[Roll]

[ooc] What I tell ya? [/ooc]

As Welf and the others ran alongside with Asa, who was currently chanting a spell very softly into the eternal darkness of the forest, everyone couldn't help noticing that everything was becoming still darker. The once lush green trees had just lost their luster, and began to become brown and tattered. The ground that was so wondrously covered in mosses, grasses, and flowers was nowbecoming to be just a dirt road. Even the elevation levels, though they seemed normal, began to change rapidly. The ground was rising with each step that everyone had taken, and though he was utterly confused, Welf continued his periless dash through the forest region with the thought of his dear friend. Asa had stopped chanting her spell and drew Welfs attention. He went closer to her to inquire what she wanted, but all she would say was that they were near. Welfunderstood well enough to nod, and tell the others that they were near to the mansion that would hold Angela.

Surprisingly enough, the elevation level seemed to stop rising, which was a good thing at the time because the elevation was so high that Welf was nowbending his knees in an attempt to climb. They had all just scraped past a fewbranches when Asa stopped them from continuing further. She pointed upwards, at a stone. Welf and the others looked closely at her, and noticed that she was not joking about her point. She really meant what she intended to mean with it. That was the mansion. As they continued further, they slowed down to a steady walk. Asa went next to them once more.

Asa: "When we enter the mansion, we will be in a lot of danger. Many things probably reside inside of it now, because of how long it was left deserted. Yet, once we enter, we cannot stop for anything until you find Angela."
Welf: "I understand perfectly, and that was my intention from the start."
Asa: "You are sure of your intention?"
Welf: "eh?"
Asa: "You are sure that you do not care that Angela will most likely bring you some kind of misfortune in your life? You are sure that no matter what warnings I can give you, you will disregard them and head for her anyway? You must think carefully before you enter. When you enter this mansion, you must enter while holding your true feelings for your reason for entering in your heart. If you do not, you may not come back out alive."
Welf looked forward at the hill they were walking on, and Tikalis spoke up.
Tikalis: "So what are you trying to say? That if we don't tell the truth about why we're going into the mansion we'll be killed?"
Asa: "Yes, and one other thing. If you enter and you know and admit to why you're going, then you still will have to relate your feelings on that reasons. At the very least, you can't disguise it from yourself. It would be dangerous."
Tikalis: "I see.."
Welf: "Then in that case, I'm sure that I'm going to go in."
Asa looked at him with surprised eyes, and Welf only returned the look with his smile.
Welf: "I'm sure I'll be alright."
Asa only smiled and was now sure of what she had suspected in the first place. She had no more doubts, and finally the mansion was visible to the group. However surprising it was to Welf and the others, the surprise seemed to have slipped past Asa. She just continued to make her way up to the old building.

The mansion itself was more of an antique than the entire group had seen before. It looked beat up and battered by endless weather and wind. There were cracks all along the stone edges, and the windows only shined in an eerie manner. There were two stone statues that stood in front of the doorway, one in the shape of a horse with a man on top, and one in the shape of a lady wielding a mirror in her delicate arms. They did not, strangely enough, look very damaged at all, and almost seemed completely alive. As Asa and the others closed in on the doors, Asa stopped them and had them turn around. What they saw was very shocking. Everything, the forest, the sky, the ground... everything had turned black and gray. The trees were no longer their beautiful green selves, and the sky was filled with clouds that warned of deadly storms. The ground was just as gray as everything else, and was very dead. They had finally seen the true state of the land where Angela came from.

Asa pulled out her rod once more, and waved it once in front of the door, which had opened after the wave. The wings on her rod began to flutter drastically as well, and Asa turned around in circles as if looking for something. Then, she stopped and was staring at the statues. The statues had not moved an inch, but Asa told her suspicions aloud, and began to prod the statues in a careful manner. She found them to be made purely of magical rock, but the rock needed to be activated before they would be in any danger. Luckily, the only people that could do that, she explained, were people who had this lands power in their bloodline. So, they all entered into the mansion. Welf looked around at the old interior.

The inside of the mansion was worse than the exterior. There were many many cobwebs that told tales of many poisonous spiders, and the cracks on the floor proved to be dangerous as Welf took a step forward and fell through the ground. With half of his body in the floor and the other half above the floor, he saw the entire mansion at a different view. He saw more cobwebs than before, and the floor was so covered with dust, that it seemed to look like flour. There were a few tables and chairs sitting around, each covered with miscellaneous pieces of art, or some other decoration, and there was a particularly large painting that was so covered in dust, that no one could make out what it had depicted. Strangely enough, it seemed to missing something anyway, so no one really minded. When Welf had gotten out of the floor, however, he looked to Asa for help, hoping she could tell him where he could go. She just shook her head and spoke simple words:
"Let's split up."
Welf and the others stared at her. She only smiled and walked off after wishing them luck, and everyone decided to do the same. Welf looked around in the main room just a little bit more before continuing to find some more stairs on the opposite side. As he was climbing the stairs slowly and carefully, he noticed the stairs had been used recently, because they lacked dust coverage and was wiped clean of cobwebs. He followed the stairs all the way to the second level, and turned to look at the first door he came across. Then he opened the door. He had the room, only to find what looked like some misplaced objects, and some toys. The toys were wooden toys, and one of them was a toy he remembered. He remembered playing with it when he was really little, but what he didn't remember was how he received the toy in the first place because it wasn't in any market he had come across. He went over and picked it up, and swung it slowly, which made the ball attached to the wooden stake fly up and fall into the cup. He smiled upon his remembered skill, and then was hit with a thought. He closed his eyes only for a moment, yet he had seen something. He was someone giving him the toy, but the person was engulfed in shadow and light in his vision. He could imagine a sweet and loving voice that was similar to Angelas (except that it was deeper)that chuckled alongside the gift giving. However, he shaked off the thought, and left the room to enter the next one down the hall.

When he entered the next few rooms, they turned out to be normal bedrooms, except that they were filled with broken furniture and tattered cloths that could have been fine a bit ago. However, at the end of that hallway that he went to, he found a door with an engraving of a small rose at the top. He looked at it for a moment before placing his hand on the doorknob, and twisting it slowly, opened the door. He entered the room, which looked amazingly clean in comparison to the rest of the house: it was sparkling, there was no damage at all, and everything looked crisp and new. He walked up to the bed that was in there, and felt its cloth while he examined the rest of the room. When he looked at the rest of the room, he saw a painting that looked like it was made fairly recently of a large tree with a bench underneath it, as well as some rocks that were in front of it. He looked at that painting with an unconscious interest, until he realized that it looked like the old tree that was in his hometown. He remembered the tree: It was the biggest tree the eye could ever see, and was filled with millions of leaves, and covered in branches and twigs. The leaves were always a treat to see, because they were very abnormal to every other tree in the area. Yet, there was something else that he was remembering slowly.

Yes... it was a memory; he was sure of it. It was very sunny, and there was a few kids chasing him. The reason was unknown, but they were chasing him. He remembered tripping over himself, and falling down, so that the kids had caught up to him. Then he remembered seeing a lot of leaves and dirt, as well as hearing a lot of "OW"'s at the moment.... and then...

"Hey! Leave him alone!"
There was a child standing on a rock that had seen what was going on. They wearing awkward clothing, which stood out to him, yet, it was very appealing, since it seemed to look well with their shimmering blue hair. However, the kids that heard the voice stopped what they were doing to turn and look at the stray child. The child just began to walk forward in a defiant manner as the other children stared on, and Welf did the same. The child turned out to be a little girl, who didn't stop until she was a few feet away from the other children. Her eyes burned with anger and concern as she spoke.
Little girl: "What he ever do to you?"
One of the Children took a step forward and spoke. "He's a freak of nature, that's what he is. That's reason enough right there." The little girl's anger seemed to increase with the flow of the statements that reeled afterwards, and she screamed something unintelligible at them, which stopped their lengthy words.
"You're hurting an innocent person just because they're different than you? That's not fair, and it's not something that should be done! So, please leave him alone."
Children: "What are you going to do if we don't?"
Girl: "If you don't, I... I will... will..." She started to look very unsure about something.
Child: "Well, alright. We'll leave him alone. He was too easy to get anyway, so we can get him again later.. for now... we'll get you!"

The little girl