Zephirus slowly opened his eyes, yawned, and stretched. The sun was peeking over the mountains in the east, filtering the morning light into the forest. Zephirus got up and stretched once more, picking up his lance and strapping it back on. He looked around, noticing the forest was a lot less foreboding in the morning calm. Dadala, who had been watching him as he slept as well, had disappeared for now. However, others had come to take his place, for from a bush, 2 pairs of catlike eyes and a pair of humanlike eyes watched Zephirus as he prepared to start off again.

Zephirus remained oblivious to their presence until it was too late. "Don't move," said a golden catlike figure who had snuck up behind him. *Crap!* Zephirus thought as he froze. "Who does that pretty voice belong to?" Zephirus asked, trying to lighten the mood (and save his skin). The catwoman chuckled, then replied, "Sorry, but flattery isn't going to get you too far. Nice try though." Zephirus smirked, and remarked, "Ok, I'll try a different approach then." As he finished, a powerful gust of wind slammed into the catwoman, throwing her hard into a tree. She fell to the ground with a groan. Zephirus spun, unstrapped his lance, twirled it, and faced the catwoman, the blade of the lance facing her. He smirked and said in a rather cocky tone, "Betcha weren't expecting that, were ya?" He turned to see another black catwoman charging him, claws prepared to slash him to pieces. He waited until the last second, then ducked. The catwoman tripped over him and flew into the other, who was recovering from her own flight. The two rolled, stopping in a heap at the base of a tree.

"Not bad if I do say so myself," a voice remarked from behind Zephirus. He turned, facing the origin of the voice. The origin was Kyanosa, playing with a yo-yo. Kyanosa smiled, eyes fixed on Zephirus. He glanced over at the catwomen every so often. "Who might you be, stranger?" Zephirus asked Kyanosa. Kyanosa smiled, then replied, "Well, those two call me Cute, but seeing as you probably wouldn't like that name too much, you can call me friend." Zephirus chuckled, then remarked, "Well, friend...is friend just a name or is it the stance you take with me?" "Both, actually," Kyanosa replied. "The catwomen your friends too?" Zephirus asked. "Yeah, I guess you could call them that," Kyanosa answered. "Think you could get them to take a similar stance with me?" Zephirus asked, "I don't take as much pleasure in fighting ladies as I appear to." Kyanosa nodded, and waved over at Solari and Chera, who were back on their feet. "Hey Solari, Chera! You guys alright?" he asked. Solari growled, and replied in a sarcastic tone, "Oh, sure, I only got thrown into a tree and slammed into by Ms. Graceful here." Chera growled, and nodded to Kyanosa that she was alright. Solari and Chera walked over to Kyanosa, and growled at Zephirus. As they were about to maul him, Kyanosa put out his arms in front of the two and said, "Hey, hold on there kittens. You saw what happened last time. I say we team up with this guy, he's got quite a bit of skill I think." Solari growled, "Cute...out of the way. He's insulted our pride, and he's gotta pay!" "Solari, we're not gonna get anywhere like this. We need to fight the real enemy," Kyanosa stated firmly. Solari sighed, and nodded. Zephirus smiled, and asked, "Who's the real enemy?" Kyanosa looked over at Zephirus, and replied, "Well, there's this evil British guy who brought us all here, a bunch of murderous robots, and I think that's about it." "Sounds fun," Zephirus joked sarcastically. "Well, we should get going," Kyanosa stated, looking up at the position of the sun through the canopy of the forest. The others nodded, and the group started off once more.