Autumn's Beginning, Autumn's Breeze [2]

Caspan-

I stuck my tongue out. "Either way, It's high time WE," I gestured to the younger generation standing around. "had something to do."

My parents rolled their eyes, as did most of the other adults.

"I don't think your first adventure should be going after five, or more, crazed mages. Not to mention five crazed, dangerous ones." Natan said, crossing his arms.

"Ah, Natan, let them go." Nathaniel said, speaking at last. He waved a slim hand. "They're more than ready. Besides, if anything goes wrong, they'll still have us. As backup, in a sense."

All eyes went to the old man in the chair. To be perfectly honest, the guy scared the crap out of me. If I had to choose between getting locked in a room with a enraged minotaur, a bored fairy, or Nathaniel, either of the first two would be my first choice, hands down.

As it was, I wouldn't doubt he wouldn't turn me into a toad (or worse) without a second thought...

"But-" Natan began to protest, while Ramere wore a smug grin, as did Christian and Storm. They already knew the outcome of the argument.

"I said," Nathaniel repeated sternly, "Let them go."

Arabella--

I watched as the events unfolded around me. The old man in the corner had a large amount of authority, as I could see, and soon everyone was quite excited. I was only half paying attention, but understood well enough.

"When do we leave?" I asked as Ramere hugged me excitedly. I hugged back, noticing how nice his embrace felt. I had the sudden urge to kiss his cheek, but refrained. These weren't the best of thoughts, i was not happy with them.

Ramere-

I turned to look at Arabella. "Whenever we're ready. We could leave now, if we wanted."

"We need to know where the mages are, first." Christian pointed out from his place on the couch.

I turned to look at the girl next to him. "Any ideas?"

She thought for a moment, pursing her lips. "Um...i think i heard them say somewhere called... Denimys? Do you know of such a place?"

I shook my head. "Caspan? Christian? Storm?" i turned. "Arabella?" i looked behind her at the others. "Do any of you know where Denimys is?"

Everyone shook their heads.

I sighed before letting a sly grin spread across my face. I turned to face Caspan again.

"Would you mind going and asking Nathaniel? I'm sure he would know."

Caspan's fear of the old mage was widely known among my family. Making him go would be both amusing and useful. At least it'd keep Caspan out of the way for a while...

He stared at me wide-eyed. Then he sighed, looking defeated. "I'm going to have to one way or another, aren't i?"

I nodded. He sighed and walked off, the girl with him trailing behind. I glanced at the others.

"Problem one, solved. Now all we have to do is get ready and head out before he gets back."

"But we don't know where it is."

I shrugged. "We'll just ask my father. I'm sure he'd know, too. Nathaniel should keep Caspan occupied for a while."

Kayla

I stayed close to Caspan, I didn't feel comfortable with anybody else. He waited for a moment so I could catch up with him, it eased some of my self concious fears.

*Eep!!! Wall!!!*

Caspan-

I glanced at Kayla as she caught up. "Sorry about this."

She shrugged. "No, it's fine."

I wished i could say the same thing. i thought bitterly. It wasn't that I didn't like Nathaniel. Quite the opposite, in fact. He just...scared me. I had heard tales of his youth and those that had traveled with him. If he'd been as powerful as he had been then, i couldn't imagine what fifty years had done for him...

Now i just plain avoided him as much as possible.

Taking a deep breath, i knocked on the door to his room.

"Come in, Caspan and Kayla."

Kayla

I didn't know much about Nathaniel and the fact that I wouldn't have to say much of anything to him gave me a little courage. I squeezed Caspan's hand and offered him a reassuring smile.

Nathaniel looked at us, I felt my cheeks flush and my self conciousness rising.

"They're going to leave without you," he said, "that's why they sent you to me."

Storm-

"Then why are we all still sitting here?" Storm asked standing up and looking around. "Let's get a move on it, cause for all we know he'll high tail it out of that room and back into here." Storm liked Caspan, and didn't really understand why they were going to leave him, but he also wanted out, even though last time resulted in new powers he didn't really want. He smiled, those powers could stop the storm that was still outside. He closed his eyes slowly and started thinking happy thoughts. He could feel what felt like a wind surging through him and the tattoo on his arm started to burn. When he opened his eyes he could see the sunshine outside. Let's see how long it lasts He grinned inwardly.


Cara-

Cara stayed as close as she could to Christian unsure of what she was doing.


***All I had for her. :'( **

Caspan-

"Figures." i muttered, not daring to look into the clear blue eyes. He chuckled.

"And you needed something?" he asked, though i doubted he had to.

"Can you tell us where Denimys is?"

He smiled. "No."

"Why not?" Kayla and I both asked. His smile widened.

"Because there is no such place. I think young Cara was trying to say Deniyus. There is no such place as Denimys."

"Well, can you tell us where Deniyus is then?" i tried, my uneasieness growing with each passing moment.

He nodded. "Yes."

I waited for his answer, but he didn't seem about to say anything else. Finally, Kayla spoke.

"Will you tell us where it is?"

"It's to the south, not terribly far from here."

"Is there anything else we need to know about it?"

He shrugged. "Nothing, other than it's the home of the Dragons."

Kayla

I gulped, if anything was going to scare me, it was the land of the dragons. I could feel the shivers running down my spine. I never knew why dragons frightened me so, I wasn't afraid of fire, or flying, or really getting eaten...I had always managed to avoid it all before hadn't I?

"That would be a good hiding spot," Caspan said, "no one would dare go there."

Nathaniel chuckled, "except you, now if you want to catch up with them I'd suggest you run. I'm going to go visit my brother and make sure he's not hiding in a bottle."

I leaned over to whisper into Caspan's ear, "your grandfather's a drunk?"

"After my grandmother died he started." Yup, I killed Alise ^_^

"You'd better carry her," Nathaniel said. "You'll have to fly."

I gasped as Caspan suddenly lifted me into his arms and started flying away.

Caspan-

I launched out of the house with a quick farewell to the elders and dove into the sky.

The storm clouds i had seen earlier were gone. Completely. Not a wisp of them were left.

"Thank you, Storm," i muttered under my breath. Kayla looked up at me.

"What?"

"Nothing," i said. Then i spotted the others and flew down, silently landing a few feet back. I set Kayla down, held my finger to my lips, winked, and grinned mischievously. She nodded to show she understood.

With stealthy steps, i approached up on the others.


Ramere-

The attack was unexpected, throwing me off balance. I stumbled and began to fall but managed to twist myself around so that the thing on my back absorbed most of the impact.

I heard an 'oof' as we hit the ground. Ash gray wings wrapped around my upper-body, smothering me. I cursed loudly.

"Oooh, Ramere said a bad word! Quite a few, actually..." the person behind me said, laughing.

"Caspan, get off me! You-" I stopped, setting my hand on Caspan's wing. I let a burst of electricity flow through my fingers. He yelped in pain, loosening his grip around me. I sprang up.

"What'd you do that for?" he demanded, glaring at me, standing too. He flexed his wing.

I snorted. "To get you off."

"Technically, it was you who was on me."

"No thanks to you."

The others were still laughing. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, by the way," Caspan said, finding something interesting on his fingernail. "You were going the wrong way."

Arabella--

As Caspan jumped on Ramere's back, Ramere let go of my hand. I stumbled slightly, but caught myself, hoping no one noticed the way that my glamour had shimmered for a moment, leaving my wings visible.

Once Ramere was back on his feet, as well as Caspan, Caspan spoke.

"You werre going the wrong way," he said, looking nonchalantly at his fingernails. Ramere glared at him, obviously not liking the fact that he was wrong. I stood off in the nearest shadow I could find, blending again. I was easily unnoticed, as always.

Ramere-

I glared at Caspan. "What do you mean? My father told us Denimys is this way."

He shrugged. "Could be. But Deniyus is the other way."

"We're not looking for Deniyus."

"Yes we are."

He shook his head and smiled. "No, we're just not."

"How do you know?" I growled.

"Good thing you sent me to Nathaniel. Denimys doesn't exist."

"Yes it does. My father told me so."

He smiled before turning and walking off in the direction we had just come, heading south. "No, it just doesn't."


Caspan-

I took Kayla's hand as we walked away from the others. Knowing him for so long, i could feel the anger rolling off Ramere. I knew he couldn't stand being proved wrong, so i decided to enjoy every minute of it. After all, it wasn't every day it happened.

"Are we really going to Deniyus? The home of the dragons?"

"Seems we have little choice. And who are we to pass up the opportunity for an adventure?"

Kayla

I giggled, "not me, maybe I'll even find home in all this." I didn't know why I said the words, maybe just to provoke him I don't know. Maybe because if I said my wish out loud, it would reach someone's ears and make it come true.

We walked for a while before the others caught up, "why are we walking?" Christian asked, "more than enough of us have wings."

Arabella--

THe others consulted each other in hushed tones as we began to follow Caspan. Ramere was angry, it was very obvious. I hung back in the shadows, not wanting to bother anyone.

What I did want to do, on the other hand, was walk over and give Ramere a big hug. I refrained, not knowing how he'd react. He was staying near the back of the group now, letting Caspan take the lead for a while. I strayed even further behind.

Caspan-

I led the others out of town, heading south. I looked over at Kayla, smiling warmly. "Welcome to the family."

(Sorry i don't have more for him.)


Ramere-

I walked behind the group, head lowered to my chest, brooding. Why had my father told me the way we had to go was this way? If he hadn't known, then why would he send us off? And if he had known, why tell us to go the other way...?

These thoughts plagued me for a long period of time. I was unsure how long we had been walking and flying (we had been alternating between the two. I of course used my magic).

I caught a glimpse of something a few feet behind me. I hadn't seen it before, untill it stepped into a patch of sunlight. I turned.

Arabella walked the path behind me. She too seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. I dropped back to walk beside her, not saying anything at first.