:afro:

It would appear that everyone, Rowan included, had forgotten all about the tiger. The tiger that was now awake. The tiger that was about to knock Alecis's head off.

"Move!" Rowan yelled at her, willing his chain to reach out and wrap around her waist, forcibly pulling her out of the way. Moments later the tiger's large paw swiped at the empty space where Alecis had been.

The tiger wasn't discouraged though, as it crouched down and growled, ready to strike again...

Charlie jumped back a bit as she noticed the tiger, and was thankful for how quickly Rowan reacted to the situation. Now it was her turn. She planted her feet to the ground and rose her arms a few inches. With every few inches came a few inches of rock from the ground, which wrapped itself around the tiger's paws. She stopped when the rock was a few inches away from the belly of the tiger, and she looked to the other two.

"I can hold him like this, but it won't knock him out again. You wanna try anything?" She turned to the other two, figuring Alecis might want to do something, since both Rowan and Charlie already had. Mae had jumped from her shoulder and was hovering in the air above her, ready to be some kind of distraction of needed.

Alecis, reacting too quickly to be angry with Rowan whipped around. Her eyebrows raised and a wind arose. The trees all around them swayed as the air whipped around.

The tiger flew into a tree, and again was knocked out cold.

Alecis laughed. The tigers tongue was lolling out like a dogs might.

The tiger was out cold again, and it didn't look like it'd be getting up any time soon. Well, that had certainly been a nice little distraction. Rowan figured this was the perfect time to change the subject.

"Well, um...that was...exciting," Rowan said, at a loss of anything else to say. Seriously, what do you say when you and two other people suddenly get attacked by a tiger?

Charlie let the rocks crumble as the tiger was forced into the air by Alecis. She turned to the two of them once it was over and smiled.

"Yeah, pretty interesting," she said.

'More interesting than whatever you guys were talking about,' Mae said, landing back on Charlie's shoulder. She really liked that spot.

'Yeah, tell me about it,' Charlie agreed.

She stuck her hands behind her, tilting back on forth on her toes as a way of keeping herself a little more entertained, wondering what would happen now.

[[Not much to go off of. >< Sorry guys.]]

Alecis was now angry.

What? Rowan didn't think she could take care of herself? Well now, she'd like to see him in a battle with her. And look, out here in the middle of nowhere. What a perfect place to do it, no clio to get hurt. None except Rowan.

Alecis started a breeze, thinking she would start it out calm and refreshing, and then turn it into something worse, but then she saw Charlie. Uhggg, she didn't want to lose this new... friend?

Well, whatever she was, Alecis didn't want to make her think she was mean, so she just left the breeze, it was refreshing after all.

She nodded and smiled. "We could go to the edges? Or climb some trees?"

A light breeze blew through the area. It seemed innocent enough, but with it came a strong feeling of animosity that Rowan was pretty sure was directed at him. But before he could dwell on it, the ominous feeling was gone, leaving just an ordinary, cool breeze.

'Well that was weird,' Nym commented, sniffing the air.

'Yeah,' Rowan agreed uneasily. "Um...I'm fine with going to the edges," he said after some hesitation. Hopefully Charlie agreed, because Nym couldn't climb trees. As he thought about Charlie, he suddenly noticed something. "Charlie, I notice you don't have any bodyguards with you today. Are they giving you a break or...?"

Charlie nodded, agreeing with Rowan. "Yeah, the edges sound good." She had enjoyed the light breeze and was a little sad when it ended. She raised her eyebrows as he asked about her bodyguards and a huge smile brightened her face.

"Yeah, my father figured that I was serious about needing my own personal time when I escaped the bodyguard in Theodore Lane," she said, blushing the slightest bit so it was barely noticeable. "So he let me off the hook for a day or two. He's hiring a new bodyguard to replace the guy and said he'd be nice." She noticed that she was rambling a bit about things they most likely didn't care about and shut up, looking to Alecis, figuring she'd lead the way to the edges. She was very happy that he had noticed her bodyguards weren't there, it meant he was thinking about her. :3

"Edges it is," Alecis said happily.

She smiled and Rheis took off, in the direction of shore.

Leci turned and looked at the tiger, still lying on the ground.

"Reckon we should do something about that before we go?" she asked the others.

Rowan glanced at the tiger. "Uh, like what?" he asked with a questioning look. The tiger was just knocked out. What were they supposed to do, wake it up? "Let's just go."

Wishing Alecis wasn't there, Rowan turned to Charlie and asked in a kinder tone, "Is that alright with you?"

Charlie turned to the unconscious tiger and shrugged. "Yeah," she said, agreeing with Rowan. "It'll be fine." She turned to Rowan as he asked her a question and smiled.

"Yeah, it's fine by me," she said, keeping eye contact with Rowan as long as she could without looking any more suspicious than they already had.

Alecis rolled her eyes at Rowan, but agreed that there wasn't anything they could really do. She just didn't want another something to come and kill this before it woke up.

Oh well, Alecis thought. I mean, it had tried to kill me.

So she turned, waving the other clio forward, and followed her dæmon to the shore.

Rowan followed them to the shore. There was a small beach-ish area, no where near as big as Repori Beach, but a beach nonetheless. The tide was in so the water was high. The sky was somewhat cloudy, but otherwise it was nice.

Rowan wondered what exactly they were going to do now that they were here.

'Ask them,' Nym suggested.

'No, it would be too awkward,' Rowan replied.

"So what exactly are we gonna do?" Nym asked loudly. Rowan sighed.

Charlie walked with them to the beach-ish area, smiling at the sight of sand. She sure did love sand.

"Well I guess we can go swimming," she suggested, looking to the waves that rose up against the sand. Fortunately neither of them were from Ughdarras, so they could control the water just as well as she could. She looked to Alecis, wondering what she had to say about what they could do.

A breeze blew along the beach, blowing sand along the ground. A swirl of it looped around a group of three clio and their dæmon's. In the swirl of sand and air, a piece of paper floated.




Ortika,

Of course darling, I will meet you. I'm just as worried as you are. I loved them too. They were my siblings also. Can you believe that we, the 'Star Beings' have fell so far?

I miss being one. I miss them too. But you are right, our clio must come first in this time of need. I only wish we had forseen all that has happened. It wasn't worth being coming. I see that now. But it is too late. We have lost them, and try as we might, I do not believe there is a way to get them back.

I agree with you, that sooner or later, and the facts show sooner, that we will become just like them. I cry for us, for them, for the clio. But I, as well, have no idea how to save them. It is unfortunate. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I can not wait to see you, I miss you.

With love,

Ordin

Alecis felt a breeze blowing, and lifted her head so her long hair could be tousled in it. It was nice when she didn't need to create wind and it was just there. It was so soothing, so...

Wait... what was that? Along with a bit of sand that was to be expected, there was a piece of paper floating in the air.

Curious, Alecis brought the paper to her, by manipulating the wind. She blinked as a little sand got in her eye, but then looked down at the paper.

It was a letter...

Swimming. Rowan had been afraid she'd suggest that. Oh well, he'd just have to come up with an excuse other than the fact that he, well, wasn't the strongest swimmer.

Just as he was about to give an excuse, something caught his eye. Something familiar, blowing in the wind. It was an old piece of paper. Maybe a letter? Like the one he'd found at the tavern?

Alecis caught it and looked at it. "What is that?" Rowan asked with interest.

Normally Charlie would have been offended at the fact that both Alecis and Rowan had completely ignored her suggestion, but her mind was already in a different place.

"Yeah, what is that?" Charlie asked, walking towards Alecis a bit. She didn't want to seem nosy, but it wasn't like it wasn't her business or anything. It just fell from the sky, so it technically wasn't anyone's business at the moment.

The second Leci looked at the paper, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. This letter was important.

She kept her cool, though her dæmon showed her true feelings by stiffening. His whole body was rigid, looking though her eyes at the words on the paper.

Alecis's first thought was to hide it, she wasn't sure she could trust these people. Not entirely at least. But as she rushed down the page, taking in the words as quickly as possible, she changed her mind. This was probably something they should work together on.

Just like the star pieces... As she thought those two words, her eyes darted back to the top of the page. "Star Beings, " Alecis spoke out loud.

"Guys, I think we have a piece to the puzzle of our Star Pieces..."

She looked up, her eyes wide.

Rowan read over the paper in Alecis's hand. Sure enough, it was a letter, with the same eerily familiar names included in it. Who were these people? Why did he feel he'd heard of them before when he knew he hadn't?

"You're right," Rowan agreed with Alecis. While he planned on showing his letter to Charlie sometime soon, he was not going to do it in front of Alecis. "There definitely seems to be a connection."

Charlie walked behind Alecis to read the paper over her shoulder as well. She accidentally brushed against Rowan, since he was reading over her shoulder as well. She probably would have blushed, but she was paying too much attention to the letter.

"What do you think it means?" she asked, trying not to seem too excited. This was something new and potentially important, and she was glad that she was a part of it. How lucky of her to have been with them at the time.

Alecis didn't speak at first, she was re-reading the letter for what seemed like the hundredth time.

It didn't make sense. This letter was so... old.

Rheis finally spoke to her, telepathically.

Lec, I think you should forget this for now... Just take today to relax. Go swimming. I'll watch the letter, and when we go home you can think about it.

"No way Rheis, I think I should talk with these guys about it," Alecis spoke to herself, but out loud.

"I... don't know..." Alecis said to the other Overloridians. She didn't know what to say, she was caught up re-reading it yet again.

Rowan noticed that Alecis seemed totally lost. He was a little confused himself, but since finding his own letter he'd come up with a theory that seemed to be supported by this second letter.

"I'm not sure either," he lied, "but is this really the place to be talking about it? I don't know about any of you, but Nym and I came here to, well, relax, for lack of a better word."

"Have fun," Nym amended.

Charlie didn't know what to think about the letter, so she agreed with Rowan. She would have probably agreed with Rowan if he had wanted to read the letter, too. Anyways, she nodded in agreement and looked towards the beach.

"So yeah, swimming," she said, looking at the two of them again with a huge grin. "Let's not worry about this Overloridian stuff until later. I came here to have fun and get away...I don't usually have time to do that with my bodyguard and all. You guys wanna come with me?" she asked, moving her hands to the button in her pants, ready to unbutton it and go swimming if either one of them said yes.

Alecis did want to talk about the letter, but she had to agree that this wasn't the place for it. She shrugged, it would be refeshing to swim, why not?

"I'm game. How about you Rowan, want to swim?"