*Children of Enignem: The Rebellion*

There is a kingdom that goes by the name Enignem. In this kingdom there are five regions one large and the other four each about one fourth the size. Each of the outlying regions represents three things: A point on the compass, a season, and an element. If a child is born in the winter they are sent north to the region called Windsong (where it is always winter) to learn how to control the element of air and become a wind singer. If a child is born in spring the get sent east to Earthguide (where it is always spring) to learn how to control the element of earth and become and earth guider. If a child is born in the summer they get sent south to to Waterheld (where it is always summer) to learn how to control the element of water and become a water holder. If a child is born in the autumn they are sent west to Firecharm (where it is always autumn) to learn how to control the element of fire and to become a fire charmer. This happens as soon as a child is one week old and has been named (the children aren't given middle names because they get that when they get married and their spouse gives them one), they then stay in their region (called a guild, actually) until they graduate (at 16) or until they get married (whichever comes later). As of the past few years (as in the past three monarchs) however, the rules have become tighter, and the punishments greater. Where it used to be an option of sending your children to the guilds, it has now become a crime to keep them home, a crime for which the punishment is death. Few people that hold their children back from the guilds live to see them grow into adults. The children that are held back are called "The Hidden". You will find this piece of information highly necessary to you comprehension of this tale...
~~~

Sheirianna was very angry with her sister (The future Queen of Enignem) for getting her in trouble time after time... the punishment each time was a flogging, but this last time... this was too much! it was none of her sister's business to tell the heads of the guild that she spoke (rather regularly) with a Hunted One, even if her sister was the heir to the throne. If there was one thing that Sheirianna hated it was her sister's insistent nosiness, that and her way of making everything look like it was her fault.

6 years later...
Sheirianna sneaked silently in the underground corridor that led to the little cave where she met her lover, the same Hunted One that she'd gotten in trouble for talking to six years before. She had been nine when that happened, and now tomorrow she would be fifteen. Alben was there waiting for her as always, perched on a stone that was near the back of the cave. he bowed his curly head of hair towards Sheirianna. The two lloked next to nothing alike, Alben had tanned skin with a slightly reddish tint to it, he had red hair and dark brown, expressive eyes (It was obvious that he had been born in the autumn months). while Sheirianna had much paler skin, light blue eyes, and blonde as the summer sun hair.
"Sheirie..." he said quietly "So your sister has graduated from the guild... And your parents are sick... That means that it can't be much longer until that- that- thing is crowned queen and monarch of Enignem."
Sheirianna gave a morose little smile "It is so..." she walked the rest of the way across to him and sat down, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Not long at all... and that can only mean even less hope for the two of us..."
The two talked for as long as Sheirianna could stay and then he wished her happy birthday and left her with a kiss, promising to be back the next day... but he was not able to keep that promise.
She'd done it again... that dreadful little whelp, she'd given away sheirianna's most treasured secret, and now Alben's punishment was death... there had to be a way to save him.. there had to be.

((OOC: Rose, I think you need a quote sig with that last line of yours in it... ))

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lover's Lookout

When 'Lil Sis Luvuh first spoke to her, Lady Courage was, in fact, trying to shove all the caffeine-crazed thoughts in her brain into a little box and lock them up tight. Unfortunately, one odd image (consisting of a random minion riding the red rockets and laughing maniacally) had escaped and was leading her will-power in merry circular chase. Finally, her will caught hold of the image and dragged it kicking and screaming to the box. The will shoved it in the box and sat on it while various other thoughts ran around looking for something to lock it with.
However, Luvuh's next comment triggered (as she somehow knew it would ) the snicker reflex in Lady C, even though she was technically still distracted. Oddly, the caffeine boost somehow also did something to her sense of humor and instead of just snickering cheerily and still keeping her head, she burst out laughing hysterically. This new distraction made her will-power quaver and suddenly the wild caffeine-thoughts exploded out of the box and scattered gleefully all over her brain.
"You're right!" giggled Lady C when she finally got a chance to speak (FYI: Lady C is not a giggler), "It is named after you! Will you be my Valentine? Not in a weird sorta way, of course." She giggled hysterically again and looked at her cup. Though she was laughing, she hastily dumped the contents out on the ground. "Wretched caffeine..." she snickered. "It's not everyday one gets it raining on your head!" She paused and took a deep breath, trying to get a grip on herself again.

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lovers Lookout

After igniting several of the missiles before they could hit the earth and explode, Lady G looked around to see if there were any others. Funny, they stopped, and just when I was starting to have fun, she thought, turning and heading elsewhere on the Lookout.

Then she thought she might have heard the whistling sound and spun around, but it was too late. The very last missile, as if in a parting shot, slammed into the earth quite painfully near. Lady G hardly had the time to realize it before she found herself blown through the air and knocked to the ground uncomfortably close to a tree, several feet from where she had been walking just a moment before.

She remained there for several long moments, dazed, before getting her bearings back. I guess part of war is getting bruises, she thought. Before getting back up, she looked quickly toward the Tower to see if any other surprises (or not-really surprises, whichever one wanted to call them) were coming this way. Nope -- there weren't. But wait...what was this? She had noticed sometime back it was raining, but had been too preoccupied to pay much attention to it.

This isn't normal raindrops, she realized. "What is it?" she gasped. Then she realized she was still lying on the ground from the missile hitting and quickly rose, dusting herself off.

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lover's Lookout - Strike Team
Walking

Mountie walked through the long, winding hallways of the Tower, looking for anything of importance, and hoping that no one noticed the kitten floating conspicuously in midair. She could have left the kitten behind of course, but one look into its clear, bright eyes and she was smitten. She wanted to save the kitten from the darkness of the Tower, even if she risked being caught.

She had come to a place where the floor started sloping downward. It had started slowly but started getting increasingly steep with every step. Not only that, but it had gotten darker too. "If only I hadn't left my electric torch in Narnia," Mountie whispered.

The kitten let out a small mew, and it echoed in the darkness. Mountie couldn't see anything now that she was deeper into the Tower than she had meant to go, but even if she wanted to go back, she wouldn't be able to find her way out if she tried. There was nothing to do but go forward, onward, not knowing what on earth might jump out at her or what lurked in the darkness.

Suddenly she heard quiet footsteps. Her heart started to race. This darkness was unnerving. She had no way of knowing for sure, but with most of the Minions out at the Lookout, she had a pretty good guess of who it was. She could only hope she was right. "Silvie? Is that you?"

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lover's Lookout - Strike Team
Somewhere deep beneath the Tower

As Silver reached the end of her freefall, she braced herself for what she assumed to be a rather uncomfortable splat at the bottom. To her vast surprise, she encountered a vast pile of soft, springy material instead. The force of her fall sent her sinking deep into it. When she had gained her bearings, she looked around to find herself wallowing in a giant pile of...

Yarn? she thought incredulously. Haven't I seen this somewhere before? Amazed at her luck, she flopped back against the cushy pile, happy to be alive.

But no sooner had that thought crossed her mind did she feel a sudden constriction around her invisible legs - then her arms and midsection. This was no ordinary yarn - it was trying to strangle her.

"Agh!" Silver struggled, frantically trying to free herself, but the mutant yarn only wound tighter. She could feel its tendrils reaching for her throat. With one last burst of strength, she reached for her rapier and whipped it out. Desperately, she hacked at the yarn, severing the cords wrapping around her. The yarn recoiled and released its grip, allowing her to dive away. She rolled to a stop, pushed herself up from the cold stone floor, and ran as fast as she could. Only when she was sure she was far away did she finally stop to catch her breath.

And only then did she see the sign on the wall of the stone corridor that read: "Welcome to the Labyrinth of DOOM" on it.

Labyrinth of DOOM? thought Silver. I don't like the sound of that.

But, seeing no other choice in the matter, she walked onward through the gloomy, dimly-lit corridors, hoping to somehow find her way out of this mess. Eventually, she reached a point where the darkness was so complete, she could barely see the outline of her hand in front of her, bathed in a sort of crimson light...

Silver stopped dead in her tracks. When she finally mustered the strength to turn her head, she saw at least a dozen pairs of glowing red eyes staring her down. At the sound a low growl, her hand flew to the hilt of her rapier. The mutant mutts might not be able to see her, but as long as they could hear and smell her, they didn't need to.

Just then, she heard a quiet voice from somewhere in the opposite direction. "Silvie? Is that you?"

As one, the mutant mutts gave a howl. Silver heard the thud of their paws against stone. Silver raced in Mountie's general direction - only to find a kitten floating quite conspicuously in midair. Grabbing Mountie's invisible hand, she screamed, "Run!"

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lover's Lookout

Lady A put down her distance beam and sighed.

"The Wyrm is going back into his castle, AGAIN." She kicked a stone, then her eyes lit up. "Everyone, get ready for a ride!"

Lady A flipped open her communicator.

"Kittenoids, please prepare to transport to location XYZ2."

With an orange glimmer, people started disappearing, finally reappearing for a second in the transport room. Button hit a few more buttons with her paws, and everyone again disappeared, reappearing in various rooms within the Tower.

((OOC: Everyone, choose a random room to land in, and have fun. Methinks some interesting battles may be coming on.....))

Gremlin Hunters of Narniaweb

Dotty stood up when Wolf approached. She was surprised at the offer to help plan as she was still knew. But, everyone's new at this, she reminded herself. "Certainly, I'd love to help. Anything to stop the Gremlins," she said.

Vertex tried not to stare at Benciark. He had worked with all kinds, but birds were a little new to him. "W-what do you know of the Gremlin's plans?" he stuttered and then bit his lip when he realized how nervous he must have sounded. "I mean, do we know anything about their method of attack?"

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lovers Lookout
A random room within the Tower

Lady G reappeared inside a random room inside the Tower. She wasn't sure where she was; all she was aware of was that she was somewhere on the ground floor.

She quickly put another arrow on her bowstring and looked about at her surroundings. She was in a tiny, closet-sized room.

Oh...it was a closet.

She rolled her eyes. That would happen. She immediately began looking around for the door. She opened it only a crack and peered into the hall.

The Tower was dark, as befitted it, considering it was a "Tower of Shadow and Flame". She crept into the corridor, looking about for any of the Grand High Dark Overlord's minions. Where are they? It's time for battle, you know, she thought as she headed through the halls in a random direction, moving from darkest shadow to darkest shadow and watching.

She wasn't sure how much time passed, until she was beginning to be sure she was wandering in circles. Still, she had seen no one from either side, Light or Dark....

Children of Enignem: The Rebellion
Maya's Opening Post

Maya crouched up in the tree, careful not to let her feet crackle on the bark, or move her hand even the sligtest bit, which would risk making a leaf fall off the branch she tightly grasped. Beneath her, The soldiers sifted through the bushes and scanned the skyline. " I swear I saw one" a short, burly looking soldier said. "she looked just like the albino's picture on the hunted board hanging up at the barracks" "agghhh. you probably were just seeing things" replied a thin soldier. "theres next to nothing of them albino's. much less THAT specific one." He spat on the ground and rounding up the other men, he herded them off in the direction of the local barracks.

Maya agiley leaped down from the tree and sighed, was that one Albino forever to be her identity? Maya really wasnt the only Albino but Albino's were pretty scarce, They were born in the winter and they were mysterious, and lived in one large group save the small nomadic bands. Problem was, nobody ever really saw them, every once in a while a farmer would claim to have seen one or someone would fake a Albino body, but it was never really real, most Albino's were master of disuise and very stealthy, so the could usually avoid capture, especially the hunted ones. Albino's were generally either looked down upon or were elevated, depending one who you were talking to. They lived on the outermost edge of there own guild and didnt really associate with the other seasons.

Maya stood in the under the moon which was beginning to rise. Her sleek White hair was pulled back into a ponytail and almost matched her frigidly pale skin, but stood out for it had a more silver tint to it. Her navy blue traveling tunic, hip high boots and navy blue face mask stood starkly out against her skin. On her back was a sheath containing her prized weapon, A blade staff. On her face there wasnt a blemish to be found and she had large, dark, almond shaped eyes, but people seemed never to be able to decide if they were a deep lavender, stark black, or a rigid dark blue.
She stood up out of her crouch and ducked behind a tree. Making her way south off the beaten path. Maya was on a mission. She needed to find Alben. No matter how long it took.

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lover's Lookout
Another random room...

Took briefly felt herself falling through the air, then was suddenly drenched. She panicked for a moment, inexplicably finding herself underwater, but quickly recovered, kicking her shoes off and swimming to the surface. The water seemed to be at that uncanny depth where her head was barely above the water when she stood on tip-toe, so she aimed for shallower water and what she hoped was the edge of the pool. Took wondered why the room was empty - on top of the empty-pool sound, she was sure that anyone in the room would have heard her splashing.

When she finally reached the edge and rubbed her eyes, she realized that this was no ordinary pool (As if anything in this Tower could be ordinary, she thought). It was the largest pool she'd ever seen, for one, and completely circular. It started out at kiddy depth along the edge and deepened into a black abyss in the middle. She felt sure there was something lurking in the depths, and equally sure that she wouldn't want to meet it. The walls were too high for her to climb out without a ladder or stair, and there was only one such exit from the pool - a grand staircase conveniently located on the opposite edge.

Not being a terrific swimmer (and recalling the old adage "shortcuts make delays"), she decided to take the long way along the edge. She found a couple swimmy noodles floating nearby, and fashioning herself a makeshift raft, started paddling.

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lover's Lookout

After catching a glimpse of the two felines and telling them to not let Luke into the Tower, Lady A found herself in a rather familiar room...The Control Room!

The Queen's first act was to duck behind a conveniently located desk, and then peer around it. She cocked her head, and listened. She had heard the laughter when she first arrived, but, suddenly, she realized: that wasn't an Evil Overlord laugh. It sounded different. More like....

"PILOT!" Lady A jumped up and marched over to the alien's seat.

"What is wrong with you?" she demanded, grabbing a random item off of the desk and giving Pilot a few light smacks with it. After a second, she looked at it.

An empty candy box.

"Oh...."

Lady A stared at the box, contemplating. Suddenly, she ripped one box out of Pilot's hands, sending chocolate flying everywhere, then began grabbing all the boxes, not caring if they were full or empty (or half full, for that matter!).

"Pilot, what a mess you've made!! What WILL the Wyrm say when he finds out you've been eating so many sweets??? Goodness, have some common sense, won't you!!"

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lover's Lookout "Not horrible," Flow replied never taking his eyes off the flower covered invisible dryad. Then he quivered his ears back. He heard the beeping... Great. He thought, There's more intruders.

He sent a message, via communicator to the control room. "Pilot... Do you know where our masterful Overlord went I believe we have a problem..."

****

GHNW Benciark heard his vioce stutter, but he replied kindly, "We will have to fight in whatever way we can... everyone brings something to the table. Perhaps we can put all of our knowledge together and come up with a plan."

"Zat's a wonderful idea, Benciark," said Wolf. "Why don't we start with what we are good at. What are some of your talents?" She asked the other three.

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lover's Lookout
Random Room

"Wow..." muttered Lady Courage, startled into a semblance of sobriety as Luvuh's image swirled into a million colors, then suddenly squished together before her eyes into pure blackness. "I solemnly swear that I will NEVER! EVER! Allow myself to get drenched in pure caffeine again!!" She rubbed her eyes, "This is too weird!" The idea of its weirdness prompted another giggle, but to her own relief, it sounded more like her usual snicker. "Oh, maybe it's wearing off!" she exclaimed.
Then she became aware of solid ground beneath her feet, but still everything was black. "Pippin?" she hissed, suddenly conscious of the volume of her voice now that she was actually in the tower. There was no answer. "Pippin!" she repeated. Still no reply. "Rats!! I guess the transporter person didn't think to make sure Pippin came with me..." she looked thoughtful. Not that you could see because it was so dark. Then she had a happy thought and jerked her com-link out of her pocket with a grin. But the grin died away when she realized she couldn't see the buttons. The grin came back when she pressed a random button and they all lit up. Then she made sure she was only speaking to Pippin, and pressed the "talk" button, "Pippin? Where are you?" Where am I, for that matter, she thought while she waited for his reply.

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Random Room

Pippin yelped in surprise when his surroundings melted together, turned black, then faded into a grey color. Because he was hovering, it took a little longer for him to figure out the transportation had finished than it had Lady C. When he finally realized that everything was over with, he looked around for his Person- and was alarmed to find himself alone. Now, Pippin has a great deal of bravado for such a small animal and at times has been rather admirable in the amount of courage he has shown. However, once that courage is lost, panic sets in and with it, a near complete loss of all common sense. Unexpectedly alone, in a strange place that likely had bad people all around and not having had time to prepare himself, Pippin felt very scared. There was a door in front of him, dirty yellow light seeped around its frame and faintly lit the room. With a feeling of panic, Pippin made a rush for the door. Unfortunately, he forgot to take into account the size of his force field and it struck something that brought another something crashing down in front of him and bounced off the shield just above his nose and between his eyes. With a startled shriek, Pippin recoiled and ran into something else, which also came tumbling down on top of the shield. Something between a scream and a terrified whimper escaped the embattled little dog and he made another dash for the door. Again, he ran into something that he couldn't see in the murky light and this time, something distinctly grey with wicked tentacles curled around his shield and endeavored to consume him. Pippin let loose the infamous death scream of the Italian Greyhound and every bit of reason left his head. In a wild, shrieking panic, he exploded towards the door, and with the combined strength of his thrusters and the force field, literally smashed the door flat to the floor, completely busting the hinges. He blasted past a startled man pushing a yellow cart with cleaning utensils on it, screeching all the way, as brooms and squeegees fell out of the closet behind him, and a mop slid off his force field and clattered to the floor at the feet of the astonished janitor.

The frightened little dog raced out of the dimly lit room and out onto a staircase that he blindly followed. His screams died down to whimpers and as the panic wore off, his sense gradually returned. Along with a deep desire to find his Person and be held and comforted after that awful experience. Just then, the com-link/voice-operated controller vibrated silently, then a very quiet transmission of his Person's voice (so quiet it would take an animal's keen sense of hearing to be aware of it) came through, asking where he was. Pippin whimpered with joy at hearing his Person's voice speaking to him. "I'm on a bunch of stairs!" he cried, "I just had the most horrible thing try to eat me!! It was dark and scary and awful and terrible and please please please come get me!!"

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Random Room

Lady C laughed aloud at Pippin's reply, partly out of relief that he was indeed OK and not in any trouble. "OK, OK. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I am, nor where the stairs you're referring to may be. You said there's a lot of them?"
Pippin voice buzzed through the com-link, "Yes yes! Lots and lots of stairs!"
"How many?"
"Lots!!"
Lady C stifled another laugh, "No no, like, in numbers how many are there?"
"Oh, I don't know. As far as I can see up and as far as I can see down."
"Must be the main staircase," mused Lady C. To Pippin she said, "It's probably in the center of the tower. I'll see if I can find it, OK?"
"Please hurry!" whimpered Pippin.
"Try to stay hidden," suggested Lady C. Now, which way is towards the center? she thought to herself. After a moment's contemplation, she struck out in the direction she felt might be the right way. Her gut was usually mind-bogglingly correct in the way it directed her if she only listened to it, which was something she did not naturally do, being a person who valued logic above gut feelings. However, since logic had nowhere to start this time, she trusted her gut and hoped to come upon the staircase with "lots and lots" of stairs.

War of the Overdoms: Battle at Lovers Lookout
A hallway on the ground floor

Lady G crept through the halls, still seeing no one and no thing. All around her, there was nothing but silence, although she thought she might have heard faint noises like beeping, clattering, smashing, and ominous "MWAHAHABWAHAHA"ing. The latter sound made shivers go up her spine.

As she walked down the end of a long, narrow corridor with hardly any other halls, she came to a large, towering door. The only way out of the corridor was through the door or walking back the way she had come for some distance. Hesitantly, she placed her hand on the doorknob and even more hesitantly tightened her grip. Something about turning the knob made her nervous -- especially when she thought she heard voices from within. One of them sounded distinctly like a rather large wolf, saying something about a problem.

If you are referring to us, then you've got a problem all right, she thought.

All her muscles tensed, ready for whatever was to come next. She opened the door just a crack, thinking frantically, Please don't squeak, please don't squeak, please don't squeak...

It didn't.

She peered cautiously around the door. What she saw made her stare in absolute confusion for a moment, followed by instant panic, which made her quickly draw back. She was right. There was a wolf inside, along with someone she did not know. They were cornering something...whatever or whoever it was.

Pure curiosity made her resume peering around the door, as the old saying, Curiosity killed the cat, flickered through her head. She flinched and told her thoughts to be quiet, which, of course, they did not.

Since the two in the entrance hall seemed too engrossed in whatever they were cornering to notice her, Lady G remained where she was to watch and wait. . . .

*Children Of Enignem: The Rebellion*

Lemierah's bright green eyes glimmered in the darkness, they looked to have a light of their own, but like a cat's eyes, this was not truly the case. She was waiting for her friend to join her out here, away form their tree homes (the people of Earthguide lived in buildings that are made for hollowed out humongously gigantic trees, with catwalks made of vines from tree to tree). The and Emir had been good friends for as long as either of them could remember, and today they were supposed to celebrate their birthdays (which were two days apart) by using one of the new bonding charms that they'd learned in class, it would make it so that they could never turn their backs on each other... Never.
~
Emir walked quietly out to where he knew 'Em' would be waiting, right next to the huge wall that separated them from the rest of Enignem. He caught himself just before he tripped over a large wildcat of some sort that was begging for his attention. "Away you bloo-" he loweed his voice, ot wouldn't do for him to be caught by one of the guards that were perpetually roaming inside and outside the wall.
He hurried the rest of the way to the meeting place and greeted 'Em' heartily.
"good evening, sister dear!" he said in a rather loud whisper "Imagine this, you've gotten here before I have... what could be more like normal, eh?" He plopped himself down and began the little ceremony."

~Lady Fee