Jing found Leria and Bast talking at the edge of the ship facing the lake. “It’s for the best for all of us!” Leria was saying. Bast sighed, “Aye, pr’haps.” He shook his head, “But I wouldnae want ter be tha reason for yer death.”

Jing stood back, looking at the two, ears pinned back on her head. So… He did feel like that.

Leria frowned, looking down at the lake’s waters as they lapped on the side of the ship. “Why are you so certain you will die again?” She asked quietly. “I’ve died too much.” He said softly, watching her. “Ye get used ta bein’ reckless. I’m counting… two deaths more and I’ll ‘ave died ten thousand times.”

Jing winced as she heard that, biting her lip a little. She had no place to say anything in their conversation so instead walked quietly to the side of the ship to walk off. She wouldn’t go far… but she hated listening in on what they were saying!

Their voices drifted over the ship, but were drowned out as three small jerboa children came hopping over and chatting in loud voices. “Hello miss!” “Are you guys really going to save the world?” “Is Silvertongue really going too?” “Aww can we go too!?”

Jing blinked in surprise as she saw the kids, so much for time to herself. “Um… hi. Yes Silvertongue is coming with us… and sorry you can’t come…”

“Awww.” All three said in a chorus. “Will you tell us of your adventures then?” Asked the smaller girl excitedly.

“Um… I…I’m not good at stories… But Leria and Silvertongue will tell the stories when ever we come back…..” Jing explained.

“Aww come on, tell us one story at least!” They chimed in, hopping up and down.

Jing shook her head a little “I don’t have any stories…”

“Aww, everyone has stories, specially those who have traveled!” Insisted the elder one. “Come on, pleeeeeease?” The smallest one pleaded with large eyes.

Jing shook her head again. “I don’t have any stories… What are you three doing over here anyways?”

“Aww you’re no fun.” Pouted the smaller one, eyes brimming with tears. “We just saw you get off the ship and came to see if we could get a story from you!”

Jing chuckled nervously. “Sorry… I’m not a story teller… Please don’t cry?” She asked the smaller one.

He sniffed. “You’re no fun!” He said, turning and running away. The middle girl eeped, running after him. The elder sighed with a frown. “You could have tried at least.” She said in disappointment, before dashing off after the other two.

Jing watched them all run away, ears pinning back on her head as she turned, walking in a different direction then the kids went and away from the ship somewhat. She would go back in a little while… but her mood had gone from bad to worse now and she wanted to be alone.

As she walked away from everyone, a high-pitched scream echoed through the afternoon air.

Jing’s ears twitched at the scream, turning to look around for a second before heading off in the direction it had come from.

The direction was the same the three kids had taken, and as she ran towards it, she saw a group of three draconians accompanied by a squad of smaller goblin-like creatures. The scream came from the smallest of the kids, now trying to free himself from the grip of the tallest draconian, the two girls held by the goblins. As Jing watched, the Draconian snapped the boy’s neck, tossing the small form to the ground.

Jing’s eyes widened in horror at the creatures, and paled when she heard the boys neck broken. “G…Get away from them!!!” She yelled, bringing up her hands and making the gravity around all the creatures that weren’t holding the kids increase 20 times over. She then ran towards the other two, no idea what she would do… but she wasn’t going to let those two girls get killed!

The girls squirmed as the goblins were confused, and the eldest managed to free herself, moving quickly to jump on the one holding her sister, biting on his arm. With a yell, he let go of her, and the two dashed away from them.

Jing watched the two run before bringing up her hands again, making the gravity around the two goblins increase as well, now just trying to crush them all as quickly as possible. The rakune’s hands started to tremble as she concentrated, looking at the boys body for a second, a couple tears coming to her eyes.

The group struggled against the pressure, then something moved behind her, a large skeith raising a huge mace over her head, bringing it down with crushing force. Then something blurred towards her, pushing her away just in time, the mace missing her and Silvertongue by a tail, the mace falling on his tail’s poofy end. He squeaked as his rush was stopped, jerking back as Jing continued to sail to the ground to the side.

Jing yelped out in surprise as she fell to the ground, away from Silvertongue a little, unfortunately her concentration gone from the group and the gravity going back to normal. Whimpering she sat up, looking over at the skeith and bringing up her hand, altering the pull of gravity around him so that instead of below it was to the left, away from herself and the Jerboa.

The skeith roared as he was pulled away, and Silver was up at once, sword out as he stood between Jing and the now mobile contingent of goblins. Bast was there as well though, and he yelled in anger, swinging his sword as he charged the goblins.

Once the skeith was a ways off the gravity’s direction went back to normal, dropping him to the ground. Jing looked at Silver for a second before standing and bringing her hands forward again. She concentrated on slowing down all of the creatures and the skeith as much as possible, trying to crush at least a couple of them.

Silver darted forward and back at the oncoming goblins, Bast fighting in their midst, trying to get at the more dangerous Draconians. From the other side the Skeith roared, bounding towards Jing once more, only to be stopped by Leria, who faced him and kept him busy.

Jing twitched as she heard the roar, looking towards the skeith but glad to see Leria show up. So instead she just worked on slowing all of the enemies around to help the others who were actually fighting have more of an advantage.

For a moment, it seemed as things would be under control, but then a goblin that had escaped notice crept up on Jing, and jumped onto her from behind, stringy fingers curling around her neck and squeezing.

Jing’s eyes widened in horror as she felt the grip around her neck, letting out a choked cry. Her concentration faded quickly as fear filled her mind, the gravity around all the creatures and skeith going back to normal.

The balance of the battle changed abruptly as the magic was dispersed, and Bast suddenly gave a cry, falling to the floor and disappearing from sight. Silver eeped, keeping his opponents at bay, but too busy to help Jing, Leria struggling to bring down the Skeith, shifting back to her dragon form to squish him instead.

Jing watched in horror as she saw Bast vanish, struggling against the grip around her throat as her panic just rose and she fought to breath.

Bast struggled to get up, swinging his sword around him to keep the goblins from jumping onto him, then a draconian moved forward, his own sword striking out and plunging into Bast’s throat. Bast gave a croak of surprise, blood bubbling out of his mouth as his sword fell from suddenly limp hands. As the Draconian pulled the sword back out, Bast wheezed, then crumpled out of sight among the Goblins. “NO!” Shouted Silver, renewing his attack with vigor, trying to reach Bast.

Jing continued to struggle, whimpering as she heard Bast then Silver. “N…No… L…Let me go…!” She said weakly, trying to kick the goblin that was hanging onto her. It was too hard to concentrate on using her powers when she was fighting to breath.

There was a flapping of silver wings, then the goblin holding her screamed in pain, grip loosening and falling back away from Jing.

Jing stumbled forward, coughing hard and turning to look back at the goblin. What just happened?!

The goblin was by now completely frozen, Kinu flapping to land on his frozen head. ‘That’ll teach you to mess with Jing!” She said with a curt nod.

Jing smiled a little at Kinu in relief. “T…Thank you Kinu.” She said before looking up towards the goblins and dragonlings that were left, bringing up her hands before slamming them down on the ground, trying to use a sudden force against them all strong enough to break all their legs.

The attack worked against most of the goblins, who fell to the ground in confused cries of pain. Silver finished them off hopping around, two of the draconians turning to flee, but Leria, having finished with the skeith, blew her own breath-weapon at thee draconians. Bolts of lighting shot out, electrocuting them to a crisp.

Jing sighed in relief as they were all taken care of, standing and looking at Kinu for a second before walking towards the others, ears pinned back on her head when she saw the little Jerboa boy’s body.

Silver wiped his sword as he looked around, also spotting the boy’s body and frowning sadly. Then he saw the bloody body of Bast a few steps away and cringed.

Jing sighed quietly as she saw Bast’s body and bit her lip a little, looking at Leria. “Want me to move Bast back onto the ship?” She asked quietly, not wanting to look at the boy anymore. She felt like it was her fault he was killed… if she had stayed with the three kids… it might have saved him.

Leria, still in her dragon form, nodded. “Silver… can you take care of the child?” She asked. He nodded gravely, walking forward and carefully gathering the small rodent in his arms. Kinu whimpered, sitting at the edge of the battlefield.

Jing’s hands were trembling as she heard Leria, ears pinned back on her head and she moved to get Bast up, making the gravity around his body weaker so he was easier to carry. “Kinu… Lets get back to the ship…” She said quietly.

Kinu nodded silently, flying back to the ship. Bast’s neck continued to bleed, body limp and head hanging precariously.

Jing looked at Bast, biting her lip hard as she took him back to the ship. Why had this happened…?

Leria gathered up the dead intruders, and took them away from the village, setting the bodies on fire.

Jing took Bast back to the ship, sighing quietly as she found a quiet place to put him until sunrise so Rena and Kinu wouldn’t have to see his body.

Silver returned a while later, a sad look on his face. “I… am very sorry you lost a friend.” He said.

Jing was sitting up on the deck when Silver came back, looking over at Silver. “Lost a friend…? No… I should be the one to say sorry… I should have stayed with those kids… If I had… that boy might not have died…”

Silver blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Jing sighed quietly, looking away. “I left the ship… when I did three kids showed up and started talking to me. They said they wanted to hear stories… since I had traveled… I told them I didn’t have any and wasn’t good at telling stories. They all got upset and mad, especially that little boy. He started to cry as he ran off and the two followed. I started walking away and about a minute later I heard the scream. When I got back to them… that was when the boy was killed…”

Silvertongue winced, looking away towards the village. “I see…” He said quietly. “Don’t… don’t blame yourself though, it could have happened anyway, or someone else could have been hurt.” He said, “They were heading towards the village. If not for his scream they might have attacked the village itself before we could stop them.”

Jing was silent as she listened, ears pinned back on her head and tears forming in her eyes. “I…If I had been with them though… H…He might not have died…” She said quietly, tail curling around her.

Silver frowned sadly. He could not say the contrary, he had known the child, and was very upset himself about his death. “You are… taking your friend’s death much better than I thought, I didn’t think you’d be more affected by Ringtail’s death.” He said quietly.

Jing sighed quietly “Right… you don’t know. Bast will wake up at sunrise unhurt.” She muttered, looking down at the water of the lake. “But that child… won’t ever come back…”

Silver looked shocked at this. “But… how… is that possible!?”

Jing refused to look up at Silver. “Its a curse… both Bast and me have it…”

“So… neither of you die permanently?” He asked.

Jing shook her head slowly. “No… Bast has been cursed for a lot longer then me. He was the last one at home that was cursed and banished before me.” She explained.

“I… see…” He frowned, “That must be very tough for you.” He said.

“Its been worse for Bast… I can’t imagine… dieing near ten thousand times….” She said quietly, still refusing to look at Silver.

He winced, “That… many times?” He asked in shock. “You can only die once a day, right?” He asked.

Jing nodded slowly “Once we die… we stay dead until the sun rises on a new day…”

“So…” He looked up, “If he died once a day… that’s over 27 years, if he died every single day in a row…”

Jing again nodded “He has been cursed… about 60 years…”

The jerboa looked rather stunned, “That… means he’s died roughly every other day… for sixty years…” He said weakly, leaning against the railing.

Jing was silent as she heard Silver. She had realized it was something like that, but didn’t want to think about it.

He watched her, sighing. “Well… if you wish, the village is preparing a ceremony to see Ringtail off.”

Jing shook her head slowly. “I just want to stay here…” She said quietly.

He nodded, “Very well then, I shall see you later.” He said gently, turning to walk away and leave her to her own thoughts.

Jing said nothing else, just looking down at the water sadly, tail keeping curled tightly around her.

After a while of sitting on her own Jing headed back down below deck but was quiet most the the night and went to bed early.