Into the desert *DEPRECIATED*

Dahlia flinches visibly. "Did you hear that?"

DM Note: ONLY DAHLIA CAN HERE THIS!!! @Dahlia after you say "Did you hear that?" you here someone say 'coward' directly in you ear.

Dahlia squeals loudly and jumps to her feet, flying back a few feet from the campfire. "Wha-...?" Her hands go to her mouth in fear.

OOG: Can Dahlia see anything?

OOG: no. Everyone hears the giggles again.

"Stu! Mots!" Dahlia is clearly beginning to panic. "Please tell me you hear that. Please." She begins inching toward her bag and pulls her piercers out of her box, spinning them around her fingers. "Please. What. Is. Going. On."

"Shh!" Mots whispers. She tries to concentrate on the noises.

Dahlia nods, biting her bottom lip. She listens.

Stu lets out a large sigh. "Listen, you see that staff"

Stu points at his Rod of Instant Death, still upright in the sand. "Anything I touch with that get a one way ticket straight to hell.

And hell, you know what?" Stu picks up a rock and etches a strange rune on it. He throws it toward where the giggles are coming from.

"If any of those bastards want to try anything, I'll blow them all to hell, no staff required."

Stu, now realizing that the madness in his eyes may frighten people quickly cuts off his rant.

"..that is, if there was anything out there to worry about. Which there isn't"

Dahlia's eyes widen and she nods again, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I told them I was the wrong person for guard duty..." She whispers.

"Wrong person? No no no." Stu says as he begins to lay back to look at the sky once more.

"It wouldn't be as fun" He chuckles.

Dahlia, still tensed, reseats herself atop her pack by the fire, her wings wrapped around her body protectively.

Stu outstretches his arm and begins to draw runes, seemingly floating in air.

"Did you check to see if the water was clean? Or are you always this paranoid?"

"I know this river." Dahlia informs her kneecaps. "It's always run clean, no matter what. And I'm only paranoid when strange things begin happening." She looks at Stu. "Didn't you hear that voice?"

"Errrr... no?" Stu says with a questionable look as a few of his runes fade.

"Damn it" He says, looking back at his runes.

"How did you not hear it?" Dahlia looks back at her feet. "It called me..." She trails off.

"It called you, eh?" Stu says skeptically.

"And what did 'it' say?"

"It..." Dahlia's voice lowers to just barely a whisper. "It called me a coward."

Stu tries to hold in his laughter.

"You sure it was me?" Stu says in tears.

He composes himself "Oh.. man. Ok. and what makes you think it calling you a coward means anything?"

Dahlia shakes her head. "The rest of my past. The parts I didn't tell you."

"Oh really now? Well I could go for a story!" Stu flicks his hands through his runes and they twirl away like smoke.

"I'm all ears for this."

Dahlia sighs. "I'm a princess, did you know that?" She twirls a finger in the dirt near her bag. "Pixie royalty. But not meant to be the queen." She nods to herself. "Second born, after all. And the fact that I can't use magic or fight very well... All I really have is my small stature and my attitude." She stops drawing. "The pixies who are like me - rather ungifted in everything but size - are trained to be thieves. But I'm not even good at that. Thieves are supposed to be loners. I'm not a loner." She throws a rock at the fire. "I was supposed to be a diplomat for my village. A very undignified one, one who does nothing but steal, but a diplomat nonetheless. They sent me on my first mission when I was about to turn eighteen. I left home to go on my mission... and I never came back. And I'm not going back." Her face darkens. "Not ever."

DM Note: ONLY DAHLIA CAN HEAR THIS!!!! @Dahlia: There once again is a voice right next to your ear 'boo' the voice says

Dahlia shrieks again, covering her ears. "Make it stop!!"

Urijoshi sits up just a bit straighter, "In my family there is this phrase 'when the world turns it's back on you, you turn your back to the world.' Relax Dahlia, if something happens, we all got your back."

OOG:what direction are the giggles coming from?

"As much as I love this team bonding, I think we might have a situation on our hands. The noises don't seem to be stopping. What types of monsters could we think could be around here?" Casper asks the group, trying to make out anything in the darkness that surrounds them.