<div class="floatleft">(http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l530/WyldeSK/thbutterfly.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Maelynn Swallowtail<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Various Undisclosed Locations Outside Amberdale<br/><strong>Time:</strong>Recent Past<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Johanna<br/><br/><em>Three Hours Earlier</em><br/><br/>The strange man waited in the wood. He had a harsh gaze, short-cropped hair, musty rumpled clothes, and a scar across one cheek that just screamed "hardened criminal." He looked impatiently up at the sun for his contact - already late to arrive. He was in fact so intent on grumbling that he was surprised when he heard the cane tapping against the large hard shiny rocklike object in the cart. "So," let out a haughty voice, "is this the merchandise you promised?"<br/><br/>The voice belonged to a handsome yet arrogant one man, long blonde locks flashing in the sun, bearing a cane tipped with a huge diamond, and an outfit sewn by the finest tailor in town. One couldn't have had an easier time pegging him for what he was unless he was being followed by a troupe of cheerleaders shouting, "Give me a D... Give me an O... Give me a U..."<br/><br/>"Yeah..." the criminal countered. "This is it. Plucked from the middle of the woods. I guarantee you'll be satisfied."<br/><br/>"NO YOU WON'T YOU EVIL MISCREANTS!" Out from the wood came your typical armored hero, blade out and flashing, just spoiling for a fight. Much clashing of steel and witty banter followed, the results of which are actually not all that important for our purposes, as it was apparent from the swordplay that all three were too powerful to serve as protagonists for our little story. What is important is that during the fracas the brake axle of the cart was loosed and it rolled off into the water, which was bad for the hero, now with nothing to save, bad for the villains, who now had nothing to sell, and both good and bad for the package itself, which was now rushing down the river towards the town of Amberdale and the nearby treacherous waterfall.<br/><br/><em>Present Time</em><br/><br/>As Johanna fretted, something came floating towards her from the distance. It was hard to tell what it could be, but it did glint. The object came louder until the rock or whatever it was raced right past her. It was carrying something that gave off that strange glint. If one were a bit imaginative, or desperate, or both, the idea may have crossed one's mind that the glint might have come from some piece of jewelry jammed onto the large stone. Perhaps a bracelet for example. Or a necklace. Maybe even a necklace that had been lost by a stream in the wood. If such were the case, it certainly made sense to try and chase after it before it fell over the falls and was inevitably smashed into a million pieces and therefore irretrievable.