[align=center]?? Folklore ??

One wouldn't believe that they had ended up in a fairy tale.

Once upon a time, you have.

 

There are those in the Netherworld that want to uprise and take over the land of the dead and the land of the living. Led by those from the Overworld, they have grown stronger and stronger.

There are still Messengers and others that can travel to the Netherworld that want to prevent this overrule and restore the balance.

Will both worlds live happily ever after?, or....

 

Rules:

Please, don't:

"You're lucky," Raiden began, dropping his arms from around his knees. "Least you never had to have any."

"It would've been nice to, though," Eliza admitted. "Then I wouldn't have such a troubled life." She paused. As Ruru walked up to her, she added with a slight hint of humor, "Of course, if they had stayed around, then I wouldn't be in this place."

"Maybe. Maybe not. All parents do is trap you and screw you over. You're probably much better off without them," Raiden carried on, voice bitter.

"Maybe, maybe not," Eliza said as she began petting Ruru. "No one can ever know..."

After a moment, she paused and thought deeply. Then, she spoke up, "Hey, I've known you for three or four days, and I don't even know your name." She began laughing.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I never did actually tell you, after you all but yelled yours at me." Raiden paused, considering giving a fake name out of habit- but, then again, what would Eliza do with just his name? Giving it away wasn't exactly going to ruin everything, was it?

"It's Zuko Zu-Zu Raiden."

Sitting straight up, Eliza held her hand out and smiled as she said, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Zu-Zu Raiden."

"Meet me, after three days?" he smirked, and reached to take her hand, unable to stop a small grin breaking onto his face. "Feeling's mutual."

(( Okay, so I'm leaving for the con in an hour. It ends at 6 EST, and I leave for home right after that, which is a four-hour trip, so I'll be more active again tomorrow. ))

 

After shaking his hand, Eliza went to go lay back down in bed, saying, "Well, I gotta work tomorrow. Night!"

(I'm not even going to attempt to convert EST to GMT at this ungodly hour. O.e)

 

"Yeah... Can you wake me up when you go, rather than sneaking off like this morning...?" Raiden went to elaborate on why, but the wave of fatigue caught him mid-explanation, and he drifted off to sleep, voice trailing off before he had a chance to explain at all.

(( From your time, it's minus four hours. By the way, I'm home! :'D ))

 

"Sure, if I can remember," Eliza replied, unaware of Raiden's drifting, before she fell asleep herself.

Despite the fact he had finally fallen asleep, rather than been woken up every few minutes like before, Raiden kept moving around, turning this way and that. Luckily, he was pretty much silent the whole time- his sleep was too deep for him to sleeptalk.

(( Okay, since there's rules now, I gotta come up with 100 words now. :'D ))

 

Within a couple of hours, the sun had finally risen. As always, via the window, the light had hit Eliza's eyes. Of course, since she was up two or three times during the night, she was exhausted, and she just wanted to stay in bed. However, she forced herself up anyways. Taking her pillow, she lazily swung it down at Raiden, saying bluntly, "Hey, get up. I'm leaving."

 

After walking for a while, Evany and Kana had made it to the other end of the Undersea City. Then, a thought came to him-- Even though they didn't require sleep, they could still become hungry. "Hey, do you want to find something to eat?" he asked Kana.

(Oh yeahhhh. I completely missed them when I read the board earlier. :'D)

 

Raiden moaned something incoherent into the blanket curled around him, which sounded all too like a complaint. He managed to roll himself over after a matter of seconds, though, raising a hand when he moved into the light and it stung his eyes. Blearily, he looked up at Eliza, blinking sleep out of his eyes as he dropped his arm. "This is how early you get up?" he asked, completely incredulous. "The sun only just came up!"

"Well, yeah," Eliza remarked as she sat the pillow back on the bed. "I work all day, after all. Besides, you asked me to do so." As she crawled over to the end of the bed, Ruru walked up to her and meowed curiously. Sighing, Eliza moaned, "All right, I'll feed you first." She got out of bed and walked into the kitchen. As Ruru followed her, Eliza brought out the bag that contained the cat food and poured some into the bowl. "There you go," she said to the little black cat before she headed for the front door.

"I know, but when I asked I thought it would be a reasonable time..." Raiden grumbled, but shut up quickly when it occured to him he was overreacting. It wasn't as if he really needed the sleep, anyway. He might feel tired, but deep down he knew he was probably just faking it for himself. Trying to cling to a chance at acting alive again.

While Eliza went to deal with Ruru, Raiden slipped into the bathroom and grabbed his dagger from where he'd hidden it the evening before. He managed to beat Eliza to the door, though, and was glaring out at the sky, a slight grimace on his face. "Ew, it's raining. It hate it when it does that," he complained.

Eliza giggled as she walked out of the house. "Why?" she questioned. "The rain's great!" She ran out and stood on the middle of the empty ground. "It's one of the greatest things that nature ever offers, in my opinion," she complimented as she looked up at the falling drops. It was only until a moment later when she had realized the downside of it raining. "Great..." she said as she dropped her arms to her sides. "Now I'm going to have soaked pajamas when I get back..." Whether or not clothes from the real world change as she stays in the Netherworld, she hasn't had the slightest clue.

"The rain's awful," he argued, trudging out after her. "It makes you all wet and cold (lololsorryZuko:'D) and everything goes gloomy... AND it makes your hair go all frizzy," he carried on, messing with his hair as he spoke, as though flicking his hand through it could somehow make it waterproof. By the time he reached her, dragging his feet and walking slowly as he was, Raiden looked like a drowned rat. A very, very grumpy one.

"I call it a free bath for whenever I'm in a hurry," Eliza remarked, but she faded out as she took notice of the rat. Staring very gloomily at it, she muttered, "Why must it rain...?" Ruru would have came out and saved the day, but unfortunately, in the town full of spirits, the feline was still a scaredy-cat of water.

"D'you want the scientific explanation, or the deep moral fancy pants one?" Raiden questioned, unsure of whether or not she was asking him seriously or just talking to herself. The nerves were starting to creep in, a deep pit in his stomach that grew heavier the more he thought about going home. He tried to tell himself he was being ridiculous, that he was over reacting, but he struggled to even come close to convincing himself. Raiden tried to hide his anxiety when he realised he was biting at his thumbnail, shoving his hands in his pockets and turning his face away, pretending to look at something in the distance so Eliza couldn't see his expression.

"Haha," Eliza sarcastically replied, even though she was glaring at the rat. First, she absent-mindedly ran into the rain in her pajamas. Now, she encountered a grumpy rat. Also, she was very exhausted because of the few hours of sleep that she had. "This day's going to suck...." she muttered as she turned around and started walking for the cave.

"Yours is going to suck?! All you have to do is stand by a tree!" Raiden exclaimed, waving his hands around as he spoke. He walked slightly ahead of her, until he lost his guts somewhat when they approached the cave. He started to hang back a little, dragging his feet and staring gloomily ahead.

"The signs, Raiden," Eliza pointed out upon entering the cave. "They clearly point out how bad my day's going to suck." Unaware of how far back Raiden lingered, she entered the throne room. She walked over to the side of the room and picked up her Messenger cloak. Holding it up to her chest, Eliza glared at Raiden, warning, "Turn around."

Raiden didn't realize what she meant at first. "Why-" he began, but then common sense kicked in and he answered the question himself, when he put it together. "Oh."

He turned around quickly, crossing his arms, embarrased to have not realised and averted his eyes before Eliza had had to ask.

Eliza sighed as the cloak began to don on her. During the transformation, she stared at the wall in front of her. It was old, moldy, and some of the stones used as blocks were sticking out of the wall. However, despite its condition, it was still sturdy and stable, and it still reached up about 50 yards. It was like looking at a picture book.

As the last seam went into place, Eliza dropped her arms to her sides as she sighed, "Okay, I'm done."

"That took longer than I thought," Raiden added impatiently, turning back around. He was trying very hard to keep the nerves at the thought of going back at bay, moving from one foot to the other. He felt that, had he done what he felt like, which was pacing nervously around the cave, she just MIGHT have noticed.