. You see, Sean sent you to sleep and gave you the push you needed to get here, you have always been on the edge of this place which is why your dreams where always so vivid but Sean gave you that nudge you needed to get over here” She said, Jane simply nodded, her new lack of attempt to understand things was serving her well already. Elana saw that Jane didn’t understand that part either and sighed.
“Don’t worry; it will all seem clearer later. But for now it looks like you are going” she said, nodding to Jane’s slowly disappearing body.
“What...what is happening?” Jane asked frantically as she turned ghost-like.
“Your grip of this place was borrowed, so you can’t control it. You’re waking up now and leaving here slowly.” Elana told Jane calmingly.
“I don’t want to leave you” Jane replied, reaching out for Elana.
“Don’t worry, you will return soon” She said as Jane’s eyes snapped opened. She sat up and took a sharp breath before looking around; everyone else was already awake and milling around the room.
“I told him not to dose you so highly” Beth said, helping Jane off the floor. She shook her head a few times and looked around the room.
“It, feels different. I feel different. I can feel things more” she spoke generally and as confusingly as Sean. Beth frowned but she understood it clearly, it was just early was all.
“That’s fine, it’s just a side-effect” Beth said quickly, swiftly making a lie and telling it flawlessly. Jane nodded and then looked at the door.
“What’s out there?” She asked, causing Beth to smile widely.
“Out there, well dear, let’s go have a look” Beth said, opening the door, sunlight poured though the ajar door into the room.

13. A horrible smell wafted in from the door and Jane clenched her nose in disgust.
“That is horrible, the first place you take me in a cesspool?” She asked, pinching her nose to stop the smell from getting in, Beth on the other hand smiled, seemingly undisturbed by the smell.
“Well we were not planning on coming here but Sean had to make a quick stop and we thought that we would bring you lot along.” She told Jane, the rest of the people in Eliot’s house seemed to be gathering at the door, trying to find out what the horrid smell was and what a new planet was like. Several of the people on the street where looking into the house with mixed emotions, greed and lust where the predominant ones but they quickly scurried away as Balance appeared in the doorway.
“This is not the safest of places to be, we should find Sean quickly and move on” Balance suggested in a tone that sounded more like an order than a suggestion.
“Yes, your right. Let’s go” Beth said with a sigh, stepping out of the house with everyone else in tow.
“Wait” Jane said, stopping in her tracks “Where are Nehvna and Avrion?” she asked, not wanting to leave them alone in the house in this place.

“Don’t worry about them, no one could get into that house and they seemed tired, just let them sleep a while” Beth said, continuing to walk waay from the house. Jane’s stomach growled and Balance pulled a sandwich from his pocket, how it had gotten there-and how it had stayed in such a pristine condition- was beyond Jane but she was happy for the food so she took it from him with a quick “Thanks” and bit into it, the sandwich tasted so good and it filed her up a fair bit. She guessed that it was more of the weird stuff that had been going on so much recently and decided not to think anymore of it. Silverfang broke off from the pack and moved down to Jane at the back. He smiled softly at her as she ate the sandwich.

“How are you holding up?” He asked, referring to all the craziness that had happened.
“I’m doing alright” she replied, finishing her sandwich and taking his hand, a smile appeared on her own lips as she walked down the street with her Silverfang. The only thing that made this scenario bad was the terrible smell and leers of passerbys.

“I hate how they are looking at me” Jane said to Silverfang quietly, clutching to his arm tighter.
“Don’t worry, ill protect you” He said, secretly he liked how Jane clung to her, Jane-for her part- realized that she was pressed tightly to him and blushed.
“Where are we going Beth?” She asked to change the subject before it got too much for her to handle.
“To Sean, we are going to meet up with him and then get off this place, I just hope he has done what he needs to do by the time we get there” Beth told Jane, before slightly picking up the pace. They small band walked along the road and nine out of ten people glared at them or leered in some way, Jane got used to it eventually as it just became common place. Eventually they arrived at a large and sinister looking building, Beth was not put off by the look and opened the door, the sounds of gunshots echoed from within so she shut the door again.

“He isn’t don’t yet” She said simply, as un-put off by the gunshots as the sinister look of the building. The rest of the group however had varied reactions, Eliot and Silverfang looked shocked, Jane looked shocked but also looked accepting, as if it was just par with how her life had been going so far, and Balance looked as if he had seen this situation far too many times.
“Those…those…those where gunshots!” Eliot eventually managed to shout, getting over his surprise and managing to be vocal again.
“Yep, they where, one of the two things you get when you fire a gun, the other being a bullet” Beth said sarcastically, leaning against the building with a sigh. While Eliot was panicking and Silverfang was trying to look protective Jane looked up at the sign above the building. The letters where in some foreign alien language but somehow Jane knew what they said.
“The Human House?” She read aloud, making the tone into a questioning tone. Beth was shocked at the speed in which Jane was progressing and Balance had to speak up before she noticed.

“Yes, it is a place where humans are sold to other humans, one of the many stains on this planet” he explained, scorn entering his voice at the end of it. Whatever reply Jane was going to make was cut off by Silverfang who had been sniffing the air.
“Is that…smoke?” He asked, causing the others to sniff the air as well.
“Five…four…three” Beth counted, as she got to zero the doors crashed open and Sean walked out, two large rifles in each hand and a tall, green haired girl next to him, she looked about eighteen or so and was wearing ragged, old clothing.

“I hate the clothes these places give you, so itchy” The green haired girl said, scratching herself in several places, the sub-standard clothes seemed to strain against the girl’s large breasts and looked as if it was going to split at any moment.
“Well, Nena, you will get yourself into these messes” Sean said, a large amount of smoke pouring though the building behind him and the fire not far behind. “Now, if no one objects I suggest we move on before we all burn to death” He said cheerfully, discarding the rifles and stalking off down the street without waiting for anyone, the green haired girl-Nena, Sean had called her- walked off after him, a man leered obviously at her large breasts and so Nena swiftly head-butted him and carried on.
“Do you know her?” Jane asked Beth as the rest of the people carried on at a slower rate so they didn’t seem to be a part of the same group.
“Ohh yes, I know all about Nenatalev” Beth said smiling but not revealing anything else despite Jane’s repeated probing.