A unicorn.

It took seconds for Leila to identify the magnificent beast, after the imprint of intense glare from the rainbow beams finally faded from her retina, moments after the light itself. The creature’s mane carried a feathery texture and was laced with colourful patterns that reminded one of the feathers of a peacock, the iridescence fluctuating hues as the mane swayed in the wind.

Leila couldn’t take her eyes off the unicorn. She wondered where such a beautiful creature could have originated - there were in the dark side of Nowhere, after all, were allegedly mostly only wicked beings lurked. How, then, could things of such beauty appear here? Speaking of that, though, Leila was reminded of a similar being - something that would also perhaps qualify as an unicorn? Except with hollow eyes, torn skin, exposed bone and rotten flesh. She noticed that that creature was now nowhere to be found. Curious.

This is not to suggest that it is implied that the zombie unicorn somehow turned into this beautiful beast, of course. Such an absolutely ridiculous event is-

“-wah!”

The instant of distraction was sufficient for one of the undead to close in from the already tight fighting circle, and she felt the jerk from the skeletal fingers that had embedded themselves into the side of her arm. Before she did anything about it, however, the tip of a spear materialized through the space between the eyes of the decaying face that was peering over her shoulder, droplets of whatever flows inside the brain of a man dead for decades splattering accompanied by the sound that was a combination of a shovel making its way through half-melted snow and what was obviously the cracking of bone. The undead collapsed to its knees, but it took an extra, panicky punch from Leila’s bow-wielding hand for it to finally loosen its grip to allow it to fall to the ground.

Pain pulsed through her finger joints and she wondered whether she broke anything throwing that punch. Hopefully not.

Leila turned around to see Inadi pull back his spear and return a look at her. Before she could thank him or he could say anything, though, they were both distracted - Inadi to cripple another zombie nearby, and Leila to expend another arrow on one that was accelerating towards them.

”Definitely would like to see these things stop popping out like rabbits right?”

She’d say that she didn’t mind them popping out of the ground much so long as they would stop attempting to eat the humans alive, but well…that’d work as well, she figured.

”Do you think you can aim for that crow?”

She heard Harper call from the other direction and nearly panicked because she had just exhausted her arrows. She tried to hide that as she took the bloodstained arrow Harper handed her.

Her sight followed the direction he pointed towards - the silhouette of a resting bird docked upon a twisted twig. Its blank eyes glowed an eerie red, seemingly staring at them no matter how she moved. She drew the bow and took aim. It wasn’t hard, but she hesitated longer than usual.

It might have been because used arrows are aerodynamically flawed and required additional adjustments. At least that was what she told herself. What actually bothered her, however, were the chills that ran down her spine as she made eye contact with the wicked bird.

And when she finally was composed enough to decide to let go of the bowstring - an interval of a mere couple of seconds - a great wind struck her and she was again thrown off balance. When she rightened her stance, the airs were empty and the crow was nowhere to be seen - until she heard the hissing of a thousand-year-old voice:

”Prideful...”

* * * *

Within her range of sight she could see Harper, Ace, and a couple of nobodies, all occupied in combats. The witch was at the centre of the circle, sending out wave after wave of black wisps that petrified everything they came into contact with. Leon and Jasper appeared to be struggling with repelling the projectiles of black magic.

In books and movies, any crucial decisions or dire situations call for slow motion camera takes, detailed descriptions, and close and complete analysis of everything that is going down, down to great detail.

At this moment, with all that’s happening around her, Leila had the chance to verify the credibility of such descriptions. Results: slow motion: yes. Detailed analysis of situation: as far as one can be from it.

The dead had fallen silent and the witch has decided to face them directly. There is an attack plan and several people are charging towards the witch. ...and that is all that Leila knew. Nothing more. No theory, no calculations, no forecast of results. They were taking great risks and they had to do something.

”Someone, get a hit in!”

Leila heard someone yell. She reached behind her back into her quiver only to remember that she didn’t have any arrows left.

Except she did.

Without thinking much, she secured the arrow, drew the bow, and released it into an accurate trajectory that intersected that of one of the wisps headed towards the group of humans. The two collided in mid-air, the falling to the ground in shattered stone.

Leila rubbed her fingers together, a chilling sensation lingering at her fingertips. She turned around and saw Haku, apparently not noticing her and focusing his strength on the spells he was casting towards the witch.

Leila reached into the quiver for another arrow of ice.

The projectiles were surprisingly well-balanced, and she was quickly accustomed to the feeling of the new material. In quick succession, she started firing shots towards the wisps that posed a risk to the humans, blocking them in their way so that her companions are covered in their advance. For some reason - the same reason she shivered when she saw the red-eyed crow - she dared not aim directly at the witch, yet arrow after arrow she tried to knock back as many of the incoming wisps as possible, alongside Leon’s gusts of wind.

Tracking moving targets was harder than she expected and success rates are mundane at best, while the sessions of rapid firing drained her amulet rather quickly. She realized it wasn’t efficient, yet it did seem to be the only thing she could do now, from here.

Now. One word, yet it scared him out of his wits. Avian's voice resonated within his head and he watched as the Dragoon charged forward with maddening speed. A spire of earth burst forth from the ground beneath him and before Harper could yell out, the soldier was in the air.

Ace tapped him on the shoulder with a determined nod. "Aim for the heart and I'll aim for her head."

He didn't even manage mumble a reply, before he knew it, his friend was charging towards their foe. Harper spun around and followed, running faster than he probably had in his entire life. The pain, the fear, it all left. The only thing that consumed him was the need to land a hit and put an end to this twisted game.

A loud crunching sound filled the air, followed by a surprised shriek from the witch. She leaned back and raised her arms in an attempt to shield herself from the debris, but it was too much, so she took a step back. Jasper's wisps caused her to let out a shocked gasp and Hakuren grinned as the ice snaked around her ankles. "Good job, bear." For a moment, the witch found herself stunned. Brandy provided Jasper and Hakuren with the back up they needed and the witch's attempts to dispel the ice trap was stopped by a buff from the rabbit guide. She narrowed her eyes at the humans and lifted a hand.

The ground beneath them shook as too horizontal pillars of earth shot out towards Ace and Harper. "Look out--!" By some miracle he managed to use his momentum to sidestep. Harper let out a relieved sigh, he continued sprinting only for the ground beneath his feet to start moving upward. For cellery's sake! The stone he was on was levitating? He felt sick to his stomach but followed Ace's lead. The young man leaped onto a lower levitating rock then continued his sprint. When he was right above the witch he jumped down with his sword high above his head and swung with all his might.

Another pillar of earth knocked the sword right out of hands. The witch shattered the ice shackles around her feet and with a snap of her finger sent him tumbling into ground. When he opened his eyes, a giant rock was right above him. Harper rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being squished then picked up his sword with much haste.

"Look here you witch!" Brandy had approached tome in hand and when the witch swiveled around, she was blinded by a flash of light.

Harper's amulet shone brightly and without thinking he jammed the his sword into the woman's chest. He heard a squelching sound followed by a loud shriek. An incredible force slammed him in the gut, forcing him to let go of his weapon. It was another spire of earth. He was flung back several feet, and found himself rolling across the dusty ground. It felt like he had been hit by a truck and nothing made sense. The boy wondered if he had broken a rib, it was very possible. Colorful dots swam across his vision and Harper found himself teetering over the edge of consciousness.

The witch's eyes glowed blood red and with a flick of her wrists, Songbird and Brandy were sent flying. Miraculously, Martini's bubble dome managed to hold firm. She had half a sword buried in her chest and a black bile-like substance dribbled from the open wound. She could feel her power waning, but if she was going down, then she would take them all with her! A loud shriek tore through the night are as pillars of earth randomly tore out of the ground. This was it. They could either take her down, or allow the witch to drag them all down as well.

---

The next thing that happened made Riley stare. Harper was practically tossed halfway across the battlefield and dark wisps shot high into the air as pillars of earth tore through the ground. "Inadi," gone was the playful tone. The usually smiley girl, had a look of utter determination on her face. "Go see if Harper is okay and back them up! I'm going to try and shoot those damned wisps out of the air." Her eyes fell onto a hunched over Leon.

He looked tired and rightfully so. She noticed that his crystal was almost out of energy. "Sit tight, Leila and I have this covered!" The girl noticed the ice arrows in the archer's quiver then turned to Hakuren with a thumbs up. "Think you can help slow the witch down? You can leave the defense game to us." Fireballs came to life on her palm and she chucked one at a nearby wisp. "Guys! Focus on the witch we'll cover you!"

"Alright, make sure to take care of queen Leon." He tapped his friend on the shoulder then jogged ahead to join the other fights.

"Leon, Leila, are you two alright?" She tossed another fireball at a wisp that had decided to go after Hakuren. Her amulet was still half full, so if she didn't miss then plain fireballs would probably last for a good chunk of time.

The wind mage was panting, "just barely...you girls?"

"Oh...I'm getting all fired up! Why don't we blow them away." She waved at the air and the wisps above began gathering.

Two bad puns in a night. Leon sighed then stared at the sky above them. "This'll be a breeze."

"That a boy! Leon. Now Leila, give these wisps the cold shoulder." Riley could have sworn she had heard Leon groan. No matter, it was do or die. The wisps in the sky began splitting up and headed straight for them.

The fighting ensued and she looked between battles. Riley and Inadi were working together to take out the blob and the other were coming up with decent plans to stop the hag. Something dawned on her for a moment and she stopped, putting a hand to her forehead. "Ha, to think I would've just ran right into attacking. I could've been dead if it weren't for these guys." She spoke aloud, but to no one in particular. Her eyes scanned the battlefield and she nodded towards Jasper's idea.

"It's a long shot, but it could work. We just need a way to deflect her attacks." Ace looked up when she heard her name.

Haku said "Hey rabbit, you can shoot fireballs with that tome of yours, right? You can help Ace out with that fire of yours."

The girl smirked and patted the rabbit on the back. "Keep up." She teased playfully before watching as Haku and Leon took a shot at the witch. She was by Jasper and Avian until he leaped forward to attack. Ace's hand gripped her the empty sword hilt, at the ready. There was a wide grin on her face as she prepared to dart off. "Alright Harper, aim for its heart, and I'll aim for its head, heh." She pulled her hat downward some and she smiled. "You're the team leader here. All or nothing."

At the sound of the call, Ace didn't hesitate to dart forward. This could work if they could get her before she managed to move. As she ran, she caught a glimpse of those familiar white wisps charging toward the witch as well. "Heh, keep it up Jasper." She spoke under her breath as she ran. Once she was close enough, the sword sparked to life and she leapt into the air to bring a horizontal strike to the witch's head in order to decapitate her. With her head removed and her heart stabbed, there was no way she could recover. A newly formed pillar blocked her path and instead of falling into it, she used her feet to push away and land on the ground again.

"So close..." Ace huffed and the. Ran towards her again. The rocks under them began moving, but Ace's determination kept her from falling off. Her grin widened when she saw Harper get to the witch first. "Way to go- Harper!" She only hesitated when she saw him get tossed several feet. The others would get to him. Jasper would heal him, and he'd be fine. Ace couldn't stop now. She still had to keep up her end of their deal. She wasn't sure if he pierced her heart, but with the sword still there she could still push the blade all the way through. Her original plan to chop the witch's head off wasn't going according to plan thanks to the various rocks that were trying to crush them all.

Somehow, she managed to get close to the witch and leap toward her. Instead of bringing the sword across her head, she aimed for her arms. It was too dangerous to try and jump. Ace didn't want to risk getting knocked out the air- ... more damage that way.

"Die already old hag!" Just in case the witch managed to block her fiery sword attack, she pushed the sword further into the old hag's chest. But doing so, the ground under her broke away as the witch stumbled backwards and she was tossed off to the side with a hard thud. Ace landed on her left arm and rolled a few times before landing on her back. "O-...Ow." The wind was knocked out of her as she rolled to her stomach and sat up. There was no doubt something had fractured or broken in her arm, she landed pretty hard and the pain of it only further gave hint.

But she wasn't giving up or lying down until that thing was dead. Ace staggered back to her feet and shook her head. "Yeesh, my ears are ringing..." Ace walked towards the group, not in much haste as before. Her amulet was drained and that throw knocked most of her energy out of her, not to mention having to dodge boulders that were flying toward her. She picked up her hat, that had fallen off to the side and then the empty hilt she had dropped as well. "Hey, projectile shooters! Aim for the hole in her chest- or her eyes." She stayed behind the group, having little use to them at the moment with low fuel.

Seeing a large rock coming towards the side closer to her, she pulled Leila downward with her right arm to duck under it, since she was closer to her. "That was close." She breathed as it fell behind them. Now. Now she was sure she never had to use this much energy before. Not for parkour or running away from people at least.

Everyone agreed on his plan and he observed intently as it was carried into action. Martini began growing one of her bubbles so it was large enough to enclose them with the witch who was currently being frozen to the ground by Hakuren. Unfortunately, the frigid ice didn't seem to be affecting the wicked woman much, as everything but her, froze into place. The icing didn't do much other than piss her off as she sent out black wisps that would turn whatever it touched into stone. His eyes widened as he remembered Vincent and anger broiled up inside him. Remounting the unicorn, he charged in with Avian as he let out a blood curdling cry to rush in.

White streaks of electricity crackled around him, well at least he thought it was electricity, but as he turned around to check which side of the battle it was surging from, he was stunned to find that it was emerging from Jasper. Then he was reminded of her attack on the dragon. 'She's at it again! Go Jasper!' he cheered mentally and his steed continue to charge in at the witch. Ace and Harper dove in as well and Harper managed to land a weak blow and Lesley grinned in accomplishment as a look of shock and disbelief crossed over the witch's face. But the slight look of uneasiness didn't last very long as she put on an annoyed expression, raising her hands to defend herself with huge pillars that began to shoot from the bare earth.

Throwing his head back, his pink locks wildly thrashing behind him, he let out his own battle cry and with an arm up in the air, he tapped his legs against his ride, signalling the unicorn to go even faster. A blinding light whitened his vision for a couple of seconds and once he regained his ability to see clearly, Harper had a sword jammed straight into the witch's chest and Ace had sliced her still living head clean off. "Woohoo!!!" Lesley cheered in a sort of victory chant, but it was far from over. With another wave of her hand, even with a weapon rammed right through her flesh and her brain yards away from her body, rock formations rapidly emerged from the barren dirt, striking humans and Nobodies alike off their feet. A pillar uprooted right in front of him and next thing he knew, he was sent flailing to the ground as well. The unicorn had reared back to dodge the attack and had accidentally thrown him off board. Scrambling to get back up, he suddenly felt a crippling pain shoot up his stomach. Looking down, he realized he had landed right into a spike tree root which was now buried into his left hip. Tears trickled down his cheeks, but with a cry of agony, he tore himself from the protruding double edge.

The unicorn galloped back to his side and though he was critically hurt, its presence calmed him to a point where he could focus. Sliding onto the animal's back once again, he bled a section of its white coat into a blood red. Ace had knocked the witch almost down to her feet, the body tumbling for the ground. The sky above darkened to an almost pitch black as wisps clouded above them then broke into an alarming rain-like fall earthbound. Cursing under his breath, he crawled closer to the unicorn's ear. "Help us," shooting his arm up, he blasted a purifying rainbow flash and managed to lessen the amount of bad wisps. Unfortunately, one grazed his finger before dispersing and the stone-turning spell began to quickly spread.

It spread like a virus right before his eyes and before he could do anything about it, it had already turned his entire right hand into rock. With his left hand, he bashed the rock off and it was no longer able to continue infecting the rest of his flesh. On a good note, the limb loss was painless and he only lost a hand, but on a bad note, he only had one hand remaining. Tears welled up in his eyes, but now was not the time to cry. He could bawl as much as he wanted after the fight was over, but not now.

While the others took care of the body, he knew all the control was in the head, where the brain was. Catching sight of the head rolling towards the body, he motioned for his steed to trample after it and as soon as her hair was in close grasp, Lesley snatched the witch's head straight up. "I've got you now birch!" he sneered through gritted teeth before chucking her straight up into the shroud of black wisps above. He hoped he had thrown with enough force to get her high enough to touch her own creations and turn herself into stone.

Why do people keep throwing him around?

Songbird slammed against a smooth surface and crumpled down on the ground. His elbows and shins smarted from the impact, but it could’ve been worse; if Martini’s bubble dome didn’t hold, he would’ve been sent flying into the arms of the undead outside. However, remaining in the same area as the others presented a brand new dilemma. The item hunter rocketed up again when the earth shook and pillars burst out from under, and in doing so came in contact with a few floating wisps.

“My hat!” The nobody’s screech was so high-pitched that it even jarred the witch, who was already convulsing enough as it is with those multiple stabs to the chest. The black headgear was taken off and dropped to the ground where it immediately stiffened to a chunk of rock. Songbird didn’t mind his second fall as much as the fact that one of his beloved (and trademark) clothing apparel was now petrified; that hat had been with him since he was born!

Meanwhile, when their companion had been hurled across the better half of the domed battlefield, Fluffy and Stuffy scurried over to a prone figure near what would be Songbird’s landing site. The two fluffballs slithered under the flat boulder pinning the person down, and used their combined leverage to tip it upwards. In doing so, they gave Avian arm room to crawl out from under the debris. “Thank you,” He murmured as the pets squealed in unison, and then winced when he started to walk. Great, a limp, not to mention that his body was sore all over thanks to that seism magic.

“Hey beefcake! A little help here!”

The dragoon heard a voice from the near left and limped over to it. Songbird was stuck between a log and a rock pillar, so Avian pulled him out and the two collapsed on the ground from the effort. “My back hurts,” The item hunter whined but the soldier pulled him up anyway, the latter pointing to a certain object and then saying, “Is that yours?”
Upon being reminded of the sad loss of his hat (it was roughly equivalent to how important Lesley’s hand was to him, poor darling) Songbird grimaced. “Why are you asking- Whoa whoa get your hands off my hat!” The item hunter tripped over a vine and landed flat on his face when he attempted to nab his beloved hat away from Avian, who was inspecting it from side to side. “It’s the perfect shape,” The dragoon declared before snapping- gasp- what used to be the plume on the side, then dropping it. He now had a medium-length, jagged piece of rock that could be mistaken for a neanderthal’s dagger if it didn’t have those telltale feather marks on it.

Witch’s head was in the air.

“You really like throwing things, don’t you?” Songbird muttered as the soldier swung his arm down and then threw the piece in a lower curve. The flat rock sailed over the distance, whirling around steadily like a disc, and hit the witch’s bleeding neck. The tip of the hag’s nose touched a black wisp as it tilted half an inch higher in the air from the impact with Avian’s rock, before descending quite marvelously back to the ground.

That ought to take care of it; even from this distance, both Avian and Songbird could see the start of an icky grey pallor reaching up the witch’s face.

A sword buried deep inside her heart, it was over for the witch.

Slowly, the villain began turning into a gel-like substance. Black wisps ate away at her flesh and she sank into the earth below, like ice cream that had fallen onto the sidewalk on a scorching summer day. Her petrified head fell meters away from her sagging body, eyes flitting frantically as the stone spell consumed her. Soon, a dying gurgle left her throat and she disappeared into the barren wasteland, her melted remains seeping into the cracks and crevices. Only a black wisp lingered on the spot she stood on.

The Lost Souls had won, but just barely. All of them were running low on energy and while everyone sustained scratches and bruises, a few of them had suffered worse injuries. Lesley's in particular was a wound that not even time would be able to heal. It would be a constant reminder of the witch, Nowhere, and all the perilous journeys they had to endure.

Hakuren pressed a hand to his bleeding shoulder, there were dark circles under his eyes and he looked ready to pass out. "Heh, what do you know, we beat the odds again. So far, they've been in our favor." The ice mage let out a weary laugh. He turned to grin at Leon, but the wind mage wasn't even listening. He was standing still, mouth agape and hands clenched so hard into fists that his knuckles had turned white.

It took Leon a couple of moments to regain his bearings. "Oh...God. Lesley, your hand." He spun around. "Avian? Martini, Songbird? Lesley lost a hand." Maybe if they tended to it as soon as possible they'd be able to remedy the situation. He held onto his own hand and felt his knees wobble. Nowhere was taking more and more from them all the time. Their memories, their friends, their lives. How much time had passed since they had gotten on the train? His dad had probably called up the entire police force. A frown tugged on the corners of Leon's lips. Or maybe he hadn't, maybe no one cared at all. "Can it be healed?" His eyes flitted from teammate to teammate, everyone was looking very much out of it, but they still had a dragon and a rider to save.

"Good job you guys!" Riley gave both Inadi and Leila taps on the back and two thumbs up. Like the others she was covered in scratches and bruises, but the girl was still high on adrenaline that she didn't really feel a thing. "Harper!" She made a dash for the boy who was crumpled on the ground and gave him a kind smile. "You did good," she reached out her hand and waited for him to take it, and when he did he was yanked to his feet. Riley noticed the difficulty he had when trying to stand so she grabbed his arm and tugged it over her shoulder. "No complaining, just take it easy." Riley had it so most of Harper's weight was on her then she began hobbling towards the others.

Harper muttered a thank you and allowed the girl to drag him along, he was more out of than he thought.

Riley chattered on in an attempt to raise his spirits, but as soon as her eyes landed on Lesley's hand it were as if all the words she had wanted to say had died. "Lesley..." Aside from Vince, Lesley had been the other person she had spent her first two weeks in Nowhere with. She passed the wobbly Harper to Hakuren then made her way towards the unicorn. She didn't know what she was doing, but she clasped Lesley's remaining hand between her own and looked him in the eyes. The thought of losing him the same way they had lost Vince, it was scary. "You'll be okay," she declared. The girl had aimed to sound reassuring but in the end her voice turned scratchy, almost as if she were about to cry. Her grip on Lesley's hand tightened before she nodded.

Hakuren let out a sigh, "is everyone okay? Whether we like it or not, we still have a bratty dragon to save."

As Jasper retreated her wisps for fear of passing out, she had just enough to stay in control and not pass out. Though she could no longer heal the others, she was glad to have thrown the witch off guard and we she finally regained enough energy to look backup at the situation, Harper had successfully rammed a sword through her chest and Ace's topped it off with a head decapitation. One would think chopping off the witch's head would do the trick, but to her chagrin, the evil hag functioned on. Maybe not as well as before, but she was still summoning pillars out of the ground in rage, body moving like it still had its head attached.

Feeling the ground beneath her rumble, she merely missed being hit by a pillar as she limply rolled out of the way. Looked like she had bitten off more than she could chew. Jasper regretted exhausting her resources and meekly watched on her knees as the events continued to play out before her. The black wisps swarming above them were being taken care of by the others and she was glad for it, for she could no longer do anything to defend them, let alone keep herself safe. A sudden breeze wizzed past her and she observed in awe as Lesley galloped by on the unicorn, but something didn't look right. She cold clearly see a dangerous amount of blood dripping from the pink haired man and down the creature's leg. Or maybe the unicorn was injured, but she doubted it. The poor guy looked to be in pain and she instantly felt saddened that she was of no use to him.

A display of colors sprung out of his upraised hand and Jasper could almost cry in thanks. She began to make her way towards him, but she stopped in her tracks as she saw his hand turn into stone right in front of her. She couldn't bare to look as he smashed it off, stopping the spread of the witch's spell. Standing there, frozen in shock and fear, the severity of the situation illiterately turned her into a statue, but Lesley soldiered on, his mount bounding on after the rolling head of the witch. Grabbing her head right up, Jasper stared at the witch's head go sailing up to the black wisps she had cast herself. It appeared to be a bit short on force, but a dagger shaped rock shot out of nowhere and pushed it the extra length and Jasper gasped as it landed back to the dirt as a disappearing black gurgle of wisps and mush.

Gathering again as a group, everyone looked roughly beat, but at least they were all alive. Haku was right, they had beat the odds against them and survived another seemingly impossible task. When the others finally noticed Lesley's missing hand, she couldn't even bring herself to look. The loss was almost as bad as losing a person. Living without on entire hand would definitely be a new challenge for him and she hoped they would be able to find a solution. This was Nowhere. Someone out there probably knew how to regenerate a hand for him or make him a prosthetic. Lesley's hip didn't look good at all. Walking up to the unicorn, she just didn't have enough essence to help anyone.

Making eye contact with the majestic horse, her eyes begged for help and the unicorn responded by nodding its head towards its peacock feathers. Jasper was confused at first, but then she realized it was beckoning her to take one. Plucking a feather, she walked over to Lesley andbrushed it over his bleeding hip injury. He had already lost too much blood, but it was truly a miracle. It started to close up, skin sealing together like nothing had pierced through it.

"is everyone okay? Whether we like it or not, we still have a bratty dragon to save."

"Yeah, we should keep moving before anything bad happens," she said wearily as she watched the black wisp remains of the witch and the undead corpses still laying around the battle field. Bringing the feather down to her leg, she brushed it over and was thankful it had the same affect. Passing the healing gift around to heal the others injuries, she felt horrible that it couldn't bring Lesley's hand back. Once everyone was in better condition, the group trudged on in search of the missing dragon and rider.

Inadi watched as Harper was thrown across the way and it made him go wide-eyed. He forgot that he had a live zombie still struggling within his grasp. Riley suddenly shouted at him to check on Harper which made the halberd holding man roll his eyes. “Yeah sure, as soon as I take care of fatso here I'll do what I can for Harper. Right now you need to focus on taking care of what you can. This guy will be done before long!” He yelled back as a sudden lurch in the big guy's frame made Inadi feel like his shoulders were just thrown out of socket.

For having a spear tip lodged right in his chest, the big guy was still putting up a fight. Inadi was still stuck as he continued to fight to get his spear removed from the thing. It was likely a rib that was keeping it from coming back out but at this point whatever it was Inadi was hoping it was going to break before his arms did. All the while he was wrangling the stupid thing his friends were being thrown against the witch and her powers. Stupid zombie. If it would just die again he could go on and help the rest of them. For the moment though Inadi was stuck hanging on to what felt like dear life.

Another quick lurch and the spear came out and along with it a good portion of what looked like a sternum. That explained why the spear was stuck. Looking at the sternum that he was about to pull off he noticed that it was covered in that sludge the stupid thing was spitting. The spear didn't seem affected by it which was a good revelation. The big guy turned around again and, with his guts spilling out with a few bubbling bits of acid as well, began walking towards the boy. Quickly picking himself off the ground he was thrown to after the sudden freedom he got with the spear becoming unstuck he slammed the spear head on the ground to break the sternum off. Now looking up at the monster he was about to make a quick strike at the thing, but at that point a collection of wisps began circling the two of them.

Unsure as to why the wisps were suddenly coming over towards them Inadi began trying to avoid the black lights as the big zombie waved them away with its large arms. While avoiding the lights, Inadi looked over and saw a sight that made his stomach drop. Lesley riding the unicorn that she and Jasper had cured looked like he was in a complete mess. His arm was gone because of one of those stupid wisps and it looked like he was bleeding as well. Inadi grew angry with himself as he watched the big stupid behemoth in front of him continue to wave his arms at the wisps. Finally he did the one thing he couldn't afford to do. The big guy touched one.

The stone virus began spreading through his arm and up to his shoulders. It tried wiping it off as it reached the neck and chest. The acid that was spilling out turned to stone quickly and finally the head. The grunting finally stopped, as did all the wisps that were flying overhead as well. Confused, the framed face of Inadi looked up to see that the witch was now dead, but not without a serious toll that was taken on the group. Everyone had injuries it seemed and Inadi stood there on his own, completely unscathed it seemed. Harper was no doubt still suffering from him being thrown earlier, Ace looked like she was struggling a bit as well as some of the guides. A low growl rattled in his throat as a collection of lightening gathered in his hand. Looking up at the stone statue of the big zombie Inadi made a bolt shoot out from his knuckles. With a powerful and quick movement, Inadi shoved the bolt into the head of the statue. Dust exploded from the now empty area that once held the statue's head. Throwing his spear over his shoulder he raced over to the others of the group.

At first Inadi wanted to shoot over to Harper, the person Riley wanted him to check on earlier in the first place, but saw that the red head and tended to him and gotten him to his feet. Going over to the rest of the group Harper was then left in the care of Hakuren and Lesley was then the center of attention. Wanting to say something to him in hopes of making him feel better about the situation, Inadi found himself drawing a blank and quickly retreated into himself as he continued finding hard to try and break into rest of the group that had fought so hard against the witch while he was left useless because of one stupid zombie.

Riley then reminded everyone that there was a baby dragon still left to find and Inadi sighed. As the feather was being passed around that Jasper was using to help everyone Inadi waved it off. He didn't need it anyway. Nothing a few minutes of rest wouldn't fix. Scanning the area to try and think of a good place to start the search again Inadi became lost in his own skin. With all the movement and fighting he had forgotten where they had been and where they had yet to step into. He turned to the rest of the group and looked as everyone got the last bits of healing they needed. Deciding that he needed to provide some sort of support before he began beating himself up anymore he let out an agitated sigh. “We need to keep moving like Jasper said. For those still a little sore from the fight before, stay in the middle of the group so that nothing can jump us again and get the upper hand,” Inadi said as he began walking over to Lesley and set his spear aside. Giving him a quick look, and a said shot at his arm and his hip, Inadi shook his head. “And if the unicorn isn't going to join us any further I don't want you walking. I'll carry you if need be,” He told him, a forced smile now on his face. Inadi wanted to show some kind of confidence at the situation. Looking down at his necklace, he saw that he was just under half full. Pointing at the jewel he finished his sentence. “I still got a little magic left in me thankfully.” Inadi finished as he watched the group begin moving after the feather was passed around to the last few people that still needed it.

Seeing Lesley get thrown and stabbed made Ace jump to help. But with her left arm hanging at her side, she couldn't really provide support. And then she saw it. Something that made her go cold for a brief moment. 'Lesley's hand is gone... Lesley's hand. It's gone. Even if they didn't talk much, and even if she wasn't sure of Lesley's gender [yeah, she missed the memo when Leon told her], Lesley was still a Lost Soul. And a Lost Soul was a companion- at least until they got out of Nowhere. They were in this together and that's how they would stand. And with a friend injured that badly, the witch had to go. Her life shortened even more with how much she hurt her friends.

"No more of us should get hurt... No more should have to take this..." Ace didn't understand why she cared so much when complete strangers got hurt in front of her. She had seen many people die before and it never phased her, but for some reason, this was different. A lot different. And she didn't appreciate them getting attacked. With the little energy she regained, her sword sparked to life. Ace started walking toward the witch with broken and all her various injuries. She realized something must have cut her...or she missed an injury- because there was a bloodstain on the back of her leg.

But just as she was about to rampage towards the witch, the old hag started to die. It didn't stop her though, what did stop her was the fact that once again her flame died. Ace wasn't going to gain anything if she kept trying to summon her sword. With a sigh, she turned back to her comrades and then sat down on the ground. She looked at everyone's battered forms and watched as Riley tried to keep everyone's spirits up. With a small laugh, she thrusted her fist into the air and yelled out triumphantly so that it echoed through their ears.

"We defeated the witch! Once again, we've gotten through another challenge!" Ace grinned, even with the lack of energy, she managed to beam. "Even with the injuries," Ace paused and looked over at Lesley's missing hand. "We still won. And we will keep on beating the odds." She smiled again, but then winced when she moved her broken arm. She had landed pretty hard on it.. "Ice queen is right... we still need to get Fluff." Something was passed around, a feather of some kind. Whatever it was, it worked the same way Jasper's healing magic worked. When it was her turn to take it, she brushed it over her broken arm. And like magic, it was all healed- it was still pretty sore along with some of her other injuries, but it got the job done which was all that mattered.

Inadi mentioned something about the more injured stay in the center of the group and Ace scoffed. She hopped up on one leg to avoid hurting herself more and then walked forward. "I shall not be put in the middle." She stuck her tongue out at Inadi and smirked. "I can handle my own. Nothing will get the upper hand against me." She skipped forward to be ahead of the group as usual. "If we gotta go, then let's head out." She said, taking her place, leading the group like she normally did. The feather should've done them good, so she didn't bother to ask if they were okay. Once more, the group was moving through the spooky nightmare-ish forest.

"Here Fluffy, Fluffy. It's a bunch of humans trying to get you back to your family. Not a bunch of nasty old witches... Marcooo?" Ace called out. She didn't hear any 'Polos' or amy response to her calls for that matter, but she continued calling for the cloud dragon. Well, she continued until she got bored of calling the little dragon. "We should have really cool theme music. You know, since we've defeated the witch. We're practically unstoppable right now."

The feather Jasper passed around was practically a medical miracle. Wounds that would have taken stitches and at least weeks to mend on their own just vanished instantly before Hakuren eyes. Torn flesh would reconstruct and the only thing that would remain was a blotchy pink scar where the wound should have been. He couldn't help but laugh a little. "This is something not even biology teachers will be able to explain, ain't that right Leila?" His eyes flitted towards the healer and smirk tugged on the corner's of his lips. "If we sell Bear to science, we could definitely make quite a hefty sum of money."

"I'll be alright now," Harper mumbled as he pulled away from Hakuren. "Thanks."

"You sure about that, Riddle?" Hakuren snickered, "I'm always willing to help damsels in distress."

Harper's eyebrows furrowed in irritation. "Yeah...thanks for the help." For some reason, Hakuren's humor always managed to rub him the wrong way. Maybe it was because the older boy was always making a mockery out of things, or maybe it was how Haku lacked genuine concern for the safety of those around him. Harper couldn't put a finger on it, but something about Hakuren just managed to get on his nerves.

He turned to look at Songbird and Brandy, while Avian was up front and Martini was on the soldier's back, and the two other guides had decided to trail behind the group. "Thanks a lot for your help." The boy then attempted to jog towards the front portion of the group, only for a sharp pain in his side to stop him. In the end, Harper settled for brisk walking and it was only then that his eyes landed on Lesley's missing hand.

He could have lost a lot more than just that, he could have died and they could have died too. "I'm sorry," how lame was that? It wouldn't bring Lesley's hand back, but there wasn't a lot to say. What could he say anyway? Harper tore his gaze from Lesley and focused on the empty shed they had surrounded. "There's nothing here." The door was wide open from when the giant blob of a zombie had staggered out. "It's just an empty house," he turned to look at the others and sighed. "No sign of the dragon."

A bow dropped to the ground.

Leila managed to remain standing in the aftermath of the chaotic battle at the site, but that only barely. Her hands dangled on the sides, her shoulders aching like they were about to fall off. The shaft of one arrow of ice melted away slowly between her closed fingers and eventually snapped into two, falling onto the ground. The light from her amulet quickly faded back into the dim glow, revealing the little bit of liquid that remained inside - a result of the exhaustion from the consecutive firing of arrows for an extended period near the end of the battle.

The witch was dead. The head of the wicked being dropped to the ground, petrified by the wisps produced by the very own hazards she conjured - the black projectiles dissipated into thin air as the castor of the spell deceased.

Leila’s mind was mostly blank at the moment. The only thoughts that lingered were the senses of pain and exhaustion, the gratefulness for the fact that she didn’t die - they didn’t die, possibly more appropriately. She was genuinely relieved when upon a quick turn of her head all the members of their group were present.

Most of all of them, at least. Lesley was missing a hand.

Lesley was missing a hand.

The realization struck her hard - the loss of a limb. Having grown up under an environment when a cut on a fingertip was tended to with the seriously of handling a fissile substance bordering on critical mass, it was hard for her to imagine what something like losing an entire hand would be like. It invoked in her equal parts of shock, concern and intrigue, as she winced imagining the pain that came with a cut in the wrist that goes all the way through.

But all of it probably didn’t show. She was too tired to jump around, to shout about it, or even just to walk over to inspect the wound or utter a few words to display that she acknowledge that it happened. At least not right now, not when she felt like any disturbance would break the balance and send her figure collapsing into a curled up pile on the groun-

"This is something not even biology teachers will be able to explain, ain't that right Leila?"

-umph

Leila responded to the sudden pat on the back by nearly crumbling to her knees only to have to grab onto Haku’s clothes to pull herself back up for long enough until she regained the strength for her legs to be able to hold herself upright again. Meanwhile, what was the thing Haku spoke of?

Leila wondered as she twirled the feather between her fingers, the iridescence shifting in a dazzling display of colours as she did so. The feather was very comfortable to the touch, a silk-like texture as she ran her fingers through the peacock-like pattern.

Leila liked the feather.

And then, without warning, just as that thought ran through her mind, the delicate object started crumbling from the tip where she last touched it, as if in embarrassment as it couldn’t bear the compliment on its appearance the girl made in her head. Before she could make sense of what was going on, nothing was left except a few sparkling specks of dust resting on her fingertips.

“eh…?”

* * * *

Leila didn’t really know why she felt much better than she expected to feel, after suffering several impacts with rigid objects, and numerous scratches and bruises that resulted from combat involving claws and teeth and corrosive acid. She didn’t see many prominent bruises, and most of the injuries seemed to be slighter than she remembered them to be - a while into their venture to retrieve the baby dragon, she found where there should’ve been gashes from fingernails digging into her flesh only faded rashes of pink.

Leila absent-mindedly shook the amulet from side to side, watching the little remaining liquid splash inside for instants before resting back at the bottom briefly after.

The people leading the group shouted for the dragon. Having cleared her visible range of any possible traces of cloud-conjuring baby dragons, Leila’s attention was quickly diverted to other things in the scene.

She peeked downwards at Lesley’s hand - or, where his hand would’ve been. The forearm of the tall man that stood beside her now ended abruptly, where his torn clothing wasn’t enough to entirely cover it. The wound looked unexpectedly clean - Leila didn’t know what happened, or what caused the wound, but it almost seemed as if it was removed by a skillful surgical maneuver - there were stains of blood left that marked the injury, but besides from that, the wound was already closed - and there was not even the sign of stitches.

Lesley’s attention would’ve also been directed that way if he noticed something brushing against his wound.

Rather apologetically, Leila quickly drew back her tentative gesture of trying to touch the healed wound. She told herself he should’ve apologized, but ended up uttering the questions first instead.

“Did this...does this... ...hurt?”

To his dismay, it looked as if he had chucked it a couple centimeters short. Closing his eyes in momentary defeat, he was surprised to reopen them to a dagger coming in at the nick of time to propel it the extra measure. Scanning the area from where the object had been thrown from, his eyes landed on the two male guides, Songbird and Avian. Raising a hand in the air to show his thanks, Lesley came to face a hand-less nub at the end of his right arm. You could almost hear his heart shattering into a million little pieces. Sure, the witch had now been defeated and was nothing more than a pool of black wisps and pebbles, but because of her, he had lost an entire limb. And he was right handed for crying out loud. Staring at it, he still couldn't register that this would be his way of life from here on out. Pretending it was still there, he sent signals for a hand that wasn't really present to close up into a fist. Of course nothing happened, he could only stare at a mound that had once been the nesting place of his beloved right hand.

Sliding off the unicorn once it had brought him close enough to the gathering of his companions, everyone looked rough around the edges, each with their own battle wounds, but he knew that his was entirely different. While at first, the group seemed to be in better spirits celebrating, upon the noticing of his missing limb, the atmosphere around them died down to a hush. Very somber and mournful, like a member had died or something along those lines. He gulped, struggling to suppress his emotions. Lesley couldn't even hold up his arm or glance down to look at it. The first stage of any impacting loss was denial. That's where he was at. In his mind, he imagined that it was still there, burying the image of it being consumed by rock right before his own eyes.

Leon: "Oh...God. Lesley, your hand. Can it be healed?"

Riley: "Lesley... You'll be okay"

Her words were genuine hurt and he knew that she felt for him. Right there and then, he wanted to bawl about it, but what was the use? He could lie to himself as many times as he wanted, but just a quick look down, it would crush all his false attempts at being hopeful. Counting on what Leon had asked, he wished someone in Nowhere had a remedy to bring it back. To regenerate it like he was a starfish regrowing a lost limb if it was possible. They were in a magical realm for goodness sakes, his possibilities were endless. The thoughts renewed his spirits a little bit.

Eyes moistening , he forced a small grin as Riley parted from him. Once everyone had settled down about his loss, it was time to focus on the real problem at hand, where is the rider and the baby dragon being hidden?

Haku: "Whether we like it or not, we still have a bratty dragon to save."

Jasper: "Yeah, we should keep moving before anything bad happens."

Ace: "We defeated the witch! Once again, we've gotten through another challenge! Even with the injuries, we still won. And we will keep on beating the odds. Ice queen is right... we still need to get Fluff."

After Jasper asked the unicorn for a favor, Lesley gave the magical creature a tight hug around the neck and said his farewell. Watching it trot off into the sky, he wondered when he'd be able to see something as fabulous as that again. At least it left them with a gift so dire to their current situation. One of its own feathers, with the ability to heal their wounds. The albino walked over to him first, gently brushing it over his hip then hesitantly grazing it over his wrist bone. He could see the pain she was feeling for she couldn't even hold her gaze at the hand-less area for more than a couple of seconds. Seeing as it wasn't working, he placed a soft hand on her shoulder and encouraged her to move the feather along to others who had injuries that had the capacity to heal.

Inadi: "If the unicorn isn't going to join us any further I don't want you walking. I'll carry you if need be.”

Lesley's heart skipped a few beats and he knew this was a present from above in exchange for his hand. He really wasn't expecting this from the frame faced prince, but there was no way in heck he was going to turn down the offer to have a long walk of physical contact with his favorite boy in the team. Positioning himself behind the male, he need not wait for Inadi to lower himself because of how tall he was compared to the boy. Wrapping his arms around Inadi's neck, he hopped on lightly and allowed Inadi to hold his legs up which would be quite the task since they were so long. Once they finally settled into a more comfortable position, the two were ready to move along with the rest of the group. As usual, Ace was still upbeat and rearing to find the lost dragon and the rider.

Cautiously resting his chin on the crook of Inadi's collar bone after a few minutes had passed, he examined his right arm a bit more closely now that he had come to accept the fact that his hand was actually gone, never to be found again. Feeling tears rise up in the corners of his eyes, he didn't feel like crying, but his body was saddened all on its own. Nuzzling the back of Inadi's neck near the base where the boy's shirt covered his skin, Lesley rubbed the tears onto the fabric of the man's clothes. He knew he was really pushing the limits in terms of where Inadi was comfortable with another man, but Lesley knew these rare circumstances would most likely only happen once in a blue moon.

Harper: "I'm sorry.."

Looking up as he heard the apology, Lesley knew the boy was trying to provide him comfort and that in itself warmed him to the core. Grinning weakly, he loved the fact that he was surrounded by such caring people. Growing up as an only child would get quite lonely most of the times and he wondered if this was how it felt like to have siblings. It was that sort of feeling that made one feel fluffy and tingly, wanted and cared for. For all the times in his childhood when he couldn't spend it with a blood related friend, he had gotten it all back just being with these guys. Lesley was really starting to feel like they were family.

The search continued on as they arrived at the house where the smaller group had been at earlier. The door was wide open and a fowl smell still radiated from the interior of the home. Like Harper said, no signs of a baby dragon. Lesley at least expected sounds of crying or something like that. It was a baby after all. Not that he remembered seeing it. He was only told that the thing liked him and had slept atop his head while he was sleeping too. A sudden warmth over his wrist caused him to look down and was surprised to see a hand retreating backwards, it was Leila's.

'Ah, the puppy of the group. She's so cute,' Lesley grinned to himself.

Leila: “Did this...does this... ...hurt?”

'Eep, even her stuttering is all adorable :3' he gushed. "Well, on an emotional level, yes it does. But physically, I had too much adrenaline rush at the time to feel the pain," he paused and realized this might be the first time they had ever had the chance to a proper word exchange. "Leila right? I think this is the first time I'd ever spoken to you before," Climbing off Inadi's back, he didn't want to make Inadi feel awkward if he was holding a conversation while riding on the poor man's back. Giving the boy a thankful nod, he walked along side Leila to talk to her some more. "I'm Lesley by the way, in case you didn't already know," he offered her a hand, his big smile back on his face, but this time the cheeriness wasn't a struggle to display at all. The girl had a certain charm about her, an aura that made you instantly feel like you were her older brother or sister. She looked fragile in her own way, alike to Jasper, but different all on its own. "I remember you tamed the baby dragon's parents. 'Wow', I thought. 'She's so brave'," Lesley had no idea why, but he felt like he was talking to some little kid in grade school. It wasn't mocking or anything, he just felt the natural tendency to baby her.

This couldn't be it? There had to be more to this cabin, there was always more to the things in Nowhere.

Harper stood by Avian, a look of confusion plastered to his face. "Do you think we can find a secret switch or something?" He took a hesitant step into the dilapidated cabin and peered around. It was an absolute mess, but it looked normal, as if there was nothing else to it. "I always thought a witch would have more tools and potions," he looked towards Martini and Brandy. "Do you think there might be a hidden room."

The thought of heading deeper into the creepy place wasn't a nice one, but now that the witch was gone, it felt less frightening.

"Might as well check, right?" Riley turned to Ace with a smile, "and if we can't find anything Ace and I could always burn the place down."

"W-What? No!" Harper's eyes grew the size of dinner plates and he gave the guides a desperate look, as if begging for them to back him up on this one. "The dragon rider and the baby dragon could be in this house. What kind of suggestion is that?" He ended up laughing a little. The boy narrowed his eyes at both girls. "Please don't light the house on fire."

"Man," the fire mage puffed up her cheeks. "I was only kidding." The girl placed both hands on Ace's shoulder and chuckled. "You two both have the swords though, so if a door doesn't open or something, just meh, slice through?"

With that said, the girl left the front lines and dropped in on Lesley's and Leila's conversation. "Mhm, you won't find a braver dragon rider around, Lesles. Y'know, back in the mansion, we found this secret hall behind a bookshelf, and you know what Leila did?" Riley gestured wildly with her hands, a silly grin stuck to her face. "Well, she charged in like it was freaking nothing." She gave the dragon tamer a thumbs up then continued walking around the house, looking for some sort of switch or button.

"Hey, Jasper, Inadi, you guys busy?" Riley began peering underneath dusty beds and tables. The girl motioned for them to join her, "if you were a witch, where would you keep your secret switches or trap doors?"

Meanwhile, Hakuren and Leon joined up with the guides and both Harper and Ace. The wind mage grumbled about how dusty everything was but helped out in the search for the switch. "If any one told me I would be slaying witches in the year 2014, I would have laughed, I bet you all would have to." It wasn't like Leon to talk about himself, but these were people he had faced death with and just talking, it helped kill the silence. "Hey, what were you guys doing during that last day of 2013?"

"Getting sentimental, queen Leon?" Hakuren opened a couple of drawers, but they were filled with nothing but dust and junk. Haku could have chosen to remain silent but in the end he answered the question. "Nothing, it was just another day."

"Sheesh queen Elsa, you sound like the life of the party." Leon laughed before rolling his eyes at his friend. "I was at one of my father's boring new year parties." He shrugged, continued looking around then waited for some sort of response from the others. It wasn't anything big, but it would help them understand each other a bit more, and it was like seeing another puzzle piece of everyone's lives.

Harper was checking a creaky floorboard. "I was supposed to celebrate it with my family, but I couldn't stand the hospital, so I left to get some air." He felt a pang of guilt, but it was great to be able to just admit it.

"Are we having some sort of confession thing?" Riley arched an eyebrow and ended up smiling. "The folks invited me back home, I don't know why I refused, I guess it had something to do with a pretty argument, so I spent the night out with friends instead," she shrugged a little. "I guess the saying about regret coming last is true." She let out a rather awkward chuckle then continued on with the search. "But meh, time waits for no one." The girl was curious about what the others had been up to as well.

The fight was finally over, and despite how brutal it had been everyone was alive, thankfully. There were some grievous wounds to be sure- Lesley was now missing a hand, much to everyone's sadness. Brandy himself was sporting a bloody wound on the back of his head from when the witch had thrown him and Song against a tree, while Martini was clinging onto Avian, magic having been exhausted from trying to contain the witch. She hadn't known the extent of her magic before this, and had been surprised when the bubble dome was strong enough to restrain the witch. The magical effort meant that she couldn't support her own bubble ring, and had ended flopping into the leaf litter by the end. Brandy had taking to leaning on Songbird for support, feeling slightly dizzy even after the unicorn's feather

Still the relief of having survived at all was evident on everyone's faces, and they trudged on to the run down cottage where the prisoners were allegedly being held. Unfortunately, however, the room didn't hold any traces of the riders or the baby dragon.

"Do you think there might be a hidden room."

Martini and Brandy turned to Harper, and the rabbit gave a thoughtful nod. "That would be the most likely scenario."

"Didn't you say Leila found the passage behind the bookshelf? You think something similar would be in here too then?" Martini piped up, momentarily forgetting her position and nearly hitting Avian in the face with her tail. "Oh gosh sorry darling-"

The humans started to search for any buttons or levers that might reveal the hidden path. Avian had joined the search after placing the mermaid on a rickety chair in the corner while Brandy rifled through the shelves in hopes of finding something that would point the way to where the prisoners were being held.

"If any of you find anything suspicious, tell me and I can check for leftover traces of magic." The rabbit ran a hand through his hair, wincing as he brushed against the dried blood and the still tender wound. "I don't have enough magic left to scan the whole room. Sorry."

Martini, stuck as she was on the chair until her magic came back, went through the thing on the table next to her, poking at a pile of dust with a wince. She listened as the humans started to reminisce about the last day in their world and frowned sadly. They must be so homesick- really, they were all just children wanting to go home. Except for Haku, but he was a strange one so he didn't quite count.

She puffed up her cheeks determinedly. "Don't you sweethearts worry, we'll totes get you home, okay?" She thumped a fist against the tabletop. "That's what we guides are here for!"

"Yes, she's- oh fudgesicles," Brandy stepped back and closed the drawer of dead bugs he had opened. This house was absolutely filthy, and he would've taken a broom to it all if they weren't so busy trying to find the missing riders. "Has anyone found anything yet?" He rubbed his temples in aggravation.

Glad that the feather she had retrieved from the unicorn helped the others a bunch, herself included, at least they could continue the search in less physical discomfort. Seeing the feather dissolve in Leila's hand, she was happy it had served its purpose well and she had a feeling they wouldn't be able to keep it forever. The magnificent stallion left them shortly after that, but she was thankful for the aid it provided them in the harsh fight against the witch and her army of deceased beings. If it hadn't been for Lesley's incredible plan and getting that 'special weapon' on their side, the whole humans/Nobodies versus evil witch could've ended in a disaster.

Seeing Ace hobble past her to get to the front of the group, Jasper was still amazed by how much determination and energy the girl held. While she was feeling down in the slums, the red head was wildly chugging along, looking forward to every battle and challenge with her head held high and positive excitement coursing through her veins. Only one word could describe how she viewed about Ace. Admiration. Not only did she have the whole package mentally, the girl even had big breasts. A bug of some sort buzzed past her ear to snap her out of oncoming bewb jealousy. 'Maybe Nowhere has a wizard who can magically grow your body parts. It'll not only help me, but help Lesley too,' she thought as the corners of her mouth quirked into a slight grin.



"Here Fluffy, Fluffy. It's a bunch of humans trying to get you back to your family. Not a bunch of nasty old witches... Marcooo? We should have really cool theme music. You know, since we've defeated the witch. We're practically unstoppable right now."



She imagined what'd it'd be like to watch their adventures like it was a movie, with slowmos and sound effects. No doubt it'd be a box office hit.

Once again, Lesley was getting a piggy back ride and she had to admit, she was a tad bit envious. For two reasons, the first being, she was probably just as tired as the next person and number two, the person giving him a lift was someone she had actually taken a slight "feeling" to. Sometimes she'd get the same emotions around Harper, Haku, and even Song.(YEAH MY BAE IS A PLAYAH. Deal wid it XD) Jasper had always been a stranger to lovey dovey stuff, but since coming to Nowhere, she had become more exposed to that realm. If you asked her what this "feeling" was, she probably wouldn't be able to tell you what it was because she herself isn't really sure. It was like a weird in between where friend, brother, and crush collided which results from her lack of experience. But jelly thoughts were definitely unacceptable at the moment because the poor guy had lost an entire hand that night and it was the least anyone could do to make the pink haired guy feel a little better.

As they arrived at the porch of the nasty hut again where they had found fat-acid-belching-zombie earlier, Jasper's nose had officially gone "noseblind" to the aromas of the place. Most likely caused by the undead slaughter she took on that revealed smells a hundred times worse than this rutty cottage. At first she was really confused as to why they were going there to check again, since they had found nothing the first time. But the points they had made about hidden switches was a possibility. Though it wasn't as grand a home as the mansion in the Forest of Ancients, it was better they checked than completely miss the solution to there lost and found mission.

"Might as well check, right? And if we can't find anything Ace and I could always burn the place down."

This comment resulted in panicked responses from Harper and Jasper wasn't really liking the sound of burning things down either. Fire was dangerous. Burning was dangerous. And with all of them pooped out and low on energy supply, setting this place on fire wouldn't be of much help, but Riley just chuckled and shrugged it off as a joke. Jasper's right eye twitched a little bit.

It wasn't long until they were on the hunt for a secret button or trapdoor that might be hiding the lost ones.

"Hey, Jasper, Inadi, you guys busy? if you were a witch, where would you keep your secret switches or trap doors?"

Hesitantly, Jasper poked around the room, but the filth was keeping her from performing the "dig" at her full potential. She clearly knew that all of them, even her, was covered in zombie poop and guts, but her germaphobic urges still kept her at bay. "I don't know," Her shoulders lifted up with a light shrug, "maybe the nastiest, most disgusting corner in this place. Where no one would dare to even go near." At the moment, it was her germ-fearing side speaking out and she didn't really mind what they thought of her weird response.

"Hey, what were you guys doing during that last day of 2013?"

The question touched on a subject that erupted a feeling of longing and her mind flashed back to New Years Eve. SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! She remembered it, the sound of fireworks splashing the night sky whilst she served late night customers. Their cafe held a special time schedule that day that enforced all workers to stay until all the customers had left. Of course she didn't mind, it wasn't like she had anything planned anyway. No friends, no family. It would've just been her alone in an empty apartment.

Haku was just living out his regular schedule while Leon was attending a party. Harper had the choice of spending it with family, but decided to go out instead. A sense of regret casted over him at that moment and Jasper could see it in his aura.

"Are we having some sort of confession thing? The folks invited me back home, I don't know why I refused, I guess it had something to do with a pretty argument, so I spent the night out with friends instead, I guess the saying about regret coming last is true. But meh, time waits for no one."

Most of them had the options of celebrating with other people while she actually had no one except for her non-English speaking boss and a couple of drunk customers sitting at the outdoor table arrangements outside not even bothering to order anything. The lot of the late stayers were only there because Tea Leaf Cafe had an awesome view of the fireworks. Jasper frowned a bit and wished that she had friends and family to hang out with. It was then that she realized how lonesome her life had been back then, how much of a recluse she actually was and she didn't even know it. In fact, she enjoyed it. Being by her lonesome self without companions to talk to. She could have adopted a pet, but she was too much of a dirt freak. Now she wondered what life would be like after all this was over. Would they all still be friends or would they part and never see each other again? Would she be okay with living the loner lifestyle after feeling what it was actually like to have people you could call 'friends'?

"I was on my way back from work. Same station I go to everyday, but not the same train. Well, at least not the one I was expecting." An exhale seeped slowly out from her nose as she laughed a little at how bizarre it was. Boarding that train was actually the best and worst thing that's ever happened to her. Her eyes were becoming glossy as her laugh continued to strengthen. Anyone watching her probably thought she was going crazy or something.

"Don't you sweethearts worry, we'll totes get you home, okay? That's what we guides are here for!"

Martini made her feel even happier as she finally settled down and wiped her wet eyes dry again. It was now that she could honestly say that she would really miss these people. Getting attached to a person was hard for her, having been abandoned as an adolescent, then being taken in by Rosen, who later left her as well upon passing away from an illness. Her albinism just scared people off in general and because of this, her relationship building skills didn't develop properly, but here she was now, surrounded by others who truly looked out for her, even the Nobodies.

"Has anyone found anything yet?"

Inspecting the room some more, it was then that she noticed a shining glint on one of the shelves that sported piles of rusty pots and pans above the stove. Approaching it to get a closer look, it was probably the cleanest thing in the entire place. It was a an armour piece, looked like it would've protected the arm. But it wasn't just any scrap of armor, it had engraved designs that were very familiar to patterns she had seen before. Picking up the metal arm plate, she brought it over to Avian to compare the one he had left that didn't get burned by the zombie acid. The carvings were alike in many aspects. Eyes lighting up, she forgot all about how yucky the place was and went hyper mode as she dashed around the room in a much more intense manner of searching than she had done before. "They're here guys. They're here!" She chanted.

"Dude this place is empty!" Ace groaned as she knocked over a small and old table. When she knocked the table it practically crumbled. This amused her and she quickly had the urge to break more stuff. No one was using it, it wouldn't matter! Besides everything was old anyway! She went to pull down a shelf and in mid grab, Riley got her attention. "Burn the place down? Ooh, that's much more fun then knocking everything over." She pulled out the empty hilt and paused as Harper quickly shook that idea away.

As he stated his case, Ace pouted. "No burning the house down?" She sighed and put the weapon away. "Fine..." Harper was the leader of their little pack- as Ace saw it, so she would listen. Even if it was reluctantly. But, getting an idea she beamed once more. "What if I burned it after we finished? Can I burn it down then?" Apparently, Riley was only kidding but the redhead with the hat. . . Not so much. The idea of setting the house on fire was a thrill and she hadn't burned much of anything in awhile so it rekindled her wants. Ace was actually being less destructive ever since she got to Nowhere. Maybe it was because she was around a lot of civilized strangers...

She nodded towards Riley's idea and smiled. "Well, let's continue looking." She returned to yanking the shelf down, some of the contents, mainly dust fell and spread on the closest person near her. Which so happened to be Hakuren at the time. "Oh, whoops. My bad Frosty." She smiled and then continued searching. The boring search was making her antsy and she fiddled through her things. "Okay... this place is super small... Nothing is here. There's gotta be like...A secret room or something." She tapped her foot repeatedly and grabbed the sword once again. Instead of lighting it though, she twirled it in her hand to focus on something.

Leon said "Hey, what were you guys doing during that last day of 2013?"

The question made her pause for a moment. What was she doing on the last day? Before she got to the train... Well, she had stayed in one town for a couple of weeks and managed to get a job in a little coffee shop as a sort of pity deal. The boss was old and really nice, so it was easy for her to manage a job. She remembered the little case of money she took with her that she hid away after leaving the store that night. As everyone shared their stories, Ace only gave smiles as her retort. If they were sad stories, they got smiles- because soon enough it would get better. If they were happy, well they got smiles too. Ace was intrigued by some of their stories though. Some of them seemed to have decent lives or a fair amount of wealth.

When it was her turn and attention was on her, Ace merely shrugged and pulled another shelf down. She caused another dust cloud in the process. "Me, I was skipping town. Well, planning to anyway. I came into much needed money and I planned to move. Then, you know...Nowhere. "

Ace spoke as if nothing about what she had just said sounded shady...or wrong....or just plain bad. And to her, it wasn't. It was a way of survival so it wasn't a problem. Ace believed that her life was all that mattered in the real world, no matter what she had to do in order to keep herself alive. And it wasn't like she murdered anyone- so everything should've been fine!

Her foot tapped against the floorboards as she continued her search. But they weren't having any luck on finding anything within the walls. There were only four of them, there wasn't many places to look. "Can I burn the place down now? It's not very helpful. I mean maybe there's some other creepy abandoned shack that they were hid in....Or we can move the dirty pallet bed thing." Seeing Jasper find something, Ace paused in destroying some of the stuff and looked, waiting to see if the find was any good.

Avian was silent as they made their way towards the cabin. He was carrying Martini and walked with a pronounced limp, but it seemed as if the pain constantly shooting through his ribs and up his leg wasn’t the reason behind the gray pallor over his face.

They began their search although at first it seemed like there was nothing to be found. Harper asked about the possibility of there being a secret room somewhere in the cabin, and if there was one then where could the entry point be? The other guides agreed that there might be something more to the rickety old shack- Martini almost slammed her tail against Avian’s face as she blurted out her opinion but he barely noticed- and he set the mermaid down on a chair to help with the investigation.

Riley suggested burning the house down.

“Uhhh, don’t do that. You all fought so hard to defeat that hag just to die in a house fire. Right, beefcake?” Songbird rapped on the shoulder where Brandy leaned against as he turned towards the soldier, who gave him a bland, disinterested nod before turning his broad back on them. “Is he okay?” The item hunter nudged Leila and pointed at the dark-haired nobody. The two of them chose the same place to search so Songbird decided to strike up a conversation with the girl- somebody once told him that social interaction, at times, has the power to soothe nerves- but it was a bad move seeing that not only was he a poor conversationalist, so was Leila, as it seemed. Fluffy and Stuffy, cute little darlings that they are, circled around the human’s legs while squeaking in turn.

Songbird’s hat, if anyone read my last post, had been petrified by the wisps and he left it back in the battlefield. His face was in full view of everyone who dared to look, heterochromia and the odd, slightly circular marks that trailed up from the bottom of his left eye and ended barely an inch from his hairline included. He didn’t seem to mind though, or perhaps the current nonchalance was due to the fact that he was busy digging around in the tool chest for a key.

Also, for someone who got thrown around a lot, Songbird seemed to be just as energetic as Ace. Maybe it was because of his vocation that he didn’t seem that shaken by the fight they’ve all been through? Truth be told, his two fluffballs seemed to be in worse shape, judging from the overall beaten look the orange and pink duo had, not to mention the matted pieces of fluff on their round, plush bodies.

Ace suggested burning the house down.

Songbird sighed.

Jasper approached Avian and compared a piece of metal to the one on his arm. The dragoon was startled enough that he turned to look at the human, despite being in a gloomy mood. Victoria really should’ve been the one on this mission. Not only was she skilled with ranged attacks, which could’ve helped earlier, but he had no doubt that his wife had more skill and would have possibly prevented Lesley’s hand from reaching its current nonexistent state. He wiped his hands on his pants and took the chunk from the white-haired girl, turning it over his palm before returning it to Jasper.

Ah.

“57th Training Corps, Guardian Sect. Whoever owned this was training to be a part of Aven’s city guard, see those three dots on the edge?” Before he could properly hand the armor back to the girl, she snatched it away and jumped up and down energetically. Oh well. Avian’s dry lips cracked into a faint smile. Glad to see her morale was boosted.

Leila was mostly staring at Lesley’s wound instead of his face as she received the handshake. The man’s hand was quite a bit larger than her own, and it felt rather heavy.

Limb losses are at least nearly painless when adrenaline concentrations are sufficiently high. Got it.

Leila took mental note. There were probably a few other things she didn’t take into account, but well...she decided that the approximation will do for now.

“...Leila.” She said as she nodded, peeling her attention away from the severed hand and to look at Lesley.

Her self-introduction was short, and she broke away from the potential chain of questions she would’ve thrown out to utter that introduction only because Lesley seemed willing to change the topic. It ended up being seemingly unnecessary, though, as the man showed that he already knew her name. She winced a bit at Lesley mentioning her “taming” the dragons.

“I didn’t exactly - ”

The sentence cut off short again as Riley approached the two of them, and spoke of the events at the mansion enthusiastically - complete with excited gestures and overly passionate exaggerated phrasing. Actually, she believed that Riley was the one who found the book that triggered the concealed passage, and speaking of that - Leila was still pondering upon how exactly how Riley was able to instantly deduce the location of that trigger.

She was about to mention that, but then remembered being told somewhere that it is convention not to correct any erroneous statements unless necessary. She was also going to ask Riley about that - she didn’t have a chance earlier - but this chance, as well, slipped away as Riley promptly turned around in an equally exaggerated gesture and marched of to further examine the house.

“uh...”

Leila appeared rather absent-minded for another moment or two as she actually tried hard to catch up with all that was going on. The conversations died off quickly as she struggled in vain to find proper responses to what was said. Biting her lip in frustration, she then turned to look at Lesley and his smile, and resolved that she wasn’t sure what to take of his attitude that seemed to be taking her as he would a much younger, much less sophisticated being.

Then she noticed that she had been staring at Lesley’s face for a while, and upon that realization she quickly turned away.

“Burning the house down doesn’t seem like that terrible of an idea though? Provided one maintains proper control...”

Her attention then turned to the interior of the house as she mused over Ace and Riley’s suggestions, mumbling fragments of her thoughts without consideration of the fact that people around her would probably hear them.

The house wasn’t exactly spacious, so there was really no need for a spread-out search like they carried out in the mansion. Instead, the lot walked around quite randomly, bending over to look around corners of furniture and whatnot. Watching the scene, Leila smiled, only to later become puzzled by why exactly she’d be smiling about applying a Brownian motion model to the scrambling of the individuals across the worn wooden floorboards.

“Is he okay?”

“uh?”

Leila looked to her side to see the item hunter standing besides her. Songbird, she remembered. He retained the pretty fluffy clothing that seemed to be characteristic of him, although a few stains and tears could be seen here and there - probably inevitable considering what just happened. He also lost his hat - a pity. Leila really liked the hat.

Songbird was still pretty though.

This Nobody didn’t talk much, but that made this character even more intriguing. Leila’s attempt to follow his line of sight to who Songbird was referring to was disrupted a bit by the fact that the Nobody’s hair nearly covered his eye, but she could make out that he was speaking about Avian - the soldier that had accompanied them since their arrival at Sol.

Was Avian okay? She didn’t see any significant injuries. Internal? Didn’t really appear to be in pain, or ill in any way. Leila struggled to make out any discrepancies between what Avian was doing and what a typical Nobody was supposed to be doing, and failed miserably due to the lack of an appropriate model of a “typical Nobody”.

Leila never really was good at reading people.

“He...is, I suppose.” She provided Songbird with a non-answer, not knowing what to say but no willing to seem impolite by not responding either. “...Soldiers are always okay.”

Mind drifting back to the particle model topic. Maybe she was laughing at herself because she knew that such a naive model wouldn’t suffice to approximate the much more complex behaviour of these people. It fails to take into account aspects such as the avoidance of looking through places that they have already searched - although observations prove that that does slip sometimes and several places were examined several times by the same people, only to draw identical conclusions. Maybe the communications and coordinations between them invokes patterns that a particle model cannot emulate. Everything had to be inaccurate to some level, after all.

"Hey, what were you guys doing during that last day of 2013?"

“I was watching fireworks.”

Leila didn’t really know why she decided to answer that out loud, for there seemed to be no-one in particular to direct the response to. All those thoughts, however, occurred only long later, and for that time being Leila sort of just rambled on.

“People set of fireworks on New Years Eve.”

Relevant background information.

“They were...beautiful.”

She would’ve taken the course that a writer of traditional literature could’ve and started throwing around metaphors and implicit connotations and flamboyant vocabulary and the such. She could do that, even though there are multiple instances where her likening something to another resulted in much fretting on the part of the listeners. Which, incidentally, she didn’t have many.

“...like flowers.“

Okay, you did it, didn’t you. She wasn’t sure whether to regret that, but she figured it wasn’t entirely her fault, if you take into account of reinforcement. She thought that as her wandering footsteps stopped in front of a shelf, placed on which is an old, half-collapsed flower pot, with the remains of leaves and a stem extending from the dirt that it still contained, and dead, half-rotten pedals piled in the proximity. No trapdoors behind here (she didn’t entirely forget the task at hand), but she decided to stop and stare for a while (isn’t extremely devoted to that task either).

“...so I followed them. And I ended up here.”

And she decided that was all she had to say.

Maybe she was smiling at herself because there was this very, very vague realization that these people aren’t to be likened to the components of a reduced particle model; and that, not in the way that any other person shouldn’t be considered a source of non-uniform random variables - not just the complexity and sophisticated unpredictability of a human being, but something more, something that she can’t yet explicate. The idea that this was a special lot of people, and perhaps special in a way only comprehensible to her own mind.

No, scratch that. She had no idea why she felt that.

These people, though - like dead pedals piled near the bottom of a broken flower pot - were to be considered beautiful.

Leila thought that, much oblivious to the temporary celebration that had just broken out behind her surrounding Jasper and the newly found artifact.

Leila: “I didn’t exactly - ”

Riley: "Mhm, you won't find a braver dragon rider around, Lesles. Y'know, back in the mansion, we found this secret hall behind a bookshelf, and you know what Leila did? Well, she charged in like it was freaking nothing."

Lesley had a hand resting on his hip as he nodded with the smile still spread widely over his face, "Wow," he exhaled in awe, "I'm really impressed Ms.Leila." Looking towards the girl as Riley wandered off, she just stared up at him with a stunned and confused expression. After a few seconds of blank eye contact with Lesley still grinning from ear to ear, Leila simply swiveled around on her heels and walked a few steps away from him to stop and observe the others searching the not-so-spacious interior of the cabin.

Shoving a hand in his pocket, he glanced up at the ceiling awkwardly and waddled off to the side. 'Ok then. A little socially challenged, but still cute'



It had been decided that a secret room might possibly be hiding the dragon and rider they were looking for, so now they were on a quest to seek out a special switch alike to the one Leila and Riley had supposedly found back at the mansion. The place wasn't very big at all so he was sure they'd be able to find it in no time. He didn't see the need to help since there were so many of them already plus the room smelled putrid. At the same moment he was about to announce his decision to wait out on the porch, Leon brought up a question that pertained to what everyone was doing before hopping on the train.

Short answers revealed little bits of people's background and lifestyle back on Earth. Some people looked saddened, some just normal, others, like Ace, looked a little bit annoyed. But Lesley, he was far from just a tiny bit annoyed, he was rather pissed about getting whisked away from his dream school. It was a good thing this place was so magical and fun because if it was for any other reason, he would be a wreck right now. Another positive that came out from being lured on board was that he was able to meet these people. Though he would've much rather befriend them on home turf, it was nice to know that he wasn't the only one trying to escape and figure out what exactly they had gotten themselves into.

Leila's response was a little bit odd, but she was kind of a strange individual so he shrugged. Maybe they'd come to learn more in depth histories of each other. During the item hunts, most of it consisted of trying to survive and killing things. When they did get the chance to rest though, all of them were usually too tired to engage with anyone so it was harder to really get to know one another.

"It was my first day in the city of my new school, well, supposed to be at least. I was just out exploring and then," he paused and sighed heavily, "Hmm, seems like everyone got here the same way. What bothers me the most is why?" He was scratching the back of his head as he was back on the topic of why a magical would stop by Earth to try and lure people on so they could have them retrieve objects for the Queen. "Martini," Lesley approached the desk she was sitting at. "You're good friends with the Queen right? Do you know when or why you guys started getting human shipments? People even die on these missions don't they? Look what happened to Vince!" The tone of his voice was increasing in frustration by the second. He was coming to see how pointless this all was. The train had seduced them on in the first place, but why were they all stuck there just trying to get back. This was all just some huge death trap. These guides, they get new shipments every year. More humans dying trying to get back to Earth by completing these tasks for a Queen they had no real relation to whatsoever.

Staring straight into Martini's eyes he slammed a hand down on the table as he hovered over her sitting figure. "Tell me. Tell me how many shipments of humans you guys have gotten and tell me how many have died!"

Tonight was nothing but an emotional roller coaster for him. From sadness, to devastation, fear and triumph. Happiness and thankfulness, which had now morphed into anger and puzzlement. Up until now, these people including himself have all just been robotically obeying this Queen's orders. Of course, they were in her kingdom, but she was no Queen to him back on Earth so why were they all showing her such great respect? Now it was all unfolding in his gullible little brain. He needed answers.

“They were...beautiful...like flowers.“

A small smile tugged on the corners of Leon's lips. "Yeah," he couldn't put a finger on it, but listening to the others talk about home, it left him feeling empty. He wanted nothing to do with his father, his brother, or their company. But he missed home, missed the concept of time and birthdays. "They were really pretty," the boy sounded sad, but he turned to look at the guides. "Like watching all the colors collide, almost like an explosive rainbow," by this point he was staring at Lesley with a faint smile.

Rainbow mages, heh, perhaps he had seen it all.

Leon didn't want to admit it, but he was just as homesick as everyone else.

Martini promised to get them back home and while a part of him was thankful for the comforting words, a part of him didn't believe her. They had been told the same thing since the very beginning, but where were the other humans now? Well, they were dead and they wouldn't be going home. Leon stared at his feet, his own question had pretty much left a depressing weight on his shoulders. The young man could hear Jasper announcing something cheerfully, but it sounded like a dull buzz in his ears.

"Y'know bear, that could actually be bad news." Hakuren stood beside Songbird with a smug smile. "For all we know, the witch has already roasted the poor rider. If they were here, you think we'd at least hear them? This place is pretty small."

Yes, Hakuren was his friend, but none of them needed his negativity, especially at this moment.

Leon would have said something, but the next thing that happened was unexpected. Lesley began lashing out and at Martini too. "Lesley..." he wanted so much to rush to the mermaid's defense, but everything his friend was saying was true.

A magical train that lured humans away from their own realm. They were tricked into joining some deadly scavenger hunt and it made him angry. Stop, she's helped us the entire time...they all have. He kept his eyes on the floor and clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white.

"Lesley!" Riley yelled out, eyebrows furrowed in concern. "She risked her life for you!" The fire mage couldn't believe what was happening. They had been through hell and back, they had defeated the witch and now they were turning against each other?

Harper was now facing Lesley. "Well," he looked uncertain, "they could have left us long ago, but they didn't."

"Yeah," Hakuren sneered, "well, this is a job to them." He gestured at the guides, looking amused.

Harper took a step towards the ice mage. He really wanted to punch Hakuren in the face.

"J-O-B, they're being paid to babysit." A laugh left his throat. "If they just left us, the queen would fire the--!" The ice mage staggered back, he had a hand pressed to his cheek. Harper had actually punched him in the face? Well, well, wasn't he crawling out of his shell. Hakuren stared at the boy, Harper's shoulders were practically shaking.

"This is just a game to you," Harper lowered his fist, this was the first time he had ever punched anyone in the face and it left him feeling guilty. After hearing everyone's stories, his resolve had been strengthened, but then Haku just had to make fun of everything. "It isn't to us!"

"Doesn't change the fact that we've been duped into coming here." Hakuren was impressed, "we'll probably die before we know it."

Harper scowled, this was the angriest he had ever been at Haku. "Well, it doesn't help that you're being a pessimistic jerk!"

Leon couldn't take this. No, he refused to die in some hellhole. He refused to die in this disgusting and filthy place. Something inside the boy just snapped and soon he grabbed Songbird by the collar of his shirt. "Hakuren has a point," his voice was frantic. "Just how many humans have died here?" He was repeating Lesley, "how many batches have come and gone?" The boy's eyes went steely. "You've seen this happen all before, but you don't care, do you? Because to all of you, we're just another batch, just another casualty! Vince is dead, but it doesn't really mean anything but a drop in your paycheck, isn't the right?"

The words he had uttered left a bad taste in his mouth, but he was just too scared, so like Lesley, Leon took it out on the guides.