Adrian was once again wondering why she hadn't sliced through Optional yet as the pesky ghost followed her and Gelid over, what looked like terrain made of something similar to jell-o. Gelid was having the most luck walking on it. It was easier with four feet to balance him. Adrian was left with only two legs and her tail. Optional was talking about how he'd been to this planet a few times before.
"Apparently the people here like food, so they changed their planet a bit." Optional was saying. "I think it's going to rain marshmallows soon. Look at the clouds."
"Optional. Why don't you…oh nevermind." Adrian sighed. "Listen Gelid. I'm just going to find my way home. If you still want to get Havering, you can go ahead. I don't want to hold you back."
"You're going home?" The Ice dog asked. "Why?"
"Because I can't do this any more. I just want to go home." The auran sighed again. "I don't care anymore."
Gelid looked thoroughly upset. "But you came this far, and now you're just going to go home?"
"Yes." Adrian said. "I just realized that this is pointless. There are plenty of people fighting for this planet, and every one of them is better suited then I am. I mean even Kyanosa had those weird marble things."
"But you've got your sword."
"And no idea about any of my enemies. I don't even know who my enemies are." At that moment, true to Optional's prediction, marshmallows began to fall from the sky. Optional darted around, trying to catch as many of them as he could, and began pelting both Adrian and Gelid with them.
Adrian trudged forward, as quickly as she could on the unstable ground. Gelid began catching the white projectiles in his mouth, commenting though a full mouth that they were good, even though he didn't know what marshmallows were.
"Hey, looks like home's just up there. " Optional said with a quick laugh. "Oh and why don't you hold onto this for me. Some weird guy gave it to me, but I don't really have any use for it."
Adrian caught the small sphere as Optional launched it at her. She looked down to see it was no larger then a rock, only perfectly round, and was a creamy white color. She faintly remembered seeing something like this before, when she'd stumbled into a part of a new planet called earth, which seemed like a stupid name for any planet, since almost all inhabited planets were made of earth.
"It's a marble isn't it?" Adrian asked, pulling the word out of the recesses of her memory.
"You have guessed correctly." The ghost said. "Good luck."
"What do you mean by…" But Optional had already disappeared.
Adrian shook her head. "Guess I should be glad he's gone." She said to Gelid as she stuck the marble into a pack on her belt. They covered the last of the jell-o like plain, and finally landed on the firm soil of the forest that surrounded Adrian's home village. She found her step lively as she hurried through the trees.
Adrian didn't feel any warning of danger before a figure appeared in front of her and she saw the sword slicing through the air towards her side. She didn't have time to respond, but the sword passed through her harmlessly.
"Hold it." Adrian shouted, realizing who was in front of her, and also that Gelid was ready to attack. "Ren? What are you doing?"
"Ria? Oh I can't believe it's you. Everyone thought you were dead." Adrian's eyes widened as the younger auran embraced her. She didn't push him away. "But why did you attack just now? And with the vulth'n sword?"
"We were attacked." Ren said, pulling back, looking a little embarrassed. "Actually it wasn't even an attack. This guy just came into the village and sucked the energy out of everyone before we could do a thing. He sucked a few people dry, and some are still unconscious even now."
Adrian's eyes flashed dangerously. "Havering." She growled. "How dare he attack my village."
Ren looked confused. "Wait, you know who it was?"
"I need to see Ragon." She stopped short as Ren's eyes fell. "No, Ren…please don't tell me." But the blond-headed auran didn't need to say anything. Adrian felt her heart ripping apart, and she fell to her knees.
Gelid just looked on helplessly, not really understanding what was going on, except that someone close to his friend had died. Tears were running easily down her face, but she didn't scream in rage like he would've expected from her. He glanced up at Ren, who was looking just as helpless at the situation.
The ice dog finally moved forward and sat down next to her, nudging her with his nose. "I'm not going to leave my village. Not when they could be attacked like this."
"But you couldn't have done anything about it. The vulth'n was much too strong. You would've been drained, just like everyone else."
"But instead I was wandering around aimlessly, while my home was in danger." Adrian wiped the tears away, quickly returning to her normal look of confidence, though Gelid seemed to catch a slight amount of compassion, which he'd never seen before in her gaze. "And I am not leaving it defenseless again."
"But Ria, you seemed to know who it was that attacked us. You could stop him, and then it couldn't happen again."
Adrian laughed, not bitingly, just slightly amused. "You don't know who this guy is Ren. He's not just any vulth'n. He's pretty much in charge of everything you see here. He's got an army of people fighting against him, and he doesn't seem worried at all."
"Well are any of these others aurans?"
"No." Adrian said.
"Then why would he be worried? It takes a lot of power to kill a vulth'n without one of our swords." Ren said.
Adrian nodded, but she remembered some of the power she had felt from various creatures on her trip. But would any one of them be powerful enough to take out Havering themselves? He had sucked a village of aurans dry, and that would boost his power even more. She wouldn't be surprised if he claimed to be immortal now.
There'd be no way to defeat him alone. She glanced at Ren. "Have you by any chance learned to control your beast for while I was gone?"
He looked surprised at the question, but nodded. "I finished my training in fact."
Adrian smiled fully, for the first time she could remember. "Feel up to a trip?"