Didn't Understand

Ending in the Beginning

The festival was magnificent. The Aurons has many types of entertainment, from music to dance, from acrobats to drama. The food was delicious and Lief, Barda and Jasmine enjoyed it very much. But one thing nagged at the back of their minds the entire time. They're in danger. We must hurry!

We must hurry...

Hurry...

Finally it was over. The Aurons had gracefully and willingly given the Plumes the Pirran Pipe. And Nols had passed it to Lief. He now carried it in a velvet bag beneath his shirt like he had a few years ago. They farewelled Penn, Emlis, Azan and Clef, and they were now being taken above. They soon found themselves breathing fresh air of the world above the secret Seas of Forgetting. Jasmine then teleported her companions and they soon were in the dreadful place of the Shadowlands.

Jasmine brought out a rope.

"Give me your wrists, please." She demanded.

"Why?" Complained Lief.

"Because if I have been discovered missing, which I probably have, and I'm found with you, it would look better if you are tied up so it looks like I've been searching for you." Jasmine hissed. Wrinkling his nose in annoyance, Lief held out his wrists, ready to be bound. The mottled figure looped the rope around them, tightened them so they were firm but not excruciatingly tight, and looped the other end around Barda's in the same fashion. She snatched the middle of the rope and begun to stride forward, prisoners trailing behind.

"Master-- why are the prisoners here?" The confused servant asked as she walked into her master's presence, two men flanking behind.

"Where were you?" Bellowed a voice in the shadows.

"I was seeking these escapees." She held out the rope, jerking the two men off their feet. Her voice sounded so confident, an average person would've thought it was the truth. But the Shadow Lord is no average person, hardly a person at all.

"You mean the two that you helped escape! It's a wonder why you brought them back!" Roared the voice. And as easily as a flick of the hand, the 'servant' was forced into a wakeless sleep, standing stock still, losing the power to move. Jasmine's unfocused eyes stared into the darkness, the rope fell from her stiff hands, she began to defy gravity as the Lord of Shadows lifted her above the ground, hair and cloak drifting in the air like water. Out from under her cloak, many daggers and several swords clattered against the floor. Then a small bag with a plaited cord fell, a necklace in which the metal looked like lace, so fragile it could have broken when it hit the ground, seemingly to be filled with hair. Brass knob-like objects clanged against the ground and a leather sling and egg-like missiles.

"Spy." The sorcerer spat. "Neridah-" He didn't- couldn't- finish his last statement, for the Ol was numb with shock and he felt himself drawing back, retreating into the very depths of the shadows as the Pirran Pipe's notes blasted away evil.