Autumn's Beginning, Autumn's Breeze

Alise sat in front of the fire, her legs crossed and her hands playing with the hem of her skirt.

"Aren't you tired?" Gerard asked.

Alise shook her head slightly and tiredly, "not really, my matabolism says its time to wake up, but i've been awake all day so I am tired."

"Why don't you sleep?"

She shook her head stubbornly, "I can't let my defences down, I may not be starving, but I still can't risk it."

"Its really that hard?"

"Not normally, but with all the carnage we've seen lately I'd rather not take the chance."

"Ah, well you could at least lay down."

That was a good idea, Alise slid to her side propping her head up with her arm. Gerard close by.

*Sorry. My internet's been acting up. I wont be on as much, but hopefully i'll be on for a little while every day/every other day. I'll try to get on in homeroom...but i'm not counting on it. *


Nathaniel

Nathaniel did not sleep. He couldnt; and for two reasons. One: Bella. Her sitting next to him, asleep on his shoulder, made hime more awake than he thought he could be.

Two: The thoughts that were buzzing around in his head, each demanding his attention at the same time. There were too many to concentrate on. It almost felt as though they were ripping his mind apart.


Sighing, he waved his hand in the air. The air shimmered and suddenly the spectral stood in front of him. It bowed respectfully.

"Yes, master?"

"Go keep a lookout." Nathaniel commanded. The spectral bowed again and vanished.

"Hey Nat." Gerard's voice drifted to his ears. Nathaniel turned to look at his brother who was sitting by the fire, Alise propped up on her elbow near by. Gerard was smirking at him.

Nathaniel scowled. "What?"

"How do you feel?"

"Fine." Nat lied. In truth, his back and side were killing him. "Why?"

"It's just...nevermind." Gerard turned to stare into the flames.

"Huh." Nat muttered. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the door. Finally, he fell asleep.

Ara

Ara couldn't sleep though. She looked around, Silvin was just sitting next to the fire. Maybe she would talk to him, 'No, he is probably resting,' She thought she sighed and looked around, she was bored, tired and couldn't think of anything to do.

"How are you feeling Silvin?" She asked,

*sorry tis short*

Silvin looked over at Ara and gave her a slight smile, "Just tired is all. You want to take a seat?" He motioned next to him and she crawled over. Looking at her he felt a little confused, he didn't know what to say. For some reason he was at a loss for words. Sighing he just looked at the fire.

After hearing her yawn he looked at her. Her eyes were half closed and it looked lick she was going to tip over. Gently grabbing her arm he pulled her close so her head rested on his shoulder. Taking off his cloak he covered her using it as a blanket.

Ara didn't know why she was suddenly so drowsy, the craking of the fire quickly lulled her to sleep. She felt something wrap around her shoulders, but she was already out already fast asleep. Her dreams were filled with everything that had happened, seeing demons tearing her woods to bits then everything was calm, quiet.

*Sorry, it is short, so where is this story going??*

(Not sure yet. DM?)

Heh...I dont know! I just made the storybook. Hang on..let me think.....










How about we have them find the stone, but something happens (Good or bad? Dunno).....and something happens to one/a few of the characters. (Again...god or bad. I dot know/care)

Or we can have them find the stone, but run into the demons again, and they steal the stone and escape with it. And maybe they take one/a few of the characters with tem. Or maybe nothing happens to the characters, but they have to find the stonebefore th demons use it.

Or SOMETHING! I dont know. *shurgs* it's a storybok. Think outside the box. Go crazy.

Bella sighed and sat up, stretching her arms high into the air. She felt Nat's hand on her back and turned back to look at him.

"Good morning," she said quietly, leaning back against him. He didn't answer, but that didn't bother Bella. She was used to his silence.

"So, where are we going now?" Alise asked, once everyone was awake and ready to move.

"We need to keep going through the caves," Nat answered.

"Well, that was the obvious answer," Gerard chuckled. "We oughtta be there soon, right?"

Nathaniel

Nathaniel thought for a moment. "Yes, we should be there soon."

"Good. I don't like being in caves, let alone graves." Gerard said, shuddering yet smiling. Everyone agreed.

They ate a breakfast of bread and chese, Nathaniel refusing any offerings of food.

"C'mon Nat, you have to eat SOMETHING! You must be starving!" Gerard coaxed, shoving a piece of bread at Nat. He shook his had and turned away stubbornly. Gerard sighed.

"Why won't you eat?" Bella asked softly from beside him Nat looked at her and shrugged.

"Not hungry."

"Not at all? You havent eaten anything since you got..." she trailed off, letting her sentence go unfinished.

"It's fine. I'm not hungry. I don't eat much anyway, even when i AM hungry."

"I can vouch for that," Gerard said "He rarely eats a full meal."

"So are we all ready?"Nat asked, standing up and wincing slightly in discomfort as the skin around the gashes on his back and side were pulled. He grabbed his staff and waited for the others.

Silvin helped Ara to her feet and nodded. She thanked him and they continued to walk on. The cave seemed to go on forever. Eventually they came to a fork in the road. Two passages looking the same.

"This way," said Alice motioning to the right.

As they started walking Nate's ghost appeared, "Sir, bad news, the demons a close behind.

Nate cursed under his breath and motioned for the others to quicken the pace. They all started down the passage way, but Silvin stayed still looking towards the way they came.

"Silvin, come on!" Yelled Ara, but he didn't answer.

Nate sighed, "Stay with him, he may need help." The ghost bowed and took a position next to Silvin. "We'll be waiting for you."

Silvin nodded still not turning. Ara came up and gave him a kiss on the check, "Come back."

"I will, I promise," he said smiling. Ara turned and ran to catch up with the others. Drawing his sword he waited for the demos to show themselves. He now had the responsibility of leading them astray.

Ara didn't want to leave Silvin, but she had to, she wouldn't be much help to him. There were no animals and it was pretty dark. She wrung her hands as she raced after the others hoping he would be ok.

'Get ahold of yourself.' a voice nagged, 'He'll be fine, he knows what he is doing.' She hurried and stayed close to the back waiting and hoping to hear feet following. Her hand went to the sword at her side. 'You would only be a problem, not a help.' a voice warned, but she had fought before, she could help him. 'No, you would be in the way, the less people there the harder it is for the demons to follow.'

Alise walked to Ara, her hands still clamped tightly over her stomache, "don't worry Ara, I know Silvin, he'll be alright."

Ara nodded slightly, her head still down. Alise pulled one of her hands from her stomache and patted her shoulder before catching up to Gerard and Nat.

"Nat, I think you need to refresh your bandages." She took in a breath, which turned to a gasp, and she quickly covered her nose.

"Is it bothering you?" Gerard asked.

Alise nodded, "I usually have excellent control, but not lately. I have to be extra careful."

"Why do you think its different lately?" Nat said.

Alise shrugged, "holes just make everything harder for me. It must have something to do from my past, but like I said, I don't remember much. Turn left here."

Nathaniel

Nat quickly changed the bandages that covered the gashes on his side and back while Alise waited up ahead a ways. He winced in pain when the bandage pulled away, tuging slightly at the scabs and dried blood.

"Jeez, Nat." Gerard exclaimed as the bandage fell away revealing the gashes. "That looks like it hurts."

"You think?" Nat asked, rolling his eyes and covering the gash on his side with a thick, foul smelling, yellow paste before covering it again. Silvin and Ara had already moved to stand up with Alise. Bella leaned against the wall, her gaze abstrcted.

"You sure it's not infected?" Gerard asked, leaning closer to see better. Nathaniel instinctivly flinched away.

"Quite sure, thank you."

"Really? It looks really red and it's stil bleeding slightly."

They heard Alise moan softly.

"Gerard, shut up. You don't know what your talking about. It is NOT infected." Nathaniel hissed, finishing wrapping his back. He stood up and went to join Alise and the others, Bella and Gerard trailing behind.

Alise went next to Nat, "Nat, it is infected, I can smell it."

Nate waved her off, "I'll be fine."

"Its strongly infected, if it werent for the infection i would have killed you already."

"Then its good its infected isn't it?"

Alise shook her head, "I'm telling Gerard." She turned to go talk to him but nat grabbed her arm, "don't," he said.

Alise closed her eyes, her control fractioning, "Nat," she whispered, "I have to get away from you." She did, desperatly, being around him was pure torture, even though the infection tainted the smell a little bit, it was slowly clearing up, no doubt due to Nat's magic.

Before she realized what she was doing she was leaning into his neck, and when she did she jerked back. "Oh dear god!" she shouted and using her vamp speed she freed herself from his grip and ran ahead of the group out of sight.

When she was sure she was a few miles away from everyone she curled up into a ball and did what she usually did when she was trying to distract herself, she tried to remember what happened in her past, but as usual, she couldn't remember anything but black, a lot of blackness.

Bella watched Alise lean in to Nat's neck, and her automatic reaction was to scream loudly. Gerard turned just in time to see Alise run away as quickly as she could manage.

"Are you alright?" Bella asked immediatly, running up to Nat's side.

"I'm fine," he answered, his breath coming out slightly heavier than usual. Gerard was running up ahead as quickly as he could manage, even though he knew he couldn't catch up to her that easily.

"It's infected," Bella said suddenly. "That's why she can smell it so strongly."

"What are you talking about?" Nat argued feebily.

"I'm not stupid Nat. You may think you're so great because you're all magical and stuff, but I know what I"m talking about. I know an infected wound when I see one, but you're too stubborn to admit that you might just need help. You know what, fine; you go ahead and try to take care of yourself. But I'll tell you now, if you don't take care of that wound soon, it's not going to be pretty." With that being said, Bella changed shapes, turning into a large jungle cat, and ran away as quckly as she could manage, back towards Silvin. She was greatful that cats could not cry.
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"Oh my good God, what is that?" Bella cried, changing shapes again as she came to a halt next to Silvin.

"A demon! What else would it be," Silvin shouted back.