It was a normal day in this Trabian City. It had been 289 years since the Wingly War, and much had advanced. Magic was almost out of existance today, only a few scattered mages lived in hermitage. The Legend of Gerad had lived through the Mysidians. A Canadian Author had sold a million copies by now of his recollection as a Canadian Voyager. SRGPI had by far recovered from his mortal wound by now, and he was nowhere to be found for now.

But on this day...



Mechs powered by newly created Chorizite cells tramped through town on daily patrol. This was only once a year that these mechs would pass through the city and make a ruckus, but it happened to be that a little girl was playing when she was suddenly pulled out of the street by a person who looked like an impersonation of a fairy tale villain of Kefka. To the little girl, he softly said,

: Stay out of the street, little girl. Those Mechs may step on you if you don't.............huh? You seem to look familiar somehow...

Moria smiled as she played in the street with a bit of rope she had found when she was pulled back by a funny looking man. She smiled boardly to him. "Ok Mr Funny Looking Man. But I want to play somemore." She looked around but saw no room for her to jump rope. She frowned for a moment then smiled. "I know! I'll bring my friend here!"

Moria smiled as her hands glowed, she said something and right infront of the mechas a stone gloem appered. She smiled and jumped. "Yey! Now Stoney can play with me!!"

Before "Stoney" COuld come over, the Mecha's grabed ahold of it and tried to get rid of it, thinking it was a threat. Moria just giggled, "Mechas are silly. They aren't soppose to play with Stoney." Meanwhile the golem simply pulled the arms off and dropped them to the ground next to it.

Moria walked over to the Golem. "Naughty Stoney! You're not soppose to break Mechas, those are other peoples toys. Now be nice and please say your sorry."

In a deep rumbleing voice the Golem spoke, "Sorry!"

Moria nodded. "Now I can't play with you cause you were bad. Thanky uo for comming though." Her hands glowed agian as she said some words and he disappered, leaving her in the middle of the street with her jump rope agian.

: o0(Able to summon golems and suddenly turn them into life? now that sticks out in my head.....)

Some mechanics then rushed out to the main street and looked at the mess of scrap the mech that was thrown got turned into.

Mechanic: Awww nuts! And we just fixed that mech!

The funny looking man asked the little girl then,

: What's your name?

Moria started jumping rope, ignoreing the other men smileing. "Dragons fly and dragons fall, but how many can make a fire ball..1..2...3..4.." She stopped when the funny man asked what her name was. She smiled and went over to him.

"I'm Moria Star, Mr Funny Looking Man. Stoney was here but he was bad and broke the mecha toys, so I made him go home." She smiled boradly to him.

"Whats your name Mr Funny Looking MAn? Do you want to play with me?"

She smiled as she got ready to jump rope agian, still in the street.

: o0(Should I tell her who I am? Naahhh....) You can just call me Mr. Funny Looking Man for now, and how did you learn to summon that Golem of yours?

Moria nodded. "Ok Mr Funny Looking Man." She started to jump rope agian when he asked where she learned how to summon a golem.

"Oh you mean Stoney? Mr Nice Funny Man taught me. He showed me how to bring all sorts of friends to play with So I wouldn't be alone no more."

She grinned and jumped rope singing. "Mommy and Daddy far away, Mr Nice man came to play. Showed me how to bring lots of friend, so my games would never never end. How many friends can we bring, why don't we jump and sing!! 1...2...3...4...5..."

Moria was playing with her jump rope on the street as usual, when she saw a band of black robed people break out of a window in a bank.

Bystander: Help! Thieves! Somebody get the police!

But by then, the thieves had already disappeared in an alleyway.

: Greeeat.....at a time of peace, there never seems to be a rest for crime...

The funny looking man then darted into the alleyway, only to shriek.

: Aieee! I hate oglops I hate oglops I hate oglops!

-SRGPI

Moria was curious as to what oglops were and why Mr Funny Looking Man hated them, so she stopped jumping rope and skipped over to the allyway. There she saw the oglops and the man. Smiling she said to them. "Lets play a game!! I bet Flames would like you."

Grinning as only an innocent child could, her hands glowed and she said a few strange words agian, differant from before slightly. Suddenly a phonix appered and looked to Moria.

"Will you please play with the oglops so they don't bother Mr Funny Looking Man no more?"

The firey bird nodded and flew after the oglops, which ran away as fast as they could. Moria giggled. "They like eachother already! Look, they're playing tag!!" She giggled and followed them until the oglops were caught in the birds firey wings and cooked to a crisp.

Moria pouted a little. "Poor Oglops. They got too close to Flames. She better go back home."

She went up to the bird. "Bye Flames, thank you for playing." She said a few strange words, her hands glowing, and then it disappered, leaveing moria in the middle of the street agian.

A crowd of witnesses gathered around the little girl. They barraged her with questions like,

"how did you learn those abilities at your age?" or "How did you do that?" or "Will you join the Mage council when you grow up?"

And while the crowd was surrounding her, The funny looking man searched the alleyway a little more.

: They couldn't have gotten away that easily...enless....

He searched through the trash piles, only to fall into a pit-trap.

: Not again....!

-SRGPI

Moria looked around at all the people and smiled. "Mr Funny Nice Man taught me how to bring lotsa friends to play with. I say special words and then say the real Magic words, Please and Thank you! Then I play with them alllll day."

She got a confused look when someone asked her about the council of mages and replied, "Who are they? Are they nice people? Do they play tag?"

While everyone stood there miffed at her answers she just smiled and looked at everyone. "I
m going to play with Mr. Funny Looking Man now. Thank you to trying to play with me!" She skipped away between two people, as the crowd started to follow she went into the allyway and noticed a pit. Moria got down on her hands and knees and looked down it. "Wow, this is a big hole."

Oooh...my poor head....I knew I should have taken those painkillers in the morning....

The funny looking man got up and shook his head.

: I wonder how those thieves had survived such a fall...*rubs forehead* No matter, time to go look around....

He found a piece of bark in the corner of the room, and used the wall to light it. The fire barely appeared from the bottom of the pit to Moria's eyes, and it slowly moved away.

: A-ha! A tunnel.

The funny looking man then walked down the tunnel.

-SRGPI

Moria Saw the light. "Mr Funny Looking Man! Wait for me!!" she cried, assuming it was him simply because he was the only one she has seen in the allyway.

She watched as the fire began to disapper and the people start to come into the allyway. They couldn't see her or the hole yet. She said a few words her hands glowing, and an Esper appered. Smileing she looked at it. "Will you please help me down the hole?"

The esper nodded and took hold of her gently takeing her down to the bottom of the pit. Once down there she smiled. "Thank you. You better go home now so you can play with your other friends."

After saying a few words and her hands gloing agian, she looked for the light. Spotting it she ran up to him, holding onto her rope. "Mr Funny Looking Man! Wait up! I wanna play too Please!"

She grinned as she started catching up with him.

Moria Saw the light. "Mr Funny Looking Man! Wait for me!!" she cried, assuming it was him simply because he was the only one she has seen in the allyway.

She watched as the fire began to disapper and the people start to come into the allyway. They couldn't see her or the hole yet. She said a few words her hands glowing, and an Esper appered. Smileing she looked at it. "Will you please help me down the hole?"

The esper nodded and took hold of her gently takeing her down to the bottom of the pit. Once down there she smiled. "Thank you. You better go home now so you can play with your other friends."

After saying a few words and her hands gloing agian, she looked for the light. Spotting it she ran up to him, holding onto her rope. "Mr Funny Looking Man! Wait up! I wanna play too Please!"

She grinned as she started catching up with him.

: o0(Have they caught onto me already? Uh oh...must run...)

The man started dashing for a long time down the tunnel, until he ran into a room where there were sacks of money everywhere, and 4 hippie looking thieves.

: Ack! The cops found us!

: Run!

And the thieves ran off with all the money that they could. The man followed them, and it soon became a long line of people running.

Moria, though being a energic child at times, could only run for so long before she would just want to stop and rest, and it was getting very close to that time. Moria could see the light in front of her, but she wasn't getting any closer.

"I need help!" She announced as she kept running, tring to keep her breath.

She quietly said a few words, takeing good breaths inbetween each one, her hands glowing in the darkness and something slowly appered farther up infront of the group. At the top of her lungs Moria shouted. "PLEASE HELP ME CATCH HIM STONEY!!!!"

The golem appered finialy nice and solid infront of the theifs. Now it was a bit confused on which "him" to catch so as each theif ran into him, he grabed them, holding onto them as Moria finnialy managed to catch up. By the time Mr Funny Looking man got there, the Golem couldn't grab him without loseing the others, so he simply sat there, blocking the path.

: choke gasp

: What the hell is this!

: Impressive!

At this time Moria had finally caught up, when the thieves were coughing up hairballs from their throats and spilling bags of Gil and the Funny looking man was rubbing his chin.

: o0(Wait till I get back to base and report what has happened here! They'll cough up their coffee all over their suits!)

The Funny Looking Man chuckled and put cuffs on the thieves hands. He also said to Moria while patting her small head,

: You've won this little 'Tag' game, but next time, don't cheat with your pals of yours.

The man had pulled the thieves out of their stone prisons and guided the crew back to the pit, where Trabian Police Officers had been waiting there for the Funny looking man to come back.

: We've already thrown a rope down!

The funny looking man nodded, and he tied up all the thieves at the bottom of the rope, and climbing on top of them. The Officers then pulled the rope up, after the funny looking man snagged Moria on the back of the collar with a fishing hook.

: o0(Whew, almost forgot. Good thing I had brought my lucky fishing hook along.)

Moria smiled big and wide when Mr Funny Looking Man told her she won. She nodded and simed a little less when he told her not to cheat. All she had to say to that was, "I didn't mean to, I just wanted to catch up. But I'll rember not to cheat next time!"

She smiled and skiped over to the Golem, hugging him best she could. "Thank you Stoney, your a good friend."

The golem smiled and let Mr Funny Looking Man take the two thiefs, knowing better than Moria what they really were. Once he let them go, she smiled and waved to the theifs. "Thank you for playing with us! Come play agian soon!"

She grinned and turnd to the Golem while they were being tied up. "you better go home, you're friends must be worried. Thanks for comming."

She smiled and hugged him agian before saying the strange words and making her hands glow before it disappered. She skipped down the way she came, picking up her jump rope she dropped without realizeing it. Just as she stood up, a fishing hook caught her and pulled her up into the air. As she hung in the air like a star in the sky. She grinneda and extened her arms, pretending she was the one making it happen. "Wheee! I'm flying!!"

She grinned to Mr Funny Dressed Man once they got up. "Your lots of fun. Will you be my best friend?" She looked up at him, her eyes shining a big grin on her face. "I would like a friend I didn't have to bring like I do Stoney of Flames. And My Mommy and Daddy would like that too, if I had any."

The funny looking man visited Moria once a day, to play tag or hide and seek, during tag he occasionally ran his normal speed of running, by far faster than Moria since he was bigger.

But after a month or so, he stopped coming.

______________________

At the Trabian Police Station...

: Sir, we've been having increased crime rates throughout the whole city these past few weeks. We currently don't have enough officers to contain the pockets of crime.

: Don't we have anymore recruits from the Police Academy?

: They won't arrive till the end of the semester....

: There goes all the leisure time I have...

: The chief's sending you to Selye sir, to request reinforcements immediately.

: Why does it have to be ME?

: Because of that incident a month ago.

: Sigh

Moria had waited for him all day before at the normal spot, looking around for him. But he never came. She even ended up falling asleep in the allyway, way from the park she normaly slept in.When she woke up, it was mid morning, and she was worried. She got up and looked around.

"Mr Funny Looking Man must be hiding. But I'll find him!" She smiled and said several words, her hands glowing for several minutes as she summoned the Esper, Phoinx and Golem, one by one. She was tried from calling all three at once, but it was important.

"Stoney, may I please ride on your sholders?"

The Golem nodded and lifted her up.

"Thank you!" She said before looking at all of them, "If you don't mind, I would please like your help in finding Mr Funny looking Man. He didn't show up yesterday and isn't here today."

They nodded and she smiled. "Yey! Thank you! Flames you fly around and see if you can find him, Spert you look in allyways and shops we past, and Stoney and I will look around the streets."

They all nodded and set off, going donw the main road to Downtown.

The funny looking man was riding on horseback towards Selye, the Trabian Capital. He looked back at Drowli once, and continued his trek down the road.

____________________

Back at Selye...

The creatures that were flying or looking around town had frightened children and scared the common populace. Soon, the populace was in panic, thinking that the monsters were here to destroy Drowli, but it appeared that the monsters were searching for something.

The town mayor scrambled the militia of the town, still thinking that the monsters were here to raze the town in their search.

At the other end of Downtown, the universe's most bedraggled man-at-arms searched his satchel for a few notes of credit.

"I don't understand it," he mutters, "I swear I brought some cash along...I guess I shall have to go home and fetch it. Do you mind?"

The barkeep politely replied by tossing him through the door.

"Ah, so no charge then?" he coughed after he finished rolling. He snarled, tried to wipe the dirt off his soiled pants with his muddy hands, somehow succeeded, then rummaged about in his satchel again. His questing fingers scrabbled amongst innumerable smooth, rough, pointy, and flaming objects until the closed around a thin slip of paper, which he withdrew in triumph. His face droops when he realizes its just a post-it, and he reads it out of habit.

"To: SYE
From: TLT
Reg: K&M

Youthful summoner Moira Star has been sighted within 27 kilometers of [possibly] reformed megalomaniac Kefka. Investigate, with aim to keep their combined property damage level below 16 trillion gil.

Signed,
The Living Tribunal"

"Gee, I wonder where the lass could be?" he asked rhetorically, observing the small mob attempting to dodge a small girl joyriding a very big rock monster.

Moria pouted as she saw Mr Funny Dressed Man was nowhere to be seen in the town. She started to cry some when the phonix came back and landed in front of her. It had circled far outside the city and has seen something it thought Moria would like.

Moria wiped her tears. "Did you see him?"

It nodded. "You did? Yey! Can you please lead the way Flames?"

It nodded agian and she smiled. "Yey! Spert! Stoney! We need to follow Flames. She knows where Mr Funny Looking Man is!!"

Now quiet happy and cheerful, giggling even, Moria and the three creatures walked out of the town, looking for Mr Funny Looking Man.

A snowstorm struck the funny looking man and his horse. He grumbled and headed off to a cave nearby. There, he had pulled out a piece of bark and lit it on fire.

: I can't believe there's a snowstorm during the summer! grumble This will most certainly delay my return...

Fortunately, the bark was of a certain brand that would never burn out. The bark was a part of the Twig of Endless Wood, used during the Wingly War which happened 289 years ago, and since then, SRGPI had grown trees of Endless Wood, which had supplied Trabia's unlimited supply of Lumber.

: Ah well, time to get some sleep...

He pulled out a blanket out of his saddlebags on his horse, wrapped it around the horse as it layed down, and he pulled out a sleeping bag for himself.

: *snore..*

Moria held onto the Golem as they walked along. It had sudden;y gotten cold and started snowing. It kept snowing harder and harder until she could hardly see 5 feet in front of her.The phonix landed on the golems sholder, tring to keep Moria warm. She leaned over near the firey bird, getting as close as she dared. The esper stayed next to the gloem, looking around for any sign of shelter. The three rather liked her. She was one of the nicer summoners they had met and wanted to keep her safe.

Moria looked up and cried out at the top of her lungs. "Mr Funny Looking Man!! Where are you!!!??"

She shivered, the snow making her feel cold and wet dispite the Phonix's warmth. It was then the golem started calling out. "MR FUNNY LOOKING MAN! MR FUNNY LOOKING MAN!!"

As it walked along it kept calling out, while Moria held on and concentrated on staying warm and keeping an eye out for her friend.

A dream about him walking on the roadside, in winter clothes because it was heavily snowing. He saw a little girl, nearly frozen from the intense cold. In his normal instinct, he wrapped the girl in his winter clothes, slightly shivering also, and he went off the road towards a mountain nearby. He build a fire inside a cave that he found, and he waited for a day for the girl to wake up. The girl had an uncanny resemblace with Moria.

The funny looking man then woke up with sweat on his forehead, he had seen the point of the dream. He put on his winter clothes and rushed out of the cave, searching for a girl. Then he heard somebody call for 'Mr funny Looking Man!'

: It can't be..! She went out this far in a snowstorm like this?!

The Golem kept calling out for Mr Funny looking man, seeing Moria start to turn blue a bit. The Phonix was able to hold off on some of the cold, but couldn't get too close lest it risk setting Moria's clothing on fire...

It was then the esper noticed Mr Funny Man's form first. It went over to him quickly, making him go towards the Golem. When it looked like he might try to run, or argue, it wispered in a voice that sounded like it hadn't been used in ages. "Moria..."

That seemed to get his attention, and the esper led him to the Golem. Once there the Golem carefuly took Moria off its massive sholder and held her in his hands. She carefuly held her out to the man. "Help her, please." He said in a deep rumbling voice.

After the man wraped her up, the golem put him on his own shoulder without a word and the phonix got as close to him as it dared, tring to keep him warm now.

The golem held her close to his body, tring to save her from any more snow and ice and looked to him. "Which way?" After he pointed the way, the golem set off to the cave.

Several kilometers away a bundle of furs shuffled along through the greatest blizzard the continent had seen since 2 days past. It followed what could be construed as This Planet's most unusual set of footprints.

Almost totally filled in by drifting snow are the tiny prints of a young human, scarcely visible embryonic impressions in the sculpted snow. They are still plainly visible, however, visible as smooth glinting ice. Actually, the prints have been permanently preserved in a long sheet of ice about a ten centimeters deep and a meter wide, almost as if some great Zamboni of the heavens had accompanied the petite person. One trained in the mystical arts would have additional clues, as a disappating trail of mystic energy can easily be spotted cutting an octarine path across the magically bereft plains into the distant mountains. And even the most intoxicated tracker would find it hard to miss the elephant-sized furrow some massive being plowed beside the icy trail.

"Blasted Watch," groused the furred traveller, peeking through his hood and getting razor throwing flakes in his eyes for his trouble. "'Where were you when the Golem knocked over 12th Park Avenue?' 'Did you get the liscense and maji registration of that esper?' 'Is that a registered crossbow?' Bureaucrats! Now I'm at least an hour behind that little brat. Got to find her before the Malevolent Magical Majority does; they really hate it when someone ties up as many avatars as she is!"

He continued to trudge along, snow plastering his coat, wind etching his face in interesting ways, fell into the golem's trough, realized it made an excellent windbreak, and bobsledded in pursuit of his quarry.

The Golem had been completely too big to fit in the cave, and which if he tried to plow his own way through, caving in the whole mountain, stayed outside along with Phoenix, since the cave is also not long enough for the trees.

Moria had been nearly frostbitten when the funny looking man had arrived. The man quickly covered Moria in everything he could, save the blanket for the horse, and threw in a few more twigs he found outside in the fire, hoping it would heat Moria up faster. He had only covered the top half of the head, so she had space to breathe. The funny looking man had waited sitting right next to his horse and sighed in relief.

: Now only if there was something else around to cover myself in....*shiver*

Even from outside, the 3 summons could tell Mr Funny looking man was cold. So the Pihonix got as close to the entrance as it could so its warmth would enter the cave, and the golem got behind it to block out the cold and ice coming from the outside. The esper did the only thing it could do and kept an eye on the storm and made sure nothing came to harm Moria.

It was a very long time, after the phonix has managed to help warm up the cave, before Moria woke up. She looked at Mr Funny Looking Man and smiled. "Mr Funny Looking Man?"

She smiled after he turned to her. "You never came so I got worried. Spert, Flame and Stoney helped me find you."

: I had to leave on a business trip, to a city 5 miles away from here. I had to leave immediately, so I couldn't come and tell you. I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused so far. But let us get some sleep, it's nighttime already. We can't play along the way on my business trip if I'm too tired.

He chuckled after he finished. He went over to a corner of the cave, and he fell asleep on the floor.

"Aagh!" said Eighth, as he cannoned out of the half-pipe at 0.5 lightspeed. He hydroplaned off the snow's surface a few times before finally using his nose as an emergeny brake.

"Note to self: never pour Antifreeze of Double Haste on runners again!" he groused as he burrowed out of a small hillock. With difficulty he extracted a scope from his parka, chipped some ice off its lenses, and focused them ahead of him. He cursed silently as he realized the snowstorm made his eyesight useless, and the giant flaming avian in front of the cave effectively swamped out his IR vision. As he slowly scanned the area, however, he noticed he wasn't the only one hot on Moira's trail.

Through the snow, just visible in the distance, were seven flickering patches, grey against the black of the frozen snow. Nearly eclipsing these heat signatures was a large dome of inky blackness. Eighth switched to the mana lenses for a better view. Three great yellow flames leapt out at him from the neutral green of This Planet's natural background magic. Closer to him were four more compact spheres of flickering colour. Between them an indigo shape, hulking and clearly humanoid, lumbered along.

"Well well, why am I not surprised?" he thought. "Three sorcerors, four anti-magic brawlers, and an ice elemental for thermal cover. Ministry of Amerikajin investigation unit. Doubtlessly here to 'offer' a memebership to the brilliant little summoner whom has tied up their GFs for oh so very long." He smiled. "Ah, but doubtless they are neophytes; no true Minister would degrade herself by teleporting to this backward freezer-burnt wasteland. But I'm in a good mood," he smirked. "I think I can give them a little something to put on their resumes. Guess I should warn the brat first."

Eighth extracted himself from the drifted snow piled around him, removed his mits, and extracted a gaily coloured bolt (stopping periodically to warn his fingers). He shot the Supa-Pahty-Party-Noismaker-Ultra-Supremo-Annoyer X towards the cave entrance, loaded a belt of Bolts of Immolation, and set off towards the investigators, using the icy trench for cover.

[Note: the party is actually fairly adept at using magic. Its goals are to find this new "rogue" summoner and pressure him or her to join the Ministry. If they do not, the summoner is to be atomized on the spot.]

[Ya couldn't make it easy on the newbie could ya? Oh well. Lets see how this goes.]

The esper was getting bored outside, just looking around for anything that could lead to trouble. It was then that it first saw something a bit a way. After closer inspection, it looked like a large group, and an ice elemental. It wasn't sure what to make of this at first until it realized the ice elemental was protecting them from the cold. It certianly wasn't attacking them.

It was then someone set off a loud noise maker of some sort, wakeing up the two inside. Moria sat up and looked around. "What was that?" She asked, still groggy.

The Esper came in and looked at them. "Large group comeing. 7 plus ice elemental. at least one a sorcerer. Not chance." it said to Mr Funny Looking Man.

Moria smiled. "I bet they want to play. Will you three play with them if they come please? I'm too tried."

The three could only nod, with a rough idea on how they would "play" if they tried to harm Moria.

[ Ok, um, someone can completly control the Golem, Phonix and Esper if and when the group throws a hissy fit over Moria not joining. Or they can "play" A head of time. You to the next poster.]

Inside the Cave....

: snore

The Funny looking man was still sleeping soundly.

____________________

Outside...

Spert had approached the group of the 'Ministry' and spoke in a towering voice.

: Do you wish to threaten my Master or NOT?

-SRGPI, Showing to Moria how Alexander looks like even though it's not the full picture.

Hey. Ok, I don't have your e-mail so I would like you to please E-mail me. I would like to do a Thread explaining Moria's powers and past, but I need your help! So, until you e-mail me and I e-mail you back, just keep SYE away from Moria in this thread. I want you to check out what Excel and I came up with. THANKS!!

A tall cloaked man walked over to the ministry men.
He trudgred thuorgh the snow past the ministry to a large group about 3 men and a six year old girl. "I'll make this snappy, what are you doing with those men over there?" infernos snapped. "I might be just a wander sherching for his past but... I must join a quest to find this info."

Ok. Some mistakes with the post there inferno...

1. there is only ONE man with Moira

2. The other men I'll assume you are talking about is the Golem (Think big rock monster) and a phonix (Big firy bird)

3. You can not see Moria or Mr Funny Dressed Man becausethe golem is blocking the entrance to the cave they are in, so unless you can walk through stone....

4. The mistry is not with them YET. The Esper (AKA Spert) has gone up to them however to see if they are friend or foe.

Cause of that um, unless SYE or anyone else kicks a huge fuss about it. I'm gonna ignore your first post. But don't be discouraged! Ya just need to fix it up a little.

Oh yeah, keep in mine a big old blizzard is going on outside.

Thanks for reading this.

Shawshank the Splendiferous Sorceress was not having a good day. The suprise communique from the Ministry had interrupted her morning meditation ("The Ceremony of the Quaffing of the Sacred Coffee", as her acolytes dubbed it), spoiling an arcane artifact she'd been working on for months (Wand of Instant Percolation +1, +3 if used with Folger's Grains of Caffination). Her Robes of the Righteous Arch-Magi, while impervious to all but the most complex magics, was quite permeable to the frigid arctic winds; she was forced to wear the Bulky and Cumbersome Robe of Thinsulate overtop. Waddling through waist-deep snow in the company of a notoriously stupid ice elemental ("Why can't I ever summon the smart ones?" she lamented) had done little to improve her moral.

So when Spert, Legendary Armored Guardian of the Mystic Portal, floated up to her in a threatening matter, she did not hesistate to take action.

"Dysphella!" she spoke, one arm waved in the esper's direction. Spert grunted as a sparkling green sphere struck him in the chest, and barely managed an indignant roar as he was dispelled, the small bits of his essance that remained atomizing some snowflakes before vanishing completely.

"Resume march," ordered Shawshank, withdrawing a Mug of Thermal Continuity +3 (+5 versus Cold Coffee) and taking a sip. "She can't be far now if her summons are roaming about."

"Mistress?" One of her acolytes stepped along side her. "I'm a little curious about this assignment we're on. What's so important about this little girl?"

"She is a rogue magi, student," she replied, "of the most dangerous sort. It is the duty of the Ministry to guide the use of magic in this world to ensure it does not rage about wild as it did in times past." The acolyte nodded, recognizing the line as one drilled into all students in their first year.

"But is it really necessary to, erm, 'discipline' her so if she doesn't cooperate? Couldn't we merely seal her powers away for a few years?"

"Besides," interjected the other acolyte, "how much harm can one seven year old do anyway?"

"Priscilla, don't make me bring up that incident with you and Fabiolus, Avatar of Lust seven years back, please?" she replied.

"Oh yeah...that..." The acolyte blushed profusely. "I...guess she could be pretty dangerous then..." Shawshank acquired a sudden headache.

"But really," persisted the first student, "the Ministry only gives out Subjugate Upon Sight orders for seventh level threats! I can believe this child might be a little...mischevious...but is she really that great of a danger?"

"Acolyte Nelmia! Quiet your voice and return to your duties!" The acolyte started, opened her mouth to protest, then shuffled off to resume her clairvoyant scouting.

The Funny Looking Man had shivered and turned in his corner. He had a flashback.

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There was a strange looking kid that was running around in a library. A scholar had stopped the kid to look at something on his right cheek. The scholar had a pale face after that and hesitantly walked away. At his age, he didn't understand what the scholar was yelling, but he was distressed and frightened. After that, the kid was always alone, other people were moving away from him. His only parents were already gone at other places.

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The funny looking man had woken up. He scratched off the facial paint that covered the thing that the scholar looked at. It was a birthmark with dual blades that crossed, but the blades were as small as a claw blade.

He moved towards the entrance of the cave, and sat crosslegged behind the golem. He closed his eyes and he muttered something, like as if a demon had possessed him.

-SRGPI

Moria slept on though all of this. However, when Spert was sent back to where he came from. Moria stired and tossed a bit in her sleep. She frown, upset. She was haveing a pleasent dream where her, Mr Funny dressed Man, Stoney, Flames and Spert were playing tag and suddenly Spert cried out and disappered. And now she couldn't find him anywhere.

~"Spert, where are you?"~ she called out in her dream, not able to wake up just yet and discover the truth about her friend.

Might be a good idea to contuine this on a new thread in the new forum. Just to make life simple.