Mojo & Me: The Life and Rantings of Cera Amalith
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((On a few torn triangles of parchment, apparently of what once was an official document, is a most curious manuscript written on the blank side of each torn scrap. The varied manuscript meanders from graceful, elegant curves to shaky, uneven, almost jagged scratches and back again.))
((First Scrap))
We did it! We did it! Mojo and me showed those wizards! No if Mojo would just tell me what we did maybe they wouldn't be so cranky.((Second Scrap))
Guess what? Mojo is a genius! They see it now too. But they still hold me in this awful .. What did they call it again, Mojo? Ah yes, Spellhold. What a tribal place to hold a princess of the Elemental Planes. When Father hears of this it'll be war for sure!((Third Scrap))
Do three lefts make a right? Or do two wrongs make a left? I must have a talk with Mojo and figure this out.((Fourth Scrap))
I wish I never heard of Amn or those nasty Cowled Wizards. What if I nae want to open that. Not now Mojo! I nae care if they call it a rose! I will not open that portal. Never! He's on the other side, Mojo. Remember?((Fifth Scrap))
Free! They released Mojo and me from their horrible prisoner camp. What did they say Mojo? Yes, they said, "Her abilities were a one time freakish accident. You'll waste no more of our time on this whelp! Get rid of her now and meet me in the morning. We must discuss your future…or lack there of." Yes, that's what the angry one said. He's in charge of the whole nasty place. All cold and stony and leaky. I miss my room.((Sixth Scrap))
He's still there. In my dreams.. I wish Father were here. At least I have Mojo to guide me. A princess could not ask for a better royal advisor…especially with a such a big mission ahead. I won't fail you, Father.((Seventh Scrap))
Look cheese! I found it today. I do not think I will eat it though. It is lonely. I think Mojo and me will help it find its way home. A very good gesture on behalf of our people. I'm sure it will go a long ways toward establishing the Elemental Plane of…Mojo...it is sad that even you don't remember which one....but I am sure Father will be happy we made a good impression anyway. Maybe we will even open our first embassy today.((Eighth Scrap))
Sneaking along these caravans is hard but Mojo says it is the only way to keep those nasty wizards from finding us again. I sure hope Father hears of this soon. They shouldn't be allowed to treat princesses like that. Not with him around. Oh, Mojo says we will be arriving in a land called Narfell soon. I sure hope that is on the Prime Material Plane or we will have to start all over again with our mission. Mojo is troubled though, he thinks we may have to sneak on our own without the caravan the rest of the way. That's silly though, sneaking away from the people your sneaking with. I hope Mojo didn't forget to tell the nice people of the caravan we are here.((A final note, if these shreds of parchment were painstakingly pieced back together, a sharp eye just might note that the document they had once been was the first page of what must have been an existence inmate record of one Cera Amalith, whom had apparently been there since childhood. Indeed it had been an official document of some institution called Spellhold at one point))
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_The following is a rough timeline outlining the major events in the story of the Amalith family I have explored personally in so many years of Narfell. Any dates put down are only estimates and not exact. Dalereckoning is used.
Amalith Family Timeline Part 1
*1137 DR - Nym Amalith (wood elf male) is born. The Amaliths were known for their heritage of sorcery. Members with sorcerous powers dotted the family tree all over and for so long, no one remembered where they came from. Despite this, Nym was not one those blessed with magical talents, as it did often skip generations. Nym set himself on the path of a ranger, serving as a hunter, eyes and ears and protector of the tribe. It was a role he was quite content and fulfilled with. It was not until he got his life long friend-turned-lover, Vastele, pregnant that he felt a need to give it up. Social complications from the resulting pregnancy were not fixed by marriage to Vastele as he had hoped, and both he and Vastel’s relationships with their families and tribe continued to sour. So before their child was born, the newly married couple headed north to Evereska to start a new life.
*1142 DR - Vastele Amalith (wood elf female) is born Vastele Tarnruth. The Tarnruths and Amaliths are close-knit families of wood elves that had lived for centuries together in the High Forest as part of the same tribe. So it would be no surprise that their children were often the best of friends as they grew up. Nym and Vastele were no exception. Vastele felt a calling, she was drawn to serve her family and tribe and her forest home as whole as a druid and priestess of the Leaflord, Rillifane Rallathil. A calling she would fight to balance with family all through her life.
*1228 DR - Arowyn Evenwood (moon elf female) is born Arowyn Moondown on the isle of Evermeet. Little is known of the Moondown family, other than it was a lesser noble family. Arowyn, only child, was well educated, she grew up dreaming of traveling to see in person all the places she her books and tutors told her about. She joined the ranks of the royal guards to please her family, and gained the martial skills she would one day need. The day when she would finally follow her heart on a voyage to Faerun.
*1254 DR - Nym (Age 117) and Vastele (Age 112) who have practically known each other their whole lives get married when Vastele turns out to be pregnant, after their childhood friendship grows into something more serious in the summer. That winter they move to Evereska from the High Forest before Amra is born early the next year.
*1255 DR - Amra Amalith (wood elf female) is born in Evereska to Nym (Age 118) and Vastele (Age 113). . She remains a truly city elf throughout her life. Amra had an effervescent view on life. It was instilled in her by the freedom and happiness her parents had in their new life in Evereska. She was happy to leave the dangers of the wild beyond the borders of her home for others to explore. An odd attitude for a wood elf.
*1287 DR - Mary Evenwood (human female) is born, the oldest of the four Evenwood children and only girl. Paupers, not much else is known about the Evenwoods of Athkatla before this. Sordid stories of an affair with a dragon or trysts with stranger creatures still in the family’s past ran through the local gossip mills at the time, but such stores are long since forgotten.
*1288 DR - Amra discovers nascent sorceries in herself at age 33. She never truly develops them.
*1294 DR - Paul Evenwood (human male) is born, the second of four Evenwood children and eldest brother.
*1296 DR - Randal Evenwood (human male) is born, the third of four children to the Evenwood family of Athkatla, Amn.
*1300 DR - Peter Evenwood (human male) is born, the last and youngest of the Evenwood brood.
*1310 DR - Randal shows the first signs of sorcery at age 14. Powers that will serve him well and long in life.
*1311 DR - Taowyn Amalith (wood elf female) is born in Evereska to Vastele (Age 169) and Nym (Age 174). Unlike her older sister, Taowyn grows a great love for the wilds and wished often as she grew up that her family had never left the High Forest. She would spend her life getting back in touch with the natural roots she felt her family lost by moving from the High Forest before she was born. Vastele, a druid and priestess of the Leaflord, was happy to guide her middle daughter through her spiritual journey toward serving Nature.
*1313 DR - Randal’s parents and siblings die when their house burns to the ground in Athkatla’s slums. Mary was 26 and engaged to be married later that year. Paul was 19 and falling into the lower echelons of the Shadow Thieves. Peter was only 13, but already in danger of following Paul into Athkatla’s underbelly. Randal was 17 and only survived because of an elemental protection he had learned to cast literally days before the fire. He was thrust into the life of an adventurer.
*1323 DR - Talindra Amalith (wood elf female) is born in Evereska to Vastele (Age 181) and Nym (Age 186). The youngest and most care-free of the Amalith daughters, Talindra would grow to find herself at home in a city or in the wild. Evereska was just the right place to be as far she was concerned as she got older. She always had a mischievous streak, that repeatedly got her into trouble, but lead to way more fun.
*1328 DR - Arowyn (Age 120) meets Randal (Age 32) after running away to be an adventurer. Young and impetuous as far elves go, she left Evermeet and her family to find the excitement she thought would never be found on the Elves’ island home. Her martial prowess was a perfect equal to Randal‘s magical abilities. They fall in love on the road through the rigor and tribulations of their adventures together.
*1334 DR - Randal (Age 38) and Arowyn (Age 126) marry despite Arowyn's family’s reservations about Arowyn getting married so young and to a human of all people, but they are grudgingly accepting of her wishes. Arowyn takes Randal’s surname as her own.
*1350 DR - Darvin Evenwood (half-elf male - ½ elven , ½ human) is born in Athkatla, Amn to Randal (Age 54) and Arowyn (Age 141). Randal and Arowyn spoil their only child with city life, Randal opening a store he will leave to his son. It sells the many trinkets Randal and Arowyn collected in their days as adventurers. Despite their best efforts, Darvin grows up with the same itch to adventure as they had, and it drives him to leave the city and take up the life of a ranger.
*1377 DR - Darvin (Age 27) and Amra ( Age 122) meet when Darvin, a ranger, travels to Everseka.
*1389 DR - Darvin (Age 39) and Amra (Age 134) marry against the wishes and strongest objections of Amra's father that she should marry pure elven blood only. Amra keeps her family name in hopes of appeasing her father, Nym Amalith (Age 256). They settle back in Athkatla with the blessing of his parents, where Darvin takes over their store and sells bows of his own crafting, a skill he picked up in his days as a ranger.
*1395 DR - Nala Amalith (half-elf female - ¾ elven, ¼ human), Cera's older sister, is born in Athkatla, Amn to Darvin (Age 45) and Amra (Age 140). In a bid to win favor and support back from Amra's own father, Amra and Darvin decide to name any female children they have with Amra's family name. A tradition that will hold through the generations. They also swear to pass on both human and elven heritage to their children, so they may choose for themselves. Nala is bright child interested in almost everything about the world around her.
*1402 DR - Cera Amalith (half-elf female - ¾ elven, ¼ human) is born in Athkatla, Amn to Darvin (Age 52) and Amra (Age 147). Cera, like her mother was a cheerful child with a tiny streak of mischief.
*1407 - Randal Evenwood, his life and vigorous health greatly extended by the master and potency of his sorceries, dies of old age. His final years were spent happily doting on his beautiful granddaughters. He was 111.
*1408 - Cera shows nascent powers of sorcery at age 6. The Cowled Wizards get word from nosy neighbors and begin to keep an eye on her.
*1409 - Cera's untapped sorcery fuels very real dreams and nightmares. One year after the emergence of her talents, at the age of 7, Cera unwittingly manifests a portal to the City of Brass on the Elemental Plane of Fire during a night terror. One particularly surprised efreet amir changes the fate of Cera, her family and her descendents for several generations to come. She hears the extra-planar voices in her head that she will come to know collectively as Mojo for the first time.
*1409 - That same year, Cera is taken from her family by the Cowled Wizards after her night terror induced portal manifestation. They take her to Spellhold and round up her father, Darvin, mother, Amra and sister, Nala to keep their plans for Cera secret. The family’s assests, their store, their home are seized and made the property of the Cowled Wizards. The Cowled Wizards fake a fire to claim Cera’s family and the child died in the blaze. In reality, Nala (Age 14), Darvin (Age 59), Amra (Age 154) were all disappeared by their own Imprisonment spell. One by one they were entombed into the ground of their burnt out house. Cera was left to grow up imprisoned at Spellhold.
*1411 - Cera’s ablities at age 9 in sorcery had developed enough for her to summon a special animal friend to her, despite the wards and other protections cast around Spellhold. It was a big black felilne, she would come called Mojo, naming him after the voices in her head. Cera suffered initial confusion believing Mojo the panther to source of the extra-planar voices in her head finally come to see her. He was not, but the feline would retain the name.
*1421 - Cera escapes from Spellhold in Amn at age 19. Years of experimentation by the Cowled Wizards, and listening to secrets whispered by extra-planar voices that she had no hope of comprehending with a mortal mind, left Cera less than functional in the brain. The mental stress fractured young Cera’s santiy many times over. When Cera overhears caretakers at Spellhold talking of doing away with Cera, the same confluence of fear and sorcery that she experienced that night when she was 7 struck a second time. The Cowled Wizards did plan to cast Imprisonment on Cera right along side where her family was entombed. As she was getting older and no longer a child, it was thought a waste of their resources to continue their experiments. If she could not be turned into a tool for greater ease of interplanar travel by now, there no need to continue working on her. The primal fear for her life turned out to be the one ingredient the Cowled Wizards had missed all those years in experimenting on and training Cera. Sure they endangered her many times,, but it never crystallized the same way until she heard those fateful words. Cera stole her records and escaped through another fear-induced portal. It took her back to Athkatla. After being unable to find her family and new building built over where her home had stood, she had no choice but to flee from Amn.
- 1423 - Cera arrives in Narfell at age 21. It was a long journey across Faerun. Cera begged, prostituted herself, or simply stowed away for rides from different caravans along the way. The whole time she had no destination in mind, just to keep running until she knew the Cowled Ones would not or could not find her again. That place just happened to be a middle of nowhere barbarian settlement called Norwick.
Current Year 1506- May '09_
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::on a strip of parchment in flowing graceful script and pastel rowbow gowing lettering::
Pretty C is so sorry. I feel the wil magic of the Crystal more each day.. Mkes it hard to even go and pray to Selune for help in anythig let alone in recovering the last piece of Mojo. Power pixies! Unite! Lest Pretty Magic Girl C fail you. Or mybe its not the Crystals' wild magics.. maybe it's just Mojo finaly come o take me and my old pet..Home?
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::that good ol' pastel rainbow glowy letttering with graceful, flowing quallities::
My pet would be very happy. Not happy that her little girl, Clover, was sick..but happy that it seems to temporarily tamed Clover where no amount of rationalizing, neogtiatng, ..conjoling, yelling or grounding ever got through. Pretty C loves Clover so much too. I do. I hope this lasts once she is all better.. I need some good news whle I look for an in road to my pet's last piece of Mojo.
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::in a graceful flowing sscript with glowing pastel rainbow lettering::
Pretty C prays everyday to Selune for guidance…help.. I'm sure she'll have an answer soon. Yeenoghu's probably are not an everyday request for aid agiasnt. But the Kind Lady Katya was one of her blessed like us and.. the Kind Lady always believed strongly in her so.. in the Kind Lady's stead I must ask her myself. I know she will.
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::flowing and graceful, pastel rainbow glowing script::
The Eye of the Nars. He's an teresting Citzien to say the least. likes showy stuff. I barely even hear of his meetng on time. Citizen A and Citizen T both were there though not necesarily in the name of Camp. I doubt though theyowould have let anything happen to disadvantage us further though. Either way Pretty C was there. I sat next to Citizen C the Glowy Eyed. he didn't detect any evil from the GLowy man who is that Eye thing. And his entrance had nothing tod o with crossing planes that I felt but it certainly could have seemed ilke it from all its sparkliness. There was lots of yelling an screaming and it tok a long while to find out the Glowy Man didn't kow what PRetty C was hoping he did. He andhis apprenctice are stil researching Yeenoghu and th gnolls. He had sme finny shiny things that would help he said share al information between all the Citizens who held one like the Crcystal peols supposedly do. But the thing is theyld only be sharing stuffa bout the Crystals. I don't need stuffa bout the Crystals I need stuffa bout Yeenoghu. The Crystals are unhalthy tp Pretty C yes. but still Yeenoghu and the gnolls are the ne with my pet's and Mojo's last missing piece.
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::upon a scrap of parchment in a graceful and flowing manuscript withlettingering that glwos in a rainbow of pastels::
Who knew flying out to keep Citizen M of the Silver Valley from dying to a most nasty evil doing doer Pretty C has seen aside from Yeenoghu, plus a few others, would have been so fortunate after all. No only did I get to speak to Citizen M of the Silver Valley about using Yeenoghu's weapn as a focus for diivining possible links to the gnolls that we might set out to destroy to weaken them so they can be driven out of the Camp. Pretty C does not see hope of doing that unless the gnolls can be sepeerated from the strength gain from this..Yeenoghu. Also Ome of those Citizens I heard tha can talk tot he Crystals promised the Crystals were trying to fix their wild magics that drive the Voices so loud and my pet and me so dizzy and tired and everything. They better. Citizen N the Bard.. I think it was promised such things. I think he'll have better luck helping Pretty C with gnolls and Yeenoghu. Research he wil do for me where Ic annot go thakns tot he Crystals' wild magics And spying too.. Oh and wihout flying from the spot I also got to question the Man in Silver.. The Voice its did say he was a man of Azuth And he swears on on Azuth and more that he bears no malice tothe gypsies. and had nothing to do with the gnolls and Yeenoghu's destruction of the Camp. The description the Voice gave was accurate but something like Azuth would not stand for ne of their own sweaing upon them so faslely. And yet the Man in Silver stood so..the rest of the Voice's claims must be lies. He did say to keep an eye out for a female elf with red hair. He's never seen her and doesn't know her name but I can guess he has caused him this kind of trouble before. Pretty C wil look out for her. I don't like being sent on wild goose chases witht he gnolls still in firm hold of the last missing piece. Oh as for my talk with Citizen M of the Silver Valley. It seems I must next seek out Citizen G of the Silver Valley.
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::flowing and graceful script with glowing pastel rainbow lettering::
Man in Silver..still must find him.. It shouldn't be hard though and then Yeenoghu will be abel to last much longer.. And Citizen M of the Silver Valley. I must speak with him. Just in case I cannot find the Man in Silver in time. They have that sword. NO read the runes he said, Pretty Pixxie C won't but I could use it as focus I think and do this the way the Baba Katya would have. Find a link betwen Yeenoghu and his gnolls. and maggots that maybe Pretty C can send her friends out to destory as a first strike before taking back the Camp for real..
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::in flowing, graceful and glowing pastel rainbow manuscript::
Man in Silver. Man in Silver. a staff capped in red. That's what the voice of concsience said. He is the one who sicced Yeenoghu on the Camp. Why?? Why does he hate gypsies so much? If it is the Man in Silver I am thinking of, an Evendur Mildsilver our former Keeper Citizen at the Keep. There are many questins to ask. His head i must have brought to Pretty C. But only after we find out why he did it and if he will reverse it or nows how.. Power Pixies Ho! But first a muffin.
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::in a most graceful and flowing penmanship with glowing pastel rainbow lettering::
Ever since he did that ritual of his, Pretty Magic Girl D's pet that is. I have been having the oddest urges. I want more muffins for some reason and I miss my own old pet a little more.. Yeah Pretty B is my pet until at least Pretty D is back from her honeymoon. I wonder if she had fun. Ihope so. I want a pixie hunk of my own. Badgerbadgerbadgerbadger. Eww.. I don't like mushrooms so much. but maybe in a muffin? Maybe in a muffin they might be splendid. Quite splendid indeed. I'm feeling peckish again. Gotta go. A snake! Oh no it's a snake!
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::more flowing granceful script in shifting pastel rainbow on a scrap of parchment::
I've looked over all the pieces my pet and i both have found and If igured out there is only one piece to find! one last and very big….big important piece. It is not so much as a thing ast the other pieces are but a place. Our home, the Camp. Butt he gnolls and demons have it now. It is not their piece to have though. Imust get it back somehow Pretty C will need lots of help with this. And more than just Power Pixies too. I'll have to take my pet's place as Katya's heir to do it. because I'm gonna need al the Citizens I can get to help get this last of Mojo's missing pieces.
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::on yet another, another scrap of parchment in that flowing and graceful manuscript::
I've found more pieces for my pet. I've had lots of success finding the pieces with Pretty Boy B's help. We've found at least three by going back to look in the place where Cera lost Mojo's pieces. I also found one on my own with help from two very helpful Citizens! It was in the jaws of a puppy of all places. A very nasty puppy but still. Pretty Boy B and i found more pieces in that same place later, luckily not inside the mouth of a pupppy this time. We found more pieces near where my pet lost them too. I must think a bit on where else to look.
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::Meanwhile back on parchments of scrap, the long flowing and graceful manuscript continues in the glowing pastel rainbow::
It feels SO good to be awake on my own! Yet I miss my pet. I will have to keep looking for those missing pieces for her. As much as I like being on my own, a Power Pixie is nothing without a pet to protect. Sure I protect the Citizens but I need a pet that is all mine to keep safe. I have to share protecting the Citizens with others. Good thing too. They're always getting themselves right back into trouble after you just got done saving them. I wish they'ld let the day stay saved for litltle while sometimes before I haveto trush to save it all over again..
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((A little step back in time…))
Maggots Eat Them Up, Yum…
For those lucky enough to return from the Shroud of Death, it is never an easy path to anything that can be called normality. After falling into Death's shroud from the poison of an undead soul in a ruined City long ago Lost to the ages, now populated solely with those undead souls. Cera had lost something more. She spent the days after, holed up in Katya's tree under her blankets and bedding, muttering at herself for losing somany of Mojo's pieces, totally forgetting her duties around the Tree and around Camp.
Poor Elera had her hands full between Katya lost muc of the time in her horrifying visions of what wast to come and Cera disturbed worryingly so more than usual. Jeni running around with visions of her own, on top of that, Elra was probably the lynch pin that kept that household from flying totally apart. Mojo bless her for it.
Rarely and barely aware of anything beyond her blankets over her, Cera spent these days in and out of sleep, caught between self-destruvtive berratings she gave herself when awake and their own prophetic dreams of doom to come. The others did what they could for her. Once even Katya was able to rouse herself from her visions long eough to sit by Cera's side.
Holding Cera's hand, Katya stroked back the greenish blue bangs from Cera's eyes. With Jeni's help she tipped Cera's head back to pour the same potion that temporarily held her visions in check down Cera's throat to give her temporary reprieve from her inner demons. Cera' sputtered and her bright greene yes snapped open to find Katya's kind, tired and sad face gazing down on her. There was something in her long time mentor and grandmother figure's eyes she didn't wish to see and refused to recognize. Katya was saying good bye. Baba squeezed Cera's hand again, leaning down to place a kiss on her forehead.
Jeni was told to go help Elera. When the litle girl was gone, Katya gave a grim smile back down to Cera, "Shh… there's something I must tell you. We've both know...and when the time comes I want you to run to that Wind or Fog of yours and hide. You'll be safe there. Then, when when you can I want you to come back and get Jeni and Jonni and take them far away from here where they'll be safe. This does not have to be their fate too...or yours. They'll be in hiding."
Baba leanded over and whispered where to find the fissure they'll be hding in then placed a final kiss on Cera's forehead. Cera clutched at Baba and didn't want to let go, her green eyes already bleary with tears, but Baba could already feel the ffects of the potion keeping her visons away fading and she didn't wan to leave Cera with more of her terrifying babbling as her last impression.. Katya with tears in her own eyes squeezes Cera tight once ad held before she forced herself to peel away, patting Cera's hand, "You rest."
Cera flopped over into quiet sobbing as Katya turned to leave the room, not letting up til sleep claimed her again. It wasn't much of a refuge with the same terrifyingly real dreams plauged her yet again. Those gnarling sharp dog teeth coming to rip away the flesh of countless bodies that she couldn't make out who they were. Over and over she witnessed the beasts devour the the seemingly endless supply of corpses.
She awoke wit a terrified shriek! Those jaws in her dreams had turned to come for her. Only she awoke to find those jaws were quite real indeed. The most terrible gnolls she could remember stood over her bedding. The wards she and Katya had placed on the Tree to keep unwelcome guests out proved to be no match for the gnolls and their demon allies.
Through another shriek she bracd for the killing blow that was about to land down her way. Except when it came there was no Cera there to receive it. In her terror a buried survival instinct had kicked in and she had shifted herself to the Ethereal Plane in a shimmering that grew around her a split second ahead of the blow. The gnoll's axe went right through her, which she saw when she glanced to see if she was still alive. Her eyes had closed so tight as to block out all light in that same instant of planewalking to the Ethereal or the Fog as she called it.
The sight of an axe occupying the same space as her body and the gnolls overturning her blankets to see where she had gone was more than enough to send her screaming out through the far wall into the main room of the Tree. Lucky for her sight and sound from the Etherial did not carry over into the Material she had just fled.
Unfortunately for her sound and sight did carry over from the Material to the Ethereal as far the ethereal mists allowed. The mists also added a dreamy quality to what she saw and heard next. Jeni and Jonni were nowhere to be seen but there in front of her where she had come out of the wall, the gnolls had Baba and Elera in their mits. She wanted to help them so badly but she just...couldn't. It wasn't in her, Mojo was missing too many pieces. It is good thing she didn''t do anything or she would shared the fate of she was about to witness.
It was the same nightmares she had for weeks, but now she couldn't wake up and the bodies were all too recognizable and not quite corpses yet. The final mokments and screams of those she called Family burned into into her mind. The maggot covered gnolls were here. The maggots would never leave her again. If only there had been someone there to tear her away from the scene, but she was alone and frozen in place there in the Ethereal mists, just close enough to witness it all.
A miracle she ever moved again,a tiny voice amidsts all that were always in her head gently nudged her on once it was all over,. The voice reminded her of Katya's last words to her, Jeni and Jonni still needed her.. One last duty for her Baba to do. She moved without a will of her own through the mists, fleeing from her lng time home of the Tree a small fragment of or so faling from the ceiling falling through her on her way out.
It wasn't necessary but she still crept as quietly as possible through the carnage of the Camp once outside. She rcognnized all the bodies now, more revealed or hidden away as shemoved through the mists. Gnolls, always more gnolls and though it wasn't true it seemed to her that they ALL were crawling with maggots. No one else would have seen them but she did, real or not. The sight stole away all caution she had regained and she sprinted off to find the little girl and boy, running right through more than one gnoll.
She did not leave the relative safety of the Fog until she found Jeni and Jonni hiding. In her confusion she had sprinted far and wide when she knew theyre hiding within earshot of the Tree itself. Unable to fit into the fissure herself she bid Mojo from his 'sleep' and sent him in to lead the chidlren to safety. Cera herself returned to the Ethereal, the same shimmering in the air claiming her away to it. From the Fog she followed them and her feline best friend to her own physical safety but had she truly escaped?
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::Gone is the blood writing and the jagged, unsteady manusciprt too has disappeared.. but neither has the child-like manner of old returned… a iti s the more familiar pastel rainbow glow of her writings in happie days yet, its' style has been replaced with a long flowing and graceful cursive::
Cera is dead. Long live Pretty Magic Girl C.
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::on another scrap, the jagged and and unsteady scrawl picks up again in blood::
tHe WeLl….It LiVeS....fEeL iT...fRoM....hErE....sO...lOuD...fInD tHe PiEcEs...FiNd ThE pIeCeS.....bUt ThErE's No RuNnInG...nOw....WeLl iS...eVeRyWhErE...eVeRyWhErE... fInD tHe PiEcEs....FiNd ThE pIeCeS...
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::The strain and fraying of late of what's left of a battered, smashed, bashed and whatever-else psyche finally shows through in the handwriting, its strays from its usual child-like manner and appearance to a shaky almost indeciiphorable scrawl, unsteady and jagged lettering: written in her own blood::
….fOuNd...A...fEw....Of MoJo'S pIecEs. So FeW... ClOvEr...GrOuNdEd.....No FaIr! HeR lIfE...sHe SaYs... ..dOeSn'T liStEn... NeEd MoRe PiEcEs... nEeD mOrE PiEcEs....NeEd MoRe PiEcEs.....nEeD mOrE PiEcEs.. NeEd MoRe PiEcEs... mOjO.... MoJO... nEeD mOrE pIeCes....
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::on the back of another scrap of parchment in some bloodied childliked writing::
Piece, pieces…. more we have found. That is PRetty Magic Girl C found them for us Mojo. We have the Power Pixies to thank for that. Pretty C wouldn't have found any at all without Pretty Magic Boy B and Pet B.. I think thats the Gnome. Pretty C can be so confusing to talk to sometimes. But still the maggots are there, Mojo. even if we did find a couple pieces already. What's easier..looking everywhere we can amongs the borken mirror worlds or where the sleepwalkers lay in their city? Yes Mojo I hear youlaughing at me. Don't makme sick Mojo kittyon you. If could find whee you are staring at me from, Mojo you'ld be sorry. What? NO! THe sqirmies! WHy won't theyleave me alone. I Think I better go sit the your Stones, Mojo.. or let Pretty C go help Pretty B with that Shiny machine head she was takling about.
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:on the back of a prevoiius scrap of parchment..agian in blood in the same old child-like manuscript::
One piece found! One piece found! So many more still misssing. So many Teapots trying to helpTeapot Sy.. and Teapot MErin whos ays Mojo should call herself Queen of no that was your idea Mojo.. or was it? this Queenof Gypsies in Exile? Be strong they say? Mojo has found one piece.. but just doesn't see.. we're misssing too many pieces till. THe Voices tsill see in. and out, All the way through. The squirmies are everywehre..They'll eat Mojo sooner or later. Mojo doesn't want ot be eaten but sitl..we sih they'ld hurry up and get it over with. If ont fofr Auntie Khaya and other god Teapots maybe Mojo we would have fed ourselves to the beasties by now. They mean well. And we don't wanna be eaten…when the we can think.. usually only amongst the Stones... That's only good thing about this town..besides the Teapots.. Mojo the squirmies... the squirmies..they're...he-
::the rambling, bloody writtings smear off to the right in the middle the letter e::
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::I the handwritting of a child but in blood::
We knoew it was him. THe Twin. Was Tero ::the handwriting gets kinda shakey in comparison to the rest at Tero:: Al my fault.. all of it.. if I hadn't lost MOjo's pieces.. We could have stoped him and squirmy infested doggie besties. OUr home is gone. Clover.. Mommy needs you. I need MOmmy.. Kind Lady. Kind Lady… Mojo! What have we done. This... this place is ot our home... Our piecs are gone and th VOIce laugh seing us at the Suiqrmies mercy.. the and bogeyman'. He found us.. Mojo we have to find our pieces... we have to.s