Courtyard (North)

[shadowofshades]

Shadow looked at the two girl's tails and for some reason wanted to play with them but held it back. He sighed and stretched out his black leathery demonic wing and looked at the three girls. Guess if everyone already know's there's no point in me trying to hide it. I never really had a name but I seem to always be in shadow's so I took that name, I'm Shadow.  

[Amaya_Sasumi]

"I'm Yuina, but some people in my past have called me Yui." Yuina had a small smile on her face as she looked up. Her ears twitched a little as she watched the sky. "When I first came here, I thought people would be rude and uncaring. But I thought wrong." She had said this randomely as she look down at the dark crystal.  

[[Roxxan-Tasukimaru]]

"I thought the same thing, so I didnt realy talk to anyone besides Shadow here and two girls. But im not to shy anymore thankfuly." she said and noticed Yuina's necklace. "That's realy cool..." she said pointing to it and she pulled her own necklace out of her pocket. It had a black lace and on the end was a light blue crystal held onti the lace with a golden ring. "This was given to me by my mother." she said and gazed at it a bit.  

[Amaya_Sasumi]

Yuina looked at the light blue crystal Rox-chan pulled out. "Mine was sort of a gift. It was given to me for a reason." Holding the crystal in the palm of her hand, Yuina placed her left hand over it, covering it from all light. She closed her purple eyes then opened them, instead of purple, they were now black, with no white showing. Yuina lifted up her left hand and the dark crystal shot up in the open space between Yuina's hands. The dark crystal spun around in a very life-like way as Yuina controlled it.  

[[Roxxan-Tasukimaru]]

Roxxan couldn't help but gaze at the crystal as it spun arround in the air. "what's going on?" she asked, trying not to break any consentration Yuina might have on the crystal. Her eyes, they're so dark, but why? she wondered. She put her crystal back in her pocket, still looking at the crystal with great wonder. As you could tell, she was a quite curiouse person, no one ever told her the "curiousity killed the cat" story before.  

[Amaya_Sasumi]

As the crystal spun it gave off a seemingly dark aura. Yuina stated to spin her left hand at the same speed the crystal was going. Finally, she gently grabbed the spining crystal, penetrating the aura and the stopping the crystal's movement. Looking up, she closed her eyes for a few seconds and opened them. Her eyes had gone back to their normal dark purple color.  

[[Roxxan-Tasukimaru]]

Roxxan was still wondering, "what was that?" she asked her watching her eyes change to normal again. Her eyes change too? cool! she thought and smiled. "That's a pretty crystal." she added moments later  

[Misao]

Rachel walked through the north courtyard of the school with Graymalk padding along at her side. She looked down at the note he gave her in order to get the letter he was waiting for at the post office as she walked, wondering what sort of important mail talking cats tend to receive. Looking down at the cat, she gave a sort of lopsided smile as the two of them reached the outside of the campus post office.

"Okay, let's go in?" she asked tentatively. "I don't think they'll mind cats in there if it's just for a minute."  

[Stephen Pact]

Graymalk looked Rachel in the eyes and gave a significant nod. He wasn't about to speak in a place as public as the post office - they put up pictures of criminals there and occasionally even caught some, for goodness sake - but he had no objection to following Rachel in if she thought it wouldn't be a problem. Besides, he was rather anxious to get his letter back. Still, he'd have to be somewhere secure to open it; not much point in sending it discretely and then letting all the world see it when it arrived.

As Rachel opened the door, Graymalk followed her in, looking nonchalant as only a cat can while carefully watching her approach the desk.  

[Misao]

Rachel nodded back at Graymalk, as if to say "don't worry, this'll be a snap." Pushing open the door, she waited for him to walk through before going in herself, and made her way up to the desk.

"Hi," she said to the woman at the counter. "I'm here to pick up a letter for a friend." She handed over the note Graymalk had written for her earlier, waiting to receive the letter.

The woman took the note, looking it over and nodding. "Okay, I believe we have that letter here..." She disappeared into the back for a few moments, rummaging around in the stacks of packages and letters that had arrived over the past few days before coming back with the letter. "Everything seems to be in order. I'll just need a signature from you to certify that the letter has been picked up." She slid a piece of paper and a pen toward Rachel.

Rachel nodded, taking the pen and signing for the letter. The woman smiled at her, sliding the letter across the counter toward her. "All right, you're all set!" she said cheerily. "Have a nice day!"

"You too," Rachel said, nodding back at the woman. Turning to nod back at Graymalk next, she made her way back out of the doors to the post office. Not able to contain her curiosity about the letter for the moment, she slowly made her way back behind the post office with Graymalk, intending to ask him about the letter in a place where no one was around. Kneeling down, she put the letter down in front of him, waiting.  

[Amaya_Sasumi]

Yuina looked up at Roxxan and smiled faintly. "That is a small trick I learned to do a while back." She then looked down at the dark crystal. "The people of my village, had to find 'the one' who could control the crystal. This crystal was their most treasured item."  

[Stephen Pact]

Graymalk followed Rachel. The area behind the post office wasn't exactly private, but Graymalk supposed it was close enough. He deftly turned the letter over and slipped a claw into the seam, tearing the envelope open carefully so as to not damage it's contents. Tilting the envelope slightly, he removed the jaunty birthday card it contained, then opened it carefully to reveal the large playing card it contained.

The card was quite detailed and ornate. At its center was a stylized picture of Graymalk himself wearing a witch's hat. Surrounding this was a lot of writing in latin and strange symbols, apparently referencing such diverse things as the elementals and the zodiac.

"It's safe" muttered Graymalk. "Now comes the hard part."  

[Misao]

Rachel glanced down at the card curiously. "Pretty nice... where'd you have that thing made?" she asked. "Looks almost like a custom made tarot card or something..." Picking the card up, she glanced at it, admiring the detail with which it appeared to be crafted. "So what's so important about this thing?"  

[Misao]

((Graymalk, I dunno if you got my AIM message, but I'm gonna keep posting while I'm at my friend's place making my RIFTS character. He said it's no big deal if I use his computer to finish this up, and I can easily pay attention to both. So stay the course!))  

[Stephen Pact]

"Don't touch it yet!"

Too late! Stupid! Careless! He should have warned her, but he was so anxious to make sure Jill was OK... He'd have to snap her out of it quickly, or her mind was liable to snap! He was a cat, used to walking the world of dreams, and he'd been training in magic for over a year and mentally prepared for the shock, and even HE couldn't withstand the world Jill's mind occupied for more than a few seconds!

Graymalk leapt and touched the card.

Terror. Madness. Pain. Horror. Blood. Wrath. Screaming. Death. Birth. Freezing. Burning. Dreams. Nightmares.

A maelstrom of sensations and emotions too complex to comprehend swirled madly around Graymalk, an amalgam of every appaling thing that the things which inhabited this realm could come up with, all of them assaulting his mind at once. He'd have to find Rachel and Jill At Once or risk the loss of all three of their minds.

There! Floating just ahead! Rachel! All things considered, she seemed surprisingly unphased by the ordeal that her mind must be enduring at the moment, but even that wouldn't be worth much if he couldn't get them out. The bigger question was: what was she staring at?

There! Jill! Her body glowing like the moon, curled into the fetal position against the onslought, she sat in a sphere of absolute darkness, a void of all things which even the nightmare creatures of this realm seemingly couldn't pierce. It was a risky move for Jill; it meant she had sacrificed a good portion of her mind in order to protect her core persona. It would protect her, all right, but only for so long; she'd need to be rescued, and soon.

The things hadn't noticed them yet. They were too focused upon their chose prey. This was Graymalk's chance, and he took it. Flying to Rachel's astral form, he latched onto her and quickly closed the link, returning them to their bodies.