Shan stroked his cheek gently. "Well, there is no point in dwelling on it now. I suppose we'll just work with what we have, dear Phineas." She straightened herself out as she said this. "Now. I do believe you need a bath," she said, looking at him closely. She really didn't want any dirt on those wounds, and a bath was always refreshing.

Ani couldnt help but smile at Phineas last statement about being found. She nodded at Shans statement about him getting clean. "Would you like me to start on preparing a balm to be used to help heal him wounds?" She asked. Ari had been right about her being able to do this, it was one of her specialties, she was always in tents helping the wounded when she wasn't fighting.
Ani was trying to think of a way she could help Phineas travel, walk without having to use his arms or support. She could make a dirt chair for him. He could sit in it and as long as there was dirt where they were traveling, it would move with her. She looked at Phineas, for some reason she didnt think he would want that. It seems so much more helpless than he was right now. Perhaps a little more browsing in the leather bound book would give her idea.

Phineas looked at Shan, slightly mortified at the mention of this new adventure. He crossed his arms across his chest, eyes widening. "I do?"
He would never deign to sit in a moving dirt chair, if he'd known what Ani was thinking, his reaction would have made it very clear what he thought of the idea.

Shira couldn't help but smile at the group. she looked over at the boy she had pratically glomped to death and approached him, she patted his back and smiled softly " sorry about earlier... but you know you really are veryu cute... when you get to be a bit older i'm sure you'll be fighting the girls off with a stick.." she laughed.

" oh by the way....Did any of you by chance see a strange flashing light a couple days ago...it's the whole reason i'm in this mess....if not that's cool but it would be a great help if you could point the way out, lord only knows how long i've been stuck in these mountains..." shira stated, though secretly she kinda wanted to stay with them abit longer.

Shan traced Phineas's cheek with her index finger, then showed it to him so that he could see the dark spot. "Yes, dear, you do," she told him, smiling. "It's not a bad thing." She then turned to Ani, grateful at the suggestion. "Please do that as soon as you can," she told her.

Yuki nodded. "Um, thank you miss. Although I'd rather not beat girls away with a stick..."

Shan looked at Yuki. As mature as her son was, he was sometimes quite clueless. "Quite a few people have been stuck in the mountains," she explained to Shira. "The full story is a bit long but you have basically been stuck in the dream world. This group you see here is made up of those who wish to see things go back to normal, and those who have been lost for a while."

"I would be one of the latter group - I too saw the strange light and was heading towards it when I ran into the group here." Ari interjected, and he was grinning a little from Yuki's statement - the younger boy was so naive, it was actually heartening. "It'd be faster if one of us had control over air... as we could just float him along or something..." He said while fingering his chin, still looking at Phineas thoughtfully. This was proving to be rather troubling, but he was still grinning - this time due to Phineas' response to Shan's statement about a shower.

(( sorry guys, mom is being mean and besides i seriously gotta clean my room be back later ))

Phineas rubbed at his face with both hands and then looked at them. He muttered a flowery draconian curse at the dirt there and looked dejectedly at Shan.
"That's not great." he said, drawing from Shira's... interesting... vocabulary.
He wiped his hands off on his makeshift toga, sticking out his tongue in disgust.

Some part of Shan's motherly nature was delighted with Phineas. He was a child in her eyes no matter what he said. "Come, now, Phineas. It's for your own good. I don't want you to become ill when it could have been avoided." As Shan said this, she avoided sounding patronizing. She didn't want even the slightest hint of meanness to show in her voice, for there was none.

"Oh? Is this what you want to look like, then?" Ari said playfully as he began to change his own image - it was an illusion, but it was a flawless vision nevertheless and would fool the child easily. To Phineas, he would appear quite... disheveled - with matted hair and dirt covering most of his skin, if not his clothing. He had dried... things smeared across his shirt and his grinning visage, from which his teeth seemed to shine extra white underneath the dirt and whatever else that covered his face. "I can't say that it's much of an appealing image... I'm sure you would look quite cute beneath that second skin of yours... but we may never find out if you don't take a bath. Pity, though, that I can't make you smell what might reek off of you if you remain obstinate for too long." His easy smile showed all those around him that he was only teasing the little boy, though a part of his mind reminded him that they have been lingering in the same place for a rather long time, and it would be well for them to start moving soon.

Phineas' eyes couldn't possibly have gotten larger. He gaped at Ari's transformation. (it's like looking into my reflecting pool... oh god what have they done to me?) He fussed with his hair for a moment, as if looking for something, then turned to Shan again.
"Bath. Now." he commanded, rising to his hands.

(Phineas was used to his sense of smell being much more keen, his current state almost seemed crippled in comparison, but he bet he smelled much worse than he thought.)
((ha, ha.))

[[OMG~ I got first place in the Flower Fantasy category of the Phoenix Jubilee art contest~ >////////< I was about to come to this thread when I saw I had a message *_*


OH HEY, WE'RE ON PAGE 20! XD]]

Shan stared at Ari, having a very difficult time repressing the urge to laugh. "Goodness, that is horrifying. I am terribly glad I cannot smell it." She tilted her head, trying to figure out even half of the...things... covering Ari. "How it is possible for you to conjure such an image, I dare not ask." Somehow managing to keep her chuckle within herself, she looked at Phineas. "You, sir, have made quite a sensible decision," she said, pointing to the lowermost spring, indicating that she wanted him to go into that one.

Ani silently laughed to herself at the gimmick going on. "An indeed wise choice Phineas." She added before smiling again. She looked over at Yuki before asking him, "Would you mind terribly helping me?" She was had a specific herb rub in mind but it needed to be applied very cold, Yuki could help her with that.

Yuki looked up at Ani, somewhat nervous. "I'll be glad to help in any way I can," he stated shyly. He was not so sure as to how much he could help, exactly, but he would at least try.

((congratulations!!!! XD!))

Phineas scrambled to the spring, shifting his weight from one hand to the other to "walk". He was fairly good at it already, only scraping himself against the ground once or twice on his way. He halted at the edge of the water and looked nervously over his shoulder.

((Double congrats!! ^^))

Ani nodded and waved him over with her hand. She began looking for fertile enough soil around the cave to grow the herbs. Finding a soft patch she sat down, folding her legs under her. "Yuki, I need you to find something that looks like a bowl and a round rock for me." She said with a soft smile. "Think you can?" She asked.

((okay guys i'm back, what's happend so far?))

Shan looked at Phineas and decided it would be better for her to step in first. She still wasn't fully clothed, either way. In fact, she hadn't even touched the rest of her clothes since last night. She stepped into the water, which only reached to slightly above her knee, and motioned for Phineas to come in as well.

Yuki listened to Ani carefully, nodded, and ran off, coming back only when he had found what she had asked for. The "bowl" looked like a fair-sized, hollow rock. Thinking about why it had been so hollow was not going to help, so Yuki refrained from doing so. The second object was smaller and rounder, and certainly not hollow, for it was a bit heavy. He placed these objects in front of Ani, hoping they would be of any use.

[[EDIT: Nothing much just yet, although I find it pretty funny XD

Ari(the dude) scared Phineas into taking a bath, and Ani (the girl) is making something to treat Phineas's wounds with the help of Yuki.

Personally, I find the similarity between the names Ari and Ani a bit daunting XD]]

((Dx, I missed a lot. Can someone please fill me in? I think I posted last on page 17))

By the time that Yuki had come back with the items she requested, Ani had grown fresh garlic, and with seeds in her pouch she was in the process of growing Gotu Kola. She looked up as Yuki placed the things in front of her and smiled, "Perfect, thank you." She replied before pausing to pluck a garlic clove from the stem that she had dug from the earth. Ani was in need of one more item, honey, it was in a round bottle in her pouch along with her seeds.
She looked up at Yuki, showing him the honey filled bottle, "Honey makes a great wound dressing. It absorbs water and germs cannot live without water. As well as it contains propolis a substance made by bees that is great for the healing process." She said explaining softly to the boy. She smiled as she peeled the garlic and placed several cloves of it into the makeshift bowl. "Fresh, mashed garlic can also be applied to a wound to keep the air out. It kills virus and bacteria instantly as well. In the ancient times when poor people cannot have access to a doctor, garlic was a cureall. It has vitamins C, A, B,G, sulfur iron and calcium. It can even kill some germs that penicillin cant, such as bacillus paratyphoid. " She motioned to the Gotu kola, "This herb has been in use for centuries in Asia. It helps in the treatment of scars and wounds with infections that have not yet reached the bone." She said smiling at Yuki. "Mix honey, garlic and gotu kola and you have a very powerful antibiotic herbal cream." Ani poured the honey into the bowl and the gotu kola. She took the round rock and began mashing the three ingredients together. She added an onion in as well. As she peeled it clean, "Onions are antiseptic and loaded with vitamin C." She said adding it to the mixture. She continued mashing, only pausing long enough to send all the plants that had grown for her, back into the ground, to their rightful place on the earth.

Shira had thought about what the others had said for quite abit of time, they answered her first question but never her second, so she thought that she might as well stay here with them until the right time came and she would drift off again on her own. Shira sat just outside the cave. She used her ability to manipulate nature and made herself a nice vine swing. Leaves and thick roots uprooted and twirled and creeped across the ground and sneaked their way up into the trees, wrapping themselves around the branches and than coming back down again to form her seat on the swing. Shira swang back and forth abit as she got lost in her thoughts.

((Dusty, you are awesome. The salve sounds totally delicious ^_-
Platty (hehe, nickname assignment time) you think everything is funny! XD
I'm done here at work, I'll stick around for a littttle while longer but then I have to run off to catch my long bus ride home, so I'll try to settle myself into somewhere where I can leave without missing anything...))

Phineas sat down on the edge of the pool and pushed himself in gently. He ducked under as he got his hands under him and his head rose out of the water, hair stuck to his head. His two small golden horns were also totally covered in dust, though now that the hair was not puffing up over them, they could see the light of day again. His eyes were squeezed shut against the mud dribbling down his face. The pool wasn't going to be nice for long...

Kira was surprised at how Ari was able to change his image like that. An illusionist? Maybe. She sat around, watching Ani and Yuki prepare the medicinal goop (whatever it might be) and Phineas go to take a bath. He made a good choice though, considering the way he looked. She was half glad that she didn't have that good of a sense of smell.

Yuki watched Ani at work, quite interested in what she was saying. One of the reasons he liked reading so much was because of the new things he was able to learn. This newly-acquired information would certainly be helpful in the future. Despite the amount of books he had read, he had learned quite a bit in mere minutes. He sat cross-legged, elbows resting on his knees, and continued to watch intently.

"Oh my..." Shan held her hand up to her mouth, in both surprise and amusement. "You'll have to keep your eyes shut for a bit," she told him as she began pouring water on his head. She could see the water turning brown already. It was a good thing nothing was living in there. The first thing she did was wash his hair, turning her white hands brown in the process. The darkness of his hair was becoming more visible. It now looked black rather than a dark brown. When his hair was clean enough she moved down to his face and neck, making sure to wipe the mud away from his eyes. This left him looking as if his head and neck did not belong with the rest of his body. "You can open them now, dear," she told him smiling. When he did open them, though, he'd see a mud covered-angel. It was actually quite amusing to look at, all things considered.

[[gah, I missed your post, Cows Go Moo, and now mom wants to use the comp, so I'll have to provide a summary later ^^;;; ]]

The dirty angel WAS funny, though he felt pretty ashamed of himself for having been SO dirty around someone so pure and white and clean. To hide his embarassment, phineas pretended to amuse himself by trying to float. He would swim if he could but the water wasn't quite deep enough for even his usual thrashing doggy paddle. And swimming in a torn up toga probably wouldn't look very graceful, anyhow.

((Hey Cow... let's see if I can help you out... um um um... We went to sleep, then it was morning and my legs were gone again, and we've determined that now you have a weirdo dragon in your group of travellers. A very perky Shira stumbled upon us and glomped Yuki into embarassment. Now she's joined us as well. Shan is mother-henning around Phineas and Ari and Ani are doing what (I hope) they do best, which is apparently medicine and illusions. That's what I've gathered, anyway. It's a pretty good read if you have the time ^_^))

((Don't do anything weird to me, I'll be back in... like... an hour or something. Stupid bus. I'd like to be around for the part with the salve...))