I'm a walkin' horse-pig cont [Alecis]

The five clio arrived at Tamar Falls. Lumi, Leci, Leci's siblings Eva and Lorrik, and a Cuir adviser named Zachary. Zachary took the younguns down to play at the bottom of the falls while Lumi and Leci stayed at the top.

Lumi looked around every once in a while to make sure no one had followed them there. To be honest going out in the wilderness like this still made her nervous, since Rene was still loose and she never knew when or where she might encounter him again. But she wasn't alone, so she didn't worry as much.

"Okay," Lumi said as pretense. She sat down and gestured for Lec to sit next to her. "What's bothering you? Is it Rowan?"

He had mysteriously vanished from the party too. Lumi wondered if something happened between them. She knew Leci liked Rowan.

"Isn't it always?" Alecis tried to laugh but it was too true to be funny. Alecis wasn't sure if Lumi knew about Rowan's new love intrest so she didn't want to go into detail.

She looked absentmindedly down at the children playing by the gurgling river. Zachary was watching them, laughing at something silly they had done. She wished she could be with them, happy and having fun.

"I knew it," Lumi sighed, wishing there was something she could do to help other than listen. "D'you want to tell me what happened? You don't have to if you don't."

As much as she wanted Leci to tell her, she wasn't going to pry for information when the poor girl was obviously so distraught. Lumi, too, watched the little kids playing down below, and wondered if they were what was keeping Leci from falling apart completely.

"I would Lumi, it's just..." Just I don't want to make it worse than it already is. Just I don't want Rowan angry with me. Just nothing is going to get better. Just ew.

Alecis turned away from the falls, walking towards the little bit of forest the river led to. She sat under a tree, letting pale light spill across her face. Life sucked right now. And she had no idea how to make it better.

"I just wish things would turn around, or go back to the way it was before." Before I realized I loved him. Before the rift which made him hate me more. Before his addiction. Before all of it.

Lumi followed Leci to the tree and sat back down next to her. "Things will get better," she insisted. "You should focus on the happy things in your life instead of the sad. Believe it or not, there are clio out there who would switch places with you in a second. There are clio who, even if they knew everything you were going through, would still envy you."

Maybe what Lumi said was true, but it didn't feel like it to Alecis. She would trade this life for anything. If her sister and brother weren't here, she wouldn't be either. They were the only things she had.

"It's just hard. I don't know how to feel better, how to get my mind off things." Off him. Off them.

"Like I said, focus on the happy things," Lumi replied, trying to be encouraging. "Your cute little siblings, for example. Even little things we all take for granted. If you look hard you'll find something that gets your mind off the pain."

Lumi was right, of course, but it still wasn't easy. Leci loved her kids, she would do anything for them, but it was so hard to make them happy these days. They were getting older, they wanted to do more things and just playing near the edges of Cuir wasn't enough for them anymore.

Alecis was sad that she didn't have time to take them places, too many obligations with her job as Overloridian and with the free time she had she just wanted to have fun. But she couldn't, it wasn't fair to the children. So she tried to take them out to do things, but they still complained.

Ugh. She was a terrible sister.

"You're right. I need to spend more time with them. I feel bad, we're up here-- me whining about my life, not even caring about them. Poor Zachary, we should let him go home. Would you mind helping me play with them? If you don't want to, I could just talk to you later. I know little kids are annoying."

"What? No, that isn't what I meant!" Lumi exclaimed, but Alecis was already on her feet. She stood up and put her hand on Leci's shoulder to keep her from going anywhere. "Lec, coming here was about making you feel better. The kids will be fine with Zachary for at least a few more minutes while we talk. I'll help you play with them when I know you're okay. Sound fair?"

Alecis smiled thoughtfully at Lumi. She was glad she had made such a good friend. "I really am alright Lumi, just a little sad. But you know, it's something I need to get over. And taking it out on the kids isn't the right way to go about it. As much as I love Rowan, I love them more."

Snarf.

"I can tell you're not alright," Lumi said knowingly. She was a clio-lie-detector. "And it's not like talking to me for a few minutes constitutes as 'taking it out on the kids.' Come on, we'll play with them when we're done talking."

She smiled in a determined, stubborn sort of way to show Alecis she wasn't going to change her mind.

Alecis didn't know how else to fight her so she sighed and sat back down. "Alright, what do you propose we talk about then?"

Alecis really didn't know how Lumi was supposed to help, especially since Leci couldn't tell her exactly what the problem was.

"Tell me what happened," Lumi replied gently. It was beyond just wanting to know now. She really wanted Leci to tell her because she knew it would make her feel better to talk about it. Whatever it was...

"Haha, lots of things..." Where did she start? And what was Alecis really willing to tell Lumi?

"Did you know I've liked Rowan since I was fifteen?" she asked her friend quietly. "Even when I acted like I hated him, I've always liked him."

"Really? Why did you act like you hated him then?" Lumi asked, confused. Why would you be a bitch to someone you liked that much? (Helga G. Petaki Syndrome.)

Alecis sighed, then told her the story about when her parents died. About how she had to take care of her brother and sister. About how she settled way before her other friends, then was taken in by the advisers who trained her to hate everyone else and didn't let her outside of Cuir. How her friends started hating her.How she met Rowan at her first Overloridian meeting but knew she wasn't supposed to like him. How she hid it with 'hate'.

And once she had started she couldn't stop, she continued with how she had realized she loved him two years later but knew he hated her by now. How it hurt but she dealt by staying away from him. How no matter where she went he showed up. How they ended up kissing even though he was dating Charlie. How Charlie and Rowan broke up because of it. How they got back together and rubbed it in Alecis' face.

Then she moved onto more pressing matters. How the rift swallowed Leci and Rheis, spitting them out in a place called Earth. How they met humans and then found her love, who had forgotten everything. How she had lied about being his fiancee, first for good, and then just because she couldn't bear to tell him the truth. How she played along with it, until Rowan found out. How he left, how he hated her.

Then on to things that Lumi probably already knew. How when they got home Charlie was with Lesley. How it killed Rowan inside. How he became addicted to alcohol. How Alecis tried so freaking hard to stop him. To help him. To protect him. How nothing she did made any difference. How finally some rotten whore got pregnant, and that stopped him from hurting himself. How he and Charlie got back together. How she found out Rowan was cheating on Charlie with Ria. How he said he didn't mind because he just didn't love Charlie anymore. How...

But then she stopped. She couldn't tell Lumi what had happened last, it would be...

GARRF.

Lumi listened raptly. She actually already knew a lot of the story from Rowan's point of view, but nto all of it. And then suddenly Alecis trailed off after revealing how Rowan didn't love Charlie anymore (WOOHOO) and seemed uncomfortable about something.

"And...?" Lumi prompted, since it was obviously the last missing detail that was bothering Leci the most.

"Nothing," Alecis said quickly, snapping a little bit at her. As she did so she heard Eva squeal down below, probably playing tag or something.

"Listen, I've told you everything. Isn't that enough reason for me to be upset?" Wow, she was being a jerk. "I'm sorry, I just hate talking about this kind of stuff..."

"Yeah, everyone does," Lumi sighed. If someone had done this to her when she was all depressed she would have strangled them. "Sorry. It's just, it really helped me to talk to someone about my problems. I thought maybe it would help you too. I'm sorry," she apologized, genuinely sorry.

All of the sudden the wind picked up like crazy, but as soon as the gust of wind came it had died away.

A gush of wind blew Alecis' hair around like crazy which was weird because usually she knew when the air was going to do something crazy like that. It was like someone from Cuir was doing something.

Maybe Zachary was playing tricks on the kids? Whatever, after a moment of worry the wind died away. "It's alright Lumi. I kinda just want to hang out with my kids right now, you know? They make me feel better."

"Yeah, okay," Lumi replied, feeling bad. She didn't really believe that they would make Leci feel better, but if that's what she wanted to do Lumi wasn't going to bother trying to stop her. "I think I'll just hang out up here for a while. Call if you need me, or when you're ready to leave."

Alecis smiled at Lumi, glad she had given up pressing her with questions. "Thanks Lumi, you really have been a help whether you know it or not." And she had been. Thanks to her, Alecis' thoughts, even if only temporarily, were off Rowan and on to something that made her happy. Eva and Lorrik.

After that last squeal of Eva's Alecis hadn't heard anything from them. Zachary was such a good babysitter. As she made her way down the hill Alecis noticed that she couldn't see the kids anywhere; Zachary on the other hand was laying down in the grass next to the trees as if he were asleep. Were they playing hide and seek?

"Hey Zachary, where are the kids?" Alecis called to him as she strode over to where he was laying.

No answer.

"Zach?" By this time, Alecis knew something was wrong. The way Zachary was laying didn't make sense. His legs were all crumpled underneath him like he was dead or something.

"Hey!" she called louder, starting to run. "Zachary, answer me!" But before she got to him she already knew what was wrong and it made her veins turn to ice.

Zachary's front was covered in blood, his body laying haphazardly in the grass, with Leci's children no where to be found. A scream left her throat as soon as it unclenched, her eyes darting around wildly for any sign of Lorrik and Eva.

"LORRIK! EVA!?" Alecis shrieked, not pausing to think about anything. "LORRIK, EVA!!!"

She whirled around, moving the air every which way trying to see if it would collide with two tiny bodies. She tried not to think of their joyous faces turned to mush like their adviser's.

When the air returned with no collisions other than trees and boulders Alecis screamed again, a high pitched song of terror. Where were they? Where were they?

A bloodcurdling shriek echoes through the falls, sending a chill up Lumi's spine. What was wrong???

She jumped up, heart pounding, and ran to the edge of the falls and looked down, looking around wildly. She saw a tiny Alecis way down below. "LECI!" she yelled as loud as she could. "WHAT'S HAPPENING!? WHY DID YOU SCREAM!?"

Blood pounded in her ears as she continued to whip around. She didn't know what to do, didn't know how to react. She hadn't cried, she couldn't think. All she could do was scream the names of the two that meant everything to her.

Distantly she heard Lumi scream her name, but she couldn't react to that either.

Lumi ran down as fast as she could. It took her a lot longer than she would have liked, and by the time she was down there she was slightly out of breath. Too bad she couldn't just fly down like the Cuirs.

Leci was hysterical, screaming the names of her children. Lumi saw the body on the ground, and her breathing stopped. She got a familiar sick and dizzy feeling. She stumbled backwards as the world started to spin.

Alecis's frantic screams snapped her out of it. She forced herself to calm down, at least a little, to get the anxiety under control. She needed to be strong. For her friend.

She shook her head and looked around for clues, footprints, anything. Her mind put together scenarios. Whoever had killed the man had taken the kids. She carefully walked over to the body and noticed something...sticking out of the former adviser's pocket...a note?



ALECIS ALEXZANDER--

YOUR SIBLINGS EVA AND LORRIK ALEXZANDER ARE CURRENTLY IN MY CUSTODY. IF YOU'RE WONDERING WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE SAFE, THAT DEPENDS ON HOW WELL YOU CAN FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. IF ANYONE OTHER THAN YOU OR LUMI LAVANYA SEES THIS NOTE, YOUR SIBLINGS WILL NOT GO UNHARMED.

YOU WILL BE CONTACTED WITH FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS IN THE NEAR FUTURE. FOLLOW THEM IF YOU VALUE THE LIVES OF YOUR WARDS.



Lumi read the note several times, horrified. This wasn't right. It was sick. And...and...Alecis...Lumi didn't know what to do. She just stood there, staring at the paper until she memorized what was written, a million thoughts racing through her head.

She looked up at Alecis but couldn't find anything to say.