Chapter 2 - The Darkened Sun

[Jack]

(Kratos)
**He stares into the fire for long moments, then finally speaks again.** ::I'm sorry...But I have lied to you. I knew of this battle for a long time...You failed to understand that when I spoke to you of the Kruxis that I lead, you did not catch that they are actually Dark Elves that have been....how should I say this...Morphed into angel-like beings...So, I am sorry, but I would have to decline this task. Though I would like to help you, I know that I would betray you at the beginning of the battle...::

**He sighs, then pulls his hand from her's and slowly treads away from the fire, leaving it and treading towards the door. He turns and looks at the three people he saw again. He looks at the woman on the couch and the man in the rafters.**

"So...We meet again. I am sorry to be leaving so quick, but I have my own matters to attend to. Farewell."

::With that, he slowly walks to the door, opening it, and walking outside. All of the chill and darkness that entered the room with him also left with him. He slowly treads down the path.::

[Jack]

(Toby)
Toby, a young werewolf the age of 14, walks into the bar and sees everyone. He gulps nervously and sticks his hands in his pockets & sways his tail back and forth. Though he was in human form, the wolf tail & ears stayed intacted while he stood there looking at everyone. He had never been to this place and he's a bit shye, so he takes a seat somewhere and quietly says "hello."

[Jack]

(Ronin)
Ronin looked up from the little nest she had made under one of Darkened Sun's tallest tables. Having no particular desire to speak with anyone tonight, or to waste the last of her currency on lodging, she had hidden her form in here as she had done a couple times in Black Moon, assuming that the more shady vistiters of the Tavern would leave her alone.

'Nasty,' she thought as her hand touched a blood-stained support of the table. Ronin quickly blessed the spot on her hand in case the blood had any adverse effects. 'Not one of my best ideas..' She stifled a sigh and curled up, using her cloak as a make-shift pillow. The girl dipped into shallow slumber, eyelids twitching half-open whenever footsteps came dangerously near.

On one such occassion, she had awakened to find the toe of a sneaker just inches from her nose. She barely sat up in time to avoid having her face kicked in and.. bumped her head painfully against the table's underside.

Exhibiting no outward sign of irritance, Ronin swiftly grabbed the ankle of the offender and twisted it, yanking the sucker out of his or her chair.

'His,' she amended, as she studied the boy, who had a comically bewildered expression playing on his countenance. Her eyes wandered over the furry appendages crowning his head and the subdued tuft of fur poking from underneath his sprawled form.

"The hell?!" the newcomer asked, clearly not amused by the manner he had been unseated. He sat up and blinked in surprise at the eyes narrowed at him from the shadows. His shy, timid manner was a thing of the past as he tried to make out other facial features.

"Uh..Who--fa---Wha.. ?" he asked intelligently.

"Sorry," the owner of the eyes apologized cheerfully as she crawled out from under the table. "You woke me up. The name's Ronin.. I can tell good stories, recite a couple limericks, and sing.. all for the price of six chits. Did I mention that that I could tell good stories?"

She started and suddenly seemed to remember a modicum of courtesy, as she stooped over, holding out an arm help up the unfortunate boy.

"Toby," the boy stated, feeling annoyed by the easy manner this Ronin used in an attempt to sever him from whatever chits were. Nonetheless, he took the hand she offered him and righted himself.

"Well?" Ronin asked, pulling chunks of hair out of her eyes. "What will it be?"

The young werewolf peered at her in amazement. Did she take him for a fool? Besides, he didn't _have_ six chits. Whatever they were.

[Jack]

(Toby Friedman)
"Um...I must ask...what are chits anyway?" He stood there, looking at Ronin. The question stayed in his mind. What were these things? "And...um...I'd like to hear a story..." He yawns and blinks tiredly.

He gets back to the spot he was sitting and waits for her explanation.

[Jack]

(Ronin)
Ronin stared blankly at Toby for a moment, her eyes slightly unfocused. She could tell right off the bat that he was a nice, quiet, young man, who obviously had no idea what he had just gotten himself into.

She plopped down on the seat opposite of him, carelessly placing one of her feet on the chair next to him, grinning even more broadly as the sudden thunk caused him to flinch; his jerkily twitching ears more of a giveaway than anything.

"Chits are some of the accepted forms of money in some far away land. Or dimension. I'm not really sure what's accepted in here, but the drinks are pretty much free, if you can get off your butt to get your own."

Toby shifted in his seat, very much aware of certain limits placed on alcohol intake for human minors. "So.. about that story?"

"And about those drinks," Ronin said, seemingly brushing off what the other said. "Tell ya what... Instead of charging you money for a story, in exchange, you can go get me a couple pints. And instead of one story, I'll tell ya many."

"What's the catch?" the werewolf boy asked suspiciously. There was always a catch in factors that worked to his advantage.

"Oh, it's nothing really," she said, stretching lazily in her chair. "You and I are just going to play a harmless drinking game. Each of us take turns telling really brief stories and determine whether or not the teller is lying. If you're wrong once, you take a gulp from your pint. If you're wrong again, you chug half of your pint. If you are wrong for the third time, then you chug down the whole pint. The game ends when someone passes out... Interested?"

[Jack]

(Toby Friedman)
He paused to think about this for a while. He'd never drank any type of alchohol before because the smell always got to him before he could bring the cup or bottle to his lips. This was a difficult decision to make. He didn't want to seem like a child, but he didn't know if he wanted to drink either. He finally decided his answer after about 10 minutes.

He walks up to the counter and comes back with the drinks .

"You're on. Who's first?"

[Jack]

(Ronin)
"Me first," Ronin said nonchalantly. She reached out for her drink and took a couple sips of its contents, wrinkling her nose delicately. Toby eyed his cup nervously and gulped some of the stuff. His face was tinged a vile shade of green.

"Ugh," he groaned, pushing the disgusting beverage away. "There's a game invented about this shiz?"

She nodded curtly and considered the visibly nauseated werewolf. "Once the alcohol kicks in, you'll get past the taste of vomit."

"Uh, okay.. Are you going to start now?!"

Ronin bobbed her head once more and reclined back in her seat even further.

"I read somewhere that Ouji boards really work. This one girl had an aunt who participated in a seance. They started out asking the spirits innocent questions and they laughed off most of the answers they got by accusing the other of moving the pointer around. Finally, they decided to inquire the identity of their visiter..." Ronin trailed off dramatically and Toby resisted the impulse to roll his eyes. The story sucked.

"Who was it?" he asked in a typical bored-teenager tone.

"More like what," Ronin said, leaning forward and taking her boots off of the table. She placed the tip of her finger on the table's smooth surface and glided it in six different directions.

"N-O-T-G-O-D."

Toby blinked. And blinked again.

"Don't knock the truth," she said cheerfully. "If you can guess correctly, that is."

[Jack]

(Toby Friedman)
"Well..." He began pondering this story. Such events have occured before, and if things like himself existed, something like this has to exist too. But is this particular story true? Or is it just a made-up tale? He began thinking hard for the decision...The overall quality of the story really wasn't what he was expecting, so his final answer came to his head...

"No, I don't think it's true really. I hope I'm not wrong, because if I drink some of that nuts again, I think I'll throw it up."

[Jack]

(Ronin)
Her head slumped forward as if his final decision had weighed heavily on her, but her hand went out to push Toby's full glass towards him. He couldn't see her face, but he could hear the smile in her voice as she told him to drink up. Ronin's lame-o story had turned out to be true.

[Jack]

(Toby Friedman)
His eyes widened greately. He looked down at the cup and then back at Ronin. He repeated this atleast three times. Before a fake cough. He just sat there, staring at the cup. "Noooo way. It...I...can't believe this..." He grabbed the cup and quickly drank. He winced and set the cup back down HARD on the table, creating a large THUD!

"That is possibly the worst thing I've ever tasted."

He winced once more and said "Now...the...story."

"Well, I was walkin' through the woods with my hands in my pockets whistlin' some random Green Day ("That's a music band," he added) song when I noticed this large...hole you could say on the bottom of a large tree. I thought nothing of it, really and began to walk away...until I heard this shriek. Of course, that high-pitch scream made my ears hurt and made 'em twitch alot. I walked over there and looked inside the hole and I didn't see anything 'cause it was dark. I walked to a store, quickly putting one of their hats on so no one would notice my ears, and bought a flashlight. I slid down into the hole and walked around the small cave. I shined the thing everywhere I could do so, and found...a CAT. It was a CAT making that shrill, humanlike cry...or that's what I thought. I rolled my eyes and began climbing up the wall when I heard the scream AGAIN. So I walked over towards the sound and went into one of the caves narrow tunnels. It turned out to be a man holding some little hostage. I walked over there, slowly, and asked him to release the . He smirked and let out a loud harsh 'NO!' and I winced again. So, I walked over to him and he pointed his gun in my direction. I grabbed his arm and twisted it, took the gun and pointed it at him, demanding that he let the go. He did so and as I was escorting the little out, he tackled me and BAM! I shot him right in the crotch and he started screaming like mad. That of COURSE made me hurt so I just kicked him away and got outta the hole. The thanked me and ran away."

He didn't really like the way he told his own story, so he didn't know what Ronin's answer would be to it.

[Jack]

(Ronin)
Ronin blinked as her mind managed to translate the fast-paced tale Toby had spun... and burst into peals of laughter. As the length of her laughter stretched, his eyes narrowed and finally, his left one started to twitch.

"It's true," he bit out defensively as Ronin gulped down some of her beer to calm herself down.

"Bull. nuts," Ronin said, still chuckling. Little droplets started to leak out of her eyes.

[Jack]

(Kratos)
::A young man enters the room, casting his eyes all around. His aura, only able to be seen by a few, casts rays of light on the wall. It then dies down some, and the man walks to the counter, and grabs a cup of coffee, and then walks over and sits down in a chair not too far from the fire. He looks at every person in the room, even the one in the rafters, while sipping his coffee. His piercing blue eyes take in everything. When he speaks his voice is cold and harsh.::

"I never expected to see so many people here..."

::He sips his coffee again, then remains silent.::

[Jack]

(Kurai)
*feeling somehow hurt...but not really suprised she stares off into the fire wraping herself with her trenchcoat and sitting in a fetal position thinking to herself as she did not even bother to see the man walk away, "how stupid was i...i didn't even sence his real being...", she looks deeper into the fire drooping her head down as she releases only a single tear she whispers sadly...*

"We will loose the battle, earth will be destroyed...."

*she whipes the tear from her face and continues looking deep in though at the fire*

[Jack]

(Kratos)
::He notices the woman, and thinks to go and talk and talk to her, but after seeing Alexander leave, he decided not to, for Alexander was his most trusted of the Cruxis, and thinks that if he just left like that, it would be best not to get involved. He hides his aura the best he can incase the woman saw that Alexander and his were the same. He quickly turns his gaze to the woman and the man in the rafter.::

"Hmmm....Alexander has told me about those two. They must know the land better than me, perhaps I could ask them..."

::He thinks this quietly to himself...::

[Jack]

(Kurai)
*she stands up looking a little angered now and annoyed. She heads to the bartender and tells him that she doesn't want to see the bottom of her glass, she drinks and drinks and drinks uncountable glasses of straight liquor this time until she knows she had enough, stumbles a little bit knowing she's drunk but won't admit it to herself or anyone else not caring who sees her, her aura glows to where any normal human would see it and drool over its beauty, to other higher things it would blind them...she starts to ramble on and off not complete sentences all others can only hear words like, "Die, Pain, Suffer, Damn...exc..." as the ground starts to melt from underneath her she suddenly passes out on the floor*