ForsakenMage

Ah okay... after seeing that lovely lecture on how to remove one's habit of using all capital letters... :P I think what some of the problems that would appear should the capes go F2P is the fact that the shops or whatever that are selling them are in the Wilderness (based on what I was told... I haven't had a chance to look at the news yet as I'm still busy doing homework). I guess one way to avoid this problem all together would be to simply make the capes tradable. However, this is definately one update I must say I cannot understand why it's not with F2P as well considering the circumstances where clans help unite both F2P and P2P players, most PK trips and wars occur on F2P. As my good brother and friend, Xerowingsx5k, said, these capes are one step closer to maybe clan support. ;) But in the meantime, capes to F2P! "I, ForsakenMage, do hereby acknowledge that the below is my signature is affixed to this petition." ~ForsakenMage

Okay I've merged posts. Next time, if you see a post that's been posted before, it's best to PM a staff member about it and there may be a chance that they can merge it with no harm done. On topic: I play the violin now-in-days (10+ years experience), but previously I've played the violia, piano (starting to go back slowly), and recorder.

Almost four years. :) Late April/Early May-ish 2001.

You show em who you really are. :D

Absolutely magnificant.

Drealy! Great poems! :D

Outside the writing and stress of college, I'm an amateur violinist. For nearly ten years I have played this mysterious instrument capable of expressing so many emotions including joy and sorrow. As I play over the years, the music drawn from the bow seemed sad, neglected even. It wasn't its fault; I had outgrown it. After playing on a quarter-size violin for over nine years, I've recently got a new, full-size violin while I was overseas. The quarter-size one remains in my room, although silent now. I can't give it away. I had gotten that one on my ninth birthday, although it wasn't intended to be a present, more of a necessity for school. But enough chit-chat. Any more and this little blurb will be the piece itself! ^_^' Note: Also posted in my DeviantArt site here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Violince Softly, ever so softly and slowly Her arm drew back, bow in hand. Her eyes stared at the target before her, Black dots skirmishing across snow-covered fields. From where she knelt she had a great vantage point. A voice inside urged her to draw an arrow from the quiver: Fire away while they're still far! She resisted, although now her fingers trembled, Itching to touch the cool wood of the arrow shaft. The commander looked over his troops and nodded. He raised his sabre into the air slightly and nervously. Wait for it, his eyes said. Be ready. There was a slight clatter of wood as arrows touched the bows. She ran her fingers over the arrow once, making sure it was unbroken. And then the cry of rage shattered the silence. Bows raced back and forth in the air in a blazing fury. Keep it going! Do not falter, the commander said! She knew if they stopped they'd be overrun. Her fingers now painfully nocking arrow after arrow Screamed in agony for the end to be near. Another minute and we got them, the commander shouted. Oh! Her fingers got caught in the bow string for a moment. She felt her face turn red in surprise and she let go. The arrow went astray, barely missing her target. Damn it, she muttered to herself as she was ordered to rest. She hated it when she missed her target, even by a little. Minutes later she picked up the bow and quiver again, This time with a furious look of determination. The sky grew dark and it was getting cold Her uniform blended with the shadows and black silk above One more rank and we're done! She let the arrows fly almost wildly, her fingers now burning. They were near the end of the battle! Finally there was a soft hush, the enemy no more. Everyone lowered their bows and sighed. It was over. She stood up with her fellow archers, Bow turned downwards, quiver tucked under her arm. They bowed. Applause errupted from the valley for the little band. Sheets of music now exhausted By violins and bows.

Confirmation: yes that was me lol. Anyway... here goes... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Blood. Scream. Silence. Shadow. Darkness. The images all blurred into some sort of vortex in her mind, swirling and waving. Rain could barely keep her balance as she was overwhelmed by the vision. She staggered backwards, unable to take it much more, wanting to flee. And then the sudden drop. A horrendous lurch began to pull her further and further down into the depths of the unknown. She couldn't scream, couldn't see. All she knew was that she was falling... "Wh-hat...?" A thin line of light pierced her vision and she winced softly. THUD! Rain became more alert just as she heard Armaneth hit the ground besides her, unconscious. "Armaneth!" she yelped, scrambling to her knees, only to waver a little. She clumbsily placed one hand on the ground and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths to steady herself before helping Armaneth into a more comfortable position on the ground. Worriedly she looked at her companion. "I'm afraid he's relied on ancient energy little used to heal you, Rain." Rain turned around and found Aming staring down at her. "Vandiel asked me to watch over you and said I should rest," Aming explained. "Are you and Armaneth all right?" Rain sighed a little. "I should be fine in a few moments. But Armaneth..." She looked over the swordsmage anxiously. "I don't know yet..." she finished, looking back at Aming. "Why didn't you tell me?" Aming asked softly, yet sternly as well. It was then Rain realized that nothing shrouded her face, and that she was in open light. With a nervous voice, she choked on next few words. "Te-tell you what?" she asked feebly. "That you're me." Rain turned back to Armaneth, putting a hand to his forehead to give him some sort of physical relief as she spoke. "Aming, if I could explain to you, I would. But if anyone outside our group finds out, it could mean great harm coming to you. I am not you... In a sense at least." "But you're me, aren't you?" Aming persisted. "Maybe you traveled through time from the future somehow." Rain cringed slightly, recalling the earlier events that had lead them to this point. She looked up when Aming gasped and stepped back a little. "Maybe you're something the Hell's Judge sent to deceive us!" "No! Aming, please listen to me. I am not here to harm you..." Aming shook her head fearfully. "Please... just leave me alone..." Before Rain could say another word, Aming hurried away from the wagon to assist with the defense. With a tired sigh, Rain turned back to Armaneth and carefully covered him with a blanket to keep him warm while trying to figure out what ailed her friend. Armaneth, please be okay... ~ Meanwhile, Aming continued to run away from the wagon, almost blinded by fear and anger. The fact that Rain had indirectly told her that she was her future-self made it very hard for her to concentrate now. A voice in her head continually screamed at her, telling her that Rain was merely something sent by the Judge, while her heart tugged at her to go back. As lightning ribboned across the slowly clearing night sky, Aming summoned her staff to help aid in the continuing wave of Black Knights headed for them. She looked up at the sky and gasped. Kiran and Sim have been inside the fortress for too long! Something's keeping them up! Face now turning grim she continued a barrage of water bolts at the Black Knights, making her way closer and closer to the fortress... Silence. Aming fell to the ground, face flat, having tripped over the body of a fallen knight. She tried to get up quickly in the muddy ground just as a foot came slamming down onto her back, sending her face back into the mud. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? The little Guardian herself. Got lost?" a sinister voice whispered. Its owner carefully edged its scythe towards her neck. "Now then... Shall we make this a quick, painless death... Or shall we make this a slow and painful one?" "Neither," Aming mumbled. She cringed as she felt the cool metal edge closer to her neck. "I rather have been in battle and died than to be pinned down as part of a butterfly collection." "Hah!" The Judge smirked as he kicked her away, sending her rolling across the ground. Aming got up, covered in mud, her eyes blazing in anger. The Judge mockingly beckoned her to come near. "Hold it!" "What?!" The Judge turned around, just in time to meet the end of a staff in his eye. He staggered back in surprise, then blinked. "Two?!" Aming looked over to Rain nervously while Rain continued to stare down at the Judge, her forehead creased in concentration of a spell. This was her chance to head towards the fortress. Without another word, she turned heels and ran again, dodging swiftly between the knights. Rain glared at the Judge slightly. "Will you not fight me?" The Judge looked at her skeptically. This has to be a mere trick. The little mage is deceiving me! It's someone else! Yet, why does she seem so familiar... No. It's someone else. She's only trying to fool me! It's only that little fool I met earlier. "Hah, and waste my energy one someone as old as you are?" Rain smiled sweetly. "I'm sorry, does my age make you fear I will have much more knowledge to perhaps harm you?" The Judge stepped back slightly. With a snarl he lunged foward. Rain caught the onslaught of his scythe with her staff while firing a blast of white mage into his chest. The Judge flew back, disarmed. Rain snatched up the scythe and threw it towards him, pinning his cloak to the ground. The Judge muttered a spell, casting a large ball of fire towards Rain. Before she could react, another spell came in contact with the fireball. Rain turned towards her right and found Aryl running towards them. "Rain!" she shouted fearfully. "Look out!" Rain turned around and barely managed to block a punch from the Judge with her arm. She summoned her sword to replace her staff and desperately tried to strike the Judge. The Judge wrenched off his cloak and took out a sword from mid-air and began to parry. Rain scissored her sword around his the best she could. ~ Aming leapt over the corpses of fallen knights that Armaneth and Vandiel had fought earlier to obtain the antidote, her mind set on finding either Sim or Marcus. A shout came from behind her and she yelped in surprise to find a small squad of Black Knights heading towards her. She looked ahead and quickly climbed up a series of spiraling stairs towards the gate control room when she met Marcus halfway at the top, leaning against the wall with a stab wound to his leg and a knight sprawled out, dead with a dagger in its chest. She turned her attention back to the knights still climbing up the stairs and began to mumble in arcane words. Floating balls of lightning appeared in front of her and hurriedly sped down the stairs, increasingly growing in size as they struck the knights down like bowling pins. Aming tore a piece of her cloak off to bandage Marcus temporarily. "Where's Sim?" she asked as she finished. Before Marcus could answer, the suddenly loud halt of footsteps made them both look down. A series of archers donned in dragon hide armor had their arrows pointed straight at them. "Halt." ~~~~~~~ EDIT: Fixed some spelling errors.

To be honest, I've had a couple dreams about RuneScape. Freaky part was I was in P2P land and I've never been a member before. :shock:

Locked upon request of author.

CB, by any chance are you done with your post? Kinda lost as to how to go from this point... EDIT: Okay he's done... o.O So... next! :P

Aitey here I go... Armaneth pushed me to do this. :lol: ~~~~~~~~~~ The older Aming, temporarilly called "Rain", stood close behind the younger Aming, daggers drawn in preparation. Her heart was racing, her mind feeling a little dizzy as she was being hit with memory after memory, although changed this time, of the battle that was to come. She could not focus on these memories now. It would be too damaging for herself and the future. As she watched the gates crash open, there was a cry of surprise, then a launch of black knights streaming their way. Zonorhc motioned them to hold their stance. Lady Frost, although fine for the most part, remained as guard for the wagon with Vandiel accompanying her. Aleksander was in the rear, arrows ready and Aryl prepared some spells. Corwin, Zonorhc, and Aming were in the front. Saben, Rain, and Armaneth were in the middle. Zonorhc raised his arm and jerked his hand foward, the signal to move. Soon the group swiftly made their way, spitting into directions: Corwin with Saben, Zonorhc with Armaneth, and Aming with Rain. The clash of metal and shower of red soon painted the skies and earth as storm clouds began to move in. A flash of lightning, a roll of thunder... And soon the sound of murder... The old rhyme echoed in Aming's mind as she launched a lightning bolt at several knights, sending some to ground dead, others paralyzed. Rain mumbled under her breath as she scissored her daggers through the knights behind Aming, blasts of water coming from the blades. Knights showered against the fortress, bloodied and covered with mud. Heavy torrents of rain began to fall, daggers of light danced across the sky, and the growl of thunder soon came. And as they did, Aming turned to face Rain just as she was overtaken by six knights at once. "RAIN!" Aming cried as she called forth her sword to try to rescue her partner. The storm clouds made the light almost that of night and it was hard to see through the heavy rains and hear above the roar of the winds and thunder. Meanwhile, Rain was struggling from the pile, stabbing blinding. "Aming! Don't get near! It's too dangerous!" she tried to shout, but her voice was carried away by the wind. Grudgingly she resorted to a telepathic message. "Don't get near! It's too dangerous! I might hit you on accident!" Meanwhile Aleksander and Aryl were taking down those that managed to get past the others, frowning as the wind moved their projectiles off course from time to time, making it hard to keep them back as far as they wanted. "Any ideas on how long this is going to last?" Aleksander asked. "A lot longer than expected now that this storm has come up suddenly," Aryl responded. "Look out!" Aleksander yelled as an arrow came flying towards Aryl. Aryl shot out a fire spell and shielded her eyes as it exploded on the arrow, the ashes immediately engulfed by the wind. "That was close," he said, helping her up. "I think our mysterious archer, Smedos, is here," Aryl grumbled. She murmered prayer to dispell the attacking arrows. "Let's just focus on protecting our friends. Chances are he won't shoot at them with all this wind." Back to Aming and Rain, Aming ignored Rain's warning and wrenched away two knights with her sword, catching a fleeting glance of Rain, who was doubled over in pain from stab wounds but still fighting away. Suddenly Aming felt a surge of magic and she leapt back just as Rain released a wave of water that sent the remaining knights surrounding her sprawling. Aming immediately finished them off with another lightning attack before running to Rain's side, who was limping towards her. "You're hurt!" she exclaimed, noting the bloodied robes. "I'll be fine, don't worry. We need to finish the rest of them, come on! The others have their own sides to worry about!" Aming furrowed her brow, not waiting to push Rain's limits, but something in her voice made her swallow her protests as they turned to face another wave of knights. "We'll combine attacks then to preserve some energy," Aming said. "You launch another one of those water waves first. I'll take care of the rest." Rain nodded, murmering the same spell once again, though at a lower scale this time. Aming sensed this. She's growing weary fast after that last assault, so I better make this count... "Saradomin Fulmen!" Aming shouted. There was a flash of light as a large jagged bolt came onto the wave heading towards the knights, electricity sparking the air. The knights gave out a cry of pain and fear as they were electricuted and drowned at the same time in full force. The smell of burning flesh hovered in the air. As Aming turned to look at Rain, she gave out a cry of surprise as she found her lying on her side, unconscious. She hurried over to her and quickly assessed the situation. Rain had already lost a lot of blood and her breathing was faint. The wind had wrenched the last few shreads of her cloak and now only her hair covered her face. Gently Aming brushed it away just as lightning lit up the sky for exactly five seconds. And in those five seconds... "What the... She... she looks exactly like me!"

Biox, your story just PWNT! :D Keep up the good work! Note: About his account, just a wee bit of an accident. :P Don't mind it hehe.

The Full Stop, the Question Mark and the Exclamation Mark Written by darkrick * indicate a badly punctuated sentence. The Full Stop The full stop (.), also call the period, presents few problems. It is chiefly used to mark the end of a sentence expressing a statement, as in the following example: The British and the Irish drive on the left; all other Europeans drive on the right. There is one common error you must watch out for. Here is an example of it: *Norway has applied for EC Membership, Sweden is expected to do the same. Found the problem? Yes, there are two complete statements here, but the first has been punctuated only with a comma. The simpilest was of fixing the example is the change the comma to a full stop: Norway has applied for EC Membership. Sweden is expected to do the same. Although this is correct, you might consider it clumsy to use two short sentences in a row. If so, you can change it in a different way: Norway has applied for EC Membership, and Sweden is expected to do the same. Summary of Full Stops * Put a full stop at the end of a complete statement. * Do not connect two statements with a comma. The Question Mark A question mark (?) is placed at the end of a sentence which is a direct question. Here is an example: Does anyone have a pen I can borrow? If the question is a direct quotation, repeating the speaker's exact words, a question mark is still used: 'Have you a pen I can borrow?' she asked. But a question mark is not used in an indirect question, in which the speaker's exact words are not repeated: She asked if I had a pen she could borrow. Here only a full stop is used, since the whole sentence is now a statement. The question mark also has one minor use: it may be inserted into the middle of something, inside parentheses, to show that something is uncertain. Here are some examples: Piers Plowman is attributed to William Langland (?1332-?1400). The question marks on the birth and death dates indicate that those dates are not certain. In the next example, the question mark is used to indicate the uncertainty of a name: The Lerga inscription contains the personal name Vmme Sahar (?) Summary of question marks * Use a question mark at the end of a direct question. * Do not use a question mark at the end of an indirect question. * Use an internal question mark to show that something in uncertain. The Exclamation Mark The exclamation mark (!), know informally as a bang or a shriek, is used at the end of a sentence or a short phrase which expresses very strong feeling. An example of this is: Aaarrgh! Use of the exclamation point in ways similar to the above example is quite normal. But exclamation marks are usually out of place in formal writing. Using them frequently will give your work an almost childish quality. An exclamation mark is also usual after an exclamation beginning with what or how: What fools people can be! How well Marshall bowled yesterday! Note that such sentences are exclamations, and not statements. Compare them with statements: What fools people can be. How well Marshall bowled yesterday. You can also use an exclamation mark to show that a statement is very surprising: After months of careful work, the scientists finally opened the tomb. It was empty! It is also permissible to use an exclamation mark to draw attention to an interruption: On the (rare!) occasion when you use a Latin abbreviation, be sure to punctuate it properly. Otherwise, you should generally avoid using exclamation marks in your formal writing. Don't write things like this: *Do not use exclamation marks in formal writing! *In 1848, gold was discovered in California! Under no circumstances should more than one exclamation point be used. Such as this example: *This is totally wrong!!!!! It may be alright for personal writing, but it is completely out of place in formal writing. Summary of exclamation marks * Don't use an exclamation mark unless it's absolutely necessary. * Use an exclamation mark after an exclamation, especially after one beginning with what or how. A Final Point Note that a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark is never preceded by a while space. Things like the following are wrong: How well has Darwin's theory stood up ? A sentence-final punctuation mark is always written next to the last word of the sentence. Fragments, the Comma, the Colon and the Semicolon Fragments A fragment is a word of phrase which stands by itself but which does not make up a complete sentence. They are very common in speech, advertisements and even newspapers. Usually they are used very sparingly in formal writing; when used, they should be followed by a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark, as appropriate: Will the Star Wars project ever be resumed? Probably not. We need to encourage investment in manufacturing. But how? Fragments are quite acceptable in writing which is somewhat formal. But don't overdo them: if you use too many fragments, your work will become breathless and disjointed. The Comma The comma (,) is very frequently used and very frequently used wrongly. The rules for using commas are really simple, though complicated by the four distinct uses a comma may play. To begin, forget anything you've ever been told about using a comma 'wherever you would pause', or anything of the sort; this well-meaning advice is hopelessly misleading. The four types on comma are called the listing comma, the joining comma, the gapping comma and bracketing commas. Each use has its own rules, but not that a comma is never preceded by a while space and always followed by a white space. The Listing Comma The listing comma is used as a king of substitute for the word and, or sometimes for or. It occurs in two slightly different circumstances. First, it is used in a list when three or more words, phrases or even complete sentences are joined by the word and or or, we might call this construction an X, Y and Z list: Lisa speaks French, Juliet speaks Italian and I speak Spanish. You can fly to Bombay via Moscow, via Athens or via Cairo. We spent our evenings chatting in the cafes, watching the sun set over the harbour, stuffing ourselves with the local crabs and getting pleasantly sloshed on retsina. Note in both these examples the commas could be replaced by the word and or or, though the results would be rather clumsy: Lisa speaks French and Juliet speaks Italian and I speak Spanish. You can fly to Bombay via Moscow or via Athens or via Cairo. We spent our evenings chatting in the cafes and watching the sun set over the harbour and stuffing ourselves with the local crabs and getting pleasantly sloshed on retsina. Observe that you can connect three or more complete sentences with listing commas, as in the Lisa/Juliet example above. Note the difference here: Lisa speaks French, Juliet speaks Italian and I speak Spanish. *Lisa speaks French, Juliet speaks Italian. Remember you must not join two complete sentences with a comma, but three or more complete sentences may be joined with listing commas plus and or or. Note also that it is not usual in most placed to put a listing comma before the word and or or itself (though American usage regularly puts one there). This is reasonable, since the listing comma is a substitute for the word and or or, not an addition to it. However, you should put a comma in this position if doing so would make your meaning clearer: My favourite opera composers are Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, and Gilbert and Sullivan. Here the comma before and clearly shows that Gilbert and Sullivan worked together. If you omit the comma, the result might be confusing: *My favourite opera composers are Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and Gilbert and Sullivan. Here, the reader might possible take Mozart and Gilbert as the pair who worked together. The extra comma removes the Problem. A listing comma is also used in a lost of modifiers which all modify the same thing. This time there will usually be no and present at all, but again such a comma could be replaced by and without destroying the sense: This is a provocative, disturbing topic. Her long, dark, glossy hair fascinated me. Try replaced the commas by and: This is a provocative and disturbing topic. Her long and dark and glossy hair fascinated me. The sense is unchanged, though the second example, at least, is much clumsier without the commas. Observer the different in the next two examples: She gave me an antique invory box. I prefer Australian red wines to all others. This time there are no commas. It would be wrong to write: *She gave me an antique, invory box. *I prefer Australian, red wines to all others. Why the difference? In these examples, a listing comma cannot be used because there is not list: the word and cannot possibly be inserted: *She gave me an antique and ivory box. *I prefer Australian and red wins to all others. The reason for the difference is that the modifiers this time do not modify the same thing. In the first example, ivory modifies box, but antique modifies ivory box, not just box. In the second example, Australian modifies red wins, not just wines. So the rules are clear: * Use a listing comma in a list wherever you could conceivably use the word or instead. Do not use a listing comma anywhere else. * Put a listing comma before and or or only if this is necessary to make your meaning clear. The Joining Comma the joining comma is only slightly different from the listing comma. It is used to join two complete sentences into a single sentence, and it must be followed by a suitable connecting word. The connecting words which can be used in this way are and, or, but, while and yet. Here are some examples: Norway has applied to join the EC, and Sweden is expected to do the same. You must hand in your essay by Friday, or you will receive a mark of zero. Britain has long been isolated in Europe, but now she is beginning to find allies. Billions of dollars have been hurled into the Star Wars projects, yet we appear to have nothing to show for the colossal expenditure. A dropped goal counts three points in rugby union, while in rugby league it only counts one point. Remember you cannot join two sentences with a comma unless you also you one of these connecting words. Joining two complete sentences with a comma without a joining word is one of the commonest of all punctuation errors, but one of the easiest to avoid if you pay a little attention to what you're writing. Either you must follow the comma with one of the connecting words, or you must replace the comma with a semicolon, as will be explained further on. Despite what may have been taught, the connecting words however, therefore, hence, consequently, nevertheless and thus cannot be used after a joining comma. The above words require a semicolon, and not a comma to be implemented correctly. Use a joining comma to join two complete sentences with one of the words and, or, but, yet or while. Do not use a joining comma in any other way. The Gapping Comma The gapping comma is very easy. We use a gapping comma to show that one or more words have been left out when the missing words would simply repeat the words already used earlier on in the same sentence. Here is an example: Some Norwegians wanted to base their national language on the speech of the capital city; others, on the speech of the rural countryside. The gapping comma here shows that the words wanted to base their national language, which might have been repeated, have instead been omitted. Gapping commas are not always strictly necessary: you can leave them out if the sentence is perfectly clear without them: Italy is famous for her composers and musicians, France for her chefs and philosophers, and Poland for her mathematicians and logicians. Use your judgment: if a sentence seems clear without gapping commas, don't use them; if you have doubts, put them in. Bracketing Commas Bracketing Commas (also called isolating commas) do a very different job from the other three types. These are the most frequently used type of comma, and they cause more problems than the other types put together. The rule is: a pair of bracketing commas is used to mark off a weak interruption of the sentence - that is, an interruption which does not disturb the smooth floor of the sentence. Note that word 'pair': bracketing commas, in principle at least, always occur in pairs, thought sometimes one of them is not written, as explained below: These findings, we would suggest, cast doubt upon his hypothesis. Schliemann, of course, did his digging before modern archaeology was invented. Darwin's 'Origin of Species', published in 1859, revolutionized biological thinking. In each case a weak interruption has been set off by a pair of bracketing commas. Now notice something important: in every one of these examples, the weak interruption set off by bracketing commas could, in principle, be removed from the sentence, and the result would still be a complete sentence that made good sense. This is always the case with bracketing commas, and gives you a simple way of checking your punctuation. If you have set off words by bracketing commas, and you can't remove them without destroying the sentence, you have done something wrong. An example of poor use of bracketing commas is: *Yet, outside that door, lay a whole new world. If you try to remove the words within the commas, outside the door, the result is Yet lay a whole new world, which is not a sentence. The problem here is that outside that door is not an interruption at all: it's an essential part of the sentence. Since bracketing comma really do confuse many people, let's look at some further examples: *Stanley was a determined, even ruthless figure. Problem? Well that comma can't possibly be a listing, joining or gapping comma; therefore it must be intended as a bracketing comma. But where is the interruption it is trying to bracket? It can't be the three words at the end: *Stanley was a determined is so much gibberish. In fact, the weak interruption here is the phrase even ruthless, and the bracketing commas should show this: Stanley was a determined, even ruthless, figure. Now the bracketed interruption can be safely removed. Sometimes this very common type of mistake will not disturb your reader too much, but on occasion it can be utterly bewilding: *The Third Partition of Poland was the last, and undoubtedly the most humiliating act in the sorry decline of the once-powerful kingdom. Here the sequence before the comma, The Third Partition of Poland was the last, seems to make sense by itself, but unfortunately not the sense that the writer intends. With only one comma, the reader will surely assume the writer means 'The Third Partition of Poland was the last [partition of Poland]', will go on to assume that the word undoubtedly begins another statement, and will be left floundering when she abruptly comes to a full stop instead of a verb. The essential second bracketing comma removes the problem: The Third Partition of Poland was the last, and undoubtedly the most humiliating, act in the sorry decline of the once-powerful kingdom. Here is another example of a type which often causes trouble: The people of Cornwall, who depend upon fishing for their livelihood, are up in arms over the new EC quotas. As always, in principle remove the bracketed interruption to produce a sensible sentence: The people of Cornwall are up in arms over the new EC quotas. But note carefully: this sentence is talking about all the people of Cornwall, and not just some of the, and hence so was the original sentence. The weak interruption in the original sentence is merely adding some extra information about the people of Cornwall. Now consider this different example: The people of Cornwall who depend upon fishing for their livelihood are up in arms over the new EC quotas. This time there are no bracketing commas because there is no interruption: now we are not talking about all the people of Cornwall, but only about some of them: specifically, about the ones who depend upon fishing for their livelihood. The difference by the last two examples is the difference between what are called restrictive (or defining) relative clauses and non-restrictive (or non-identifying) relative clauses. A restrictive clause is required to identify what is being talked about, and it never receives bracketing commas. A non-restrictive clause is not required for identification, but only adds further information, and it always receives bracketing commas. Sometimes a weak interruption comes at the beginning or at the end of its sentence. In such a case, one of two bracketing commas would logically fall at the beginning or the end of the sentence - but we never write a comma at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. As a result, only one of the two bracketing commas is written in this case: All in all, I think we can say that we've done well. I think we can say that we've done well, all in all. Logically, the interruption may also fall in the middle of the sentence. Regardless of where the interruption is placed, it could be removed to give the perfectly good sentence I think we can say that we've done well. There are a number of common words which typically introduce weak interruptions containing complete sentences. Among the commonest of these are although, though, even though, because, since, after, before, if, when and whenever. Weak interruptions introduced by these words are usually rather long, and therefore they most often come at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. There is just one case in which you might find yourself apparently following all the rules but still using bracketing commas wrongly. Consider the following example: Note that in each of these examples, the material set off by the commas could be removed without destroying the sentence. The comma is clearly not a joining, gapping or listing comma. Is it a bracketing comma? Try removing the words before the comma. This appears to be a good sentence, and so you might think that the original example was correctly punctuated. But it is not. The problem is that the original sentence was an instruction to notice something, and the words note that are therefore and essential part of the sentence, not part of the interruption. The interruption clearly consists of the words in each of these examples. When we tried to remove the first seven words, we got something that was a sentence, purely by accident, but a sentence in which the original meaning had been partly destroyed. Here are the rules for using bracketing commas: * Use a PAIR of bracketing commas to set off a weak interruption which could be removed from the sentence without destroying it. * If the interruption comes at the beginning or the end of the sentence, use only one bracketing comma. * Make sure the words set off are really an interruption. Summary of Commas There are four types of comma: the listing comma, the joining comma, the gapping comma and bracketing commas. * A listing comma can always be replaced by the word and or or. * A joining comma must be followed by one of the connecting words and, or, but, yet or while. * A gapping comma indicates that you have decided not to repeat some words which have already occurred in the sentence. * Bracketing commas always come in pairs, unless one of them would come at the beginning or the end of the sentence, and they always set off a weak interruption which could in principle be removed from the sentence. If you're not sure about your commas, you can check them by using these rules: 1. Can’t the comma be replaced by and or or? 2. Is it followed by one of the connecting words and, or, but yet or while? 3. Does it represent the absence of a repetition? 4. Does it form one of a pair of commas setting off an interruption which could be removed from the sentence? If the answer to all these questions is 'no' , you have done something wrong. Should you get the answer 'no' in every case, and therefore that comma shouldn't be there. Get rid of it. Remember, you don't have to set off a weak interruption which bracketing commas, as long as the meaning is clear without them, but, if you do use bracketing commas, make sure you use both of them. In sum, them: * Use a listing comma in a list where and or or would be possible instead. * Use a joining comma before and, or, but yet or while followed by a complete sentence. * Use a gapping comma to show that words have been omitted instead of repeated. * Use a pair of bracketing comma to set off a weak interruption. Commas and numbers will be covered later on under "Miscellaneous' The Colon The colon (:) seems to baffle many people, though it's rather easy to use, since it only has one major use. But please first note that the colon is never, never, never followed by a hyphen or a dash. Despite what you might've been taught or seen in school. One of the commonest mistakes is following a colon with a completely pointless hyphen. The colon is used to indicate that what follows it is an explanation or elaboration of what precedes it. That is, you can use the colon to go on to explain a general topic in more specific terms. More general: more specific. A colon is nearly always preceded by a complete sentence; what follows the colon may not be a complete sentence, and it may be a list or even a single word. A colon is not normally followed by a capital letter, though American usage often prefers to use a capital. Here are some examples: Africa is facing a terrifying problem: perpetual drought. Explains what the problem is. We found the place easily: your directions were perfect. Explains why we found it easily. I propose the creation of a new post: School Executive Officer Identifies the post in question. Very occasionally, the colon construction is turned around with the specifics coming first and the generalized summary coming latter: Saussure, Sapir, Bloomfield, Chomsky: all these have revolutionized linguistics in one way or another. Like all inverted constructions, this one should be used sparingly. You should not use a colon, or any other mark, at the end of a heading which introduces a new section a document. It is however usual to use a colon after a word, phrase or sentence in the middle of a text which introduces some following material which is set off in the middle of the page. The colon has a few minor uses. First, when you cite the name of a book which has both a title and a subtitle, you should separate the two with a colon: I recommend Chinnery's book 'Oak Furniture: The British Tradition' You should do this even though no colon may appear on the cover or title page of the book itself. Second, the colon is used in citing passages from the Bible: The story of Menahem is found in II Kings 15:14-22 Third, the colon may be used in writing ratios: Among French students, women outnumbered men by more than 4:1. In formal writing, however, it is usually preferable to write out rations in words: Among French students, women outnumbered men by more than four to one. Fourth, in American usage, a colon is used to separate the hours from the minutes in giving a time of day: 2:10, 11:30. The British uses a full stop for this purpose: 2.10, 11,30. Either of which are generally acceptable in most places of the world. Observe that, exceptionally, the colon is not followed by a white space in the last three examples, but is for all other situations. The Semicolon The semicolon (;) has only one major use. It is used to join two complete sentences together into a single sentence when all of the following conditions are met: 1. The two sentences are felt to be too closely related to be separated but a full stop; 2. There is no connecting word which would require a comma, such as and or but; 3. The special conditions requiring a colon are absent. Here is a famous example: It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. A semicolon, in principle, can be replaced either by a full stop or by the word and, possibly preceded by a joining comma. Thus [bleep]ens might have written: It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. The use of the semicolon suggests that the writer sees the two smaller sentences as being more closely related than the average two consecutive sentences; preferring to semicolon to and often gives a more vivid sense of the relation between the two. But observe carefully: a semicolon must be both preceded and followed by complete sentences. Do not use a semicolon otherwise: *I don't like him; not at all. *We've had streams of books on chaos theory; no fewer than twelve since 1988. Both of these are wrong, since the semicolon does not separate complete sentences. The first should have only a bracketing comma and the second meets the requirements for a colon and should have one. If a suitable connecting word is used, then a joining comma is required rather than a semicolon: Women's conversation is too cooperative; men's is competitive. Women's conversation is too cooperative, while men's is competitive. The semicolon was impossible in the last example, since the sequence after the comma is not a complete sentence. Note, however, that certain connecting words do require a preceding semicolon: Chief among these are however, therefore, hence, thus, consequently, nevertheless and meanwhile. There is one special circumstance in which a semicolon may be used to separate sequences that are not complete sentences. This occurs when a sentence has become so long and so full of commas that the reader can hardly be expected to follow it without some special marking. In this case, we sometimes find semicolons uses instead of commas to mark the most important breaks in the sentence: such semicolons are effectively being used to mark places where the reader can pause to catch her breath. Consider the following: In Somalia, where the civil war still rages, western aid workers, in spite of frantic efforts, are unable to operate, and the people, starving, terrified and desperate, are flooding into neighboring Ethiopia. This sentence is perfectly punctuated, but the number of commas is alarming. In such a case, the comma marking the major break may be replaced by a semicolon: In Somalia, where the civil war still rages, western aid workers, in spite of frantic efforts, are unable to operate; and the people, starving, terrified and desperate, are flooding into neighboring Ethiopia. Such use of the semicolon as a kind of 'super comma' is not very appealing, and you should do your best to avoid it. Should you find one of your sentences becoming dangerously long and full of commas, it is usually better to start over and rewrite it: In Somalia, where the civil war still rages, western aid workers, in spite of frantic efforts, are unable to operate. Meanwhile the people, starving, terrified and desperate, are flooding into neighboring Ethiopia. In any case, don't get into the habit of using a semicolon (or anything else) merely to mark a breathing space. Your reader will be capable of doing his own breathing, providing your sentence is will punctuated. The Colon and the Semicolon compared The use of the colon and semicolon, although simple in principle, presents so many difficulties to uncertain punctuators, it will be helpful to contrast them here. Consider the following: List is upset. Gus is having a nervous breakdown. The use of two separate sentences suggests that there is no particular connection between these two facts: they just happen at the same time. The only inference that can be drawn from this is that things are generally bad. Now see what happens when a semicolon is used: Lisa is upset; Gus is having a nervous breakdown. The semicolon now suggest that the two statements are related in some way. The likeliest of inferences in that the cause of Lisa's annoyances and the cause of Gus's breakdown are the same. Now try it with a colon: Lisa is upset: Gus is having a nervous breakdown. This time the colon shows explicitly that Gus's nervous breakdown is the reason for Lisa's distress: Lisa is upset because Gus is having a nervous breakdown. If you understood the example, you should be well on your way to using colons and semicolons correctly. Summary of colons and semicolons * Use a colon to separate a general statement from following specifics. * Use a semicolon to connect two complete sentences not joined by and, or, but, yet or while. The apostrophe, Hyphen and Dash The apostrophe (') is the most troublesome punctuation mark in English, and probably the least useful. No other mark is so often misused or causes so much confusion. Take the usual retail store as an example. On one hand they offer *pizza's, *getting's cards and *ladie's clothing; on the other, the offer *childrens shoes and *artists supplies. It is a blunt fact that the incorrect use of apostrophes will make your writing look illiterate more quickly than almost any other kind of mistake. If you find apostrophes difficult, I'm afraid, you will just have to grit your teeth and get down to work. Contractions The apostrophe is used in writing Contractions - that is, shortened forms of words from which one of more letters have been omitted. In standard English, this generally happens only with a small number of conventional items, mostly involving verbs. Here are some of the commonest examples: it's - it is or it has we'll - we will or we shall they've - they have can't - can not he'd - he would or he had aren't - are not she'd've - she would have won't - will not Note in each case the apostrophe appears precisely in the position of the omitted letters. I advise you not to use the more colloquial contractions like she'd've in your formal writing: these things, while perfectly normal in speech, are a little too informal for careful writing. Such contractions represent the most useful job the apostrophe has, since without it we would have no way of expressing in writing the difference between she'll and shell, he'll and hell, can't and cant, along with various other items. There are a few words which were contractions long ago and are still written as such, even though the longer forms have more or less dropped out of use. There are so few of these that you can easily learn them all. Here are some of the commonest: o'clock - of the clock Hallowe'en - Halloweven fo'c's'le - forecastle ne'er-do-well - never-do-well will-o'-the-wisp - will-of-the-wisp Some generations ago there were rather more contractions in regular use in English; these other contractions are now archaic, and you wouldn't normally use any of them except in direct quotations from older written work. Here are a few with this longer written form: 'tis - it is 'twas - it was o'er - over e'en - even Here are a few others which are often heard in speech: 'Fraid so. 'Nother drink? I s'pose so. 'S not funny. It is, of course, never appropriate to use such colloquial forms in formal writing, except when you are explicitly writing about colloquial English. In contemporary usage, there are a few unusual phrases in which the word and is written 'n', with two apostrophes (not quotation marks); the most commonest of these is rock 'n' roll which is always written so, even in formal writing. There are more of these such as pick 'n' mix and possibly surf 'n' turf (this last is a label for a type of food). But don't overdo it: write fish and chips, even though you may see fish 'n' chips on takeaway signs or even menus. Contractions must be carefully distinguished from clipped forms. A clipped form is a full word which happens to be derived by chopping a piece off a longer word, usually one with the same meaning. Clipped forms are very common in English; here are a few, with their longer terms. Gym - gymnasium Ad - advertisement pro - professional deli - delicatessen hippo - hippopotamus bra - brassiere (yes i know the second last e is meant to have a ` over it... just isn't support in notepad.) tec - detective flu - influenza phone - telephone copter - helicopter cello - violoncello gator - alligator quake - earthquake Such clipped forms are not regarded as contractions, are they should not be written with apostrophes. Writing things like hippo', bra' and 'phone will, not to mince words, make you look like an affected old fuddy-duddy who doesn't quite approve of anything that's happened since 1912. Of course, some of these clipped forms are rather colloquial, and in formal writing you would normally write alligator rather than gator. Important note: contractions must also be carefully distinguished from abbreviations. Abbreviations are things like Mr. for Mister, lb. for pound(s), BC for before Christ and e.g. for for example. Their use is explained later on. Finally, there are a few circumstances in which apostrophes are used to represent the omission of some material in cases which are no exactly contractions. First, certain surnames of non-English origin are written with apostrophes: O'Leary (Irish), d'Abbadie (French), D'Angelo (Italian), M'Tavish (Scots Gaelic). These are not really contractions because there is not alternative way of writing them. Second, apostrophes are sometimes used in representing words in non-standard forms of English: thus the Scots poet Robert-Burns writes gi' for give and a' for all. You are hardly likely to be needing this device except when quoting from such work. Third, a year is occasionally written in an abbreviated form with an apostrophe: Pio Baroja was a distinctive member of the generation of '98. This is only normal in certain sex expressions; in my example, the phrase generation of '98 is an accepted label for a certain group of Spanish writers, and it would not be normal to write * generation of 1898. Except for such conventional phrases, however, you should always write out years in full when you are writing formally: do not write something like * the '39-'45 war, but write instead the 1939-45 war. Unusual Plurals As a general rules, we never use an apostrophe in writing plural forms. For those who are unfamiliar with plurals: A plural form is one that denotes more than one of something. Hence the things that those shops are selling are pizzas, videos and fine wines. It is absolutely wrong to write *pizza's, *video's and *fine wine's if you just want to talk about more than one pizza, video or whatever. The same goes with proper names: She's trying to keep up with the Joneses. There are four Steves and three Julies in my class. Do not use an apostrophe when talking about more than one person with the same name. In British usage, an apostrophe is not used when pluralizing dates: This research was carried out in the 1970s American usage, however, does: This research was carried out in the 1970's You should not adopt this principle unless you are writing for an American audience. In writing plurals of numbers, usage caries. Both of the following may be encountered: If you're sending mail to the Continent, it's advisable to use continental 1s and 7s in the address. If you're sending mail to the Continent, it's advisable to use continental 1's and 7's in the address. Here, the first form is a little hard on the eye, and the apostrophes may make your sentence clearer. In most cases, though, you can avoid the problem by simply writing out the numerals: If you're sending mail to the Continent, it's advisable to use continental ones and sevens in the address. An apostrophe is indispensable, however, in the rare case in which you need to pluralize a letter of the alphabet or some other unusual form which would be unrecognizable with a plural ending stuck on it: Mind your p's and q's How many s's are there in Mississippi? Without the apostrophes, these would be unreadable. So, when you have to pluralize an orthographically unusually form, use an apostrophe if it seems to be essential for clarity, but don't use one if the written form is perfectly clear without it. Possessives An apostrophe is used in a possessive form, like Esther's family or Janet's cigarettes, and this is the use of the apostrophe which cases most of the trouble. The basic rule is simple enough: a possessive form is spelled with 's at the end. Hence: Lisa's essay a week's work England's navy The rule applies in most cases even with a name ending in s: Thomas's job the bus's arrival There are three types of exceptions. First, a plural noun which already ends in s takes only a following apostrophe: the girls' excitement both players' injuries my parents' wedding This is reasonable. We don't pronounce these words with two esses, and so we don't write two esses. Second, a name ending in s takes only an apostrophe if the possessive is not pronounced with an extra s. Hence: Ulysses' companions Saint Saens' music Aristophanes' plays The final class of exceptions is pronouns. Note the following: He lost his book Which seats are ours? The bull lowered its head Note in particular the spelling of the possessive its. This word never takes an apostrophe: *The bull lowered its head The ' is wrong, wrong, wrong - but it is one of the commonest of all punctuation errors. The conventional spelling its is totally illogical, but it's none the less conventional, and spelling the possessive as it's will cause many readers to turn up their nose at you. Also, there is no English word spelled *its' - this is another common error for its. The same goes for possessive whose: this cannot be spelled as *who's, though again there is a who's, a contraction of who is or who has. Note, however, that the indefinite pronoun ones forms an ordinary possessives one's. There is a further point about writing possessives: when you add an apostrophe-s or an apostrophe alone to form a possessive, the thing that comes before the apostrophe must be a real English word, and it must also be the right English word. For examples, something like *Ladie's shoes is impossible, because there is no such word as *Ladie Moreover, a department in a shoe shop could not be called *Lady's shoes, because what the shop is selling is shoes for ladies and not shoes for lady, which is meaningless. While we're talking about clothing departments and such, observe that there is at least one irritating exception: though we write men's clothing, as usually, we write menswear as a single word, with no apostrophe. By historical accident, this has come to be regarded as a single word in English. But just this one.

They are "on hold". This actually happens often and the characters soon end be being blended with the other characters (that is to say, a person among the citizens etc.) Since there hasn't been a post in a while, here goes... EDIT: Oy... I confused myself lol! Had to edit a few times sorry. -.- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Aming carefully made her way down the hill towards the group with Marcus, thoughts racing through her mind. Right now any new twists to this frame of time could either damage history or perhaps even glorify it. Either way, it wasn't a choice to be made. It had to remain the same for the most part. As they approached the last few feet towards the group, Saben stepped in front of them, smiling warmly, though a hint of suspicion could be seen in his eyes. "Greetings to the both of you. What brings you here here during these ill times?" Aming hesitated while Marcus answered calmly. "We're just a traveling pair seeking safety in the north. My name is Kiran." For a moment there was an odd silence until Saben looked at Aming, who appeared to be somewhat in a daze. "And your friend?" "M-my name is Rain," was her reply, though barely above a whisper. Marcus backed her up, sensing her uneasiness. "She does not speak very often, but has a good heart," he said smiling. Something changed again...? he wondered. He should tell from her face that seemed to have almost disappeared under the shadows of her cloak. "Kiran, Rain, it is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Saben. Why don't you come with us on our journey? It's not safe to travel at this hour. We're about to set up camp for the night." "If it pleases you, sir." Aming sighed as though tired. "It'd be good to rest our feet for a while, don't you agree, Kiran?" Marcus nodded as Saben turned around, motioning the two to follow him. In the depression, the younger Aming was attending to Aleksander and Armaneth, Corwin and Zonorhc were attending to the horses, and Lady Frost took careful watch of the fire. Kay almost shouted to the older Aming, but a warning look seemed to have shot from underneath the hood and he fell silent, grumbling to himself about nearly blowing their cover. "Everyone, this is Kiran and Rain. They're a traveling pair seeking safety. All right with you all if they come along with us?" Saben asked, glancing around. "Saben, you know our journey is just as dangerous. We shouldn't put people's lives at risk," the younger Aming admonished. "But if they do not mind encountering dark spirits and other ghastly things, I'm fine with that." She smiled at the two. "My name is Aming." By this time, Zonorhc and Corwin approached them, shaking hands with Marcus and nodding to the older Aming politely. Zonorhc smiled a little as he shook hands with Marcus. "You have the grip of a warrior, sir. Almost as good as mine." Marcus looked into his great-grandfather's face, nodding. "Thank you." So this is the great Zonorhc, my great-grandfather... he thought to himself again, feeling honored to have met him face to face despite the time warp that got him here in the first place. More names were exchanged and for the next few moments, the group chatted lightly over the strange sights they've seen in their lives. The older Aming shied away from the fire, wanting to keep the light from falling under the hood. The younger one looked at her and asked, "Everything all right, Rain? Maybe you should remove that hood to get some air." "It's fine, Aming, thank you. I'm a bit sensitive to most forms for light unfortunately due to a freak accident. Pardon me for not revealing my face," the older hastily explained. "You have a fine crossbow there, Kiran. May I have a look at it?" Lady Frost asked. Marcus handed the crossbow to Lady Frost carefully while the older Aming looked around and found Aleksander and Armaneth, still asleep and wrapped under blankets not too far away from them. She uttered a quiet gasp. "Are these two all right?" she asked. Aryl looked over to the older Aming and nodded slightly. "Aming hit them with a spell earlier, thinking they were a threat. Thankfully it wasn't a very strong one. A good bit of rest and they should be up in no time." She looked over to Marcus and motioned him to look at Aleksander and Armaneth. "Do you know them?" Marcus looked over to the older Aming, who only gave a slight shrug. I guess either answer wouldn't do any harm... he thought. "Great gods, they're our friends!" he exclaimed. "How did they ever get here?" "We were going along a tunnel and found them and Kay traveling together. It was decided we'd take care of them until they recover from the attack as it appears they didn't mean us any harm." The older Aming knelt down besides Armaneth and placed a hand on the blanket. Armaneth stirred slightly, then opened his eyes, surprised to find the older Aming now staring down at him. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when she mouthed, "Call me 'Rain'." "Rain... how did you get here?" he asked. "Kiran and I were traveling and the group you were with happened to spot us. How do you feel?" Armaneth cringed a little. "My head still hurts, but better for the most part." Soon Aleksander awakened and Marcus went to his side to explain the matter. The others watched as they spoke and smiled. "Well, at least we've re-united them. Four is better than two, I'll say," Corwin said. "Yes, but Armaneth and Aleksander still need to rest for at least a few hours more before they can travel properly again," Aming added. "Maybe we should let them come along with us. I'm sure they're not a burden and they appear to be well-seasoned warriors." The older Aming looked up at the statement and thought quickly. If anything bad happened to her and her friends of the future, it would ultimately change history. And if anything happened to her past self, it would happen to her future self and could possibly reveal who she really was. But the group needed help. The war was far from ending and with no sign of peace yet, maybe it wouldn't do much harm to help them a little bit until they could find their way back home.

Excessive use of the Gradiant tool on Adobe PS CS. :oops: Was actually surprised something came out of it. :?

Too many variations of names lol. In Mega Man X they call it a beam sabre. In Star Wars it's called a light sabre. :lol: Thanks all. :) The problem with PS Elements is when it comes to the gradients.. They just don't wanna work the way you want them to. :evil:

Yea.. I know... I need to get a better program rofl. :( Rate away. :P Note: I know the handle is too small. :P Sith already pointed that out, and Cruiser said I needed to work on the center glow at the bottom. :oops:

Uh oh indeed! :shock: And so soon? :P ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kiran and Aming made their way out of Falador, with Aming concealing her identity the best she could under a black cloak. Upon advice from Kiran, she had cast a spell to change her appearance so that no one could identify her. Bad already that someone did recognize her, then again, maybe not so bad, with a new (or rather, old) ally at hand again. She glanced over to Kiran, her eyes trailing back down to brooch now and again, shivering in memory of the battle fought in the past. As they approached the northern gates of the city, they were stopped by the two guards, who immediately crossed their javelins in front of the heavy doors. For a moment the dogs snarled and snapped at them, but as Aming drew closer, they seemed to calm down and began to whine, wagging their tails, as though familiar with her. She knelt down a little to give them both a pat on the head, speaking to the guards as she did. "Sirs, if it pleases you, my friend and I seek passage through these gates. We have an important journey to partake on," she said with a slight accent. "I'm sorry, m'lady, but times are dangerous and we cannot allow any of the people to come through these gates unless they are soldiers of the White Knight army," the guard said sternly. "You had better not be a spy trying to escape from here-" "Oh no, sir, not at all." Aming glanced over at the ladders leading to the parapets of the wall. "Is it all right if we go up there to see the view at least?" "I suppose... Many of the civilians have gone up to watch the charges..." he said hesitantly. "Thank you!" Aming motioned Kiran slightly to the ladders, not turning back. "I assume you have a plan, or we wouldn't be coming up here... It's a bit of a drop down, unless we want to shatter ourselves by jumping," Kiran commented, looking down over the low wall of the parapet. Aming nodded. "We must be careful though. Remember what the guard said about the people coming up here to watch the charges?" "So what do you suggest we do?" "Take the far eastern side of the wall. I'll use a wind spell to break our fall... Climbing down would take too much time." After a few minutes of walking, they reached the far eastern side of the wall. Aming looked over to Kiran, motioning him to stand on the edge of the wall. "Jump whenever you're ready," she said. Kiran looked at her as though she were insane. The drop was at least seventy five feet or so. She had better calculate the spell timing right, or I'll be more than dead. With a deep breath, he jumped, soon to be carried by a wind spell that set him gently down on the ground. Soon Aming stood on the wall and jumped as she uttered the spell. Before she could utter the final word, a shattering pain seemed to strike her mind. She barely managed to utter out the last word to save her from falling the last thirty feet or so, landing badly on the ground. Kiran ran to her side. "You okay?" "I... I think so..." she replied shakily. "This is bad... I think history has been changed a little." Kiran frowned. Did Armaneth, Aleksander, and Kay run into them...? As though answering his thoughts, Aming spoke again. "This memory... I remember Armaneth and Aleksandar... And not from recent times... but from past times." We best avoid any more contact with the past, or we could potentially damage history itself. It's already altered enough and our job now is to stop it. "So you think they've been found by your past self and my great grandfather?" "Yes, I'm afraid so." They began to walk towards the cliffs of the hills just south of Ice Mountain, both silent for the remainder of the time. As they reached the incline leading up, Aming pointed in the direction of the Monestary. "That won't be here very soon. It's a part of the original history, sadly, and there's nothing that can be done now to save it unless we ultimately want to damage the fragile glass holding the sands of time." From the northern end of Ice Mountain, Hell's Judge, the one of the past, looked down at the two travellers, frowning to himself. One of them looks oddly familiar... Like that pestering Magess from who-knows-where Aming Heart... Same walking gait, same aura... It has to be her. But who is this she's with? And why isn't she with that Arch Magess Aryl? As he watched, Aming, with the hood of the cloak still shrouding her face, looked over to west. "We best be careful from here on..." she murmered. An evil presence filled the air, but she could not find where exactly it was coming from. She shivered slightly as she continued to walk, feeling for some strange reason that they were being watched. Trouble already... But it's not showing itself yet... He readied his crossbow just in case and continued to walk close behind her. Suddenly Aming stopped, raising a hand before Kiran could speak. "Something is definately not right here," she said through a telepathetic message. "Well, well, what do we have here? Two warriors traveling here at times of war? Surely you know better!" Both turned around and found the Hell's Judge standing behind them, scythe in hand. A grin dripping with blood and glowing red eyes gave some indication he had a face in the darkness of the hood. Kiran aimed his crossbow at him quickly while stepping back besides Aming. Aming made no move to reveal her identity and instead took out a pair of twin daggers that she had packed earlier. Twirling them in her hands, she looked over to the Hell's Judge, frowning. The light barely managed to reveal her eyes, now burning with a fire of hatred and battle. "Stay back, or we wil be forced to fight."

I have never killed anyone, nor has anyone fired at me before. I didn't intend for it to have a hidden meaning. :P

Humans have hands that give them the ability to create good, yet bad as well. :wink:

Uh no lol! Read the description above and connect from there. :wink:

Ah no lol. I can post it up later tomorrow after I get home from class though. :) Thanksgiving holidays hehe! It'll give me more time to format it and stuff. I have never killed anyone, let alone held a gun in my hand. :P

What is it that makes the human hand so gentle, so innocent, yet hold such great power and evil to try to destroy the other hands? What is it that allows the human hand to carry two worlds, one that is good and one that is bad? They are open. They may curl slightly if you let it hang, but they are open. They are open to everything... Open Hands The cold deadening feeling that clutched my heart When I saw the flash and somehow the bullet Just flying, hovering in front of him. And then nothing. No blood, no scream, no groan. Just nothing. But then he began to fall, over and over again. Could I catch him, hold him close, And hope he was still breathing, still living? God I would if I could. But I couldn't. He fell flat on his face onto the muddy street, Hands palm up to the sky as though asking, Pleading even, for someone to let him cradle life once more. Me, me with the merciless look on my face, Me with the blood on my fingers and clothes. It's raining now, raining my victim's blood. Me, the victim once upon a time. Me, now cradling the gun still smoking in my hands. Me, the one with the palms faced upwards now. Me with the open hands. Note: This is also posted on my DeviantArt site if you wish to comment there instead. :) Link's in the profile.

Psst... Biox, I think you better get some copyrights fast. :lol: :wink: Great story, Biox. I had fun laughing. ^_^