[[ nini nova-chan~ ^^ ]]

Even after the dreadful five minutes of eerie silence, Seth continued to stay quiet. He was as motionless as the crystal trees as he kept his own posture in his mildly uncomfortable position. When he heard Michael speak, his ears sent a pang of pain to his head having adjusted to the previous quietness. He flinched a little and turned his attention back to his friends. "If you go, then I'll go." he stated as a matter of fact. Although he was scared to death over his own situation and worried sick from having just offered to endanger his companions' overall sanity, Seth was content that justice against the Onyx was more important than his mere life. 'I already promised to go down before my friends did,' he reminded himself. "Will we return after dark or will we stay the entire time?" he questioned, more-so asking how the group wished to be ambushed. Seth knew that if they waited, they could be sniped out easily by someone who knew the forest. However.. If they chose to come in after dark, they would be in danger just as much.

Michael nodded lightly. "We might have a better chance if we come back after dark." He said. Marcia pushed off the branch and landed in the water beneath her. Coming of for air and and looking up at the boys. "Whenever you two are ready to eat, it's on the table." She says before diving back under and heading towards the bank where Ariel and Krystal were- remembering she had made food before coming to the lake after drying off.

Seth watched Marcia go in silence. He saw that he acted the same way he did after he had fled from Alexander's wrath. He'd clung to a Crystal tree in some way and stayed by it as if it were a barrier. When Marcia hit the water, he flinched on the inside due to the uneven break in levels of sound once again. Seth placed his hand against the glowing, smooth surface of the tree as he thought about being able to go back after dark. He then remembered that Ariel and Krystal weren't around and neither Michael or himself were dressed fully. "Alright," he said, slipping down around a nearby branch so he could position himself to hang directly above a gap in the trees that made way for a clear free-fall to the water many feet below.

Michael moved to sit on the branch he had standing on, eased from sitting on it to holding onto it like a monkey then let go and held his breath just before hitting the cool water. He came up for air gritting his teeth just a little. The water didn't feel too good against the minor scratches he managed to get while swinging and climbing around in the forest of crystal trees.

Seth absently followed Michael's lead. He let go of his own branch and the few seconds of acceleration churned his insides, but they didn't bother him, for his mind was elsewhere. Seth was so lost in thought that he almost forgot to start swimming or go up for air. He was previously in so much pain out of the water, so the cold water numbing such misery was nearly Heaven on earth. Seth let himself drift with the gentle current before he dove swiftly underwater by habit. He swam over to where Michael was and surfaced next to his friend, still in motion with the tide. "Where did Ariel and Krystal go?"

Michael glanced at him. "They should be at the shore by now, or the entrance of this forest." He answered after thinking a moment. "Come on." Michael smirked before diving under the water and headed towards the entrance to see if they were there. If not, then they were on the shore.

Seth followed behind using his advantage of the water to use less energy in swimming. He was a little tired from the day, but being a slightly weary was a typical sign of balance in Seth's world. It meant he wasn't too tense or too out of his consciousness. It was fun for him to be able to swim around the roots at the bottom of the ravine. After a while, the roots began to thin out and the trees became smaller and less magnificent. Seth could see the light of the evening starting to shine through in the beauty of the Crystal. 'So amazing..' he thought, breathless. He surfaced for air and followed Michael at river-level before reaching the forest exit.

Michael surfaced for air and moved the hair from his eyes. Ariel hovered over to the two and smiled faintly. 'Welcome back, we were starting to worry.' She says as she referred to herself and Krystal. The crystal dragon gently lifts the two onto her head and out of the water. "How's your head?" Michael asks as he glances at Ariel. She giggles. 'All better~ ^~^' Ariel hovers upwards to meet the boys' altitude.

Seth was happy to see the dragon and Ariel safely at the shore of the river. He reached his arm out and snatched his jacket/shoe bundle near the edge of the water on his way up and kept them away from his other wet clothes. He gave Ariel a warm look of contentment, but on the inside he was more than just content. 'If what Marcia said about an Onyx-infected spirit being there..' he started to think. Seth remembered his concern to keep Ariel away from Onyx at all costs. 'But if there was already a spirit..' He shook his head lightly and watched the sun begin to go down. He noticed that two days had completely changed his life. "Why did you turn back?" he asked curiously, motioning towards both Ariel and Krystal.

Michael went and got his shirt that was under the one tree.Ariel lands on the soft green grass and looks at Seth. 'Krystal didn't like the vibe it gave off, and I couldn't follow any longer. Like I wasn't allowed to or something.' She answered as she played with a strand of her hair.

Seth's eyes flickered back to the direction of the forest for a split second. He wanted to dive into the heart of the problem with a blade of some sort if he still had one. 'Damn!' he cursed to himself as he recalled the last few seconds in which he'd seen his dagger; the seconds when it was in the wall of an alternate dimension, nearly tearing the place apart. He sighed and pet Krystal gently, reminding himself that he wouldn't even be able to use a blade against some indestructible material. "It wouldn't let you, how strange.." he repeated aloud. "It's a Crystal forest, it welcomed a spirit that was corrupt as well as Michael and I-" Seth began to put his jacket on- he knew that cold, wet clothes were bad, but they still provided warmth- more than bare-skin in water did. "-I wonder what gives."

Michael was lost in own thoughts as he tied his shirt around his waist. Krystal moved her head to see Seth when he pet her, 70% of herself was still in the lake. Ariel floated in the air on her back, turning over to see Seth when he paused due to slipping on his jacket and hums quietly and mostly to herself as she thinks. 'Unless the corrupted spirit's keeping out uncorrupted spirits?' She paused and shudders a little at the thought of a onyx infected spirit. 'Hey, Seth... What happens to a spirit..if they get infected...?' Ariel asks quietly and glances at him with soft eyes.

[ this might sound bad- but i suddenly want Ariel to get infected, just a little~ >< ]

[[ yay~ ^o^! (not that i'm trying to be too horrifically sadistic..) this is your rp too, nova-chan; do as you please with your characters <3 you could have her go totally under- for reals ^^ heehee, it makes life all the better when we try to save them anyhow~ ]]

Seth nodded in understanding with Ariel's prediction. "That sounds possible," he admitted. It didn't make sense, but a man who witnessed his house turn into a black liquid-dust didn't have the right to deem something logical. Out of nature, he was drawn to the fact that the silky belt-like strap in his jacket was gone. He fumbled around for it and then smiled when he realized that it was already around Krystal's neck. The sound of Ariel's humming went along with his mind's subconscious tasks.

His thought process was train-wrecked to nothingness when he heard Ariel speak up out of her tunes. Seth turned around completely in order to face the spirit herself. He opened his mouth to say something defensively, but clenched his jaw soon after. He wanted to tell her that she would never face that problem, but he knew it was no use if fate took a turn down that road. He sighed and crossed his legs out in front of him. He looked up at the sky, almost as if reading the clouds. Seth was trying to place himself in Alexander's shoes, or even the Onyx itself, in order to get a picture. "It.. I guess it really depends.." he said quietly, still straining his vision. If he lowered his willpower and self-esteem, he could feel the dull tug of the hallucinations coming back. Then, he stopped suddenly and looked at Ariel once more. "Do you really want to know what could happen?"

[ ^0^ ]

Ariel came to hover in front of him when he spoke up again, not too terribly close though, and nods lightly. 'I wouldn't be asking otherwise.' She replied quietly. Despite the fact that she didn't like where this was going, she wanted to know the possibilities. Ariel knew she was safe as long as she had her spirit stone on her but she knew at some point, like everything else, it could get separated from her whether she was careful or not.

Seth leaned back a bit when Ariel came close- she surprised him and Seth was reminded of the fiery burn the spirit stones gave him when he was close to one. 'She has one, at least..' he thought as he looked off in the distance for a few seconds. He wasn't exactly sure where to start and found himself at a loss of words. "The shortest route is dust in two steps: it crystallizes you on contact and then, if disturbed by anything, you shatter into thin air," he began coldly. Seth didn't really want to put any emotion into his descriptions- they were all painful in some way whether physical or mental- but he did feel a little guilty for cracking down so hard in his first sentence. "However.. It could just possess you like a puppet to make contact with other things- I'm not sure if you'd be conscious, unconscious, or even living at all. That would be most likely if the Onyx has any intelligence. You are unseen by the majority of people and can ignore a lot of matter to cut travel time down to its finest edges. It could spread to other things through you using less effort because it can transfer more efficiently.." He trailed off and folded his arms.

"..There's always an undefined ground, though." he continued, hesitant about the unknown qualities of such a curse. "If the Onyx wanted something other than complete control, then it would most likely do so. A smart ruler will look for feedback from those it can persuade to ally with. An angry seventeen-year-old will try and torture his-" Seth stopped himself and shook his head. "I've hallucinated, so could you. I know one thing for sure is that that any case other than crystallization would cause you to feel awful. That spirit stone of yours will burn like hell as would the Onyx if you were anything other than compliant.." Seth shifted a little. 'Why is this so complicated- no, why is Ariel asking me what Onyx is like?.. Why am I even answering..'

Ariel listened as he explained to her what could happen and some other things that were worth taking a mental note of. She also watched him and backed away from him when he brought up the spirit stone- remembering he was infected. She only knew because of the scene at the Tree House when he practically showed her the part of him that had been infected. Ariel shifted her gaze to the ground, she could feel he was a little 'meh..' about explaining the topic. 'I don't why I started thinking about it..sorry if I made you uncomfortable...' She says quietly with a softened expression.

Seth's own mood rose from something of mindless distaste to being mildly surprised. He laughed a little when Ariel backed away as he talked about the side-effects like the rock burns. "It's okay," he said with a smile. He knew that he was deliberately dropping the subject of who was comfortable and replaced it with Ariel's reaction to his explanation. "It only burns that much when I try holding one." Seth wasn't lying much- he was so worn down by his own resistance with the Onyx that the spirit stones acted more like a warning rather than an actual pain. He glanced around casually to make sure Michael hadn't found a way to drown himself in the water. "We're going to get to the bottom of this, are you going to come or go back with Marcia?" he asked to Ariel. Seth figured that if she really preferred one choice over another then he wouldn't bother trying to change a mind.

Michael was sitting in the tree he had claimed. It wasn't far from the one that Krystal laid under earlier and it was almost as big as the one he had a house built within. It was healthy as any tree around the lake shoulder be. 'You guys are going back after dark right? That is a few hours away and you two still haven't eat.' She giggles lightly. 'I will tag along on your adventure~' Ariel smiles sweetly.

[[ Man, ._. If my rp-posts within the next like hour totally fail and bite the dust, just tell me to go to sleep. x.x ]]

Seth released his arms and tried to stand up on the back of the dragon. It took a lot of coordination to do such a task and took him a few moments to honestly be able to say he was standing upright. He avoided Ariel's question completely, as he didn't want to spill anything- or spoil it. Instead he just put his arms out in the falling sun-rays and cast a shadow across the other side of the river. Seth looked down at Krystal in the eyes and then up to Michael and Ariel. "Is Krystal coming?" he asked aloud, unsure who made the decisions between the Eragon and the dragon.

[ are you tired Yume-chan? ]

Krystal tilted her head up slightly to watch Seth, careful not to knock him off balance or anything. She blew air of her nose lightly- meaning no. "She's too big, she can't fit through the entrance." Mister silence finally spoke up and slid down fro the branch he was perched on and swung onto Krystal's tail- the scaly part, not the mace part. 'Cause a spike in a thigh or the backside would hurt, a lot, so he did his best to avoid that. "We should probably head back and get some food before Marcia starts yelling again." He said with a light smirk. Ariel nodded and giggled a little.

[ this is TOTALLY off-topic but I thought I'd let you know "The Last Lekti" has been put on hold because of writer's block x.o ]

[[ I'm not sleepy yet, heehee. ^^' I can sleep in tomorrow, too <3.. It's just that- longstoryshort an old friend who literally hasn't spoken to me for four months sent me a 'ping' on Facebook and scrambled my brain up into high heaven. ]]

Seth sighed a little and sat back down, amused by how friendly Krystal was even if she threw people into the mud on her feisty mood-swings. Seth nodded a little when he heard the offer of actually getting something to eat before they went out and got themselves nearly-killed again. He wanted to speak up right then and say something about the dragon, though. Seth was pleasantly surprised at how right he was from the very start. "If I can live to say so, then it would be fun to have a pet dragon." A smile crept onto his face and he closed his eyes, remembering that strange moment. "I told you so," Seth thought aloud.

[[ Ahs, okee. /closes deviantart page. ^^;; You left off at such a good part, too. >:c ]]

[ ah, hehe okayz ^^ ]

Michael blinked at Seth's thinking out-loud comment and laughed lightly, remembering the scene that took place. Ariel held in a giggle and smiled. 'Yes, yes you did.' She continued to smile. Michael jumped from Krystal's tail and started towards the village backwards. "Come on guys." He calls to his friends. Ariel hovers after him. 'Wait for us~'

[ *innocent grin* ]

[[ >o< ]]

Seth laughed as well when he finally realized what he'd done. He sighed shyly as if it were no big deal and put a hand behind his neck, looking down and away. Seeing that Michael was already started towards the village, Seth followed his lead with Ariel and leaped off of the dragon's tail right behind. He made sure not to make some incredibly insane landing but also kept himself upright without crashing. It took a second to re-calibrate to the flat surface with no extra movement, but within seconds Seth slipped his shoes on his damp socks and sped a little to catch up to Michael. "Are we going to drag Marcia along too?"

[[ Amg- you gotta write what happens. QxQ;; ]]

A sly devious smirk formed across Michael's thin lips. Ariel sighed, she knew that look. It was a look of Michael getting an idea, a mischievous one at that. 'Maybe I should warn her...' She thinks to herself. "Marcia's never turned down an adventure to kick some bad-guy-butt, why would she now?" Michael spoke up as they got closer to hut.

[ i will~ as soon as i get inspired or run over the writers block... WB picked a bad time to hit me T^T ]

[[ i'm gonna hit the hay- it's -late- xox nini nova-chan~ ]]

Seth took note of Michael's grin and looked away casually at the clouds. He saw what Ariel had done in reaction and felt a little relieved that maybe it was a normal thing. Still, he wondered if Marcia was really willing to be able to go on some sort of life-threatening adventure. It might not be her normal. 'Normal, hah..' he thought. Seth kept walking with that thought in mind.