Much like many times before, there is little prior warning given to the presence of a witch in the area. No indication of 'who', 'how', or 'why' unless you happened to be one of the unfortunate souls present during their fall and transformation. Otherwise the only thing announcing its arrival is the pulse of a wishborn gem. Today, the wishborn of Truce received this warning, telling of one of their own turned somewhere to the north.


"I'm still asleep..." Alcatraz turned over in his bed and tried to wack his soul gem like an alarm clock. It was only his second nap that day, and it was nearly time for actual sleep. The gem rolled onto the floor. Alcatraz let out a groan as he got up, put on pants, and walked downstairs in his usual attire. "Looks like duty calls, Angel. You ready?"


Lorastine was in the bathroom inspecting the small scars on her forearm before Alcatraz asked if she was ready. "Yes, I'm ready to go. Have you seen Kait anywhere?" she asked wondering where the younger hylian ran off to.


Alcatraz scratched the back of his neck. "...No?" He said, almost as if he was wondering if it was the right answer.


Lorastine narrowed her eyes a little bit at Alactraz's response. "You're as helpful as always." she replied before moving towards the door. "Lets just hope she'll either respond to her gem and meet us or she'll stay safe for the time being." As she opened the door, a light ominous breeze hit her face and made her pointed ears twitch slightly. "We should get going before this witch ends up causing trouble." she said gesturing her pumpkin headed companion down the street..


Alcatraz felt a bit of pain in his chest with Lorastine's comment. Instead of saying anything else snarky, he simply nodded to Lora and followed her out the door.


The pulsing gems directed the wishborn to Truce Canyon. Here everything still seemed and quiet. Not a bird chirped in the trees or roly rolled. The only movement was caused by the gentle wind, making the blades of grass bend and sway under its passing, oblivious to anything that might have happened here. The pulse seems to point in the direction of the natural bridge formed over the Lete River.


Lorastine walked along the path following the signal that the gems were leading them. She kept her eyes on her surroundings. She was starting to get a bit more cautious on these witch hunts, she'd been caught off guard so many times in the past. As the wind blew her blonde hair, she looked back at Alcatraz, "Are you feeling ok?" she asked remembering he had recovered from a pretty serious injury from his last fight that she knew of.


Alcatraz was thinking about the last interaction he had had with Kait, and looked at Lora, slightly conflicted. When he realized she was talking to him, he tried to shake off the feeling. "Yeah yeah. I'm fine. Living life to the fullest. Getting into trouble. You know the drill." He looked at the bridge. "Let's just make sure that this bitch is taken care of, alight?"


There didn’t seem to be anything of interest on the bridge, yet the soul gem continued flashing, insisting that the turned wishborn was somewhere nearby. The river rushes below them, swollen with the snowmelt from winter. Something purple and white could be seen on its banks below not far away. It looked like a child’s plush toy of some sort, though it was mangled and torn, and stuffing ripped out to the point that it looked like nothing more than some discarded trash.


Lorastine looked around over the edge of the bridge down at the water below, then at the sky above. "Is this the place or did we miss something along the way?" She asked trying to see if there was something wrong about this area. Down below there was the torn abandoned toy, could that be it?


"Not a clue." Alcatraz tried to follow Lorastine's line of sight as she noticed the toy down there. Seemed as good a place to start as any. Alcatraz picked up his soul gem and nodded to Lora. "You're the one that can fly," he said as he began his transformation.


Lorastine nods and transforms letting her wings spread wide before she hopped down to the riverbank to retrieve the doll. She was careful to collect all of the pieces she could gather. It was in really poor condition, she wondered how long this doll has been laying here like this.


The plush toy appeared to have once been a large purple unicorn. There were little motes of light seen within the stuffing, though they all eventually seemed to be dying and flickering out. The area upon closer examination seems to have been subjected to a small explosion based upon the marks in the dirt and the charred tuffs of grass. Some of the branches of the local shrubbery even appeared to have been bent and broken from the force of it. Upon one of these nearby trees wedged between a pair of rocks, there is a glimmer of light. Suddenly, a portal into a witch's labyrinth flickered open, as if welcoming the wishborn to come inside.


Alcatraz jumped down and landed next to the fellow wishborn. He adjusted his hat and did his best to smile at her as he eyed the portal. The flame behind one of his eyes seemed to flicker as if winking at her. "Meet me inside, 'kay Angel?" Alcatraz did not even hesitate to enter the portal right away.


Lorastine reached out to try and stop Alcatraz from rushing in but she wasn't quick enough, he had already rushed in. "He needs to be more careful." she said before chasing after him into the portal. Maybe it was just her nerves getting to her, but she had a looming feeling that in the back of her mind.


Immediately upon entering Lora and Alcatraz were greeted with a large open room consisting of nothing but junk for its floor. Old and new looking appliances, tvs, dressers full of clothes with their drawers hanging open, and even larger object like streetlamps and mail boxes make up the ground below the wishborn's feet. It doesn't remain stationary. In fact it seemed to be moving slowly, metal bending and groaning and glass breaking as it all was pushed towards the east where a whirl pool seemed to have taken shape. A terrible noise filled the air, for all the garbage and debris was circling downwards into a large series of spinning blades resembling a blender. shards and pieces of wood and even shredded metal are sent flying upwards occasionally from this spot adding to the danger that area presents.


To the west, things only appeared slightly better. A massive mountain junk had piled up, slowly crumbling away as it is swept into the whirlpool, it was also constantly added to by various objects crashing down from the darkness above. And even more of this random array of objects can be seen clinging to the walls, held in place by some sort of pink snot-like substance.


There is only one other thing that might catch the eye down here. Not too far from the whirl pool and blades a crowd of creatures appear to have gathered; rats. Though they do not look like ordinary rats, but closer resemble paper-like cut outs of a child's sloppy drawing colored in with brown, black and red. Their noses are long and pointed, their tails crooked, and their teeth sharpened triangles. None of them seemed to notice the Wishborn at first as they are much more interested in the small child pinned between a car and a rusted fridge.


The rats, sensing some kind of signal, looked up as the Wishborn enter this realm. With a harsh squeal, several of them dispatched from the group, instead leaping into the trash flowing slowly into the blender. From there, however, they seemed to effortlessly slide through the junk, moving far too gracefully for their appearances.



"Wow," Alcatraz commented. "I haven't seen such a mess since the Devilish Gourds' raided the Witch's house on the west side of town." The Pumpkinhead drew his gun and began taking aim on the rat... things. "I wonder if bullets will even hurt these things?" As if to answer his own question he opened fire.


This place was a mess of harsh noises and grinding metal that played hell on the blonde hylian's ears. Lorastine could barely hear what Alcatraz was saying, but she understood he the gist of what he meant. "Be careful to keep moving, don't let yourself get too close to that blender!" she called out as she flaped her wings and took to the air above the moving debris.


Lorastine tried to block out the noises from giving her a headache as she watched the other rats leave the main group. From what she could see there was a child trapped by the rats and the garbage. "Alcatraz! There is a child trapped!" she informed him in case he didn't realize, "Be careful with your shots just in case!"


Kimen was too preoccupied with her own situation to notice there were others in the area. She clung to the cars hood with one hand while the other tightly grasped a broken mop that she was trying to use to keep the rat things at bay. The river of debris and junk continued to move slowly towards the wickedly sharp spinning blades, pushing the car that had her pinned and everything else along with it. It squeezed the air out of her lungs, putting a strain on her ribs. She couldn't even cry out in pain.


The rats, thin and quick, dodge into the confusing flow to trash to dodge Alcatraz's gunfire, and similarly they juke out of the way of Kimen's broom pokes. Lorastine proves a little too far out of range for the fiesty familiars, so they instead turn their efforts to attacking the ground based target, leaping from the trash to snarl and snap at Alcatraz.


Lorastine looked perplexed as Alcatraz and the kid were in pretty deep trouble with both of them dealing with the super quick rats as well as the looming doom of the garbage disposal slicing apart everything that reaches it. With a beat of her feathered wings she dove towards the pumpkinhead and scooped him off the ground. She flew around and dropped him off on top of the car that had trapped the child. "Try and get her out, I'll keep the rats off you." she said quickly. "I'll protect you both." Lorastine said as she created a dome around the car to keep the rats out, hoping to buy time so they could at least free the child.


Lorastine didn't even notice the rats that were trapped with them in the barrier until after she saw them close to the group. "I didn't think there was so many!" she exclaimed as she reached out to kick at them, while attempting to maintain the barrier and keep a lot more rats from joining.


Kimen took a swing at one of the rats as it got too close for the child's comfort, barely able to focus on them and keep his attention off of the pain in his chest. Despite the barrier Lorastine cast, the car continued to push forward. He felt something pop along with a sharp pain erupting in his ribs. Kimen squeezed his eyes shut, tears flooding quickly to them. He was unable to scream, and unable to breathe. Two more popping sensations followed as more ribs broke under the pressure. Kimen started

to realize then that he was going to die here.


The rats, sensing their chance, leapt forwards, attempting to ferociously bite at Lorastine and Alcatraz, with what seemed to be teeth that are much sharper than they first let on. Rats caught outside of the force field flung themselves against it, attempting to get in, though a poorly timed shift of garbage sends a few of them hurtling into the blender.


"Sure thing, Angel!" Alcatraz kicked one of the car doors open and squirmed his body through. If there's one thing that being a criminal teaches it's agility. He noticed the extremely bad situation the kid was in and didn't even ask permission for what he was about to do. "Thank me later kiddo." He grabbed the kid's shoulders, breathed deeply, and with a puff of smoke, the Alcatraz was at the top of the car again, but without the kid. "What the fuck?"


Lorastine smiled when she seems Alcatraz puff into smoke. However what she expected to see him with Kimen in his arms, Alactraz appeared in front of her alone with the child still trapped. "What happened?" she asked shocked that the plan didn't work. The rats were becoming a bit of a nuisance as a sting from their bite sent a feeling around her body. She dissipated the barrier and jumped up in the air. With a mighty beat of her wings she created a large gust of wind to try and blow away the paper vermin away from them. Hopefully that bought them some time to work together to pry the child out. The sound of the blades slowly getting louder was starting to become nerve wrecking. "I wish Tyrranis was here. We could use his muscle." Lorastine muttered as she tried to think of a plan.


The rats, who were turning on the confused Alcatraz to assault him, suddenly found themselves under the assault of a hated foe. AIR. With little possible action to defend against it, the paper thin vermin burrow inside of the junk, disappearing, for the moment, from sight.


The fridge fell away into the blades making a high pitched shriek as the metal is torn through like paper. Bits and pieces of metal fragments fly through the air in its wake. The car teetered on the edge, and Kimen still managed to hang on, feet dangling mere feet from the whirling blades. She looked up at the two who were trying to save her with a pained look, though she tried very hard to give them a final smile through it. She was grateful that they had tried so hard and even put themselves at risk to save her. At least with that one expression she could try to assure them that it was okay.


Lorastine watched as the fridge fell away unpinning the child. The angel took her opportunity and immediately reached for the child's arm. "I got you!" She shouted over the unbearably loud noise of sliced metal. "Hold on! Alcatraz, Get to the other side where it seems to be still and clear a place of rats. I have the kid, I'm relying on you!" she said as she pulled the child into a hug and flaped her wings to fly above the blender.


Alcatraz ran to the other side of the car and immediately pulled out his knife in one hand, his pistol in the other. He noticed that most of them were gone, hiding beneath the trash. He didn't quite know what to do, and decided that random gunfire was probably be a bad idea. "Seems as clear as it's gonna be here, Angel!"


Kimen whimpered in pain as the girl with wings wrapped her arms around him, the excruciating pain in his ribs making tears run down his cheeks. Still he could breathe, and he hadn't been cut up into little bits! Kimen was more than grateful for that.


Lorastine flew over to where Alcatraz was and landed softly on the ground, careful of her passenger. "You're safe now." she said calmly to the boy. It must have been a terrifying experiance for him to be so close to death. She looked over at Alcatraz and smiled at him. "Are you ok?"


Alcatraz looked down at his rather clouded soul gem. He took it off of his jacket and placed it in a pocket, and nodded to Lorastine. "There's no rats at the moment, and the kid is fine. Just peachy here, Angel. Just peachy." One of the few joys of not having a face, is that it was really easy to lie to your friends.

Kimen dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms around herself, gasping in pain and shaking. She hadn't been alone before she found herself in this place! "W-where...?" Kimen drew in a couple breaths, cringing with each one. "The Hylian... girl?"


Lorastine smiled faintly when she hears Alcatraz tell her he was ok. That odd feeling of dread was in the back of her mind again, but Kimen's voice brought her attention. "We are in a witch's realm, don't worry we're here to protect you." she said trying to reassure them. "Hylian girl? Yes I'm hylian." she said with a nod. "Unless you were talking about someone else.." she said looking around. There was only one other hylian girl that she knew of. "Kait.." she said coming to the realization.


Alcatraz turned his heads toward the kid. "Calm down kid." He reached into his pocket and threw a packet of cigarettes to Kimen, along with his lighter. After a short second he heard what Lorastine implied. "Wait, kid, where did you say that Kait was?"


Kimen shook his head at the cigarettes the pumpkin tossed in his direction and looked up at the two of them, eyes widening with the realization that the girl was someone they knew. He responded first with a sob, quickly finding through the pain that followed that this was a mistake. He was silent for a moment after, waiting for it to subside a little before he spoke. And speaking was going to be hard enough. Kimen had done something horrible! How could he admit to these people what had happened, especially after they had saved his life! The child stared at them feeling guilty. "E... exploded."


Lorastine blinked for a moment trying to understand what the child meant by exploded. "What exploded? Was it the hylian girl?" she asked, hoping it just involved an explosion, not Kait exploding. The drone of the grinding metal from the far off blender was starting to slightly become less noticeable as she gotten used to it. The blonde hylian suddenly remembered the charred doll they found by the river, she was hoping for a better scenario then the multitude of bad ones forming in her head.


"Well. That's..." Alcatraz straightened his back and rubbed his arm, in a mixture of awkwardness and guilt. "You sure she exploded? Because I'd rather not have that on my conscience, y'know, kid?"


"I-I'm not sure why. The spell... It shouldn't have done that!" Kimen nodded slowly as she struggled to hold back the tears and keep herself from crying. It would only lead to more pain in her chest, and make it difficult for her to explain things to these people. "I came out here to practice a spell. And a hylian girl showed up and started asking me about it. I explained it to her. Then... she tried to grab it! And that is when something went wrong! I'm sorry! I am so, so sorry!"


Lorastine got silent and looked down at the ground for a moment. She shook her head and embraced the child tightly. "Its not your fault." she said as she hugged them tighter, "There is nothing we could do about it at the moment." she gave a warm smile.


Kimen cringed and clenched his teeth sucking in a sudden sharp breath as the girl with wings embraced him. He tried to hold back but the amount of pain erupting from his chest from the tight embrace was nearly unbearable. "Ow!" Kimen tried to squirm out of her arms as it started to become too much. He knew she was trying to comfort him, but...


Alcatraz raised his head in a way to try to express interest. "So, we gonna go and kill this living spell or...?" he asked, trying to sound as if he wasn't slightly jealous of the hug the kid was receiving.


Lorastine quickly loosened her grip completely forgetting the child was injured from before. "I'm so sorry!" she said quickly, feeling guilty for hurting them. She stood up and looked over at Alcatraz and nodded. "We need to get rid of this thing before it’s too late." she says looking around the room. "Umm... Do you have an idea on how we can?" she asked not really seeing anything that was really obvious to attack.


More junk, a television and a lamp fall down from the darkness above, instantly breaking upon impact and joining the rest of the river of junk and clutter. Kimen sat, curled up and clutching her side. She had no answer for them though she wished she could help them in some way, but the child didn't even know where this was let alone how she ended up here.


Alcatraz picked up his gun and fires it in the air in a random direction away from the two. He looked around the rest of the trash and sighed. "Well. That did jack shit."


As Alcatraz fired off his gun at random directions she tried to watch where he shot to see if it reacted in any special way. Lorastine frowned as she didn't see anything special react. "Maybe it has something to do with the grinder at the far end?" she asked looking over at the garbage disposal chewing apart whatever happened to fall into it at the time. She looked back at Kimen and frowned, they were in pretty bad condition and her hug didn't help anything. Not even healing magic would be helpful, not that she knew any to begin with.


Alcatraz' bullets DID seem to do something contrary to popular belief. Not long after Lora proposed the grinder a shower of debris fell crashing loudly down into the pile. Old books, a globe, a stereo, a computer, an old wooden rocking horse, a banjo, a grandfather clock... Something shifted above them but in the darkness but it was impossible to tell what. The river of junk continued to slowly crawl towards the blades, the surface the three found themselves upon lurched forward a little as a result, but was not quite yet swept into the stronger flowing current. Kimen's head bowed, "I-I don't understand. Where is this? Whats happening?" he asked meekly. Surely her own spell hadn't produced this, had it?


Alcatraz stood up and reloaded his gun. "One of two things. Kait's dead and turned into a giant ass monster with sick loot, or, you fucked up. Either way, we're not going to be having a lot of fun." Alcatraz held his gun at eye level and tried to look for something moving that looked like it wanted to kill him. "Angel, you think you can get the kid outta here?"


"And what? Leave you alone so you can disappear too?" Lorastine asked sounding a bit hurt even if it was clear that he wasn't trying to insult her. If she were to leave there may not be a way for her to even return. During that time Alcatraz could easily be killed or worse. However Kimen being here was a danger for the child because they weren't Wishborn and wouldn't be able to properly defend themselves.


Kimen frowned as he let the two of them discuss what they planned to do next. After dealing with the rats here, Kimen was certain that this place was beyond his ability to handle and sticking around would likely mean he would be more of a burden to them than help even if this was all caused by him in the first place, but he also didn't like the idea of the two of them splitting up. It just seemed like he would be hindering the two of them no matter what they decided.


Alcatraz let off a series of swears under his breath. He looked at Kimen, and glared as best as he could. "Alright kiddo, here's how it is. Do you know how to use a firearm, or are you just going to hurt yourself?" Alcatraz pulled out his switchblade and waved his gun vaguely in Kimen's direction.


Kimen blinked up at the pumpkinhead, surprised by what he was suggesting "I... I've used a flare gun once. Back when the manor was attacked." Kimen admitted, looking a little worried. This weapon would probably be a lot different than a flaregun though.


Lorastine wanted to shoot a glare at Alcatraz, giving a child a gun and involving him further in this fight they aren't in the slightest bit prepared for. She let out a sigh instead, while it wasn't what she would like, it was probably the best situation she was going to get for now. "Alcatraz. How are you feeling?" she asked wondering if he was feeling alright to continue.


"That's a no then." Alcatraz put his knife away and pulled the gun away from Kimen. He looked at Lora, confused and worried. He didn't want the kid to die, but didn't want dead weight either. He sighed when Lora asked him if he was alright. "I feel like I'm going to die here, there's going to be a dead kid on my hands, and then Truce is going to be destroyed all because I pissed off a little girl. So all in all, just peachy! You have any good ideas?"


The way Alcatraz said that made Lorastine a bit concerned. His emotions were all over the place, meaning his corruption was getting closer. "I know you won't listen to me if I ask this, but please don't use your powers. I don't want you to lose yourself." As for the situation at hand, she looked around the room and up at the hole that was made earlier as junk fell down. "There has to be more then just garbage here. There were the rats, but where did they go?"


A soft chitter sounds from under the trash river.

The river of trash and junk seems to have caught a hold of their resting spot and has now started dragging it towards the ever spinning blades. Kimen nearly tumbles over with the sudden movement but manages to recover her balance. "I know this place is dangerous, and I know no matter what is decided I would cause problems for you but... Is retreat an option?" Kimen asked.


Lorastine looked back to Kimen as they make a suggestion to retreat. "Alcatraz, I think you should take the child's request and get them out of here." she said facing her pumpkinheaded friend. "I'll handle things here and find Kait." she said with a reassuring smile.


The sound of chittering increases once more. It's possible the rats are beginning to rally once more, given that the wishborn have not moved in quite a while.


"You sure about that Angel?" Alcatraz considered it, but he didn't really want to leave her alone. In the end, the true coward shined through and he shook his head. "Alright. But, just a question here, Angel. How exactly do we get -out-?"


Lorastine perked her ears up a bit at the sound of the chittering. "There should be a hidden portal somewhere close to where we came in. Only wishborn can utilize it so you'll need to carry Kimen out with you." she explained hoping she was right since it has been a while since she's actually used that exit before.


"W-What?!" Kimen's eyes widened as the Hylian woman spoke. He meant for all of them to retreat. He wanted all of them to just get out of here and move to where it was safe. Somewhere not far from the spot where they stood there was a faint shimmer of the portal leading out, it was small, and difficult to see at first, but it remained exactly where the Wishborn had entered, the witch still too weak to close it completely.


Alcatraz turned to the kid. "Two options. You stay in here until we both kill it and we're big fucking happy family, or, you and I hightail out of here and pray to the Carsanquay that Lora follows us in the next hour or so. Sound good to you?"


Kimen looks between the pumpkinhead and the Hylian. They were leaving it up to her to decide? Common sense would be for all of them to escape. If Kimen stayed, she not only would cause more problems for the two of them and slow them down, but also probably die in the process somewhere along the way. If she allowed the man to take her out of here, then the Hylain would be left alone in this horrible place. There was safety in numbers. Kimen shook her head at Alcatraz, clentching her fists. "This place seems really dangerous. We should all leave if we can." She said firmly. "Maybe... we can get more people to help."


Lorastine heard Kimen's suggestion and shakes her head. "We can't just leave this thing to potentially hurt anyone else." she said, "I don't know of anyone else we can ask for help with this, but if you two can find someone, I'll try my best to keep it busy before then." The chittering from the rats was starting to worry her, they could easily strike at any moment. "You both need to get out of here. I'll join you soon." she gives the two a smile before making hand gestures to go.


"OPTION TWO THEN!" Alcatraz grabbed the kid, not caring if they struggled or not, and threw them over his shoulder to carry him. With his keen... eyeholes, he scouted the ground for the vaguely stable looking pieces of garbage, and began to hop across towards the door as fast as he could.


As Kimen was thrown over the pumpkin-heads shoulder he gave a small yelp in surprise. He struggles a little, eyes looking back towards Lorastine with a mixture of shock, fear and worry. There was nothing the kid could do in this situation though but go with their decision.


There was a small brief glimmer of distortion up against a wall of junk, ironically a door was laying there just behind it, showing Alcatraz the way out. And just beyond that, the Rats begin making their resurgence. More of them, larger and angrier this time. Should Alcatraz not hurry, his chance will be lost to the chittering tide.


Lorastine turned her attention to the only thing out of place as Alcatraz and Kimen made their escape; The hole in the ceiling caused by her pumpkinhead friend. She peered at the hole trying to get a better look of what was inside, but no luck with how dark it was. The hylian flapped her feathered wings and flew up to get a closer look of the hole, hoping there was some clue on how to defeat this thing.


Alcatraz pulled his gun out with his off hand and just fired wildly at the rats. He didn't care about hitting them anymore. He had a kid on his shoulder and he just needed to get out without them getting hurt. "Outta my way!" without even waiting to see if the shots hit, Alcatraz ran straight out the door with you on his shoulders.


The river of junk faded beneath Lorastine as she flew up, revealing itself to be a large, cylindrical room. Some kind of ooze coats the area, with Junk plastered to the walls, adhering to it. Here and there, natural outcroppings have formed, due to the scattered pieces of trash raining from the sky.


Also, oddly about the walls, more holes appear here, placed seemingly randomly all over. The largest one, and the one that rains junk down, was above the Hylian wishborn, a decent distance away from her.


As she looked around the new room, she's pretty surprised, curious to this cylindrical room. Lorastine was glad she didn't have to touch the nasty looking substance that appeared to be coating the walls. As the hylain looked higher up she could see holes that were probably the origin of the amount of garbage in the room below.


Lorastine flew a bit higher up avoiding little bits of trash that occasionally dropped down below. The largest one near the top was probably her best bet. "I hope those two got out ok.." she said to herself looking down below, she couldn't see them now and would have to trust that Alcatraz got them out safe.


As Lorastine's wings beat, something in her peripheral vision moves, and a piece of trash that she had just avoided is suddenly... Gone. There is no sign of where it might have gone, and the only sound is that of the grinder far below, slowly destroying all that it comes across.


Lorastine stopped her ascent and looked around for the trash that vanished. There was something not right about this, it was making her uneasy as she looked around. After waiting a moment, only hearing the sound of the grinder and the flap of her wings she continued upward a bit more, but more cautiously.


This time the movement was directly in front of Lorastine as she flew on. Some kind of large shadowy figure, rocketing out of one of the holes! As it moves, it makes no noise, but the speed at which it moves, along with the disappearance of the trash earlier, spells trouble.


Lorastine stopped dead at the sight of movement in front of her. She couldn't tell what it was, but there wasn't time to figure that out. She tried her best to get out of the way in time with a quick powerful flap of her wings to try and get above her assailant.


Lorastine scooted out of the way of the figure, which wrapped itself around the space where she used to be. However, already another was making it's way towards her. In fact, multiple seemed to be. The saving grace for the Hylian at the moment seemed to be the falling trash, as a section of couch falls upon one of the 'arms', stopping it's advancement, and causing the thing to rip the trash into many tiny pieces, before retracting back into the wall.


A sudden panic set in as Lorastine found herself being attacked from all angles. It was difficult to even see them let alone deal with so many at once. Considering what it did to the couch, she didn't want to see what would happen if it managed to grab a hold of her. She flapped her wings upward, twisting and avoiding the things as she raced to the top. She had to make it to the larger hole, it was her only real option.'


As lora ascended there was a flicker of light illuminating a small area, revealing a lamp without a shade lodged in even more mess and clutter. somewhere below her, a string of christmas lights flickered, casting a colorful glow... then a neon bar sign, then another lamp, then the area burst into light as everything flickered on, some things even sending a shower of sparks down. The area had opened up into an even wider room, and as if sensing Lorastine's presence, something moved. Something HUGE. It was above her, dropping bits and pieces of junk from its large heavy wings as it spread them, its head twisting down to look at the flying wishborn. A giant magpie stared at her, then its beak opened, a smaller birds head popped out letting out an earsplitting shriek.


Lorastine looked in shock as a giant trash ridden bird met her at the top of everything. The loud shriek played hell on her sensitive ears, forcing her to cover her pointed ears to save them from the piercing sound.


The giant magpie left its perch on the ceiling, twisting its body and swooping downwards at Lorastine. The Wishborn looked to be nothing more than an insect by comparison that had managed to find its way into the bird's nest of junk.


Lorastine looked up in time to see she was being attacked. She flapped her wings and flew backwards to avoid the attack before drawing her bow and taking aim at the gigantic bird. She aimed for the bird's head hoping to try and stop it quickly, thankful for the bright ambient lighting around.


The bird was fast, and despite Lorastine's quick thinking to move out of its path, the birds claws only managed to narrowly miss their mark. The bird landed on the other side of the wall disloging a microwave and an electric fan and sending them falling down below. The lights that were illuminating that spot flickered out casting darkness over the wishborns foe. The arrow cut through the air, embedding itself into the birds neck. It unfortunately looked unaffected by this, as if it were simply a mere pin prick. It flapped its massive wings, sending debris flying into the air as it set its sights on Lorastine once more.


Lorastine felt her heart racing as that attack narrowly missed her. That was way too close, she could still feel the wind of the bird's movement blow through her hair. Now that the bird was in the dark it was a bit harder to aim again as she drew another arrow and fired them into the darkness in rapid succession. Until she could think of a better strategy this


The bird took to the air again, flapping its wings rapidly as Lorastine shot. Arrow after arrow found its way into the birds feathers, but they seemed to go no deeper, nor have any effect to slow or stop its attack save for one, which landed on the joint of the magpie's wing. The bird veered off its course, body swooping low and under Lorastine with a rush of wind leaving a trail of garbage to fall in its wake.


From the darkened depths below a massive dark hand lashed out, fingers spread out as it tried to grab a hold of the large beast flying close to its domain. The hand only managed to take hold of the air though, and it retreated back into the darkness that it came from without its prize.


Lorastine blinks with disbelief as she watched that there was a secondary monster here. She thought the bird was responsible for everything before. Maybe there was a way to get the two to attack each other? There was also that arrow that affected the bird's wing. "I'm going to have to clip your wings." she said as she drew an arrow this time aimed for the opposite wing. If both were injured it wouldn't want to fly.


Lorastine was starting to feel a little nervous about that hand though. It came out of nowhere, there wasn't any noticeable entrance for the hand to appear from was there?

The bird tilted its wings making a sharp turn. It beats its wings, once again launching itself at the Wishborn as her arrow hit its mark, making a loud thwack as it hit the other joint of its wing. It crashed into the wall, sending down a waterfall of debris into the darkened recesses below where the sound of metal crunching and crashing soon echoed.


Lorastine took a deep breath as she watched the bird crash, her body relaxed a little more, waiting to see if the bird had survived the impact. It was so dark though, with this small break she decided to cast her illuminate spell and create a small orb of light to brighten the area around her. Hopefully with that added to the lights that still functioned she could tell what was going on.



The massive bird tried to stand, feet scraping against the junk floor as it does so, before it spread it's wings and attempted to peck the arrows out. And then the hands came. Drawn by the noise, the strike the witch over, and over again, ripping into it's body and mangling bones and flesh. What remains dropped down to the bottom of the domain, and soon the chittering of rats marks the end of the monster.


The walls of the labyrinth began to distort and crumble around Lorastine shifting away to the empty burned area from which it was found. a grief seed glitters a dark purple hue in the dust. Alcatraz and the child are nowhere to be found. And the night air is still and quiet as if all the world has been hushed into silence.


Lorastine watches as the arena collapses around her. "That was easier then I thought it would be." she said as she spotted the grief seed sitting on the ground. She still didn't know where Kait was or what happened to her. That would have to wait, right now she had to get Alcatraz this seed before its too late and she loses him.


Lorastine let out a sigh and looked around trying to hold onto the hope that Kait was still around somewhere and ok. To be honest she was lucky that she managed to get out of that in one piece. If things went worse, she could have been torn apart just like that witch was.


With a flash, her wishborn form vanished and she made her way back towards the lights of Truce. Lorastine hoped that she would find Kimen and Alactraz safe and sound there and she could give him the grief seed.


***


As they entered Truce Canyon, Alcatraz immediately put Kimen down and reverted back to his normal form. He stretched his arm. "Damn. Having carried anything with any weight to it in awhile. Closest thing I get is when Lora makes me do dishes. How're you holding up kid? We're safe out here."


Upon Alcatraz's exit, the portal snapped closed with a loud crack, almost as though the witch had just slammed a door shut on him. The sun had just recently set, leaving a small faint glow upon the horizon. Already the stars were out.


Kimen's breath was caught for a moment as she stood in the midst of the charred and burned grass, breathing in the scent of smoke and burned plants while staring at the spot where the portal had closed. It was difficult to make sense of how she went from being here, to the place with junk, to being here again. It seemed wrong. Very wrong. "M-Mister, is she going to be alright? We should get help right away!" The child suddenly said, senses coming back to her. "Truce has a lot of people who know how to fight! I am sure we wouldn't having trouble finding someone. If we can get a big enough group of people maybe..."


"Ain't gonna do us a lick of good, bud. Most people can't touch what you just lived through. However, I do know this one esper chick who can help us out a bit." Alcatraz motioned for the kid to follow him as he began walking towards Truce, hopefully where he could find a phone, or SOME form of contact.


Kimen followed after Alcatraz into the city of Truce, occasionally looking back in the direction of the incident. He seemed to have caused more trouble than he realized and he was quite frightened not only due to the experience he just had, but by the mess he seemed to have made. A large, nonsensical mess that had already killed someone, and might kill someone else! "Mister..." Kimen bit his lip feeling as though someone had placed a large rock in his stomach, "H-how did this happen?" The pumpkin seemed to know about what was going on better than he did.


"Kait sold her soul for a wish and put it in a rock. She got all stressed out, and then the spell you cast apparently put her soulgem thingy over the edge, and she turned into a giant monster and created a big lair to pal around in. I got a soul rock too." He shook a chain on his belt that held a fairly cloudy looking dark green gem. He walked to a payphone, pulled out some wire cutters to bypass the pay part, and held it against his pumpkin. "Erm, hello? Opperator? I'm looking for an esper named Echo... and that's really all I know about her."


Kimen hangs around outside of the phone booth while Alcatraz makes his call. The street was surprisingly empty of people even for this hour. She held her side flinching and cringing as pain erupted at her ribcage. This was not good. She was going to have to stop by the healer later and get that looked at.


On the other end of the phone Alcatraz hears a sigh, "Look, if she didn't give you her phone number, she is not interested. Take the hint."


"Wait, no, that's not it. She's out of my age group! I just need to find her as a friend. I need some help, and she got me out of a similar situation before."


"Look dude, I've heard all kinds of things at this job, okay? Whatever you do is your business. Let me just direct you here so you can...tend to your needs." The voice sounded a little disgusted. A moment later the phone started ringing indicating that the call had been transferred. After the second ring, a voice recorded message picked up with a low drawn out moan of pleasure. “Mmh~ <3 You've reached the hot, sexy, Echoes of Ecstasy. If you're a man seeking another man, press 1. If you're a man seeking a woman, press 2. If you're a man seeking a pony, press 3. If you're a man seeking a genderless reploid, press 4. For more options on non-humanoids, press 9."


Alcatraz slammed down the phone and kicked it. "Alright, so that didn't work. I didn't even know that that was a thing. I mean, if I knew that place existed a few years ago..." Alcatraz realized there was a child who wasn't from the slums next to him, so he shouldn't go into detail. "Alright kid. So. You ever meet an esper who talks waaaay too much that's only a bit older than you? Because I am all out of ideas here." His head perked up "On second thought, have you seen a really big giaganto covered in scars wearing a towel recently? He'd be more helpful."


Kimen shook his head, he hadn't seen any talkative espers or heavily scarred gigantos wearing a towel. Unless he had somehow encountered Hastur after a bath or something, but the kid had not seen him since the PDF disbanded. "Mr. Pumpkinman, what should we do now? Should we go find one of the guards? If more people stand a chance of getting hurt it might be a good idea to contact the authorities and get them involved, wouldn't you think?"


Alcatraz stared blankly at the kid. Was he fucking kidding? "Kid. Talk to me straight here. Do I look like the kind that hangs around cops? No. Do you think that the cops can handle monster like that? No. So, you can shut up, and give me helpful advice, or we can go home and I'll give you a beer and we can wait for Lora."


Kimen flinched at the pumpkinhead's words, but as soon as Alcatraz finished the child shot back with her own frustrations. "You... You want some helpful advice?" she looked up at Alcatraz, staring into his eye sockets with a cold glare, "How about grow up? You think those trained guards can't do anything? They are supposed to protect the people of Truce. That is their job! And they can't do their job properly if they are not warned about a threat before hand. I don’t care if you are not the type who "hangs around cops" they are supposed to be protecting you too! At the very least they can clear people away from the danger. If you gave a damn at all for peoples lives then you would suck it up and do the right thing!"


"Kid!" Alcatraz glared at Kimen. "As much as I want to like you, you're making it real hard with that statement. It is literally impossible for them to do anything in this situation. This thing is unaffected by anyone who doesn't have a soul gem. If you give a damn about other people's lives and sanity, you'll let them live on, not knowing shit like this exists and having some big damn hero charging off against impossible odds and getting his ass killed!"


Kimen almost couldn't believe what she was hearing. "So in other words, leave everyone completely oblivious and defenseless against this …this threat where they know nothing about it and are unable to protect and save themselves and their families from it while you guys keep it under wraps? No need to evacuate everyone? No need to let them know there is a threat so they can support you? You guys just carry on letting people obliviously get caught in this and hope you show up in time to save them?"


"Yeah that pretty much covers it." Alcatraz cracked his knuckles and shrugged at the kid. "You really wanna talk to the cops? Wait for Lora to come back and ask her. She's better with kids than I am."


Kimen shook his head at the pumpkin. No. No he was not going to wait. If lives were in danger then some action had to be taken! Even if people could not stand up against this force SOMETHING could be done. The child felt disgusted with the pumpkin head. This was what was wrong with the people in this world! It was sickening! Kimen spun around ready to run to the nearest guard station but stopped short as he saw the Hylian appear just further on down the street.


Alcatraz waved to Lorastine as he noticed her. "Hey there Angel. I knew you'd get out of there just fine, being a vet." He motioned towards Kimen. "Could you explain to the kid why we can't just tell the cops about this, because... well, you're better with people than I am."


Lorastine gave a slight smile when she saw Kimen and Alcatraz safe, she was honestly exhausted as the adrenaline started to calm down. As she walked up to Alcatraz, she grabbed his hand and put the seed in it, "Here you need this." she told him before turning to Kimen. "The police wouldn't be able to do much about it even if they knew. The only ones capable of stopping those things are people like Alcatraz and I." she explained to the best of her ability, hoping the child would understand.


"I never said for the police to stop it." Kimen clenched her teeth, but now it was the two of them against her, "Just... protect people..." Kimen sighed and looked down at the ground feeling defeated. Her hand reached up reached up her chest where she felt one of her ribs sliding painfully out of her hands way. "Look, I am not ungreatful for you saving me..." She said, cringing, "So I thank you for it. I really do. I just... Don't agree." Kimen looked between the two of them, gave a small bow accompanied with a grunt of pain, Then started walking away.


Alcatraz touched the grief seed against his soul gem and saw all of its corruption slip away. "That was what, maybe three fourths of it? I dunno if you need any of it." He offered it back to Lorastine. "Hey uhh... sorry about leaving you alone back there... and making you back me up when talking to the kid. Guess I'm not really cut out for this whole hero stuff, y'know?"


Lorastine took the seed and used up the remainder of it on her own soul gem. After it purified the gem she put it away to give to Kyuubey later. "Its ok I was going to push you out if you didn't leave." she said with a little wink and a laugh. "You get used to it after a while. It doesn't get really get simpler to explain. Thanks for getting them to safety." she said giving Alacatraz a hug. "Don't get used to that." she said letting go of him.


Dontgetusedtoitdontgetusedtoitdontgetusedtoit "Thanks, An... Lorastine. It means a lot." Alcatraz glanced down at his clear gem. "I'll make dinner tonight. You pretty much saved us all back there." He began to walk back to the house and threw his hands behind his head, as if he was reclining. "Sound good?"


Lorastine noed and smiled. "You owe me for all of the times I've cooked for you anyway." she said with a giggle. Although she wasn't all that sure about his cooking skills, but it was a gesture of goodwill and she would give him a chance.