Damn it! Kaze thought as he entered the shadows of the Swamp of Shadows then added wryly, at least the mist is gone.

The part shapeshifter, part elf, part human, had been guided by his instinct to this place and now he had just about enough of everything. Firstly there was the mist he had to stumble through in the forest, constantly getting tripped over by roots and other...things. That was made even worse by the bunch of necromancers he ran into on the way. They had been performing some obscene rite involving rather graphic displays of violence, the least of which was dissecting a little girl while she was alive. He shivered at the thought of all the blood and he was about vomit again, but there was nothing left in his stomach.

Thank Ploay for my shapeshifting, he paused in the darkness wondering where that thought came from, he never used to invoke a divine's name in his thanks.

A minute later, Kaze heard a fair bit of scurrying in the trees ahead of him, and on impulse, he leapt aside amongst a nearby tree's roots and turned all his exposed body parts black to match the shadows around him. Once again, luck was on his side, it was not the necromancers, but a young woman. She stopped running on the very spot he was earlier and doubled over, panted heavily. The young woman look young, about sixteen and looked like a human, though something was off. Though she was young, she was also fairly voluptuous, and amazingly beautiful, still though, something was off. Kaze shrugged that off and thought it due to the surrounding shadows.

Suddenly there was a presence in the clearing and Kaze started muttering the spell of Detect Evil on another impulse. The girl straightened up and looked around, panicking more as she could not see her pursuer. As Kaze finished the spell and gestured with a sweep of his left arm, she saw him and immediately sprinted along the path she came, straight into her pursuer. Kaze gasped at the amazing levels of evil the figure eminated...this was going to be very interesting.

Sekeolath had come back from the shadow plane to find something, or someone, to hunt. He soon figured out he was in the misty forest because of, you guessed it, the mist. 'This will work in my favor, I need not my sense of sight. I rarely use it when hunting anyways', the shadow dragon thought before he heard the crack of a twig.

Sekeolath quickly smelt the air around him, smelling for new game. 'Ahh....there is a maiden nearby, but somethings....off about her. But its worth the risk, I haven't had decent sport in weeks!', the dragon thought before embarking into the air, chasing after a ,now running, young lady.

After an hour of chasing, the girl was obviously tiring. She stopped for a moment around a tree. She seemed to acknowledge something about it before running off again. 'Curious', Sekeolath thought before landing where she was standing a moment ago. It sniffed the air once more before looking at said tree. The dragon moved but inches from the tree, sniffing before flying off toward the girl once more.

(sorry, very short)

(OOC: Don't worry about it)

Kaze let out huge sigh of relief as the dragon vanished after the girl, he got out of his hiding spot, returning his skin to its normal color.

First crazy necromancers now bloody Shadow freaking Dragon! He thought as he sprinted after the two, the dragons evil presence guiding him, Can't I just go to a quiet village and relax there? As he complained, he shifted his ears into the sharp elven ones, No, I have to wander into into bloody misty forest where I can't see anything thirty feet away, then get chased bloody crazy necromancers into the dark part of the forest, then get involved in bloody chase involved a bloody Shadow Dragon.

He stopped his whining as he heard the girl's labored breaths coming closer. Kaze frowned, she was not coming his way, it was to his left. As he looked to his left, he saw the girl sprint straight to him, looking behind her. There was no help for it, with Kaze instantly surprised and the girl still looking behind her, they collided, the girl releasing a piercing shriek in terror. Kaze stared at her, she began crying as she muttered things.

"Please, please, I don't want to go back...I...I've had enough, I want to go back home to my mom and dad..."

Kaze's eyes watered at the memories of his parents, he quickly wiped away the forming tears and stood up, picking her up as well.

"Come on, there's a dragon chasing you, let's go," his eyes suddenly widened as the dragon's evil presence appeared right behind him. He immediately sprinted forward, holding her hand, "RUN! Damn it! And stop crying, you'll need to see where you're going!"

(No controlly my shadow dragony! I'm alright with it but don't do it to often, the admins will hunt you down, also I'll go with your idea about the capture, not mindless killing)

Sekeolath Chased the girl for a while longer before it grew werry of it. 'Thats it, I'm ending this now', the dragon thought before noticing the boy. The girl collided with the boy and fell onto the the ground. 'Heres my chance', it thought before dissipearing into the shadow of a nearby tree. A momment later Sekeolath appeared behind the boy, mouth wide and read to devour him.

(OOC: Oops, heh heh)

As Kaze felt the hot breath from the dragon behind him, he felt a sudden surge of adrenaline that allowed to fling the girl to his left, away from the dragon. He himself, leapt to the left to left as well, after he waited to the last possible second of course. Tumbling on the forest floor, he got back up and ran to the girl.

"Sorry for the treatment, but we go now!" Grabbing her hand again, they ran in a direction, perpendicular to the path of the dragon.

Kaze looked around, as they ran, trying to spot the dragon and trying to figure out a way out of this maddening area. Everything looked the same, from the trees to the shadows, upon that thought Kaze realised something.

That was a Shadow Dragon...just beautiful! This keeps getting better!

"That way," the girl as she pointed in a seemingly random direction. Kaze stopped and looked at her sceptically, she sighed, "North is that way." She stated, pointing behind her, "When North is behind you in this area of the woods, the general exit is East, if we continue this way, we will run into cliffs."

Kaze grinned and dragged her eastwards, "That's cool, and if we die, my name is Kaze Silverwind."

The girl smiled in responce, "I'm Faile, pleasure to meet you."

The two grinned at each other as they ran, then got serious once more as they looked out for the dragon.

Sekeolath flew high up into the air to survay the area for the children. "Where is that damnable girl! I sware if my master didn't want you alive you'd be in my belly before you could move an inch!", the dragon yelled off into the sky. Sekeolath soon saw them moving eastward. The dragon speared itself towards there location. It seemed it was going to crash into the ground, but before it could hit, Sekeolath vanished into the shadows once more. A second later the dragon appeared in front of the two childs, and while streching out it's wings and opening its mouth, it let out a blood cerdling roar.

(night for now)

Kaze leapt back as the Dragon appeared from the shadows in front of them. As he landed he stopped letting out sulphurous curses and crouched in his stance, his sheathed katana held out in front of him. As for Faile, she managed to jump out of danger, though she was a splint-second slower than Kaze, she land without any harm. She immediately ran behind Kaze, and as she did, she made a throwing motion and orb of light formed on the way to the Dragon.

"If that light spell hits," she whispered to Kaze "It would probably stop him from travelling through shadows as they will be dispelled by the light around him."

Kaze grinned and whispered back, "Let's run around him now."

Faile grinned back and grabbed his right hand, she got the idea immediately, force him to divide his attention.

"Go!" They immediately sprinted to the right, the shorter distance between the possible paths, in what was a pretty intelligent yet desperate effort to escape.