OOC--not like needles. Romu's not posting... MIA, evidently. He's given up his connection to the Goddess, and as such, his position as one of her paladins. Note: this is only temporary. When we get out of the Realm of Chaos, the Guardian at the Gates will give y'all back your stuff.

IC--Drask was an elf once more. The former dragon was
NOT happy about this particular turn of events. Even so, his form and its connection--the most important one he had--to his sometimes best-forgotten past couldn't deprive him of his sense of self: he'd had far too many experiences as an elf to confine himself to thinking in terms of 'Draskireis the Dragon'. Even so, his father's tailsword felt too sacred for hands of soft, weak flesh to hold.
'May the blessing of
my father be upon me, this night and evermore.'
With that, the dragon-elf began to lead the rather poorer-in-self column of WarAngels into the Gate guarded by the one who'd taken them. Behind Drask, Romulus walked on, head slumped. He'd been deprived of his armor--a boon of the Goddess to her favored warrior--and his place in the nature of things. Next came Tarisse, who stood on shaky legs, haunted by a hallucination of a parent, unsure even of the face's reality. Vilset followed behind, bereft of the memory of a love lost in a former life. It was, for him, truly the last thread severing him from the fabric of life. vAldiCi, psychically isolated, brought up the rear. The elven mage had never before been so alone with himself, not since his youth so long ago. He could sense life around him, and that it was not hostile, but could no more sense his brikari than he could grow wings and outfly Drask. His eyes washed over his companions as though they were not there: his eyes registered life, even people, but his brain forgot to remember them.
Drask led the not-so-self-sure column of WarAngels throught the Gates. The first gate took them out of the Past, while the second propelled them forward into the Future. When they stepped out, it was into a lush Garden, not unlike that which housed the WarAngels in the off-season. There were only a few differences: the Houses Altair, Inaduir, and Vaelot were conspicuously missing, as were all buildings of any sort. The rivers flowed with magma instead of water. The plants, instead of being temperate vegetation, were of a jungle-type flora.
And hovering above all in this Garden-cavern like the sun looking down upon it's earth, was a great Stone. It was of no distinct color: it swirled and iridesced and shone in every hue of the spectrum and a few not of it, shifting its allegiance of shade faster than thoughts turned over in the WarAngels' collective unconscious as to what it was. It exuded power that defied all attempts at classification. No visible (or, as vAldiCi noted, invisible) means of support were evident for this floating sphere of raw power.
It was clear that this was what they sought. This was the root of power, but not that of evil. Pure and clean and limitless, a source of strength so great as to be nearly unassailable. All there agreed it to be necessary that they acquire this orb.
Shadows flickered around the cavern, not all of them created by the WarAngels.
OOC--Three cheers for one acts. Also. We need to get this thing. Either a one or two thread thing... Make it creative. Describe things. Use the surroundings I've given y'all. Have fun. Entertain me (I've run out of reading material, so this is it).
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Haiku:
Little dragonfly
Flying into focused light
Burning ball of bug