Elizabeth sat up straight in her chair, her eyes wide before giggling. “Well it has been some time since I heard from him...” But she then frowned at remembering his threat to strip her of her powers. That was not fair to her! It was not her fault! “Lord Millipede! Who is this Lord of Dreams?” Elizabeth demanded.

She had not noticed another person in her room, but she caught sight of him backing in to a dark corner. “Oh! Hello there! I'm sorry!” Elizabeth giggled. “Scared? Me?”

She got up from her table and walked over to the man. “My name is Eli—Oh! It's you! Mister... Mister..” Elizabeth had forgotten his name, but waved a dismissive hand. “Anyways we have a meeting right? Yes.. Yes we do...”

She turned back, walking to her table and crystal ball. Sitting down she stared in to the crystal ball muttering between 'Lord of Dreams'.


Calypso spied a couple as she looked around her surroundings, but nearby was also a sleeping dog...

'They will keep me safe...' The kitten thought to herself. So slowly she crept out towards them but just as she got out from under the cart... She could hear growling above her... Tilting her head back she could see the muzzle of the dog above her head. She dashed down the street, finally crashing right in to a human's leg.

Scared and shivering, Calypso began mewling. “Don't let the scary doggy get me please!” She whimpered up at the man... Then she realized who the man was and began gently climbing up his leg. “Master Cole! Master Cole!”

Her eyes were wide and watery. “I-I'm so sorry! I was curious, I was just exploring and then I got tossed out and couldn't get back in and there was this big scary doggy chasing me...” Calypso clung to her master's leg, she was safe now, very safe. “And... And then I got lost and then I saw you walking down the street, but I didn't know it was you but another doggy is chasing me and.. And... Oh Master Cole I'm so scared!”

Elizabeth was still gazing at the bowl, 10 seconds had passed and The Lord got really frightened. The wolf had to eat or it would bite the blue wizard! There was a spell somewhere, Millipede accelerated and went like a lightening up the dusty bookshelves. He grabbed the big one the that was lying on the top, grabbed the book cover with his teeth, lifted it open to the the place where he had left a neon book marker.

'Oh Zip Zap,' he said in a ceremonial tone, 'protector of the squirrels, may your mercy be with me. Give that beast something to soothe his rage.' He added all sorts of mysterious signs he made in the air with his eyes closed until a book fell from it's shelves transforming in flight into a oversized, tasty slice of raw meat. It flopped right in front of Mactíre. 'I clearly now need a nut.' Millipede sighed, moping the sweat from his brow. 'A macadamia would be nice!'

Elizabeth came back to her senses and he heard her ask him: 'Who is this Lord of Dreams?' He did not answer right away, he felt a little too dizzy to think. The book was so nice, so tree-like, warm where the pages. It would be alright to doze off for a second, wouldn't it... rolled into a little squirrel spell, no one would mind....right? thinking this, the terrible Lord was already fast asleep.

"So my dear," Evette looped her arm through his, "Lead the way?"

Okay, so this was totally the wrong way to react to her touch, but Nicole felt his face heating up at the gesture. No idea why, lol, it was awesome and reassuring and so refined and ladylike he suddenly he felt like he was some classy superhero-gentleman like Bruce Wayne or something, rather than a small-time English teacher that barely made enough to pay the bills and pamper the kitty.

At any rate, the point was: blushing. Blushing! Blushing like a schoolgirl. Gosh darn.

"Uh --" Dude, embarrassing! Cover it up! Cover it up! He quickly turned away and did the first thing he could think of to hide his face. He -- well, he plucked a Kleenex from his pants' pocket and blew his nose.

Gaah. Nicole! What is wrong with you? The voice inside his head was facepalming. This is Evette, man! Evette freaking March! She doesn't do improper! And honestly he had no idea what was wrong with blowing one's nose in front of someone, but there must be something, like some secret French etiquette code that forbid it, because it really didn't seem that classy. Turning to Eve again he smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry - I - I felt like I was about to sneeze and, uh --" Obviously the blush came back with a vengeance. "Yeah."

Smooth, Cole. Real smooth.

We got ourselves a ladies' man here.

He cleared his throat. "Right! Lead the way. I can totally do that. It's, ah - it's like my middle name, hey? Nicole Lead-the-Way Reed, lol."

Did he actually say 'lol' aloud?

Man.

Why why why did he do this type of stuff when he got flustered?

- - - - - - - - - -

Aaaanyway! Stepping out into the cold air helped. Well, it helped and didn't help, at the same time. Rational Mode was, thankfully, turned back on, which was awesome. He also remembered some mysterious evil dude was out to get them, which was as un-awesome as un-awesome gets.

Even more un-awesome was that he now had like this sense of anxiety. It was a Jaws kind of feeling, like how your stomach clenches when you know the shark is just about to get someone. Or maybe it was more The Matrix, a someone-is-watching-you kind of feeling. Either way, he felt like someone was... stalking?

"Uh... Eves?" He said. Sounding brave like G.I. Joe, obviously. "Don't you, like..." Brave brave brave. "I mean, prolly I'm just being paranoid, but don't you feel something here is... kinda wrong?"

Thankful for the soft pressure of her dainty fingers on his arm, he looked around. He couldn't see much though, the evening was just normal and misty and -- oh, wait. No, that was his glasses. They'd fogged up again.

"Oh - hold on," he said. He stopped to polish them with the hem of his shirt. "Just - lemme real quick -"

Suddenly something bumped against his leg. Nicole jumped. Very, very nearly dropped his glasses.

“Don't let the scary doggy get me please!” A little voice said. Oh, he recognized that voice! The little patch of warmth clinging to his shin started climbing up his leg. "Master Cole! Master Cole!"

Definitely, definitely recognized it! He glanced down at the little creature, but saw only a blurry splotch of black. Quickly he put his glasses back on. "Calypso?" he said.

His kitten's adorable crimson eyes were wide and watery. “I-I'm so sorry! I was curious, I was just exploring and then I got tossed out and couldn't get back in and there was this big scary doggy chasing me.. And... And then I got lost and then I saw you walking down the street, but I didn't know it was you but another doggy is chasing me and.. And... Oh Master Cole I'm so scared!”

Nicole raised his eyebrows. Took everything in. Then he mentally smacked himself for being a dumbass and immediately picked her up. "Aw, my kitty-wibby!" He unzipped his jacket, pressed the kitten against his chest and pulled up the zipper again so that only her head was peeking out, level with his neck. He propped up the little quivering frame with his arm. "Why you gettin' yourself into trouble when it's this cold outside, baby? Are you crazy?"

Sure enough, here came the dog. Just your average street dog, barking and all, so brave it was bullying a kitten.

Now, Nicole's usual reaction to angry dogs was to stand very still, since as a kid he'd learned that they actually do outrun you, if you flee. But this time his kitty was very scared and it was le ugly mutt's fault. And that - well, that just...

Well. It made him mad.

He scowled. A quick glance left and right told him there was no one around, just Evette and him. He raised his other hand, the one that wasn't holding Calypso, toward the dog, palm open.

"Shoo!" he said. "Shoo! Go away! You jerk!"

His fingertips tingled while his magic did its work. On the sidewalk, right next to the dog appeared a scarecrow - as freaking scary as Nicole could imagine one. The mutt yelped and attacked it, but didn't accomplish much. As long as the scarecrow's button eyes were firmly stitched in place, it couldn't really get damaged, it'd just keep repairing itself.

Finally the dog gave up and ran off. Nicole exhaled. The scarecrow went poof and disappeared.

"Man." He pushed his glasses back up his nose. Planted a kiss on top of Calypso's head. "I hate hate hate getting angry, Evie. So much." He rolled his shoulders. So stiff. "Ow."

Alberto stared feigning calmness, when the Lord jumped off. Alberto's red eyes followed to Lord as it was making a ruckus. His calm nonchalant face transformed into a rather graceless open mouthed, dish eyed kind of look, as the lord transformed a book into a loaf of meat.

"Noooooooooooooo!" he let out a cry that seemed similar to Star Wars' Darth Vader's noooooooooo lament at the end of the third movie. He had long wanted Elizabeth to lend that book to him, it was a spellbook. Filled with arcane secrets.

Noticing he was being watched he coughed, and raised his hood, to conceal his shamed expression. "So... we better find this, what, Lord of Naps?"

Elizabeth gave an order to the Lord, who fell fast asleep in the pages of a book. Alberto's eyes narrowed upon realizing opportunity was smiling his way, he trotted to the bookshelf. He picked up the asleep terrible Lord, and stuffed him into his long sleeves again, the rodent was starting to grow on him somehow.

He then walked towards a window, and opened it. The pure white snow was with her faithful companion as always, cold. Were it that he had warm blood he might've shuddered. "I figure this Lord of Snoozes is somewhere in paris. So... two wizards should have no trouble finding him." He sheepishly sat on the window frame, nervously gripping the frame with his hands. Upon thinking it twice, he abandoned his intentions of looking cool, and immediately got down. "Aye." What else was there to say in such an embarrassing moment?

Wait.

Was Nicole blushing? Surely not. Sweet, dear Nicole! What did that mean? A secretive smile hinted at her lips. It was an interesting scenario indeed, and while she didn't mind imagining what it meant it just simply wasn't in her nature or upbringing to truly over exaggerate the possibilities. All thoughts of anything else vanished when he went to blow his nose. She leaned that slightly forward and to the side. Not in that Eeew-get-away-from-me-you're-so-disgusting type of way, no, simply a are-you-getting-sick-should-I-be-concerned type of way.

"Cole? Are you getting sick?" She questioned gently, it wouldn't be a surprise this winter had a bite to it and the flu was going around. Cute as a button he looked at her and gave a sheepish smile. And oh, oh that blush! That crimson sheen that betrayed his cover up.

Evette wasn't oblivious to what that meant, but nor is she someone who thinks every action has some dramatic meaning and that it has to be dissected into tiny little pieces until you know which pore that drop of sweat came from and that it was there because of some god-knows-what reason! Judgement is simply not in her forte. Whatever was happening Eve didn't want to push or make anything more awkward she simply wanted him to be relaxed around her. She wouldn't mind courteous either but that's something else entirely.

"Nicole Lead-the-Way Reed..." She actually pondered it for a moment, disregarding his use of 'lol'. It was a term that she didn't particularly like, was it so difficult for people to actually laugh? These modern slang words were a serious crutch to the human language. "It has a certain ring to it. It could most definitely work for you." She bumped against him slightly and gave him a cheeky grin.

___

Jack Frost was in a foul mood. The degrees had dropped like stones and instantly the skin rose on Evette's arms. The winter had never been something she disliked, she found it enchanting and refreshing, but stepping out now something felt wrong. Cole seemed to think so too as he voiced her thoughts. Her guard was already up and she nodded her head slowly. Instinct told her to make them invisible, cast the illusion so that no one would see them, but before she had the chance to something made Nicole jump. He had already let go of her arm but he did bump into her slightly.

Heart in throat and hand to chest to glanced down to see a small black kitten. The poor thing was shaking with fear, she just wanted to take it and store it away, keep it from the big scary world. Thankfully, Nicole was already picking the dear thing up and snuggling it. It was no puzzle to figure out that this sweet kitten was his companion. She wondered how that came to be. Her curiosity piqued as to his acquirement of the tiny cat. If Cole's middle name was Lead-the-Way then hers was Tack because she knew how to ask without being so brash and oblivious.

Then the barking came. It was feral and ferocious. Evette was not a wimp, she did not scare easily but death threats and beastly dogs are something that will put her hair on end. Without thinking her grip went to clutch Cole's bicep and she moved slightly behind him.

A deep grumble erupted from her shoulder, it was an unnecessary fright as it was simply Charon who had awoken and started this strange lizard growl.

"Brave Charon." Was all she could manage, her eyes never left the saliva dripping jaw and those yellowing canines. Evette only just registered Nicole shouting for the mutt to go away but she was still trying to get over her shock before she could do any use and actually make them disappear from the dogs sight.

Instead, a terrifying looking scarecrow came out of no-where, freaking the dog out. The only reason she didn't scream at it's appearance was one that it would definitely not be the most dignified of things to do and two that she noticed the button eyes. It was the only way that she knew it was Nicole's creation.

Eve expelled a large breath of air that she hadn't realised she had been holding as the dog finally fled. She was still clinging to Cole's arm and Charon had slunk into the crux of her arm for warmth and to try and comfort her. The incident with the dog had really tipped the scale again, she thought she had put a lid on her whole freak out about the death threat but in reality it was still close under the surface. With nerves on end the only thing that she could do to stop from breaking down was to straighten her spine and believe that everything was going to be alright.


"Man. I hate hate hate getting angry, Evie. So much. Ow." He sounded calm, tense but relatively calm. He made her so proud.

"Maybe so, but you acted with bravery. For that you are my hero and it seems this little ones too!" She bent forward, scrunching her nose and making cutesy sounds at the darling kitten. "It's a pleasure to meet you little one. Is your name Calypso? That's a lovely name." She cooed gently, while sneaking a quick glance up at Cole and giving him a playful smile. "Isn't Master Cole so brave to have saved us?"

Elizabeth flinched and shielded her eyes as the rays from the outside world filtered in to the room. She sent a glare in Alberto's direction before getting up from her seat and went over to the piles of books she stacked off to the side of the room. The crystal ball was of no help without knowing what exactly she was searching for.

“Lord of Dreams.” She corrected him. “And finding him would be easier if we knew who or what we were looking for.”

Information... Need more information. Elizabeth thought to herself. She truly despised riddles and puzzles, unless of course, she was the one giving them. Sitting on the floor in front of the stacks of books Elizabeth started flipping through them. She had many books, varying from spells and potions to demons, as well as some coloring books. Whenever she was bored she would color the pictures of animals, covered in blood and as demonic looking as she could.

Elizabeth started singing 'Ring a Ring o'Roses' while she skimmed through the pages of the book in her lap.


Calypso purred and nuzzled against her master, safe and warm at last. She looked up at the woman beside her master and gave her cute kitten smile.

“Caly for short!” Calypso loved receiving compliments and attention, it always made her feel loved and accepted. “And master Cole is the best! He always take really good care of me and protects me from the scary things.”

Stretching up, Calypso gently licked her master's chin, when her stomach growled. “Oh, pardon that... I'm hungry after my adventures...” If it was possible for felines to blush, this was certainly a time where Calypso would be. She felt quite embarrassed to meet someone knew, only to have her tummy make hunger noises.

"Maybe so," Evette said, "but you acted with bravery. For that you are my hero it seems this little one's too."

"What - me?" Nicole blinked. "A... a hero?" He added that last part quietly, not sure if Evie had heard - he said it to himself.

Hero.

Hmm.

It wasn't exactly a word people had applied to Nicole millions and trillions of times. The last time musta been back in elementary school. When he had plucked up the guts to tell that kid Andy Rogers to stop calling little Tony a beaner and a wetback and all that shiz and got beaten up for it after the bell rang that day. Little Tony told his mom who told his dad who told his grandpa, so that Old Mr Gomez came to Nicole after school one afternoon. "You're a hero, m'hijo," he said. "Don't you let anybody tell you different."

And now hearing it again, he actually thought about it, what he just did. He had stood up to an angry dog. An angry dog, man. Without an owner. Or a leash. An angry dog that could've been like rabid or - or something - as far as he knew.

"Oh," he said. "Well, dang." That coulda turned out bad.

Evie was being all nice and cute to Calypso, just fillin' up his baby's love-o-meter. She looked up to glance at him playfully. Man, how'd he never notice before? Evette had a heart-stumbling smile. He knew because his heart actually did stumble on it. But that was okay because he covered it up like super subtly and just looked down at his kitty like she'd just done something super interesting and no one noticed anything.

Dude. Why'd this stuff keep happening? Just how long had Evette been his best girl? Whyyyy did his circulatory system have to go haywire over her now? He'd seen his fair share of chick flicks, he shipped Ron x Hermione and he was Team Edward and all, but with Evette all that type of stuff was just -- he'd never even thought of it seriously. Because, like. Evette was off-limits. Not that he'd never ever ever dated someone before, but Evette was the Friend. The Golden Friend. The Golden Friend with the Ugly Lizard Buddy. That type of friend you just don't date.

"Master Cole is the best!" Calypso was purring. "He always takes really good care of me and protects me from the scary things."

He felt the tiny warm raspy tongue of his kitten against his chin. He grinned at the familiar feeling, all to happy to snap out of his thoughts.

"Ah, well, it's Caly that takes care of me." He scratched the top of her head, all gentle-like. "She reminds me to do stuff like, eat, or sleep. Actually I woulda like died or something if I hadn't found her, or if she hadn't found me, or - yeah. See, it was one of those days and I'd sort of locked myself out of my house, and I had this really bad cold. By 4 am I was pretty sure it was like, full-on pneumonia, but then out of nowhere she--"

Calypso's stomach rumbled. "Oh, pardon that!" She mumbled.

She was no Indiana Jones, his kitty. If she went on adventures, her tummy growled.

"Oh!" Nicole said. "Right! Uh..." He turned to Evette for help. His thoughts were like, kitty hungry food where? He looked around, searching for some shop that may be open and sell stuff a kitten can actually...

Actually...

"Huh." His eyes narrowed on one of the shops nearby. It had this fancy crimson awning with gold lettering. Squinting at it, Nicole pushed his glasses up his nose. To make sure he was reading it right:

The Lord of Dreams

There was more cooing while Cole seemed lost in thought for one reason or another and Evette was quite content to do so. She found the little companion to be profoundly adorable and it's baby speak only the more reason to go goo-goo eyes over her. The dear kitten really did seem to admire Cole, as she expected from a young companion. Unlike Charon who, was more like a grumpy teacher.

Charon had always been 'older', even when she had found him or he found her, all those years ago there had been a younger spark to him but he was forever old, and arguably wise. Even now, the stubborn lizard had moved onto her shoulder, making low grumbling sounds, that indicated he was thinking. He was constantly complaining about the enthusiasm of young'uns, but Evette secretly knew that he was simply jealous of their exuberance. Although, that didn't stop him from being intellectually bright.

Little Calypso definitely seemed to be quite the motivator for Cole. She had known he was a bit scatter-brained at times but she didn't realise to what degree. Especially that it took a companion to actually motivate him just for simple things. Either he was really that lonely, which made Evette feel even more guilty for their long absence of contact, or his mind was elsewhere, possibly on work.

Standing back up to normal height, her back had started to ache from leaning over at that angle, she chuckled at Cole. Before she could answer it was Charon that did.

"Foolish boy, your brain needs a good scrubbing. Maybe that way it'll clear all the dust that's gathered from lack of use."

Heat rose to Evette's cheeks, thankfully the blush wouldn't be too noticable since her cheeks where already pinched from the cold. But still, she was so embarrassed from Charons comment!

"Charon!" She exclaimed, disappointed that he would come out with such a thing, but having a strange feeling in her gut about his sudden rudeness. Absolutely Charon could be rude, but there was usually a difference in his tone. Something was up. Something was wrong, but they had felt that when they first stepped out of the Green Linnet. Whatever it was, it must be closer. "I apologise Cole, that was incredibly rude of Charon." She turned her head to give him a frown and a light pat, but when she saw his almost desolate eyes she stopped. Indeed, something very evil was close.

Charon was a sort of siphon to evil, it wasn't so much that he became evil, just that the darkness would touched him, making him rude. It was always a good indicator for Evette, and on a few occasions had saved her from a sticky situation.

At the same time that this was happening, little Calypso was hungry. Evette caught Cole's questioning look and despite her worry about Charon and what was out there she tried to keep calm. As for kitty food, she had absolutely no idea and believed she portrayed that with her very confused look.

Since Evette had not being very helpful, Cole had started looking around, pausing and making a cute little 'huh' sound. Curious she turned to where he was looking. And as soon as she was looking she saw it instantly.

The Lord of Dreams.

The odd thing was, Evette knew all the stores around here, this one had never been here before.

"That's odd..." She mumbled, trailing off in thought.

"Rotten weather, freezing my scales off. If you care for me at all you will get me inside." Growled Charon, uncharacteristically at her. This was definitely cause for alarm. As was this Lord of Dreams. It was familiar.

"Cole, I'm sorry, but I think we should go inside. It seems Charon is getting rather chilly, as am I to be honest." She glanced around, expecting to see some horrendous black shadow nearby, but nothing. It was certainly getting more spooky.