darkSpyro

When Shade suddenly crashed through the roof, Firefly jumped, dropping her fruit and knocking over some books in the process. Omen was less startled. He turned sharply towards the sound, crouching slightly, as if ready to pounce. He relaxed when he saw Shade. Firefly followed his gaze and spotted Shade as well.

"He might be hurt..." She whispered quietly. Firefly then hopped over the pile of books and hurried over to Shade. "Are you okay? Do you need a healer?" She asked gently.

Omen gazed up at the hole that Shade had fallen through. He stared at it with focused gaze, as if expecting something else to fall through. When nothing happened, Omen flew up to investigate the hole.

Firefly stood there quietly as she watched Shade run outside. Then suddenly, it hit her like a ton of bricks. Her Empathic powers activated, and she could feel every bit of Shade's fear and sadness. She closed her eyes tightly and lowered her head. A blue aura began to surround her. Oh no, not again....! Why does this always have to happen at random moments.....?! Okay, stay calm, stay calm.... I need to stay calm.... I can't flood the library..... She thought to herself, trying to keep her powers from running rampant again.

Omen checked through the hole, and saw no sign of darkspawn, or anything else that could have potentially attacked Shade. Sure that there was no threat in the area, he turned towards the others. His eyes widened when he saw that Firefly was glowing. "Oh no..." He muttered to himself. He then quickly swooped down from the ceiling and landed beside her. "Firefly, listen to me," He spoke gently, "You must remain calm. Don't lose control of your powers. Remember what we practiced. Take a deep breath and count to ten."

Firefly took a deep breath, but it didn't really help much. She still glowed blue. She kept her eyes closed and her head down. "Omen, it's not me..... It's the dragon outside..... He's upset over something..... I don't know why..... I don't know what's wrong, but he's crying....." She sniffled. Firefly sounded as if she was about to burst into tears herself. Then suddenly, it started raining outside around the library, but the rainclouds weren't covering the whole city. The rain was coming in through the hole in the roof.

Omen noticed the rain and sighed. He nuzzled Firefly. "It's alright. Just stay calm. Take deep breaths and count to ten. Try to keep your powers under control. I'll go check on the dragon outside. Maybe I can get him to calm down, so you can control your powers. I'll be right back." He whispered softly. Then Omen headed over to the door. He paused and glanced back at Firefly, before heading outside.

Omen quietly walked over to Shade. "The street is not the best place to stop for a rest." He said calmly, with a sort of flat tone of voice. He then sighed. "What is the matter? Why are you upset?" He asked, his tone gentle now.

Quote: Spyro-Gamer

Cenor had reached the castle and entered the library room. He gazed around at the large selection of books that lined the walls and floors of the great room and then made his way over to a round table in one corner of the room. On the table sat a crystal globe. It was a communication globe, able to contact anyone else who had the same globe in all of Siyalor.

-:-

"Aretis, you ok?" Starz flapped his wings and caught up with him.

"...yeah, I'm fine." Aretis said back to her. "I was just....thinking. It's been very peaceful. Nothing too big has really...well, surfaced. I'm a little uneasy." He smiled. "But, huh, with all this commotion, maybe no training today?" He teased, half-hoping to be serious.

Omen quietly stared at him for a moment. He pondered what he should should say, how he should handle the situation. He couldn't expect a stranger to find his presence comforting and confide in him. Knowing that Firefly was inside trying to control her powers meant that he didn't have a lot of time to soothe Shade, unless flooding the library and possibly part of the city wasn't a problem.

He took a deep breath. "Look, I don't have a lot of time, so I can't just just sit and pretend I didn't have a more, er, for lack of a better term, selfish reason for coming out here." He sighed. "I just really need you to calm down, or at least to go somewhere to be upset in private. Your emotions are causing problems for my friend inside. I don't have time to explain, and it doesn't quite make sense to me anyway, but she can feel everything that you feel. Your emotions are activating her powers, and she can't control them unless you calm down or something. I would like to help, but right now, I'm more concerned about her and what she can do if her powers grow any stronger. So please, try to understand." He spoke in a serious tone of voice, but he also sounded a bit urgent.

Firefly was still inside. she was laying down now, all curled up. She held a paw over her face, trying to stay calm and keep her powers in check. However, it was hard to remain calm, when it wasn't even her emotions that were activating her powers. She couldn't quite control what wasn't her's. And Firefly didn't know how to control her powers yet. The rain continued to fall, and it was starting to get heavier.

Aretis shrugged and followed her. He didn't really mind rain that much. It was very good for hiding as it would throw of scent trails and wash away footprints if he were being tracked.

Firefly took a deep breath. She lowered her paw and opened her eyes to look up at Cenor. Her eyes were normally a bright orange color, but now they glowed blue. Seeing how close Cenor was, and hearing others coming, Firefly started backing up towards the far wall. "Just please.... Keep your distance..... You shouldn't be around me right now....." She muttered. Her body was crouched in an almost fearful stance as she backed away. Firefly left a small puddle with every step.

"But I can't!" Firefly cried out, stomping her foot. She lowered her head as a tear rolled down her cheek. "I can't calm down! That's the worst part of it, there's nothing I can do! The emotion isn't mine!" She sobbed. A pool of water formed at her feet. It steadily seemed to grow bigger. "It feels like it's mine, it feels like I'm truly upset, but the emotion isn't mine..... It's his pain, but I feel it, too..... It's his sadness, but I also suffer from it..... All because of my stupid powers, which I can't even control...... I feel emotions that aren't even mine..... I'm forced to feel others' pain, to carry their burdens as if they were my own..... I can't control an emotion that isn't mine..... I can't stop it....." She muttered miserably. Firefly then laid down where she was. As tears rolled down her face, the puddle around her slowly grew in size. It was now pouring rain outside.

Omen gave a slight nod. "Thank you for understanding. I'm sorry you're upset, but I really must tend to my friend. I'm sure she'll want to check up on you once she feels better. After feeling your pain, she'll want to see how you're doing. But I should hurry back to her." He said. And with that, Omen headed back inside.

Firefly curled up into a ball, laying in the pool of water around her. She just lay still, the only sound being her sobbing and the pouring rain. Omen walked in and saw her current condition. He quietly walked over to her and gently nuzzled her. As Shade slowly started to calm down, so did Firefly. The pool of water began to shrink, and the rain was dying down. Firefly's blue glow was fading, but she herself did not move from her spot.

"Feeling better?" Omen whispered softly. He stayed by her side, as he was concerned for her. He didn't fully understand her powers, but he had witnessed them enough times to get a good idea about them. He hated seeing her upset like that.

Firefly opened her eyes and looked up at him. "A little..." She muttered quietly. "I can feel him calming down...... I can also..... Feel.... How worried you are....."

Omen took a step back and was quiet a moment. He was afraid that his emotions might cause problems for her as well. "Maybe you should go back to the house and rest. Perhaps try to relax by reading a book. Reading usually makes you feel better. You want to do that? I could check out some books for you, if you like."

"No, that's okay.... You don't have to do that...." She said. Firefly then slowly stood up, but she still had her head down. "I think I'll just go back to the house and try to relax...." She muttered. Then she started heading towards the door.

Omen quickly walked after Firefly. Although she was calming down and her powers were weakening, they were still present. She was glowing faintly, and it was drizzling outside. The puddles were drying up, though. "Firefly, you shouldn't go out into public right now. You especially shouldn't use the front door. You should avoid getting too close to anyone on your way back to the house. You just shouldn't really be around others right now." He said gently.

Firefly sighed and paused, glancing back at him. "Omen, I can't avoid people forever. That doesn't work. I can't just hide away somewhere and never have contact with anyone. My powers can activate just as easily when it's only the two of us. Besides, we came here for a reason, remember? It's okay. I just need some time alone at the house to calm down. Just try not to worry so much." She said quietly. Then she headed outside. Even before she saw Shade, she could sense he was there.

Firefly paused and looked down slightly. "I'll be alright. It's not your fault. You can't help feeling upset, and I'm sure you have your reasons for feeling that way. There's just no way you could have known that it could have an effect on me. Even I don't get a warning when my powers act up. Just don't blame yourself. If you want to help, you can start by trying to stay calm, or finding a way to deal with your problems." She spoke quietly.

After hearing that, Firefly suddenly looked up at him. "So you know about the darkness, too? I noticed it while on my travels with my friend. We kept having to move around more than usual because the darkness was spreading. We even had to fight off some dark creatures. We came here to find a safe place to rest, but I also came here to study at the library. I've been trying to find out more about what might be happening. Maybe if I learn enough, I'll find a way to put a stop to it." She said with determination. Firefly then sighed and looked down slightly. "However, I'm not exactly the best fighter. Still, I want to help. I want to do something. Even if all I do is research and find weaknesses, I want to help put a stop to this darkness."

"Well, knowing weaknesses doesn't help too much, if I can't really exploit them that well." Firefly shrugged. "I mean, I can hardly put up much of a fight. I couldn't do a whole lot against those dark creatures. I just noticed certain flaws that I was able to point out to Omen. He was the one that fought them off and defeated them. I just pointed out weaknesses that I noticed."

Omen sighed and looked up at the hole in the roof. That would have to be fixed, but at least it wasn't created because of any dark creatures. He then took a deep breath and started heading over to the knocked over piles of books that Firefly had been reading. He was partially looking through them, curious to what she had been studying, but he was also organizing them and putting them back where they belonged.

"I guess so." Firefly said meekly with a light shrug. "I just don't really see myself as strong. I mean, I certainly don't feel strong when I can be easily overcome by those things. Omen had to protect me on a number of occasions. I wasn't much help to him in the fight. It doesn't help that my powers are sort of useless. I mean, I can't control them, and I can't just use them any time I want to. They're just really unpredictable and unreliable." She muttered.

"I'm Firefly. It's nice to meet you, Shade." She said, smiling softly.

Just then, Vukan and Bikil showed up and proceeded to walk towards the library. The scaled elder dragon and the now damp fur dragon stopped for a moment, noticing the damage done to the roof. Bikil glanced at Shade, wondering what happened and if it involved another darkspawn.

Quote: Spyro-Gamer

"Cenor?" Starz called, her voice echoing around the library. "Are you here?"

Cenor heard Starz's voice and looked up. He didn't want to leave Firefly to greet Starz, and he didn't want to call or shout out to her due to Firefly's current state. "At the back of the library." Cenor called out as quietly as he could.

Starz faintly heard him, and then waited for Aretis to get in before going further into the room to find Cenor.

Aretis sighed and then quickly went to the library alongside Starz. The uh, strange dragons in the library made him feel a little uncomfortable, but he put up a mask and decided not to show it, studying the scene. Great. Gryphons, traumatized dragons, and there's a hole in the roof! Just what he needed to wake up to. Aretis mentally sighed, but decided it would be rude to show his discontent to these...guests so he looked at Cenor. "Soo...does this mean no training today?" He asked quietly.

Aretis frowned at the mess and decided that instead of staring and watching like a pile of bones he should probably help out with something. So he went over and helped Omen put the books away, correcting in a few places where Omen put books in the wrong areas of the shelves. He knew this library like the back of his hand. When he first came, Aretis used to spend hours gathering as much knowledge as he could of this....world that he had been almost sheltered from due to his precarious position.

Edit: Ninja'd.

Aretis looked at Cenor. "Well, you know how I don't like approaching those I don't associate with, soooooo I'm just gonna help fix up this place and listen to whatever you have to say. It's probably important by the tone of your voice. And by all the grim expressions and drama, I'm guessing there's some new evil, isn't there? And I'm pretty sure it's not jewel burglars." He said.

Omen paused in organizing the books only briefly, as he glanced at Cenor. He had a pretty good guess as to what this was about, having seen the darkness and its creatures first hand. Although the mention of young dragons concerned him. This was not something that should involve them. This was not their responsibility. They weren't ready. Firefly wasn't ready, and Omen wasn't ready to let her go. He couldn't allow her to take part in this. He couldn't allow her to get hurt, or worse.

However, to his horror, Firefly had overheard Cenor and walked back inside the library. "What is it? Does it involve the darkness and those creatures? If it does--"

"Firefly, this does not concern you." Omen said sternly as he walked over to her. "I don't want you involved in this. You are not properly prepared to handle such a situation. You could get seriously hurt, or worse. It would be best if you stayed in the city, where it is safe." He said, his tone of voice strict and serious.

"You may want to go back inside. We have something to tell you. We have something tell everyone.," Vukan said looking at Shade. Vukan and Bikil then proceeded to enter the library.

OOC: Out of curiosity, can you tell me more about this other land of Elor? That is, if there anything more behind it.