The Shroud

"And why are there evil pink dust bunnies of doom in the school?" Tara asked, throwing another flame at the huddles group of them. Since they had used the bunny dust against their original wielders, the bunnies had not truly tried to make a break for it.

Tara had been in the vicinity when Tanya and Laurissa were at the park with the little kids they volunteered with. Tanya had caught a slight glimpse of one of the three foot rabbits playing amongst the ruins of the court yard behind their high school where it was supposedly being renovated. Once Tanya had frozen time, they had met at the school and begun rounding up the evasive rabbits. Tanya’s dust allergy had inhibited her each time they had shot out their dust cloud so that they could escape. Until, that is, they found a way to throw the dust back at them and work to their advantage. The bunnies caught on quickly and they were soon all rounded up on the stage in the plaza.

"I don’t know," Tanya replied indignantly. "Maybe they slipped through the last time Merlin was here or the time with Jaci. Whatever happened, they’re here now and we have to get rid of them before those people finally decide to start working on the school.

"Oh, then we have a month or two, then?" Laurissa joked, eyeing one rabbit threateningly and fingering her dagger.

"Yeah, but I still should probably handle this now before anyone notices that there are pink fluff balls that can throw dust in your face running around," Tanya said, waving her hand in a circular pattern. A black hole appeared beneath the pink dust bunnies, slowly pulling them back into the dimension from which they originally came. They did not scream, or protest. They were simply glad to be returned to their own home and to get away from this strange new one. It almost seemed a relief for them.

As they sighed in relief the portal slowly closed. An odd black shroud came out, but it blended too well with the black of the stage that none of them noticed as it slowly began to circle and close in on it’s intended target as they began to laugh and joke about the fact that this was just like something that Tanya would write and question about Jaci’s Story and whether or not it actually happened.

An odd sense overtook Tanya that she knew well. "I gotta go, guys," she told Laurissa and Tara. "Merlin’s back, yet again. When is that guy going to learn to stay gone? Or to die?"

"I could always kill him," Laurissa suggested. "I am supposed to be a trained person killer, right?"

Tanya smiled gently. "Try not to fall back into that role, all right? I seriously wanted to kill you when you were evil in my story. Tara that goes for you too. No trying to die in flames to be reborn or anything, ’kay? And have fun until I get back, ‘cause I’m too lazy to restart time and everything right now."

Tara gave her a skeptical look as Tanya took off and left to find her old foe, Merlin. Once she was out of sight, Tara took to the air and began to fly aimlessly and carefree around the roof of the school, landing briefly on the walkways above the plaza and whacking at the hanging displays as she flew past them.

The dark shroud, sensing that the powerful one was now gone, rejoiced inwardly. She had so foolishly fallen for it’s ploy to send her away and now closed in on it’s intended target so that it could complete it’s mission. The Dwarven Council had given it specific instructions to carry out.

It closed in on it’s intended target, the girl still remaining on the ground, slowly and cautiously. It had been warned of the cunning and perception of these people and knew well not to underestimate any of them. This girl, however, Wissa was the name she was known by where it came from, did not appear to even be aware of any other presence around her besides that of the one flying around the roof of this odd place who had evidentially lost her mind.

When the flying child had turned her back, Tara was the name if it remembered the bitter talk of her correctly, and pounced on the Wissa child.

Laurissa recoiled at the force of the attack, but no sound emerged from her lips as the black shroud covered her vision and threatened to suffocate her. Slowly, it molded to fit the form of her body and seemed invisible about her, though it was still there as a dark aura. Now it had control over this girls actions and slowly seeped to lock out what little control she had left over herself.

Tara had the sudden feeling as though something bad was about to happen as she went to whack yet another paper mache piece of art work and decided to refrain, looking back to Laurissa. Somehow she seemed odd, something was different about her that she could not quite place her finger on.

The shroud had expected to have it’s work cut out for it when the task was given to it. To turn one of the powerful ones friends against her, those were it’s orders. Now it encountered this one that was an enemy of hers where it came from. The Dwarven Council would reward it greatly for it’s expedient success.

"Laurissa?" Tara called back down to her. "You look funny. Are you all right?"

The shroud used it’s control over her to allow an answer. "Laurissa? Who ever are you talking about? I am Wissa, emissary of Niteshade." There was a slight glint of metal and knife appeared in her hand.

Uh oh, was the first thing to cross Tara’s mind. She was thankful for the moment that she was up in the air and wished she knew more about what had happened to Laurissa. Or, possibly more importantly, who was this Wissa person she claimed now to be?

The sharp dagger left Wissa’s hand swiftly flew past Tara’s head, imbedding itself in the paper maché fairy a short ways behind her. She looked cautiously to see that only the hilt was protruding from it’s blonde head. The rest of it swung gently from the impact, looking much as though it was flying on its own rather than hanging from a string from the roof.

Tara looked to Wissa, partially panicked. Keeping to the indoor skies was not going to help her very much and her aim was far better than she had previously anticipated. "Laurissa-Wissa-whoever you are, what’s wrong with you?"

"I have a mission to complete, girl," Wissa warned darkly. "Stay still and your death will be painless."

Hmm, she doesn’t recognize me and she wants to kill me, Tara realized. I could be in trouble. She took momentary refuge on the catwalk to collect her thoughts and to think through what she was going to do. How was she supposed to get rid of Wissa without killing her, when her whole intention was kill Tara? This might be difficult.

Wissa somehow got hold of another dagger and shot it up, the dagger whizzing past her ear. Tara jumped and took to the air, hoping desperately that she could somehow find refuge amongst the various dangling pieces of artwork long enough to come up with a plan other than simply not getting killed.

Tara saw now that it was not that Wissa, as she called herself now for some odd reason, kept getting another dagger. It was that it returned to her hand after every throw. All she had to do was somehow get the blade away from her without getting killed and everything would be fine, or so she hoped. There only remained the question of how.

Wissa looked up at the flying girl in annoyance and threw the blade once more in one swift movement, her aim precise and still holding true to the target. This is far too easy, she thought to herself as the last warning shot drew closer to Tara.

Tara, reflexes sharp, threw a fist sized flame directly at the dagger. No sooner had it left her palm that she found herself once more in the familiar and comforting form of the phoenix. The flame had deflected the dagger away, and back into Wissa’s hands.

With a grunt, Wissa threw the dagger back up at her a bit harder than before to try and compensate the surely gained speed in her new form. A small smile crept across her face, the game was getting far more interesting, but she would soon have to put an end to it. Tanya was due back soon, and she would need to be rid of this distraction before then.

Tara dodged the dagger gracefully, dipping in that air afterwards as though bowing. She would easily be able to dodge the rest as well, if she could throw no better. She let out a mocking screech, daring her to try it again.

She accepted the challenge gladly, and decided to put an end to this now. So quickly the knife was thrown that Tara did not realize that it had left her hand until it almost hit her. Tara tried to veer out of the way, but it was too late. The dagger disappeared behind the fiery plumage of her wing.

Tara had prepared for immense pain, but was incredibly surprised, and relived, that there was none. She inspected her wing carefully to find that the metal of the dagger had melted once it hit and the hilt had fallen to the floor of the plaza. Though somewhat puzzled, she decided it best to find someway to contain the now unarmed Wissa before she had a chance to strike again with some kitchen knife from the cafeteria kitchens. She created a cage of fire around her before she got too far and tried desperately to figure out just what to do next.

Tanya arrived back in the plaza a minute later in a puff of smoke. Coughing and sputtering, she tried to get away from all of the smoke which was starting to make her eyes water. Finally coming out of the smoke, her eye caught the brilliant cage of fire with Wissa encased inside and Tara perched atop of it. "Okay, why exactly did you put Laurissa in a cage?" Tanya asked Tara suspiciously.

It was Wissa who answered. "I am not this Laurissa person in which you speak of. I am Wissa of Niteshade’s elite. You know that."

"Uh, okay?" Tanya said, incredibly confused. "Wissa’s army dissipated about a year ago. Who are you really, who sent you and why are you cowering under the guise of one of my friends?"

"She cannot be one of your friends. The Dwarven council has briefed me fully and Wissa has attempted to kill you before. She is one of your enemies. Your companions were elves, a single human who was most certainly not this one and a dwarf. You have no other friends."

Tara let out a small laugh at the last comment. Tanya shot her a warning look which did not perturb her and continued to address Wissa. "This is my world, not yours. In this world, all that were mentioned to you are my friends. So leave Laurissa alone, and give yourself up. The dwarven council briefing was off since the years ago you were sent out. They do not even exist anymore."

Enraged, the shroud separated from Laurissa’s body and made a dive at Tanya. It hit the fire bars of kept it trapped and burst into flames before crumbling into little more than a bit of dust on the wind.

Laurissa took in a huge gasp of air and came back into consciousness. "Okay, what the hell was that?!" she asked.

"A shroud they sent after me after I pissed of the dwarven council in my novel a couple years ago," Tanya explained simply. "It tricked me into thinking that Merlin was around and took over your body, tried to destroy Tara, I think, then tried to break out of the cage you are presently in and attack me. But it couldn’t because they die when they touch fire. Not much. Tara, you can let her out of that cage thingy now."

Surprised, Tara let down the fire bars and changed back into her normal state. "Um, I’m still confused. How did that thing get here?"

Tanya dodged the question by turning to Laurissa. "Time to back to volunteering," she said cheerfully. "Lets hope the Y decides to help out today." Tanya transported them all to the place they were when they she had frozen time before. As time resumed, Tanya smiled to herself. Now I know how my evil pink dust bunnies of doom story goes…


*Well, that wasn't as great as I hoped it would be. Oh well, We'll all get over it eventually, right? Right?!
-Earth_fairy2000