Autumn's Beginning, Autumn's Breeze

Gerard-

I looked away quickly. Nat's stare bore into me furiously.

Maybe this wasn't the best idea... I thought, looking around for an exit, any way of escape.

"Well?" he demanded, his voice impatient and strained. He must've been trying to conceal his anger.

"We...we were looking...-"

"We were coming here to the mages to see if they could change us back to humans," Alise said.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I... I just wanted to make it up...to you..."

Nathaniel-

I stared at my brother furiously. How dare he show up! Here, especially!

"I'm sorry..." he whispered. "I...I just wanted to make it up...to you..."

Well, there was no surprise there. If Gerard ever did anything to upset me in any way, he was always quick to appoligize. But this time i wasn't sure i wanted to accept his appology. This time he had gone too far.

"Oh, so you wanted to appoligize?" I asked, sneering. "And you expected my to just roll over?"

He bit his lip.

"Nat," Bella said from beside me. I felt her soothing touch on my forearm. I sighed.

"You're going to have to prove yourself," I said, then i vanished, leaving him to his thoughts. I didn't go far, just a few hallways down. I just had to get away before i completely lost it.

Alice instantly wrapped her arms around Gerard and let him go into his sadness again. When he collected himself they went down into the main hall to talk to the mages.

"So you want to become human is that right?"

Alise nodded, "very much so."

"WHy?"

"For a great number of reasons," Gerard explained.

"There is a way," one mage said. "It would take no longer than three days though."

Gerard-

I sighed. "So be it. I don't care how long it takes, just change us back."

The mage smiled asif pleased. "Follow me."

*This post may suck. I had a brilliant post, but when I tried to post it, soemthing happened. The post no longer exists, and this is a rewrite*

When Nat transported, he meant to go alone. What he didn't realize is that I was touching his forearm ever so lightly with my finger tips. The results of this were that I ended up alone in a strange hallway, unsure of where to go, or where I was.

"Excuse me, have you seen Nat?" I asked a random Mage. (I couldn't tell oen from the other anyway, they all wore the same robes)

"Nathaniel? Yes, he's in that room there," he pointed to the nearest door. Thanking him, I opened the door and entered the room. The door shut behind me, and I was left alone in teh dark.

"Nat?" I called, trying to make out a source of light. Not being able to find one, I settled on making my own. Using magic, I created a small ball of light, which I carried in my left hand. "Nat!" I called again, not seeing him.

The room I was in was narrow, but very long. I hadn't seen one like this before (but the tower did have thousands upon thousands of rooms).

"Welcome Sara-Bella Maria," a voice resounded through the room. How did it know my full name? "This is the Mage testing center. Today you will be given the honor of taking the test."

"But I don't want to..." I replied quickly, turning back to where the door should've been. There was no door.

"Sadly, you have already entered the room. There's no going back now."

"You tricked me!" I snapped angrilly.

"That may be...you should no better than to trust someone more powerful than you."

"You're not more powerful than me!"

"Prove it!" I began banging on the wall where the door had been furiously. "That will do no good. No one outside this room can here you. You can't teleport in, nor out of this room. Actually, it's almost like, once the door is gone, this room doens't even exist." A door appeared again, a few feet to my left. "If you'll go through that door, please."

"I refuse to take the test."

"The sooner you begin the sooner you can finnish."

"I do not want to take the test."

"Then you shall stay in this room and rot."

"Where's Nat?!"

"You can see him when the test is over." I had no was to get otu of this, so, terrified as I was, I opened the new door and walked through.

Nathaniel-

I sat and brooded in my room, staring furiously at a wall. My arms were folded, my hood low over my eyes, and my foot tapping the ground in fury.

Another presense entered the room. I did not turn.

"What is it, Bella?" I asked irritably.

Soft laughter answered me. I knew instantly it was not Bella in the room with me. I spun, my eyes narrowing.

"Saylr," I hissed, my body tensing. "What do you want? How dare you show your face to me."

He laughed again. My hands cirled to fists; my body shaking with surpressed with rage. Saylr was the one to have given me my test, nearly three years ago. I had nearly died because of him.

"What...do...you...want?" I drew out the words.

"Who did you think i was?" he asked, amusement behind his words. "Bella?" he laughed softly again.

"I will not ask again," I said. "You know my power. You know i could easily-"

"Relax."

"Where is Bella?"

He shrugged. "Just starting her test by now, i should think," he said, inspecting his fingernails nonchalantly.

I swayed slightly, grabbing the arm of a chair to stready myself. My voice was weak and hoarse. "...what...?"

"She should just be starting her test now. She entered the Room."

"No..." I breathed. "No! She wouldn't! Not on her own! Not after-"

"You love her?" Saylr asked, raising an eyebrow. "You love her? Wow, Nathaniel, I'm surprised. I never knew you were capable of love."

The last thing i saw before the madness took over was Saylr's horrified, frozen face. After that, everything went dark...

Gerard-

I followed the mage into a small, dark room at the end of a dim hallway. A array of odd looking instruments, like that of what Nat used when he was experimenting, hung on the walls. I only glanced at them for a moment, quickly losing interest.

I turned my head a fraction, smiling at Alise. "Don't worry," I whispered. "It'll be done and over with soon."

She smiled back weakly, but i could see the indecision behind her eyes.

"Don't worry" I repeated again.

Alise took Gerards hand and found courage in that. This is what she wanted wasn't it? She wanted to become human, to have a normal live and to have kids, with Gerard. But then why was she so nervous about this?

"Will this hurt?" she asked the mage.

"Only slightly, and only for the first day, you will go numb after the first day."

"Oh." THat didn't sound too bad, one day of pain, she'd been through worse.

"Ready to begin?"

Alise nodded and stepped up to the insturment they had first, Gerard following her to the other one.

Gerard-

I laid down on a metal table with a large silver instrument hanging above me.

"Don't worry about that," the mage said from somewhere behind me. "We won't be using that."

The large silver...thing...swung around and disappeared.

"Lie still," the mage instructed. Frigid fingertips touched my forehead and a shivered involuntarily.

"This will only hurt for a moment..."

The new room was dark as well. I made my own source of light immediatly, and began looking around.

Something moved in the corner.

"Hello?" I whispered, trying not to get too close to the source of hte noise. It was breathing heavily...whining a bit too. It sounded like an animal of some sort. Suddenly, I thought of my original powers.

Slowly, I allowed my bones to twist and morph, until I was no longer human. I was a small, nimble creature, known as a twiltly. (totally off the top of my head, I'm random). I looked like a mouse, but had excellent night vision, and could fly. I could also walk through walls, but that's a rare known fact.

There, standing in the corner, (which I could now see perfectly), was...Nathaniel?


*NOT FINISHED! PROMISE TO FINISH ASAP!*

What happens!? You've got me curious. *Sits and waits*

Excrutiating pain filled Alise, she withered and screamed at first but then just gritted her teeth and groaned. Any other time under such extream pain she would have passed out, but for some reason, she couldn't.

*sorry is really short, but thats all i have*

Gerard-

I heard Alise scream and cried out with her, feeling her same pain. I bit my lip and tasted the salty sweet taste of blood in my mouth. I cried out as a new wave of agony hit me.

"Why...does it...hurt...so much...?" I gasped weakly.

"What did you expect? The process of turning vampires to humans is not easy. Very few know how to do it."

I detected a hint of pride in the mage's voice but said nothing more for the simple fact that i couldn't. My body was weak with pain. Every breath felt like fire. I wanted to escape the torment but, by some sick and twisted will, i was unable to sink into darkness. Instead i cried.

"Nat?" I whispered (yes, even as a twiltly, I could use my human voice). He looked up at me, his eyes a nasty shade of red. I knew it wasn't really him immediatly, but that wasn't soon enough.

He lunged at me, just as I was changing forms. As an elephant, I grabbed him with my trunk, throwing him across the room. I shifted forms, into a tiger.

"Nat, I don't want to kill you," I pleaded, hoping he would stop. It wasn't Nat...it couldn't be. He lunged at me again, but I jumped out of the way.

"You must kill him if you want to leave," a voice said from above me.

"Kill him! You expect me to kill him?"

"Don't worry, it's not really Nathaniel."

"But..." I cried, while still staying out of the fake Nat's way. He kept jumping at me, I knew I couldn't stay away forever. I didn't want to kill him.

The real Nat's face formed in my head. He was smiling, whispering sweet, encouraging things in my ear.

"You can do it Bella!" I heard his voice, loud and clear. "It's your greatest fear. Conquer it," I nodded, turning back to the facsimile. It was walking around me in a circle.

I shifted forms--a wyvern.

The fascimile stood no chance after that...I whipped it with my tail, pushing him against the wall. He jumped at me again, and I leaned down, eating him. I hated it, cried while shifting back into a human. Then everything went dark.

**That's the end of Bella's test. More will be explained later. She passed out, so if someone wants to pull her in as being in a bed or something, go ahead. (looks at Nat expectantly)**

*Nat's...kinda....insane at the moment...but i'll see what i can do* *Lightbulb*

Nathaniel-

My eyes flew open and i gasped, sucking in sweet air. I struggled to sit up but found that something heavy weighted my arms and legs and chest, preventing movement. My hands clenched and unclenched, my teeth grinding against each other in rage. I still had not mastered control of my emotions after... after whatever just happened.

What had happened? My mind drew a complete black from when the world had gone black to just now. As far as i knew or was concerned, i probably just blacked out. But then i remembered Saylr...and his telling of Bella taking her test...

I began to struggle again with newfound strength.

A cool hand touched my forehead ad my body relaxed instantly, despite my attempts to block the magic.

"Do not waste your time. You cannot escape. Relax, Nathaniel."

"I take orders from no one," i snarled. "Who are you?"

"My name is Kai."

"What do you want? Why can't i move?"

"You can't move for two reasons. One: my magic. Two: you're straped down. As for what i want...well, you don't need to worry about that right now. Just relax. The quicker i can finish, the sooner i can let you go."

I began to struggle again. I wasn't trying to be spiteful. But with Bella's life on the line, I was past listening to reason.

"Nathaniel," Kai's voice was stern. "Stop."

She placed her hands on my forehead again, but this time i was prepared. I fought back with all my might and magic. She drew back, gasping. I glared at her furiously.

"Let me go."

"I can't." she bit her lip. "Nathaniel... i'm not supposed to tell you this...but..."

My eyes narrowed. "What?"

"You... well... ah..."

"What!?"

"You... you killed nearly ten people no more than an hour ago."

"What? How?"

"I...we...I don't know. It took nearly six powerful mages to get you restrained..."

I frowned. Somehow i had to find Bella... but getting away from Kai wasn't seeming likely...