VII. Library Card?

"Bull-crap!"

Shadoe jumped at Ryli's sudden outburst, her fox ears perking up.

"You kidnap us in the middle of the night, turn us into freaks, and you still expect us to help you?! I seriously doubt we could do anything for you- even if we wanted to. If you're not gonna help us get home, we'll find someone who can." Grabbing Shadoe's hand, Ryli tugged her friend towards the large, rough wooden door- before they could make it there, however, Actaeon leaped and landed in the way of their exit with a heavy thud of his boots. Ryli's ears lowered and she hissed. The involuntary and unusual reaction made her throat tickle; the small cough that followed attempted to relieve her discomfort, with some success.

"We wouldn't have gone through the trouble of finding you if we didn't think we needed you..." His expression was stern. "So let us finish." A flash of lightning lit up the room as Ryli held a staring match with the man for several long moments.

Artemus hurried to his brother's side and with an easygoing smile asked, "Please?"

"... Whatever." Ryli's tail swished as she looked expectantly from one wolf to the other. "Well then? Get to it."

"Alright, I'm on it, I'm on it. Well, my-" Actaeon began only to be promptly interrupted by Shadoe, who was raising her hand politely. "Uhm... Yes?"

"What did the prophecy say exactly?"

Artemus paused and tilted his head slightly. "Would you like to see it for yourself?"

Shadoe failed to notice Ryli's annoyed scoff and made the decision herself. "Sure!"

The princes led them down flights of stairs, through large halls with towering ceilings, and past countless doors, all outfitted with varying handles and hinges. Expensive, showy vases full of bright, exotic flowers sat on nearly every table they passed. Artemus reached for a particularly pretty flower as he walked by, and with a goofy flourish and bow, he presented the bloom to Shadoe. She smiled and twirled it between her fingers, falling into step with the young prince and listening as he pointed out portraits and antiques along their route. Artemus glanced back at the silent pair behind him and tossed his brother a grin. Actaeon rolled his eyes and inched even further away from the girl that was walking at his side.

The journey ended at a massive set of double doors. The surface of each was black, inlaid with silver markings. Artemus flung the doors open dramatically and with a gesture, directed them through. The room was at least twice the size of the girls' entire house back home. Shelves stretched from wall to wall, all filled with scrolls and ancient looking leather-bound books. Rain beat against the high, domed cieling that covered it all.

"Whoa." The two outsiders stared up in mutual amazement.

Actaeon sighed and waved a hand dissmissively. "Quite an architectural feat, indeed. Our father actually designed this addition. Not to mention it holds the largest single privately-owned collection of manuscripts in the country."

"Yes, yes, come along, let's find the scroll." Artemus trotted on ahead excitedly.

He led them up a spiral staircase to a set-apart room. A skylight provided the small space with natural light, and the downpour could be heard and seen as it hit the glass. Artemus grabbed Shadoe's hand and pulled her to a podium that was set in the very middle of the room. "Welcome to our personal study. And this here... Is what we've been studying." The prince gingerly unrolled the scroll and lay it out flat. The faded ink was difficult to make sense of- not to mention the letters were foreign, alien-looking, to the girls.

Ryli raised an eyebrow and squinted a bit. "... And these scribbles say something important...?"

VI. Prognosticus

The storm provided atmosphere for the tale.

Wind howled through the courtyard and thunder rolled along the hills. Shadoe and Ryli sat side by side on the bed, Shadoe with her knees to her chest, tail wrapped around her, Ryli with her ears twitching at each flash of lightning that lit up the sky outside. The summer storm had come without warning, taking the sun away and laying siege on the castle.

Artemus started with the story, the occasional flashes causing his tall shadow to grow and fill the room along with his excited, rich voice. "Around half a century ago, during the reign of our father's father, there was a temple discovered in the western forests."

"Two hundred years before that, a great war had torn the country apart. Elle's westernmost region is now nearly deserted, mostly wild, rugged territory. That's because at the close of the war, the nation was divided- to the west lies Agratheon. We remain Elle. The strip of land along both sides of the border is no longer populated."

"Shush., brother, you interrupted."

"Hm."

"Well, as he said, the westernmost border is only forests, mountains, deserts, the zone between the two nations left mostly alone to avoid conflict. It's not rare for ancient artifacts and ruins to be discovered in these areas. And, around two hundred years after the civil war, somebody discovered the temple. Stained glass windows with the colors all shattered about... Stone pillars at the brink of collapse... It's almost strange that it took so long to be discovered. It's practically in our backyard." Artemus glanced out the window and pointed into the treeline that began at the edge of the tall outer walls. The tops of the evergreens where whipping back and forth with the wind. "In there, only about a days walk or so. But the forests are sort of like a maze and sometimes strange things happen in there. "

"While it would seem inconvenient for Elle's capital to be so close to the potential danger of the unpopulated zone, when the countries were one, this same capital was the center of it all. So the capital remains where it has always been, the center of our world." Actaeon sat on the windowsill, stretching his long legs out along it.

"That's right. From the other side of the castle, you can see the city stretching out eastward. We'll take you there sometime! It's great. Food everywhere. People everywhere. Shiny things and good smells and lots of noise..." Artemus' tail wagged excitedly for a moment until he remembered he was telling a story. "Well, in the forest temple was found a set of scrolls, rolled up inside two identical rusted cases. There's no telling what sort of treasure the temple had held before, because it seems it had been raided and looted over time, possibly even right after the western collapse or during the war. It's lucky the scrolls survived and also lucky they weren't lost to some petty thief. Because on the old paper was written the destiny of Elle."

Actaeon watched lightning strike at the hills and, before he spoke, waited for an end to the peal of thunder that followed a couple of seconds after the flash. "It turns out that the pair of writings was actually a set of 'Seer Scrolls.' Prophecy used to be much more common than it is in modern Elle. Some say it's for lack of necessity- that we shape our own destinies. Some say it's for lack of faith. You can't trust most psychics and fortune-tellers, particularly if they work for money. They have a tendency to simply say what they think you want to hear. The scrolls discovered in the abandoned temple, however are pretty ancient. And they definately don't say anything that anyone would want to hear."

"Artemus is good with languages. We have the same teachers, but it's always come more easily to him. It seems he's just naturally inclined to that sort of thing; I suppose that's good, for a future king."Actaeon shrugged and traced a shape into the spot of fog his breath had created on the window pane. "Up until a year ago, the scrolls had been stored away, they had been forgotten, and the contents went unexplored. My brother and I started looking them over for nothing more than practice. We have open access to the library here, where plenty of old, discarded books and scrolls are kept. Though the scrolls had some tears and missing parts, we were eventually able to more or less translate the majority. By the end of summer, we realized it wasn't just a religous book or a family tree or anything typical like that."

"Because the scrolls were in a virtually dead language, it was difficult to translate the full meaning, but... From what we can tell, our kingdom is heading towards destruction."

"And you two... Seem to be the only way we can stop that 'The End' from coming true."

do do do, its a filler!

You are but a leaf that blows in the mind of the zebra that stands in the Wendy's parking lot. Much like ourselves we are caught in the purse of lies that your mother puts us in.

HOSH.

once again we are trapped in the never ending spinning of the pin-wheel, but once the child gets bored and the never ending comes to an end, we will all die. but not i, for i have 14 lives left.

Now drink of your Icee in remembrance of the, use your VCR, lend your Devils Wares Prada CD to thy neighbor, and steal it back in the dead of night for the giraffe speaks fondly of this.

"oosk nata naro ca ta destra boosk choosta ockuba!"

This bursting aerobics not only increses the stretchiness of your collective arms collectively, but your thighs will become like rocks, lacking of jiggle. And not only will we pancake his neighbors house but when the sun shines we will shine together, i told you I'd be here forever said I'll always be your friend took a oath gonna stick it out till the end now its raining more then ever, told you we'd still have each other you can stand under my umbrella, you can stand under my umbrella elle ella eh eh eh.

But if the kidney can win, and it can. I will be back to high five you, last week.



Peace.


translation- "the unicorn is getting married."