The red creature smiled mercifully down at the ashen elf and took her hand, kissing each of the bloodied fingers in turn, soothing away the senseless pain that had been wrought upon them. The aura she exuded revealed nothing but care and…love, boundless and senseless love for the pathetic, mewling woman.<br/><br/>‘Too long have you been far from me my sweet love. So far you have travelled and how far you have fallen from me, when I sought nothing but the best for you. How I adored you then, how I love you even more now.’<br/><br/>With the utmost tenderness the red demon cupped Ashy’s cheeks and lifted them up, staring deeply into her eyes. The feelings of undying affection growing stronger with each passing moment. Her lips hovered so close to hers, so tempting and sensual in their shape and slightly parted poise.<br/><br/>‘Come back to me, my sweet darkling. Embrace me and I shall comfort and care for you like none of your companions ever could. What was lost to you shall be reforged in me. Let yourself desire and lust after me again, like you did once before. Come back to me my dark lover and the piece of you that is missing, that drives the sanity from your mind shall be restored. Kiss me, kiss me and let it all come back. Let me be your mistress once again. Join me my pet and together there will be nothing that we cannot achieve. Together, forever…like it always should have been.’<br/><br/>************************<br/><br/>‘Sirka, Sirka! Where are you? I know you’re here! I can’t find you, where are you!’<br/><br/>The voice sounded childish and frightened, but with the timbre of an adult. It reached out to the nymph’s ears and infested them, calling to her.<br/><br/>In the darkness there came a great flare of light, muffled by the gloom, like the sun blaring through a particularly thick morning fog. It was like a lighthouse’s beam in the blackness, clearly indicating where the voice was coming from.<br/><br/>‘Please, Sirka! I’m so afraid. The shadows are closing in. Oh by the gods, if only you were here, I’d be safe, I know it! Please! Don’t leave me here alone, the fire in my heart is dying!’<br/><br/>*************************<br/><br/>Sensing that Tyora had followed their swift, marching stride the towering bunny took a side street and vanished down it, but not before the child peered over its fluffy shoulder with a pleading look in her eyes.<br/><br/>As the elf rounded the corner she found herself in a dead end, facing the bunny and its precious cargo. The silent six-eyed guardian stared at her and clutched the girl protectively, acting as though the newcomer might snatch her away or try and harm its tiny cargo. As though sensing the being’s fear, the strange little girl nuzzled the bunny’s cheek, calming it ever so slightly.<br/><br/>‘It’s ok Miss Flopsy, she doesn’t mean us harm, not like the creatures in the dark. She’s as afraid and lost as we are. She doesn’t know that her friends are already gone, consumed. Already those closest to her are turned, their words false.’<br/><br/>Seeming to understand perfectly the little girl’s odd words, the bunny eased itself and nodded causing it’s bent ears to bounce.<br/><br/>‘This place, gets into your heart Miss. It gets into your mind. If it wasn’t for Miss Flopsy here, I would have been devoured long ago, like my parents…my family. They made her to protect me, but they failed to understand that it was they who needed to be kept safe as much as I…’<br/><br/>The giant bunny made no move to put the child down, but that didn’t stop the infant twisting to regard the elf and her dagger that gleamed in the unnatural dark.<br/><br/>‘Please forgive Miss Flopsy, it is rare that we come across someone that does not mean us harm. My name is Katrin, who are you…what madness brought you to this place?’<br/><br/>*************************<br/><br/>Tap. Tap. Tap.<br/><br/>The sound proceeded the lights, suddenly clear in Dawn’s ears. It was a familiar sound, stirring a half-forgotten memory. It was the echoing remembrance of a staff striking cobblestone. Could it be? How could it be?<br/><br/>‘Where are you girl? My eyes are bad enough already without all this…damned gloom to cloud them. I don’t know how long I can keep these fires burning, but I know you’re there. I felt you in this accursed place!’<br/><br/>It was the voice from a time that Dawn had long tried to forget, the unmistakable tones of her teacher from the Vale. Could it be that they had somehow found their way to this forsaken place as well as her.<br/><br/>‘The song cannot keep me safe forever, child. Come to me, together we can help you. Help your friends. I can feel them here too, they don’t have much time left.’<br/><br/>**************************<br/><br/>The little girl leapt into Verita’s arms and pressed her face to the druid’s breast. She trembled like a leaf in an autumn gale and was oh-so-cold to the touch. For several minutes she stayed her, clutching and clinging as though the very darkness might rip her away from the kindly human. Then, almost as if a light had been lit into life she pushed back and stared up with tear-filled eyes and a wavering lip.<br/><br/>‘You’re not my mummy. Where is she? I haven’t seen her for so very long…she said that she would be right back. She never came back…where is she? Where is she?!’<br/><br/>The little girl broke into a heart-clinching howl and cried, beating her hands against Verita’s shoulders. Pathetic and pitiful.<br/><br/>‘I want my mummy!’<br/><br/><br/>*************************<br/><br/>‘Foran…it hurts. It hurts to see my baby so pained, where are you? Why aren’t you here? She needs your care, your attention. The beasts have done for us…the darkness is closing in…there is no hope for us, no hope…’<br/><br/>The voice faded away into absolute silence, but only for a moment. Suddenly the quiet was interrupted by a child’s cry, not of a toy snatched away or a scolding, but one of pain, agonising and undeserved. The sound seemed to come from a ramshackle building directly off to the right of the street that the ramen was hurrying along. Three storeys of almost collapsed domicile, looking as though it could fall in on itself at any moment.<br/><br/>‘They reached out for her with their claws of black steel. They cut her so deeply, I tried to stop them, please believe me, I tried! They struck her before I could take flight, now she bleeds so very much. I don’t know if I can stop it…please, please help us!’<br/><br/>Then came a much more haunting sound, the sweet and melancholy sobs of a woman singing.<br/><br/>Twinkle, twinkle, little star,<br/>How I wonder what you are.<br/>Up above the world so high,<br/>Like a diamond in the sky.<br/><br/>When the blazing sun is gone,<br/>When he nothing shines upon,<br/>Then you show your little light,<br/>Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.<br/><br/>Then the traveller in the dark,<br/>Thanks you for your tiny spark,<br/>He could not see which way to go,<br/>If you did not twinkle so.<br/><br/>In the dark blue sky you keep,<br/>And often through my curtains peep,<br/>For you never shut your eye,<br/>'Till the sun is in the sky.<br/><br/>As your bright and tiny spark,<br/>Lights the traveller in the dark.<br/>Though I know not what you are,<br/>Twinkle, twinkle, little star.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>