THREE FACES OF NARTHUR [Lyrical]

"Oh. Um... I'm sorry, Lumi..." Lyrical paused, not sure how to go on. "You see... sometimes I have these weird blackouts, I mean...

"Did I by chance tell you that my name was Arthur? Or Ruhi?"

"Yeah, you said your name was Arthur and that you were a guy," Lumi replied, really weirded out. She took a step back. Understandably, she tended to be weary around, for lack of a better word, crazy people. "Uh, maybe I should be going now..."

"No, no, don't go!" Lyrical said a little desperately. She lost a lot of friends this way and hoped that Lumi wouldn't be the same.

"I'm sorry, it's just--"

But Lyrical didn't get to finish. Instead, the glazed look once again took it's place in her eyes and then vanished.

"So, are you going to tell me your name or what?" the deeper voice asked as if it had never left.

For the zillionth time Lumi just stared and stared, before coming to the conclusion that continuing this conversation with Lyrical or 'Arthur' or whoever the hell she was talking to would bring nothing good.

"I'm just...going to leave now," Lumi decided.

"Well okay, moody," Narthur said, raising his hands.

"Do whatever you want, you're the one that claimed you knew me."

Lumi clenched her fists.

"Well, I decided I'd rather not know you," she said in her lofty, dignified voice. She started to walk away.

"Well who said I wanted to know you anyway?" Narthur replied angrily. "Don't you just walk away you jerk, come back and fight me!"

He swung his arm around as if he were holding a sword," You lilly-livered coward!"

Lumi turned around incredulously. "Now you're trying to joke around with me?" she asked dubiously. This girl went through fifty emotions a second. And Lumi thought she had mood-swings. Surprisingly she actually found herself becoming a little amused at Lyrical/Narthur's little pantomime.

"I'm not joking around with anything, much less you, stranger-girl!" Narthur called out. "Now pick up your sword and fight me, I don't fight girls... unless they're armed that is!"

Then he lunged forward, hopping with one leg out-stretched, his arm still holding his imaginary weapon. "Ha, ha, ha!" he said as he hopped, swinging his arm as though cutting the air.

Lumi smiled, her anger gone (see what I mean by her having mood-swings?) and held out her arm. Metal wire snaked out of her sleeve and wrapped itself around her arm, then twisted up and kind of melded into a crude, sword-shaped appendage.

"Don't you know you should never have a sword-fight with a Dian?" she asked cutely.

She was still really confused by 'Narthur's' behavior. Then again, maybe s/he was just weird? That was okay. Lumi likes weird, as we all know.

Narthur grinned mischievously, glad that the crazy girl had decided to stay.

"We'll see about that," he said, jumping forward again and slashing his sword through the air. "I bet you weren't ready for this-" he said quickly as he jabbed to her left, "Or this!" he cried, jabbing to the right.

He twirled around then stopped, breathing much heavier than necessary and smiling.

Lumi laughed and her little wire thing retracted back into concealment, because it's not like she actually wanted to stab Narthur. "Oh yeah, you really got me by surprise there," she said in a playful-sarcastic way. "But were you expecting...this?"

Moxie pounced on Noah.

Noah fell to the ground, but quickly jumped up, turning on the cat.

"I wasn't, you're right, fair one, but were you expecting this?"

All of a sudden, Noah's shadow sprung to life and turned into a tiny hummingbird. "No, Shadow!Noah, you're supposed to be a tiger!" Narthur said playfully.

As if to say "Oooh, riiight!" the little bird did a loop in the air, then landed as a Bengal tiger.

It stood it's ground, the two daemons staring at Lumi's solo.

Moxie looked back and fourth between the daemon and the shadow daemon. "Okay, we give up," she said.

"Moxie!" Lumi exclaimed. She rolled her eyes at her daemon's typical behavior.

"Ah," Narthur said, "but it was a good fight, fair ladies. We shall have to do this again sometime."

He bowed deeply and imitated taking off a hat. "Now, may I have your name?" he asked, still in weird accent.

"You remind me of someone," Lumi commented, thinking of Quinn, who did that weird accent thing all the time. "And even though I already told you, my name is Lumi. Don't forget it this time because I'm not telling you again."

"Lumi huh," Narthur said, taking back his regular voice. "That's pretty. Wish I wasn't stuck with 'Narthur'. My mom musta been crazy or somethin'."

The shadow sank back into the ground, morphing into a fluffy dog. "So, Lumi, what brings up up to the mountains? Fresh air, the peace, or the view?"

"Exercise, actually," Lumi admitted. "That, and I like mountain climbing. I just haven't done it in forever. I've been lazy lately."

"Hm," Narthur said, taking a seat next to a big boulder. "It sure is nice out here though, huh? I love days like this; the sun is shining, and it isn't too cold."

He leaned back and closed his eyes, letting the light pour down over him. Noah whined happily like silly dogs do and rolled onto his back, rolling in the dirt a little.