<div class="floatright">(http://imageshack.us/a/img4/598/breedaniels04.jpg)</div><br/>With a look mixing between sympathy and pity, she reached out towards one of the guards as if to caress his cheek.  He paused for a moment, only a moment but long enough for the back of her fingernails to touch his face, when he vanished.  There was no noise, no flash, nothing except that he was there one minute and gone the next.<br/><br/>She stepped back, and a few seconds later the guard appeared as abruptly as he vanished, with neither song nor fanfare.  He was lying upon his back, his once-gleaming armor rusted and broken with what looked to be centuries of disuse and neglect.  The long white beard concealed the haggardly aged face of what must be the same man, yet not even the same-colored eyes held any of the warmth and courage once contained by the guard.  This unwashed, wretched mess had seen and lived eternity without even the mercy of death by old age.<br/><br/>Tears rapidly streamed down his face as he seemed to realize where he was once again, even if he was too frail to stand up once again under his own withered limbs.  It was almost a miracle that he should not die simply from his ancientness as people watched.