<div align="center"><strong>Phaerbryn</strong></div><br/>Phaerbryn's silver jeep wrangler barreled down the road as she approached the end of the quaint little town. Quaint. She hated anything quaint. The shortcut through Haddersville had been almost more than she could bear.<br/><br/>She came to a stop at the final red light in the entire town. Longing for the return to the city came in renewed waves as she fumbled with her pack of Djarum Blacks. Pulling out one of the cloves, she lit it and tossed the lighter back in the nearest cup holder, taking a long draw off the sweetly spiked filter.<br/><br/>The light turned green and she stomped on the peddle. After the initial jerk throwing her back into her seat, she began to relax as the inertia of the moving car consumed her. She pressed the CD button on her car stereo and cranked the volume just in time to hear Slipknot begin. "I push my fingers into my eyyyyyyes. It's the only thing that slowly stops the aaaaaaache…" Phaerbryn grinned happily as her newly burned mix blared into the night around her. She concentrated on the soothing vibrations the car made from the erratic music coming from the speakers of her jeep's custom stereo. The smell of the fresh air mixed with the incense from her lit clove helped to drive away any remembrance of her earlier night's events.<br/><br/>All of a sudden, there was a flash of blinding light. Her car jerked, bounding from the road, and almost throwing her out. Phaerbryn was too quick though. She sprang to action, every sense alert, getting complete domination over the car before it had a chance to spin out of control. Tapping the breaks gently, she finally managed to come to a slow stop. She turned the music down and turned the car off, which deafened her with total silence.<br/><br/>She looked around at her surroundings. It was dark and the lights inside the car didn't do much to help, but from the show of her headlights she had somehow managed to end up in an open clearing of what appeared to be a dense forest. A dreading sensation washed over her as she retrieved her maglight and map from the glove compartment. Studying it for a short time, she realized that she hadn't made a mistake. The forest just shouldn't be there.<br/><br/>Knowing she was taking a chance, leaving herself unprotected, she reached for the jeep's roll bars anyway, hoisting herself into a standing position on her seat. She held the maglight in her trained military style and swept the forest twice, looking for anything peculiar. After seeing nothing but trees and ground, she gave up and settled back into her seat. She flipped out her cell phone and was about to phone the agency when she realized that it wasn't possible. There wasn't even an inkling of service. She grumbled under her breath about random towns in the middle of nowhere and their lack of technology.<br/><br/>She folded the map up and went to place it back in the glove compartment when a tiny box tumbled out, surprising her. She picked it up curiously, carefully used all her senses to investigate the outside and, satisfied, she opened the box slowly. There was a folded note inside and some weird contraption similar to a pager device. She opened the note and read,<br/><br/>"Phaerbryn, you'll need this where you're going. I'm just glad I foresaw it in time.<br/><br/>Signed,<br/><br/>A Member of a Division of the CIA That You Never Knew Existed and Will Continue to Be Unknown"<br/><br/>A little awkward smiley face was drawn at the end of the letter. Phaerbryn scoffed at the absurdity and decided to have a chat with parking security when she got back. She tossed the box, pager contraption, and note aside for the time being.<br/><br/>Phairbryn glanced back from whence she'd come and grimaced, not wanting to return. Swallowing her animal noises of discontent, she started her jeep once more and slowly turned around. In a matter of seconds, she'd gained ground and was making her way quickly back into town. She decided she would stop at the first indication of the human species and ask to use a phone, but the further back into town she went, the bigger her feeling of dread grew.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><div align="center"><strong>Viviana</strong></div><br/>Sighing heavily and looking about timidly, Arkon's feet pounded the forest ground sluggishly with every step. "I really think it's about time you made some real friends, Lady Viviana. I hope you'll forgive me for saying so," his voice echoed through the trees but not a solitary sound was heard.<br/><br/>Viviana heard Arkon speak but continued to leap from branch to branch noiselessly while focusing intently on her study of Arkon. She timed his wary paces and noted the limp he'd developed in his right leg. She watched carefully how he held his sword and the pattern of his eyes as he scoured the forest. Her left hand held the skirt of her dress while her right helped to steady herself on the branches. After a few more moments of observation, Viviana let her skirt drop as she quietly unsheathed her sword, dropping to the ground right in front of Arkon.<br/><br/>Arkon was completely taken by surprise and swung his sword frivolously in her general direction. Viviana refused to even pretend to counter that attack and just stood in her fighting stance for him to regain his composure.<br/><br/>Arkon knew that the Lady would never harm him in the least but he hated to be targeted, stalked, and outwitted. He gained control of himself before taking his first strategical swing at the girl. Viviana effortlessly countered his attack by side stepping and blocking with her own sword. She played on his limp, shoving his weight to that leg, and in seconds she stood over him pointing her sword at his chest.<br/><br/>"I am perfectly happy occupying myself with nothing but my lessons,” she nodded. “And besides, all the other girls in the land only want to know me for what I am. Considering Zenythris make up most of the Court's population, they would, of course, only have their own goals in mind. And all the<em>other</em>girls of the land aren't even<em>remotely</em>interested in learning anything. When I take charge of the land, that is the first thing I shall enforce. I will make a law that every individual must study something for a certain amount of time per day," Viviana’s stare grew distant with that last sentence and Arkon rolled his eyes but still seized the moment. He brushed her sword away and slowly pushed himself off the ground, swatting at his clothing, hoping to remove all clinging debris.<br/><br/>"With all due respect, my Lady, three hours of sword training with your trainer, only to go straight into practicing once again is a bit excessive. Maybe you could try taking advantage of your title for once and get out amongst the people more. Fake communication is better than no communication at all." Arkon nodded his head vigorously as if he were agreeing with himself whole heartedly. However, there were only two people present and the other half of the party didn't agree with him at all.<br/><br/>Viviana sighed, sheathing her sword and bending down, and retrieved her black woven satchel she'd let fall when attacking Arkon. She turned and started away from Arkon as he spoke up, "Wait, Lady Viviana. Where are you going? We're on the very borders of the land. Please don't stray far. You forget that most of us don't have great vision in the dark..."<br/><br/>Viviana waved her hand dismissively above her head without even looking back. She pulled her latest novel of choice from her satchel and began to look for a nice place to read. After a few paces, she opened the novel and began reading while walking, hoping to find a stream or wide open clearing. Her inherently expert dexterity kept her from bumping into trees or tripping.<br/><br/>After a few moments, Viviana was thankful to find the clearing she'd been searching for. She snapped her book shut and looked up triumphantly only to be startled by the sight before her. Big, long, and black was all she could see momentarily until the shock cleared her mind. She wondered briefly at the change in color and texture of the grass about her but was then drawn back to the long black thing. It was in a line, much like the dirt and gravel pathways throughout the land, but it was a solid smooth black with bright ugly yellow lines going straight down the middle of it.<br/><br/>Viviana cautiously approached this black substance and kneeled so that her fingers touched the surface. She found it hard and rapidly cooling it seemed. She bent down even further and sniffed it. She pulled back quickly, crinkling her nose as she identified the same odd and disgusting smell that was all about her, except intensified.<br/><br/>Becoming more and more curious, Viviana rose and began to follow this long black pathway with its ugly yellow lines.