Teva's teacup was more like a hot chocolate bowl, and the centaur found she had to hold it with both hands to keep from spilling it. Still, she sipped it slowly, enjoying an aroma that she couldn’t quite place. It was some unfamiliar herbal blend, she thought, and it reminded her both of the woods and of good clean earth. And though she drank it slowly, it remained warm somehow, though whether it was due to the ceramic of the cup or some magic, Teva had no idea.

"So," she asked, "how do we find these 'tappers and seers' before Farlow does?"

"Farlow is half bat. She has the ability to control lightning and she's just about as fast as it too." Nikk looked at everyone in the room. "If you guys dont want to be apart of this you should back out now. I'm not the strongest person in the world and I cant protect everyone."

Nikk got up and started pacing kinda like he was a teacher giving a lecture. "For thoes of you that want to stay you have to know that I have no clue what Farlow is up to, but I do have a few ideas. One is that she already has the people she needs and is trying to find out a way to combine them. Two is that she doesnt have the people so when she DOES find them she will THEN find out a way to combine them or idea three is that she DOESN'T have them and she is going to kidnap some of them and force them into her experiments."

Bia was very happy that everyone liked her tea. "IF you guys need anything else please tell me!"

Thank you Cica for having a back up plan. Sorry your own post did not come up. Here is her PM that she sent me with our posts.

Originally Posted by Cicadetta

Okay, since Menewsha had to revert to a backup from yesterday, we've lost a few posts. Luckily, I chose the instant e-mail update option with my subscription to this thread, which means I have most of the posts backed up. Unluckily, I don't get updates for my own posts, and didn't think to save my last one. oO I rewrote it just in case, but hopefully someone else gets e-mail updates too? (If you have a backup of my post, please send it to me.)

Anyway... the backups:

Akino nodded, looking away from Elaina's sword that had captivated her for a second. "I will help you because....it seems right." She looked down at her tiny feet, realizing that she had no weapon or such that could be magicked or whatever. "but um...." she ran a hand threw her hair and hit a small clip there with a rose on it. "That," she muttered to herself. She was contemplating making herself a wand out of twigs. after all, that sounded very pixie-like. She uncliped the rose from her hair and held it out towards Nikk.

Nikk took the little clip and said his magical words. "Hastara Gorren Findarus Nikkolaious." then he gave it back and looked at her. "Please do your best not to lose it."

Nikk turned to face the girls that would be fighting alongside him. It seemed that only two of them were good with weapons and he was the only one experienced with great magic. "The first thing we are going to do is find Farlow and find out what she is up to." He waited for anyone to say anything different.

Elaina disagreed with what Nikk was saying, “We already know what she wants to do! So why don’t you find her Bia and I’ll show her why I was nicknamed the Angel of Death!” She had walked over and picked Bia up in one arm and held her sword up to the ceiling. She was pretty smug as she turned and looked at the rest of the group for back-up and encouragement.

Teva took a few warning steps toward Elaina. Among other things, the so-called angel was threatening their hostess, who also seemed to be a child, and everything she suggested violated so many ranger principles the centaur didn't want to think about it. "Elaina Idiotia Mal... whatever you call yourself, put the girl and the sword down! You want us to rush into a situation we know nothing about and kill the one person who knows anything about it?" She swished her tail, irritated, no longer thinking about what it might touch. "I don’t know what Nikk's plan is, but it must be better than that." She turned to Nikk for a moment. "You do have a strategy, right?"

Elaina dropped Bia on the ground and sheathed her sword and turned angrily to Teva, “What did you call me ass?” She balled her hands into fists at her sides and got up in Teva’s face, she had to float to do that since the centaur was so tall. “At least I have a plan, and anyway I wouldn’t kill her. I’d just make her think I would.” She shot daggers with her eyes at Teva as she started a staring contest with Teva. Elaina could tell that they were going to have some issues with one another, darn her!

Akino flew up above Teva's head. "Hey, don't call her an ass! I agree with Teva. We need a real plan because we don't quite know what Farlow has already. I'm not about to get killed because of you!" she snapped at Elaina. Brighter sparkles shot off of Akino's wings as she stared down at the angel-girl, slightly above her though she was much much smaller.

Teva snorted again, humanlike this time, and felt her ears flatten against her scalp. Her normally soft brown eyes stared sharply back into Elaina's. How unstable was this girl, she wondered? "Don't call me an ass, idiot!" she snapped back. "Nikk may have a plan he hasn't told us yet, and we know nothing about the situation. Never attack an enemy before you know them. What did they teach you in angel school, exactly? Synchronized flying? Feather grooming and deportment?" The centaur, by the end of her little rant, found herself closer to Elaina, their noses almost touching.

Elaina reached up and flipped her finger hitting the pixie in the stomach and sent her flying across the room. She did this without breaking eye contact with Teva, “I just gave you a plan, ass. We us the sheep-girl to find the demon and then horny over there can sense what the heck she’s searching for while I kick her @#5. I don’t hear anyone else coming up with any better ideas.” She pushed her face into Teva’s, they were millimeters apart and the tension was thick in the air surrounding them! They had lightening firing between them.

"Oh. Brilliant. Flicking a pixie, that's noble and brave of you." Teva hoped Akino was okay, but she was too busy resisting the increasing urge to strangle the so-called angel in front of her to worry much. "Nikk hasn't had a chance to tell us his plan yet, bird brain! And yours... If Farlow is half bat, she'll probably hear you coming miles away, and then you won't have time to kick her ass because for all we know she'll fry us all with lightning first!" Teva huffed. Cleary the approach would have to be more circumspect than Elaina's so-called plan, though how that was to be done, she had no idea. Perhaps Nikk would know.

Akino flopped onto the table and instantly flew back at Elaina, too irritated for words...almost. "How dare you, angel-freak! Aren't you supposed to be noble like you said!? Well I show you!" Akino was quick and darted easily across the room like a small insect and just as hard to catch. She flew right up to Elaina and bit her finger. "No one goes flicking me!"

Elaina smiled smugly, “You might get fried, but like I said I already have a few abilities! Just because I don’t tell you what they are you assume I’m just a soldier with a sword and wings. Oh and looks can be deceiving, things aren’t always as they seem. When you’ve lived in the portal as long as I have you’ll understand newborn.” She laughed, “Oh by the way horse face I’ve fought gnomes that were tougher then you.” Was this girl serious? She didn’t even have the proper attire to fight dwarves, much less an evil bat-girl bent on destroying the portal. At least Elaina's outfits had magical incantations on them to help protect her if her barrier failed. Elaina wondered if she should demonstrate her abilities and teach the others at the same time not to mess with her. After all Teva was the largest of the group, but Nikk might be a bit tougher. Then Akino bit her on the finger, ow! She said nothing and put a barrier around the pixie and brought the barrier closer to her face. Reaching into the barrier she grabbed Akino by one of her pixie wings, “I wouldn’t do that again if I were you!” Again she flung the pixie across the room and continued her staring contest with Teva.

Teva grabbed Elaina by the wrist, and none too gently. She had no idea what her powers might be, but she did know that her new physical strength was great. Inhuman, even. What it would do to the angel, she wasn't sure, but if Elaina was as powerful as all that, well, she could prove it. "Do not. Touch her," she hissed, stomping a forehoof. "I don't care what powers you have, or how many years. You are acting like an idiot child with wings and a sword." Teva had battled such creatures as dire wolves in her world, and rock trolls, and won, and it had been as part of a team. A human team with no special powers, at that. How dare the angel make assumptions?

Teva grabbed her, “big mistake!” Elaina thought to herself, she smirked. She pulled her wrist free by grabbing Teva’s pinky finger and pulled it back hard. Then when she was freed she put her barrier in front of Teva and pushed it across the the room hitting Teva lightly as it pushed past. “Don’t touch me!” Teva was lucky she’d grabbed only her wrist and not the leather guards, they would have electrocuted her pretty badly if she had. “Look who’s acting like a child stomping like a big baby! You’we just a big baby awen’t you?” She said this in a mock baby talk voice. She put the barrier up around her so that no one else could mess with her, she giggled to herself.

Akino rubbed her head and glared at Elaina from across the room. This was just getting rediculous! As a pixie, there was no way she could ever compete with anyone on physical power and that was getting pretty obvious. Slightly more cautious this time, she flew up behind Teva's shoulder and continued glaring at Elaina grumpily. "Now you even sound like a baby!" she snapped at Elaina.

Teva cringed as she felt her finger bent back, joints clacking together under the pressure. Some force swept past her flanks, standing the hairs on end. She pushed against it, whatever it was, and remained where she'd been standing, ignoring the pain in her finger and the fire now in her muscles. "A baby who has never met a centaur before at that," she added to Akino's comment. Come to think of it, neither had Teva, but then, she'd worked with horses in her old life, and was learning to recognize horse-like behavior in herself. Which made sense, considering. Besides, sometimes it was better if she let her legs do what they would, at least for now. "Will you be going off to sulk, now?" she asked the angel. "Or will we be working as a team?"

Elaina was surprised the barrier hadn’t knocked Teva back, she started flying around the two trying to sense the magic behind it. “Hmm? Why didn’t it work?” She again put the barrier around Akino who was sitting on Teva’s shoulder and floated her in front of her. “Hmm it works on the pixie, you don’t have any powers yet do you newborn baby!” She made a face at the pixie as she floated helplessly in the air. Looking at Teva she let the barrier float just out of the centaurs reach, “Why don’t you help your girlfriend, Teva?” She snickered as she floated the barrier over head back and forth like a tennis ball. "We can work as a team, I love games!"

Akino's eyes went wide as she started to fly outside of her own powers and she struggled against some sort of force field that kept her back. "Hey, what are you doing to me Elaina?!" she screeched, her wings almost glowing now with her emotional energy. she didn't notice that though; she was too busy glaring down the angel girl.

"I don't know what your definition of 'team' is, but this isn't it," Teva growled, crossing her arms, trying to ignore the pixie's cries. She had no idea to counter whatever Elaina was doing. How could she? She had no magical abilities that she knew of, and neither did Akino, apparently. And now the angel was lording her own over them as though newness was a sin. "Help her? I thought you were on the 'Save the Portal' side. Was that a lie? Are you proving yourself a servant of evil by attacking an innocent?"

Elaina held the barrier in her hand and floated over the centaur and looked down, “Don’t worry Akino, the barrier won’t hurt you…unless I squeeze it tighter!” Smiling she looked down at Teva, “Don’t get your tail in a bunch you big cry baby! Besides you were the first one to attack me remember and I don’t like pixie dust in my face, it was a reflex after years of training.” She started throwing the orb from one hand to the next, “Come on I thought babies loved to play games?” She laughed as she held the barrier with Akino inside it in front of her, “Hey, do you and Teva have a yuri thing going on?” She smiled wickedly down at Teva.

Akino's eyes almost had fire coming out of them as she glared at Elaina, holding out a hand to steady her after all that jostling around. "As soon as I figure out how, I'm going to wipe that smile off your face permanently!" she said in a surprising low and menacing voice for a pixie. "Stop flaunting your powers and old age, you ninny! I do not like being treated like a little person!!"

Elaina’s eyes flared when she heard Akino call her old. “Who are you calling old, pipsqueak?” She made the barrier a bit smaller so that it was as tall as Akino was and glared at Akino. Then she looked down at Teva again and back up at Akino. She started laughing and expanded the barrier a bit, “Oh My Goddess, you too are yuri aren’t you?” She giggled and floated the barrier down in front of Teva and back up, “Better catch your girlfriend Teva! Akino’s just so helpless and needs her big strong protector.”

Teva blinked. She wasn't sure what "yuri" was, precisely, or why Elaina seemed to be so fixated on it. Some of the Queen's Rangers had preferred romancing women to men, which had been perfectly acceptable, and maybe that's what the angel meant, since she kept referring to Akino and Teva as girlfriends. (Strange, since they had only just met.) As for the angel's obsession, well, the centaur decided not to ask.

Finally she gathered her temper in and sighed, rolling her eyes. "Elaina, just let Akino go. You as much as attacked our hostess and now you’re playing games. You are the only one playing games. It is time to stop now."