Just Friends

Devika

I shrugged, thinking over it and deciding on the truth, as much as the council would have disapproved. Pssh, when did I listen to the council anyways?

"Well, I'm not quite sure.. everyone here was chosen by the White Lady, but she has been gone for over two hundred, maybe three hundred years. Ever since her sister, The Dark Lady, took over. Your guess would be as good as mine as to why you are here."

Peter

I frowned. "The Dark Lady...? Like, black hair, black eyes, long dress and cloak? That Dark Lady...?"

Oh gods...we were in a place ruled by TDL? That...that was not good... And I'd never actually heard of the White Lady before...

Danae

Sparkly things...perhaps maybe not with being around a crazy person...but..sparkly things..are so...sparkly. And fairies get to have sparkly this gs...right?

Devika

I shrugged, fluttering my wings immpatiently. "The one and only." My eyes traveled to the sky, and the suns nervously.

"Dusk time is tomorrow." I muttered. "If we wish to be in the village walls and protected by the guards when that comes I suggest flying that way in no more than an hour."

Peter

So it really was TDL... Great. That was just what we needed. This day was turning out spectacular so far.

Ahahaha right.

"Um, could you lead us there, then?" I asked. "And...what's dusk time?"

Devika

Freaking buggers. Not only would I have to go into the city..but I'd be with some new people. I would have scowled if it wouldn't have shown my displeasuree instead of the cheery demeanor I kept up.

"It would be my pleasure." I purred, glancing back down from the sky to the boy again. "Dusk Tim's is the time once a month when the suns are down. It normally lasts for twenty four hours.

Peter

"Oh," I said. "Alright then." Sounded to me like it should really be called Night Time, but whatever. Then something occurred to me...we never actually introduced ourselves. Maybe it was just as well. After all, who knew what her intentions were?

Devika

"Yeah..well, You don't want to be out in the dark, trust me. Buggers would be the least of your worries. Things all the way up to starlighters come out then. "

Freaking newbies. Its going to be so obvious they're new...and we're gonna get flocked upon reaching the city..
Unless...

"I should tell you, if you hold hands when you enter the city it will make it easier to stick together, AG this time it gets really crowded around there.

Perfect...passing the light off as soullmates.

Peter

I nodded. Seemed reasonable enough...though the thought of holding hands with Danae gave me a kind of funny feeling... I had no idea why. Or even what that feeling was, for that matter.

"Should we get going now, then? And...maybe you can explain about the other stuff on the way--if you don't mind, of course."

Devika

"Not a problem, I would be happy to tell you whatever you need to know."

Freaking buggers. This is why even when the new ones used to cone in all the time I hung around the trees. It was so much more peaceful there.

"Lets get going. Yes." I began. Fluttering my wings in anticipation.

Danae:..

........great....More flying.

Peter

I caught Danae's expression. Considering that earlier mishap, I wondered how she'd fare. I tried to give her a reassuring look before turning back to the other Fay.

"Alright then."


((FF?))

((FF))

Danae

Okay, so it wasn't as freaky once those suns started to go down. I mean, one sun is bad enough. Give me two and.. yeah..it just.. doesn't work. Funny thing though, the girl seemed to get nervous as the sunlight faded, glancing around uneasily at every sound.

It was starting to make me wonder, why did we have to be in the city when it got dark? Surprisingly, I found it easier to focus my mind on the unseen dangers than on the fact that I was flying again, something that I would rather not be doing.

Devika

Okay, we were definately not making the time I'd hoped for. Instead of reaching the city gates by sundown it would be safe to bet we'd still be a mile away when the light was completely gone. That meant a chance of starlighters. The good thing is that you don't often run into a starlighter, you have to find a zemma first. So as long as we stayed away from the zemmas.. we should be fine.

Relaxing a little at the thought I let my eyes travel over the grass below us, watching for any sign of movement. Just an hour longer, maybe two. If we could make it that long.. we'd be safe. Inside the city.

My only hope is that they didn't already lock up for all of Dusk Time.

Peter

This flying...I could get used to it. It actually wasn't too different from the flying I'd done on artificial wings in the dragon planes. ...Okay, it was still pretty different, but the basic principles were more or less the same...ish. And at least here I didn't have to worry about oxygen supplies and falling into an ocean of acid. That was a plus.

This new Fay still hadn't explained anything, though, like buggers and starlighters. Oh well.

"Are we reaching the city?" I asked. It looked like twilight was on its way, something that made me very uncomfortable considering my lack of knowledge about...all of this.

Devika

I hesitated, glancing up and around us for a moment before dropping my eyes back to the ground beneath us.

"About two miles out, should take a little around an hour, maybe a bit longer." I muttered a bit nervously, only letting a bit of my uneasiness show.

.....Did I just see something moving. Crap. Crapcrapcrap. That was definitely something. A big something. A big something that just happened to be shaped like a zemma....crap. Quickly I snapped my head up and looked around the sky. Taking deep breaths I tried to keep my cool, maybe if I didn't look at it, the zemma wouldn't notice me....well..notice any of us.

Peter

"What is it?" I asked quietly. Something about the agitated way in which she was looking around drove me to be quiet. I dunno... And I hated being left in the dark like this, so to speak. Though it seemed that we might literally be left in the dark soon...

Devika

"A zemma." I muttered back, chancing a glance down at the creature.

Zemma's themselves are that dangerous. Smart fairies can easily stay away from the sharp rows of large teeth. Its what comes with the zemma you got to watch for. See these creatures turn into starlighers. Starlighters can easily take down around five fay before they're even harmed. Its the deadly grace with which they move, and the shiny layer of starry skin that keeps them from being harmed by just one fay alone. The think layer could be compared to steel, not impossible to break through, just very, very hard.

Quietly I gestured towards where I could still see the zemma, faintly hearing the girl's gasp at the sight. Zemma's resemble giant caterpillars, only their skin looks more like a jelly like substance. I know personally if you stab one the weapon will just sink into the skin, doing barely any harm and letting out think black liquid that is the zemma's blood. They have small, buggy eyes sitting on top of the head end of their bodies, and large mouths, full of three rows of sharp teeth.

Zemma's tended to be dumb though, so as I said, its easy to keep away from them normally.

Peter

"What do we do about it?" I asked. "Just ignore it and hope it doesn't spot us?"

This girl sure went into detail... I knew barely anything about any of this. It seemed like the more questions I asked her, the more questions I had to ask. I sure hoped that we'd get some straight answers in the city...provided we actually got there.

Devika

I hesitated, then pursed my lips giving him a short nod.

"Thats the best thing you could do.." I began quietly. "Just be as silent as possible, we don't want it to spot us. zemma's attract..worse things."

With those words I pushed a little harder, trying to get as far from the thing as possible.

Danae

Worse things? What the freak could be worse than that thing...? It looked..just down right nasty. I couldn't help but wonder if I poked it would it like.. burst or just have my finger sink in. I had to hold onto all my will power to keep from going down there to check it out.

Just as I thought we were clear, being unable to see the zemma anymore, a low keening sound lit the air, increasing in pitch until it seemed to be almost like a whine. I glanced at the girl, preparing to ask what the heck that was, when I noticed her face has drained of color.

"Its calling." She whispered, seemingly frozen at the sound. "It's calling the starlighers."

Peter

"Starlighters?" I whispered back. "What are those?"

Whatever they were, it sounded like we needed to get moving right away. They were obviously something to be feared. But just...for the love of the gods, would this girl go into any further detail? Any at all?

Devika

I considered his question, searching the sky frantically with my eyes. "No time for that now, just know that you don't want to meet one. Hurry now, we need to make it to the village before they arrive."

I thought I caught a bit of movement behind us, and spun around to see nothing.

"Lets just hope they didn't lock the gates yet."

With those encouraging words I turned back around and started speedily in the direction we'd been heading.

Peter

I'd decided that this girl was extremely frustrating to work with. She didn't answer direct questions, she didn't supply pertinent information... Gah. And this really seemed like a time when we needed pertinent information.

"Right," I said, speeding off after her. I kept an eye on Danae, though...just in case.

Danae

I kept half of my attention on the conversation, listening to the answers that weren't answers as I focused the rest of my mind on flying. Seriously, getting into a situation that sounds like it will most likely result in a fight is not a good idea. I mean, I could barely fly, how the freak was a I spose to fight /and/ fly?

Just as this thought crossed my mind the girl spun 'round again, her eyes widening as she spotted something behind me. Crapcrapcrap. That didn't look like a good look on her face.

Somewhat hesitantly I turned around, to find a creature that looked kinda like a butterfly with really sharp teeth that it had bared at me, making little clicking noises with its tongue.

Crap. Okay. Take back the sparkly things comment from earlier. I am starting to hate this place.

Peter

Well.

I figured we just found out what starlighters were.

Crud, arial combat...I wasn't well-versed in this. Wind was my subtype, not my main type; arial combat was Senet's specialty, not mine. Granted, I had still received some training on it, but it wasn't as extensive as the training that main wind types got.

So...this would be interesting.

At least now that I had wings, there was no switching back and forth between wind and fire. I could fly and burn stuff at the same time. So, I put my hands out in front of me with my palms facing outward and proceeded to do just that.

Devika

A starlighter. Wonderful, just wonderful. First newbies then massive butterflies intent on eating people. I just loved my luck. It was freaking fantastic.

Pulling a small blade from my hidden spot beneath my sash I prepared to shove the girl out of the way and defend myself at least. Who cares about the newbies.....?

Then it was on fire. What. In. Freaking. Hell.

Danae

Crapcrapcrapcrap. Without a thought in my head I dove forward, fluttering my wings crazily as I tried to get as far from the thing as I could. Glancing back it almost seemed as if the flames where dancing on its skin....not going any further than the top layer.

The thing faltered for a moment, then made a low hissing noise, clicking its teeth together slowly. Then suddenly it darted through the air, straight at Peter.

Peter

"Whoah!"

I snapped my wings shut and dropped to avoid the starlighter's charge. Looked like this was going to be a dogfight. If only I knew more about the thing!

"Does it have any weaknesses?" I called to the girl. "Or really, anything important I should know about?"

Devika

I gritted my teeth, giving him a short nod as I watched the starligher turn back around and make clicking noises. "

"Starlighters are blind. They run on scent and hearing. If we could get far enough from it, it couldn't find us."