Several days after the trial incident, Sha'uri needed something to take her mind off of the fiasco. Her blacksmithing work didn't help because everything she made clearly brought her thoughts back to it, and so did her Priestly duties. Every potion she tried to make or scroll she endeavored to write caused her to think about the incident. So in to town she went.

The bar didn't appeal to her. She wasn't ready to be around a lot of people, who'd been drinking, just yet. In truth, there were more reasons then that for her staying away from the bars. As it was, she found herself wandering by several shops and just plain 'lo doing a lot of window shopping. Somehow, she found herself situated at the auction and there she sat for a time perusing over the crowd. She'd never been to one of these auctions before.

"What a nice distraction."

They brought out a plush puppy that was simply adorable. Sha'uri Ooooh'ed and aahhh'ed over it, covering her mouth as she murmured how cute. Somehow that got interpreted into a bid. Shocked when she realized, she quickly shook her head, which unbeknownst to her must have retracted it, taking back the bid she'd made. She hadn't meant to do either one. Others bid, too, which caused the price to go up. Deciding she wanted the puppy after all, she made her bid. This was easy and she shook her head at herself thinking she was an idiot. Only then did it dawn on her that she was retracting the bid as she did this. But she wanted the puppy!

She raised her hand again, outbidding herself, and quickly put it down, sitting on her own fingers and holding perfectly still so as not to signal any more. She was even afraid to blink her eyes. She could see a slightly perturbed gleam in the auctioneer's eyes, yet with a tinge of amusement as he called off the price. Lucky for her, no one else bid and she won the plushy puppy on her very first auction.

It was the happy snappy skippy doodle little dance as she made her way to claim her winning. She paid the price and took her prize and brought it home to show her kitten. Sabre the little kitty from hell.....

No sooner then Sha'uri had laid the plush puppy on her bed, the cat jumped up to pounce on it. Apparently, Sabre thought it was for her and she bit down on the puppy's ear, raked harmlessly at its back with her hind claws and pounced away with a hiss.

"Hey you little rat, that's my plushy puppy! Psst! Skat!"

The kitten shook her head with an indignant look as if to say how dare you. Then she moved round in a circle, arching her back for a nice little stretch. Sha'uri thought it looked as if the little kitty's eyes were going to pop right out of her head. The kitten mewed sweetly and moved over to the plushy dog, stepping on it's back and began to move in a circle kneading its cushy insides to her specification before she laid down, front paws pinning down its neck and she let her head come to rest next to his head. The little kitten from hell was purring.

"Okay, as long as that's all you do, I'll share."


She gingerly laid down on her bed and curled up round the kitten, who continued to purr softly atop the plushy puppy. It seemed to be the most content this little kitten had been the entire time Sha'uri had her. As she gently stroked Sabre, Sha'uri began to get sleepy from all the excitement.

It was odd for her to take a nap, but the idea seemed inevitably prevalent upon her. She didn't even bother to close her door, she was so tired and comfortable. So she drifted off to sleep, flowing with the distraction of the nap and the dreams poking at her subconscious while the world faded away...

"Nooooooo!"

She literally cried out in her sleep. A pool of sweat soaked her and she shivered uncontrollably in her sleep. And the nightmare continued on....


No longer could she just simply struggle to leave. She had to fight her way out, fight to be free. One by one, she began to smash the heads of the soulless ones, until a pile of skeletal remains formed beneath her feet. She could feel their trapped spirits be released of the magic that held their corpses soulless... held their spirits in limbo ... and felt the souls begin to leave this place as their broken corpses fell to form a huge pile rising up and out of the water. She felt the anger of the one who had kept them here leash out at her with a vengeance...

She ran up the pile of bones, the proverbial throne sensed up ahead. She was leaving him behind, could sense the distance growing between her and Briarius. Then something reached out from the pile and tripped her. It held fast to her ankle and began to pull her down.

"Grandpa! No! Just let me go!"

Excalibur Woodshadow, no longer the kind hearted elf she remembered ... his eyes red with anger, his face dried and cracked with puss oozing from beneath his skin as if he were a rotting corpse.


"You want that, little one? You want to be up there at the top?! Fool! Run the other way while you can!"

Something changed in his demeanor, something vial. Puss oozed in long droplets hanging from his mouth. A stench so vial as to cause the bile to rise in her throat.

"Now hows about a kiss for yer 'ol grampy, eh?"

"Nooooo!!"

She pulled herself away, slamming a fist through his skull. She watched as the form of her grandfather withered away into dust ... and sensed his soul be released. It was all so real, it seemed.

The tears flowed freely, clouding her vision as she pulled herself up to stand once again. She knew he was right, that up there at the top was not what she wanted to do. So around she turned to head back down and face whatever was at the bottom of the whirlpool.

She turned around only to come face to face with Briarius, his not two inches from hers while he maneuvered round her so that he was at the higher ground to bring their gaze to a level stance. His eyes were red with anger, his face seemed imaciated as if he'd been starved for weeks on end ... saliva dripped from his lips and he looked at her as if she were the morsel that would fulfill his hunger ... and whim.

She moved to strike him but was caught from behind as hundreds of skeletons had followed Briarius and were now pining her down to the ground atop the skeletal heap. She could feel her blood drain towards her head and was helpless as Briarius came down on top of her. Their legs began to sink in the skeletal rubble. It was clear what he was about to do as she felt boned fingers pull her dress up and rip her panties off. She struggled, but it only brought her in a more receptive position. She closed her eyes and screamed, pleading with him in her dream, and out loud in her room.

"No, Bri! Oh god, no! Don't do this, Please Briari, please! Don't do this... Oh god no... Bri... No.. please no!"

Briarius wasn't there when she opened her eyes, but instead it was a nameless human that had raped her when she was young. It was him for she knew his scent. And He raped her again now ... over and over, it seemed a hundred times over ... sweat covered him, saliva dripped from his mouth and puss began to ooze until he seemed to dry up and shrivel away, similar to her grandfather, leaving her in a puddle of goo ... of what was left of himself ... while the rest of him had turned to dust and blew away. She had become frozen with fear, pain and finally with transcended indifference.

She didn't even notice the pair of hands reaching under her arms to lift her now naked form out of the pile and wrap around her as if to comfort and protect. It wasn't until she heard the familiar voice that she finally looked at who it was.

"Come, young one ... come with me. Leave this place for eternity."

For a moment, for the briefest of moments, it looked like Corellon himself. And then the light hair turned dark, green eyes turned blue and the demeanor changed as Briarius spoke again.

"Ready for round two?"

His eyes turned red and he began to squeeze her tight ... choking the air from her lungs. He began floating, dragging her towards the whirlpool of water beneath the pile of bones they were on.

Somehow she found the strength to fight him, pulled one of her arms out from his grip and pushed his head away from her. He struggled to shift his head, his teeth began to enlarge and saliva dripped from his mouth again. It was clear he was going to bite her ... eat her.

His teeth sank into her flesh, striking next to the main artery in her neck. She could feel him drive those long ivory teeth further and further until it struck her collar bone. He retracted his head and with it a large chunk of her flesh. Throwing his head back, and the flesh into the air, his mouth opened exaggeratedly wide, caught and swallowed her flesh whole. But when he looked back to her, his face was normal, his eyes were blue ... pleading for something, forgiveness perhaps, and something more.

"Why are you doing this? Briari... please.. stop."

"I wish I could. Help me ... stop it ... because I can't."

He seemed so helpless, powerless in that brief moment, until his eyes turned red with anger once again ... and his teeth sank into her flesh, into that main artery which was sure to bring her death. She writhed in pain as he pulled and pulled again and again working that portion of flesh loose one increment at a time. Sha'uri felt forced with only one option left ... kill him or be killed. No sooner then the thought occurred, she transformed into that dragon, pulled him off of her and bit off his head. Blood oozed, tendrils of flesh trailed as she threw his body atop the skeletal pile and crunched down upon his head.

"BRIARIUS!!!!!!!"

Sha'uri woke up screaming his name while she fell out of bed onto her knees. How could she have done that to him? She could still feel the crunch of his head between her teeth. Her stomach lurched and she vomited on the floor, convulsing for what seemed like forever. She was covered in sweat and some vomit. Chills wracked her body as she shivered on the floor. She could see Sabre dart from the room, hissing and growling on her way, and saw the plushy puppy had been thrown to the floor just a few feet away from her. It was obviously covered in sweat ... and a tinge of blood?

There was no blood in the vomit, but as she looked at herself and to the bed, she realized that her sweat was tinged with blood ... her blood ... she had been sweating blood. She leaned her back up against the bed and held herself as if to keep herself from falling apart. She shivered with fear, pain and then indifference settled in from shock. This had never happened to her before.