It is now almost noontime in Lamu, the sun is at its hottest… but two Siamese Khattas aren't troubled by the heat as much now that they have their portable shades. Gifts from the shadow mage, Rory, in trade for a dream about his (or Silhouette's) past.

Rory sets up shop in his cabin room yet again. That consists of rolling out and securing a tarp (recently cleaned), setting out his candles, and picking out his best chalks in preparation of a very important ritual. Rory, a little anxious about the undertaking, spends a significant amount of time just going through exercises to mentally prepare himself.

Silhouette watches from the top bunk of the bed. Her shadowy legs dangle down.

Rory gets up from his seated position near the base of the bed, and looks up to Silhouette. "Well … I guess I'm all set to start. It's about time I got around to learning more about the surroundings."

"I'll try and keep quiet, wouldn't want to break your concentration." Silhouette signs.

Rory smiles back at Silhouette. "Thanks. But I'll remember you're there."

Rory sits down in the middle of the tarp, and delicately works at chalking out his magical circle, or the basics of it. He "lights" the candles, which don't let off any visible flame, but just light wisps of scented smoke. He begins chanting, adding runes and geometric designs to the circle as he continues, occasionally taking pauses in the scribing, then starting up again, with ever more intricate designs.

Silhouette watches quietly from her perch on the bed.

This goes on for several minutes … then an hour … and longer. Some of the shadows play strangely in the cabin, as they are cast against the wall … and the shadows cast by clouds start changing from being merely a dimming of the light to actually casting random shapes … random shapes which eventually become less random, looking more and more like various images, the sort you might "see" in clouds by staring at them long enough.

Airships sail by … and fluttering bats … and a sure-fire silhouette of Mister Porky … and a silhouette of Silhouette, pirouetting, then skipping across the shadowplay on the wall. A shadow of a very real bird flits by, as it pursues a bug, followed by a serpentine dragon … and a fish like from the dreamrealm of the two Khatta sisters.

Silhouette reaches out to try and touch the dragon shadow, then quickly jerks her hand back. She shakes her head.

A castle drifts by, the towers changing in height. A prancing Drokar glides by, as if stepping in slow motion. A big piece of candy floats by, pursued by yet another bat – this one suspiciously shaped like Skiree. And then, a Creen flits about, diving this way and that in a way that a gliding cloud does not. It flies a circle around a floating Vykarin, another around a jester's hat … and then, after another turn … flies right off of the wall, zipping through the room and alighting … on Rory's horn.

Rory finishes his chants … then looks around the room … then up toward his horn. "Oh! THERE you are! Hey! Get DOWN from there!" He tries to shake his horn, then makes vain shooing motions with his hands. "I've got a JOB for you."

The shadow-creen climbs down Rory's horn a little and lowers its head to peer into the little unicorn's face. The shadow's head tilts sideways questioningly.

Rory makes an annoyed "pbbbbt", crossing his arms. "I am a mighty and powerful shadow mage!"

The Creen switches perches. It hops from Rory's horn to the tip of his nose.

Rory says, "Ack! You'll make me SNEEZE!" He lowers his voice as much as he can. "I COMMAND you! … Go perch on Silhouette's horn instead." He smiles mischievously.

Silhouette folds her arms in a 'harummph' gesture, then unfolds one and beckons to the shadow Creen. It flaps its wings excited and flies over to perch on… her outstretched finger.

Rory hmphs. "I COMMAND you … to perch on Silhouette's finger instead," he adds, waggling his fingers around in what he presumes to be a "commanding" gesture.

The Creen watches Rory's fingers intently.

Rory sighs. "Well, okay, okay. I didn't summon you for that kind of stuff. But you're supposed to be curious, anyway. And everybody knows Creens are curious. And hungry. So … if you help me by going scouting, you get some nice shadow bugs!"

Sil cringes a little as the Creen hops up and down excitedly.

Rory smiles. "Okay … Here's the plan. I want you to fly out and explore. I want you to circle around the village and fly circuits around and through the tall grass … and look for anything strange and interesting. ESPECIALLY, I want to see if there are any big nasty monsters that might like to eat little unicorns. Or little nasty monsters. Or not so nasty monsters that STILL might eat unicorns. Just don't get eaten, okay? And then, I want you to find how to get to that plume of smoke over that way, and get a good look at whatever's over there. Once you're done, I want you to come back and show me what all you saw. And then you get the shadow bugs. Deal?"

The shadow Creen bobs it's head up and down, then looks to the window. It seems anxious to leave.

Rory smiles. "All right, then! Up up and awayyyyyy!" he cries out, sweeping out his arms in a melodramatic gesture as he leaps up to his hooves.

With a flourish of shadowy feathers, the Creen zips off. It passes through one of the walls and vanishes.

Rory whews, wiping his brow. "Well, Silhouette … Now we can just wait… "

…

A couple of hours later, the shadow Creen returns. It flies an orbit around the room and then perches on a bedpost.

Rory blinks a few times, belatedly registering the return of the Creen. "He's BACK!" the unicorn squeals happily, then clamps his hands over his mouth. "Ahem. I mean," he says, in a lower voice, "my minion has RETURNED! Behold! Now … " He loses the low voice. "What'd you FIND?"

The Creen takes flight again, but this time goes sailing straight for a wall. It flies into the wall and suddenly explodes into a myriad of shadowy shapes what swirl and slowly form into the landscape outside. The landscape moves and the image on the wall begins to zoom in on the grasses. Shadowy stalks of grass zip by.

Rory oooos, unconsciously rocking side to side, "dodging" the oncoming shadowy stalks. He loves this part, as his broad grin attests.

An image of some strange four legged creature appears on the wall. It plods along slowly, then reaches a berry bush and begins munching at the fruits. A few moments later the once lethargic beast takes off like a shot, running like the wind.

Rory ooos! "Too bad I have no idea what to CALL that… " he adds, in a musing tone.

A bug silhouette appears on the wall, it looks a bit like the creature whose shell the air mage got as a gift… except that his bug looks like it's much bigger. IT zooms across the ceiling of the room and vanishes.

Rory grins widely at the sight of the departing bug. "Wow! I wonder if they get big enough to RIDE?"

The image of a tree comes into view, and a spidery thing emerges from the hollowed out trunk. It has multiple legs, but the legs are much thicker than a spider, and the body seems stretched out. A long hairy tail trails behind the creature.

Rory lets out a typical "OOOOO!" at the sight of a new critter.

The 'spider' walks to the edge of a lake next to a stalky plant with large pods attached to it. The bug leans down and takes a drink from the river, and suddenly the plant springs to life! The large pods open up into toothy maws and tear the spider to shreds. It devours the unfortunate creature… then walks away?

Rory YIPES! "Uhm … Silhouette, we'll be careful of plants like that, for SURE!"

The shadowplay on the wall rushes down the river. Occasionally a boat passes by, the canines inside the boat look to be staring at something. One of them pulls out a bag full of some strange brightly glowing orbs (or at least, it looks like they're glowing. Little lines circle around the orbs like the lines that circle the sun in a child's drawing). The boat itself looks naturally made, like the husk of some giant fruit or gourd.

Rory leans forward (for all the good it will do him), while watching the boat and its passengers. "I wonder what they're doing?" he muses out loud.

The boaters disappear off in the distance, and the plume of smoke slowly comes into view off in the distance. The river reveals a few more of its inhabitants along the way, giant turtles with glowing eyes, fish that leap out of the water and take to the air to perch in trees and eat berries, strange giant mushrooms growing off of the trees, and delicate little creatures with sticklike legs, slight narrow bodies, a long graceful neck, and a chisel shaped head.

Rory wows. "This is looking like the Dream Sisters' little world!"

The shadowplay follows one of the long legged creatures back into the grasses. The thing may be slight… but is also amazingly swift and agile. It bounds through the tall grasses, then seems to get smaller and smaller. Hmmm, oh wait! It's not getting smaller, the Creen seems to be flying up higher and higher. the shadow grasses on the walls also begins to climb upwards, in fact they seem to be actually GROWING fast enough to see. The grasses swallow up the creature inside, but occasionally a furred or scaled shape jumps out of the stalks and then vanishes again below. One of the jumpers is grabbed in midleap by a long sticky tentacle and yanked down to some unknown fate.

Rory shudders. "I guess … it's a good thing I never left the village! There's no WAY I'm going out there. We'll get EATEN!"

Eventually the view moves into an area that seems strangely devoid of life. The grasses grow at an alarming rate, but are kept back by… a grass fire! It seems like a grass fire, but it moves strangely. The fire emerges from a perfectly circular area, and moves slowly, too slow for a normal grass fire. It methodically eats away the grass, which begins to spring back almost a moment after being burned down.

Rory squints. "Darrrrrk. I'd tell that Fire mage about this, but that might be dangerous."

A valley comes into view, although the source of the smoke is now behind the viewers. More silhouetted inhabitants move about; they look a bit like Reece, but thinner… and they move so quickly that the shadows often fuzz into a blur. The lizards dart about, eating fruits from trees and bushes around them. The fruits begin growing back almost a moment after being picked, and are again quickly devoured by the lizards. The valley itself is lined with mud huts… and one strange cave entrance that rises out of the ground and slopes downward.

Rory oooos! "Now I wish I could have let Reece see this. He could probably tell me ALL about this!"

The view circles the cave mouth, then tries to dart inside.

Rory sways from side to side, with the imagined darting of the Creen.

The view suddenly whirls and spins around, and suddenly the view is from the ground a few yards away from the mouth of the cave. This viewpoint reappears a couple of times as the Creen tries to enter the cave again and again. Something seems to be pushing it back, it's as if the messenger slammed into a solid wall.

Rory pouts. "Awwww! I guess the Reeces have a ward." He makes a disappointed raspberry sound.

The view on the valley suddenly shoots upwards as the Creen gives up, and then begins to angle back towards home. The lizards and the strange fire are slowly left behind in the distance, and the grasslands whip by. Oddly, a lone cottage also zips past, but is gone before Rory gets a good look at it.

Rory awwws as the cottage slips away. "I guess I'll have to take a peek NEXT time… " he consoles himself.

Ahead, a familiar airship comes into view. Silhouetted workers tend the deck, and a familiar lizard sits quietly, eating a piece of fruit. The image angles downward through the deck, and a room with two silhouetted unicorns appears for a brief moment before fuzzing out.

Rory jumps! "Look! Two people like us! Two … oh … uhm … nevermind." His ears blush. "Thank you, little shadowcreen."

A shadowy Creen head pops out of the wall and looks hopefully at Rory.

Rory smiles. "Good job! So … what kind of bug do you like? Oh, I'll just give you a selection… " He begins to chant a cantrip, since conjuring up imaginary bugs for an imaginary Creen should be pretty easy.

The Creen hops up on the back of a chair and watches the Aeonian anxiously.

Rory ends his last incantation by making a long buzzzzzzzz noise, waving his hands at the wall … conjuring a bunch of flitting shadows in the sunlight that look like bugs of every type Rory has seen (or can imagine), as "juicy" and "plump" as he can imagine would appeal to a Creen (or an Eeee, for that matter).

*zipZIPzip!* The shadow Creen leaps from it's perch and starts gobbling at the shadow bugs. It looks like it's answer to "What kind of bugs would you like?" is "All of them!". She Creen pantomimes a burp, and then fades away into nothingness.

Rory waves to the departing Creen, smiling. "Bye!"

Rory diligently cleans up his mess. Once that's all done, he announces to Silhouette, "I'm going to tell Reece all about what I saw! Maybe he'll know something. He knows EVERYTHING about this place, after all!"

Silhouette nods her head. "Do you want me to go with you?"

Rory pauses, pondering. "Sure. But you can keep hidden. You just might want to be around in case he says anything interesting."

Sil smiles and hops down from the bed. She makes an 'after you' motion towards the door.

Rory opens the door, pausing to let Silhouette through … then marches up to the deck, looking about for Reece.

Up above, Reece is sitting quietly as he eats from a pile of strange blue fruits and a basket of those leathery Tup eggs. He doesn't notice Rory approach, instead his gaze is fixed on the plume of smoke off in the distance.

Rory clip-clops up to Reece, smiling happily. "Reece! Hello! I sent a little Creen out to go exploring, and he showed me all sorts of really neat stuff! I think I saw your family! But I didn't see any little ones running around at all. They must keep all the little kids inside."

Reece blinks. "How you do this?"

Rory makes a "dramatic pose", and answers in as low a voice as he can, "Because I am a Great and Mighty and Great … uhm … Mighty Powerful Mage of the Sphere of Shadow! (Shadow) (shadow)… " He "echoes" the last words, trying to mimic a really neat special effect he heard an air mage with a deep voice use one time with a cantrip.

Reece stares passively at Rory. "Doesn't matter. You not see my family."

Rory blinks, then puts his hands at his sides. "Did too! Or, at least, my little Creen did, and he showed me."

"My family is probably all dead by now. Maybe you see ancestors." Reece hisses. "Did you see mother?"

Rory hmms, then shakes his head. "I don't know. I don't know what your mother looks like. I saw some of them fishing, though."

Rory grins excitedly. "I also saw lots of DANGEROUS MONSTERS! I saw a plant that swallowed up a little bug, and then walked away … and I saw one of those fixed-wing bugs like we saw in the village, only BIGGER! Big enough to carry you or me!"

The lizard pops another egg into his mouth and sits down fingering his necklace. "The stingers? They grow big… mountain people use their shed shells to glide to ground with."

Rory's eyes go wide. "REALLY? Is it hard to learn how to glide in one? Maybe I could fly, too!"

Rory puts his arms out wide, and runs half-circles around Reece, making what he imagines to be bug noises. "Zzzzzzzzzzzz!"

"Never tried." Reece says, following the Aeonian with his eyes. "I came straight to city after I leave mother. She tell me to come here and leave Lamu if I found means."

Rory runs a bit more … "Zzzzz-BONK!" He stops, as if hitting an invisible wall, then looks up to Reece. "Do any of your family use magic? There was this big cave, and my Creen couldn't get into it – like there was too much magic, or maybe a ward, or maybe an anomaly in the fabric of time and space that could possibly represent a rift that will eventually widen, consuming all reality as we know it, and plunging the universe into eternal chaos! Or maybe he was just getting really clumsy."

Reece shakes his head. "No… they just eat."

Rory frowns, looking quite disappointed. "Oh." He squints, trying to remember more of his vision to ask Reece about.

"What is a 'ward'." the lizard asks curiously.

Rory breaks from his concentration, and says, "Well, it's … well … a ward! It's for warding stuff. Keeping it away. Especially magic."

Rory says, "Some mages have spells that are meant to keep you from casting OTHER spells. For instance, since I'm a shadow mage, I'm pretty good at hiding things. I can put up a ward so a Scrying mage can't spy on what I'm doing … that is, unless she's really good at spying on me, better than I am at hiding."

The unicorn adds with a shrug, "But you don't have to be a mage to make wards. Some people use talismans and herbs and other weird stuff that somehow actually works against some sorts of magic … like mine. Shadow magic is really susceptible to that sort of thing for some reason."

Reece just stares blankly at Rory, the crest atop his head sinks down. "Mother has nothing to hide."

Rory frowns at the reaction. "Does anybody else who lives in a cave? Does your mother live in a cave?"

"Nobody else lives in cave, just mother." Reece hisses, rolling a leathery blue egg in his palm. "We only go in there when someone gets very sick or wants to leave."

Rory puts his hands at his hips. "Well, something wouldn't let my little Creen inside. So maybe MOTHER uses magic?"

The Niton sets the egg down. "Maybe." He points to his necklace. "Is this magic?"

The unicorn pauses in thought, then says, "What about fires in the grass? I saw a strange fire that moved around in a circle. As soon as it burned the grass away, the grass grew right back again." Only then does he belatedly register the Niton's question, and takes a closer look at the necklace.

Rory shrugs, as he looks at the rock. "Well … It doesn't LOOK magical. Is it supposed to be? Detecting magic isn't one of my abilities. I mean, I can do a bit of sneaky spying, but I'm not all that great at detecting things in general."

"Mother's fire." Reece answers as Rory looks at the stone around his neck. "It keeps grass from growing too big and choking out Niton."

Rory raises an eyebrow. "Sure sounds like magic to me!"

The lizard just shakes his head. "I know nothing of magic. Is hard enough learning things about airship work."

Rory says, "Oh well. It was pretty strange, too, how the fruit would just grow back after your people would eat it. I mean, I could SEE it growing back! Do they live in mud huts? I saw a cottage, but I didn't get a closer look. Does anybody live in a cottage out here?"

"No." Reece says, with more emotion than Rory has ever heard from him before. "Nobody live in house. Mother say it bad place, she tell all of us to never go there."

Rory backs up a step. "A bad place? Uhm … okay. Your home looks dangerous anyway. I mean, with tentacles and big carnivorous plants that can eat you up and all… and grass that grows fast enough to swallow everything up!"

"Valley is safe, nothing harmful live there." Reece hisses. "I took river to get out, that way safe enough to travel, mother warn against taking grasses though."

Rory nods. "I guess that makes sense." He snickers to himself. "I saw fish that fly out of the water and perch in the trees like birds!"

"Did you see a Horgus?" the lizard asks. "Turtles, big ones. They eat Water Flingers."

"Water Flingers? So THAT'S what they are! Uhm … If I saw a Horgus – Well, I don't think so, but everything went by so fast, you know," Rory says with a nod.

Reece points to one of the shapechanging canines. "Horgus very prized. Shell make good shield, beak used for spear, but eyes is most important part."

Rory covers his own eyes. "Ack! Whyever for?"

"Eyes get hard as stone after Horgus die." The lizard makes a fist to indicate the size of one of the eyes. "You put them in fire, and they glow. Make good lights."

Rory whispers an "ouch!" at that. In retrospect, he may eventually react to this with a more favorable reaction, but for now … "Uhm … Well, that's nice… "

Rory looks around, then says, "Well, thank you very much … I probably ought to get going." He keeps his hands up near his eyes. "I hope you enjoy your eggs! I'll see you about… " He clip-clops away, freeing one hand to wave at the lizard.