Darkness had enveloped Markus' mind, and in truth, this was not new to the prince. But what was new, was that he couldn't hear what was going on in reality. In his mind, the effects of the total darknes were just starting to envelop his mind, when a bright light appeared in front of him. A voice drifted out, and he was suprized to find that it was Cayssaria's voice. "You can escape..... Now, before Nxyn tries to take you over again!" Suddenly, Markus stand up, slowly opening his eyes. He rubbed them and ran a hand through his hair, before looking at the scattered cats, then at Kith, and finally to Chen. "You have it.... You can use it...."

Chen gave a slight nod, turning to Markus and placing her hand on his forehead. Closing her eyes gently, she fell asleep, and the staff began to glow, enveloping her in light.

In her dreams, she was standing in a beautiful field, accompanied by a woman just as beautiful. "Child who has been blessed by my sign." she greeted Chen. "You have great need of my power, but this is a pittance compared to the need you will have for me ahead. I give you my strength; use it as you see fit, but know that my power cannot be used for ill will." she told Chen, before disappearing.

Suddenly Chen woke up, strangely refreshed even though she must have been out for fifteen seconds. She knew what to do, but she knew not what to say. She turned to the cats, who were all staring at her, then back to Markus, before saying the one thing she dreaded most.

"Nyaaaaaaaannnn~" she mewed out, loudly, before the staff began to glow again. This time, the light moved from the staff, to Chen's body, down to Markus.

"That staff you hold in that of the moon elf's main godess of the forest, and patron god of animals, Cayssaria. It is rumored to be that the one who holds the staff of the goddess can use it both as an offensive and defensive weapon, giving the holder the ability to use magic not only to harm, but also to heal, and that the magic will never fail....." Kith smoothed back the hair from Markus' face, a frown creasing his brow. "You should be able to feel the flow of magic.... Hear the goddess's voice and feel her near you..... Concentrate on that and say the words that come to your mind, keeping a hand on Alianh the entire time, as well as holding the staff....."

Chen's tails perked up as she witnessed Markus faint in front of her. Quickly she ran to his side, but Kith was there first. "W-what do you mean, this isn't a normal staff...?" the nekomata asked, cautiously walking up to the two of them and kneeling down at Markus's side. One by one the cats broke into rank atop Markus, looking down upon him with concern.

"There's a high fever breaking out all over his body." one of the cats mewed, though because of the sheer panic in the face of Markus's collapse, Chen didn't even take notice of which one. "Elves aren't prone to sickness, this has to be some kind of poison. Do you have any idea how injured he was?" she mewed to Kith, as Chen translated.

Kith blinked, looking away. What was so special about this girl? Any other time Markus had to go somewhere, if anyone tried to follow him, he all but cut them into shreds. He shook his head before looking at Markus. "You should leave her behind. She'll cause you nothing but trouble. The king is worried about you. Let's go." He started to walk forward, but stopped when he realized that Markus wasn't following him. He turned and froze, seeing the blank, withdrawn look that came to the price's eyes. "Alianh!"

The dark elf prince's eyes closed slowly and Kith was suddenly at his side, grabbing him before he fell. Something was wrong, and he didn't know what it was. He lay the prince down on the grass carefully before looking over at Chen. "That staff is not a normal one. Come over here." He had been thinking about it for a long time, and it finally came it him. The staff was that of the guardian goddess of the moon elfs, also patron god of animals, Cayssaria.

[I will post ASAP, k?]

Chen watched the two of them, still confused as to what they were talking about, especially that "Keep your opinions to yourself" line. Of course to any passerby Kith's thoughts would have been obvious, but Chen wasn't that old, and she was a complete stranger to the ways of the world. There was no way she could have known what Kith was implying in his mind.

She looked up to face Kith as he turned to her, wondering just what he was thinking. Suddenly, his gaze shifted to her staff, and she wondered if perhaps something was wrong. "I found it... it was in the attic of my home..." she replied, telling the truth as she knew it. "It looked like it could take a beating better than anything else I found, so I took it." she explained, now holding the staff close to her chest. Did Kith know something about this that she didn't, perhaps?

"Prince Alinah! I can't wait around here all day, you know! I have to get to Amythist!" Kith's voice reached Markus' ears at a dangerous level. He sighed, standing to his feet. He took Chen's free hand and gently pulled her along behind him. As they stepped back into the small clearing, Markus narrowed his eyes at Kith, who looked as if he wanted to laugh, but was fighting it at the same time.

Kith bowed, seeing the danger in Markus' eyes, barely smirking. "I am sorry my prince.It is just I haven't seen you...." His eyes looked down at Markus' and Chen's joined hands, and instantly catching his meaning, Markus let go of Chen's hand, taking a step up and away from her, trying to avoid the smug look on Kith's face. "Keep your opinions to yourself, Kith."

Kith looked at Chen with a calculating gaze, but his gaze quickly went from her face to the staff that chen was holding, his eyes going wide just a fraction. "Where..... Did you get that?" he asked Chen with a strained voice, motioning to the staff.

Of course she had no idea of what kind of danger she was in. After all, she had lived a solitary life for the past number of years, and knew nothing of the world of civilization.

Chen looked up at Markus as he placed his hand on her head, her tails swishing once. "What can be worse than living in solitary confinement? No one knows about me or where I live, so I can't possibly expect any visitors save the occasional human that gets lost in the forest, and even they don't stay long once they see me..."

Well, she was telling the truth, but not the whole truth. Whenever the human came home, they would always insist that he saw a demon cat that looked like a girl living in the woods, and often these humans banded together to look for the demon. It was the same story every time. Chen would be confronted while looking for food in the forest, and she would always have to flee from an entire mob of scary humans with weaponry and fire. Seriously, were they superstitious enough that they would burn the forest to ashes just because of a single girl?

She looked back up at Markus. "I can fight, too. I've... trained... myself to fight alongside the cats. And, with all eight of them accounted for, I have nine times the fighting strength." she assured him.

Markus looked at her, his eyes still as hard and sharp as jewels. He was irritated that she had followed him. Didn't she realize that she could be killed at a moment's notice? What was she thinking?! He shook his head, his rage instantly cooling as his more..... rational part of his mind took over his thought. He ran a hand through his hair, his gaze softening. He dropped down onto one knee and looked at Chen, his head tilted to the side, the smallest of smiles of his lips. "Chen....."

He reached out and gently lay his hand on her head, the smile on his lips getting a bit bigger. "You should have stayed home..... Being around me is dangerous....." His voice sounded as if he was torturing himself. Honestly, in a deeper part of his mind, he was considering taking her with him. Now he had virtually no home to return to, and he was now all alone. But he quickly blocked that thought out, not wanting to put her in danger.

Chen still hadn't entirely realized what had just happened, but from the looks of things, it seemed like Ran had simply swapped locations with Chen, and was now sitting in front of the other elf, so that his rantings made him look like a complete fool. If not for the fact that he had been absolutely right until about seven seconds ago, she would have likely burst out laughing.

Markus, however, was not one to be fooled so easily, as he was immediately able to ascertain that Chen had followed him. Still, there was no possible way he could know her exact location. Right? Well, she was right about that, but what happened next surprised her. He actually walked in a random arbitrary direction - which happened to be the right way, and harshly called out to her.

Chen gave a light wince. Man, was she going to get it now! And after he had been so considerate in asking her to stay. Finally she crept out of the foliage, her head low. "I'm sorry, Markus..." she replied, shivering once. Just how mad would he be at her following?