From: Save Address Block Sender Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 11:31:59 EDT Subject: post: red light, green light ((I'm going to be nice and leave out all the silly alternate titles I came up with. ^_~)) *this is wrong. this is wrong. I ate lunch half an hour ago. I do not eat horses. I do not eat raw anything, with the sole exception of sushi, occasionally. this is all wrong.* Estela shut her eyes and gritted her teeth. She was not going to give in to this.... whatever it was. The rain. It had to be the rain.... whoever'd heard of red rain? Wataru and Chuin were licking their lips, starting to find that horse appetizing as well. And then there was Bubbles.... Who had pulled a bottle of ketchup out of nowhere and was aplying a generous suply to the horse's tail. Chuin's horse was prancing like mad. Estela's was standing quite calmly, since he was apparently a war horse. That was fine. *I'm seeing with my powers again. my powers. well, why not?* Moonwind stood quietly under her, an oasis of sanity. She reached out for her power, found it. *the rain has to stop. I have to make it stop hitting us.* The rain stung as it hit her skin. Her stomach growled hungrily. *no. I have to forget that. I have to make the rain stop. I'm going to make the rain stop!* Wataru and Chuin stared at her for a second, then turned their attention back to the horse Bubbles was eating. Bubbles now had the tail between two slices of bread, and was holding on to the "sandwich" as she chased after the very irate horse. Estela dropped the reins and gripped the front of the saddle with both hands. *how can I stop it? I can't move the clouds away. I can't make it normal rain....can I shield us?* She reached out, swaying in the saddle with the effort. *a shield. I _will_ make it stop! I will!* The air shimmered around her and Moonwind as the rain hit the invisible dome of power around them. It was so hard.... she couldn't seem to get enough power. She had to, though. She couldn't leave them all insane like this.... but at least the hunger was fading, proving her right. She nudged Moonwind, and he stepped closer to the others, into their midst. She nearly fell from the saddle, all her attention on the shield she held around herself and her horse. *please,* she thought. *Lady of Waters, help me. someone....* She could feel the weight of the amulet against her chest. She _would_ save them, she _would_! She pushed, expanding the shield outwards to surround them all. Wataru and Chuin blinked as the spell broke, though Bubbles was still too involved in wrestling with her meal to notice the change. "Wataru, look..." whispered Chuin nervously, and pointed at the shimmering dome. The red rain poured off it in rivulets, and the air inside felt charged, as if there were about to be a storm. Wataru looked, then tackled Bubbles. She blinked. "Why you... oh!" She stared at the horse, which was no longer that appetizing, then the dome. "What THAT?" "We don't know." Wataru looked at Estela. "She must be doing it." "She's going to fall!" shouted Chuin. Estela didn't hear them. *I have to hold it.... Lady, please....* There was a flash of lightning, and a sudden downpour of normal rain, cutting through the uncanny storm. The shielding dome flickered and died. Estela slumped in her saddle, gasping and still swaying, as the clean, normal rain washed over them. The red washed out of their clothes, off their skin and that of the remaining two horses, leaving odd streaky patterns but taking the stinging feeling with it. *Lady. thank you....* She fell, Chuin barely catching her in time. "She... she really is a sorceress!" "She saved us, though. Is she unconcious?" "Um... yeah." "We shouldn't stay out here. Something else might happen." "Wataru horse run off." The men looked around, and exchanged glances. "um... yeah, so it has," answered Wataru slowly. Aperantly the animal did not want to know WHY it was considered a meal, nor why it's assalt was suddenly halted. The thing did know that it was the best time to run away from it's crazed companions. "There's a cave, we can stay in there, the last one wasn't so bad." "Yeah, we'll go there." They went in the cave. In the green light of the fire, the reddish streaks glowed faintly. The men changed into dry clothes, then looked at Estela. "Um... she's all wet too," said Wataru. "She'll kill us!" Wataru flinched, imagining ways she might do such a thing. "She wear two shirt! Yabsajubru see." The two men face-faulted. "Huh?" "Shirt with no sleeves, then shirt with sleeves. both on." "Ohh...." replied the men, in unison. "It's better than leaving her all wet." "Are you sure she won't get mad, Chuin?" "No... but she did save us back there....and what'll we do if she gets sick?" "Um.... I'm not doing it." "Fine!" Chuin rolled his eyes, and very gingerly removed the makeshift head covering and the blanket she was using for a cloak. "If you're wrong, Bubbles, she's gonna kill us all." "Not wrong. Estela wear two shirt! And wear smaller thing under that." Chuin shut his eyes and pulled the overshirt over the girl's head. "See? other shirt!" He cracked one eye open, then opened them both. She was wearing a sleeevless shirt underneath. "Well, it's wet too, but I'M not taking it off her." "Bring her over here," said Wataru. Chuin turned around. Wataru had put together something like a bed near the fire. *Wait... I thought he was scared of her? now he's being all nice?* He shrugged and carried her over, putting her on the blankets. Wataru put another one over her. "Why'd she faint?" "I don't know," Chuin answered. "Maybe doing that dome thing is hard, or she didn't have time to do the spell right, or something." "If that's without doing the spell.... I do NOT want to be around when she DOES do a spell right." "No, but she saved us! She didn't have to." "Yeah, I guess...." Suddenly both men looked at Bubbles. She wasn't exactly acting normal either.... and she'd never saved either one of them.... She was however pulling horse hair out from between her teeth with a "Putht!" sound of disgust.