[Shieba]

Stella had by now managed to knock Chaotic back enough that the darker Fellox had stumbled over a root, giving Stella a moment to catch her breath after the sudden attack. "Don't worry, Kayo", she tried to quickly explain to the Kitrell. "It's very nice of you to talk to Chaotic, but you have probably noticed that she is really weird. I have no idea why she is like she is - she is a dark creature for sure, but I can't tell why she's nice sometimes instead of being mean all the time. Maybe she's just that crazy or maybe it's her attempt at being really 'chaotic'. But I think that when she's nice, she actually, well, means it, as far as someone so insane can mean something." It wasn't easy for Stella to say nice things about Chaotic, but she felt like she should try to cheer the Kitrell up a bit, seeing how much effort Kayo had put into talking with Chaotic and getting along with her.

Chaotic had managed to get back up and, with a snarl, launched dark shadows at Stella, who quickly jumped out of the way, but tried to remain in reach so that Chaotic didn't get ideas about focusing on the Bruma and the Kitrell instead of her. As chatty as Chaotic was when she was happy, she never talked during the fights, which was strange, but Stella was used to it.

"You saw that? She can hit you with magic, so unless you have anything to counter that, it's best to stay away." Stella was worried; she didn't like the thought of additional targets. While a bit of help against Chaotic would be nice for a change, she certainly didn't want anyone hurt, no matter if she had healing magic or not. "It's best to provoke her into using her magic, though - it makes her tire more quickly and she usually changes back into happy mode when she's tired."

[Kodai]

For once in her life, it seemed that Kayo didn't really have anything to say. She simply watched, confused, as Chaotic attacked Stella with a barrage of shadows. Taio, however, was trying to quickly think of something he could do to help. He had some control of water, being a Bruma, but nothing so powerful that he could use it to attack Chaotic with. Almost all of his power was physical in nature, due to his great size. Still, maybe there was something he could do with the little elemental power he had? "Stella! I can try to distract her so that you may overpower her," he called, not overly concerned about Chaotic hearing him. She didn't seem to be the sort to use any sort of logical tactics in battle, after all. "Kayo, you get up in the trees."
"H-Huh? But what are you going to do?" the Kitrell squeaked, finally gaining her voice again.
"Do not mind that, just go!" He began to swing his head in an effort to get Kayo to take flight, which succeeded.
"H-Hey, well, you'd better not do anything rash!" she warned, flapping up into a tree on the opposite side of the river.
Taio made no reply to that, instead charging forward a bit so that he was closer to where Chaotic and Stella were fighting. He still remained in the river, though, so that he could use his powers more efficiently. Ribbons of water began to rise up out of the river and then flew towards Chaotic. They wouldn't hurt if they hit her, but that wasn't the point – Taio's hope was that the Fellox would become distracted either by the flying water ribbons or by being suddenly drenched. As a further attempt to catch her attention, Taio shouted, "Chaotic! Stop this nonsense at once! You are going to scare more than just the fish away!"

[Shieba]

Stella noticed out of the corner of her eye that Taiomah was up to something. She was slightly worried about the Bruma, but figured that she couldn't really stop him - he just wanted to help and he could see clearly what Chaotic was able to do, so it wasn't like he was running into this blindly. And a bit of help was welcome, after all, even though Stella took pride in the fact that she could keep her mortal enemy in check on her own. She had her healing magic, too, so even if Taio got hurt, she could heal him, but hopefully that wouldn't be needed. At any rate, Stella was so busy with still dodging Chaotic's shadow attack that she had neither breath nor time to talk with Taio to encourage or stop him.

Chaotic had to focus on her shadows at least until she had launched them all, so even the insane Fellox stood still for some time and made a rather good target for the water flying her way. The ribbons hit her perfectly and made her stumble back a bit thanks to the surprise effect, but she caught herself rather quickly.

Stella had hoped that something that unexpected would make Chaotic change moods again, but she was out of luck this time. Chaotic merely hissed and switched targets. "Taiomah, careful!" Stella managed to shout, but then Chaotic had already charged at her new opponent, even though the Bruma was probably much stronger than her. Stella was glad Chaotic wasn't using her shadows again, but she probably wasn't able to do so twice without catching her breath.

Chaotic splashed into the river. With no means to bite thanks to her mask, she jumped at Taio with outstreched claws, though it was really more of a tackle attempt than a try to scratch him.

[Kodai]

((So we have agreed to this, yes? o uo))

Kayo flapped her wings excitedly when Chaotic switched targets and went after Taiomah. "Hey, look out!" she cried, nearly jumping up and down while still clinging to her tree branch. She really didn't like fighting or seeing people get hurt, so hopefully Taio would be able to dodge the Fellox's attack. If blood was drawn, Kayo wasn't sure what she'd do. The Kitrell wasn't squeamish enough that she'd faint, but it was true that she really, really didn't like the smell of blood. That smell could also attract other creatures that lived here...

Good, Chaotic had noticed the water and had charged for him. Perhaps Taio would be able to end this little spat before it got completely out of hand and someone ended up getting hurt. Not that that was necessarily a problem, as he could take any injured person to the House for treatment (he didn't yet know of Stella's abilities), but Taio would prefer to avoid having anyone receive any injuries at all. Watching Chaotic's leap, Taio carefully waited for the right moment before striking out with a large paw and backhanding the Fellox into the water. For him, it was an incredibly light touch – he didn't need to use much force at all – but it was still sufficient to stop Chaotic's attack and knock her away. He didn't actually want to hurt her, after all, just stop her from going wild and try to turn her back to her gentler state. Turning to where the Fellox had landed, he swiftly pressed his giant paw against her head, holding her underwater. Hopefully the shock of being unable to breathe for a minute or so would make her change back. "Chaotic! You are drowning, Chaotic! You are in the river and drowning! What is that like?" Maybe if he spoke like the Fellox did when she was hyper, it would encourage her to try to respond in a similar manner and thus help revert her personality as well.

[Shieba]

(Yeah, that's what we agreed to~)

Stella watched Chaotic getting backhanded and wished she'd have that much power - it would make things so much easier, really. Taio seemed to have no problems at all dealing with Chaotic, which almost made her jealous, considering how much grief and harm her sister had caused others that Stella hadn't been able to prevent in time despite her best efforts.

She hurried towards the river where Chaotic was right now getting almost-drowned. The dark Fellox was clearly struggling again the Bruma for a few seconds and Stella doubted Chaotic would be able to hear Taio's voice while being pushed underwater like that, but she couldn't deny that Taio had the correct idea. It took almost half a minute, but then Chaotic's frantic struggling turned into something that resembled more trying to regain footing while trying to bounce up and down. "...I think she changed back. No guarantees, but it looks that way." Stella sighed in relief. "Good job and thank you so much! I think you can let her go now." Not that Stella would mind much if Chaotic drowned, but she doubted the Bruma would want to kill. "Are you hurt? I can heal you." She looked up and needed a second to spot Kayo. "You, too! Are you alright?"

(Short reply is short DDDD8)

[Kodai]

Noticing that Chaotic's movements had changed and that Stella believed things were okay now, Taio lifted up his paw and shuffled back slightly. Even though Stella thought that Chaotic had switched back, he still wanted to try to keep some distance between himself and the Fellox. "I am fine," he replied, looking back at Chaotic's sister. "She did not hurt me." Thinking a little, he added, "This fight only seemed simple because I was expecting her movements. If she had managed to catch me by surprise, or use her magic, it would have been much more difficult." Taio didn't want Stella to think that her own fighting abilities were sub-par or that he had extraordinary fighting power. Yes, he was strong and trained in the ways of battle, but he wasn't invincible.
"H-Huh? O-Oh, I'm okay!" Kayo squeaked, having stopped jumping on the branch. She still looked pretty shaken up, though. It was likely that she wasn't going to try to go near Chaotic again any time soon. "Hey, but are YOU okay? She was attacking you like crazy!"
"Yes, are you all right? If you are hurt, we can take you to the House." Taio stepped towards Stella, trying to see if she had any injuries.

[Shieba]

"I'm very fine, thank you. Though I remember nothing from before I came here, I am very sure that Chaotic and me have clashed like this for a long, long time. I have become good at guessing what she'll do and just as she has dark magic, I have light one and can heal myself or others, should the need arise." Stella sat down near the water. "Chaotic?"

Chaotic was bouncing slightly up and down, but did everything to keep her head underwater, even now that no force was applied anymore. Finally, the Fellox finally lifted her head with a gasp. "Wooooooow! I almost drooooowned! That was fun! And chaotic! Fun and chaotic!" She bounced around in a circle. "Drowning is aaaawesome!" She made her way back to Stella and looked at Taio. "Thank you soooo much! You are very chaotic!" Then she glared at Stella. "Why did you stooooop him?!"

Stella snorted. "Yeah, I shouldn't have, that's for sure. But I'd rather kill you myself!"

"Ooooh! That's soooooo niiiice of you!" Chaotic nodded and then looked up at Kayo. "Ooooh! You' re in a treeee! I want to be in a treeeee as well!"

"It's fine, Kayo, you can come back down", Stella called towards the Kitrell as well. "I don't think she will turn dangerous again for now, at least not unless someone attacks her! It should be safe!"

[Kodai]

Taio blinked lightly in surprise at the fact that Stella had healing powers, but it quickly passed over him. It did make sense, after all – if Chaotic was the dark side that liked hurting others, then why wouldn't Stella, the light side, have the power to heal? "Yes, I see," he nodded to her, then watched Chaotic be... well, herself. "You're welcome, I suppose," he shrugged, trying to indulge the Fellox's better mood. "But if you want to try it again, I suggest you don't go by Hakei's territory. He would probably not like it if you tried to drown yourself there."

Kayo still didn't seem entirely convinced, but she did hop down a few branches so that she was closer to everyone. "That's because he's so weird about that lake!" she replied to Taio's statement, and then hopped around on her new branch, looking at Chaotic. "Huh? You want to be in a tree? Well, you can get in a tree, can't you? Or can't you? Do you know how to climb trees? Because obviously you don't have wings, so you can't fly up like I can. But I think you might be able to manage it, since you've got pretty big claws and you don't look quite as heavy as a Lucain." It looked like she was starting to get over her fright. "Hey, but you wouldn't burn the tree down, would you? I mean, are those flames real or what? Though I guess you've been walking in the forest this whole time, and nothing's caught on fire, and even though you were in the river, they haven't gone out, so maybe it's that sort of 'fake fire' stuff like Baron has? He's really weird, though, so maybe it's just him. I mean, not weird in a bad way! But like... I dunno! I can't really describe it. I bet you'd like him a lot; he can be really chaotic too! Not exactly the way you're chaotic, but he's just so strange sometimes that I don't even know what he's up to!"

Well, Kayo was definitely feeling better now.

[Shieba]

"Oooh!" Chaotic jumped up and down, making her way up to the tree Kayo sat in. "I want to drown myself in a territory! That sounds soooo chaotic! I have to tryyyyy that!"

Stella snorted. "I will make sure she stays away from there", she quickly assured Taio. "In fact, I'm not even sure if she knows what a 'territory' is. Then again, she probably does and just doesn't make sense again." She was the dangerous situation was over and allowed herself to relax a bit when Chaotic seemed very cheerful again. This meant she was probably a bit safer for the rest of the day.

Chaotic jumped as high as she could, but could, naturally, not reach Kayo or even the lowest branches of the tree she was in. "Nuuuuuh! I must learn to flyyyyy to be in a tree! I will flyyyy with my taaaaaaails!" She started to move them back and forth.

"We can't climb, Kayo", Stella assured the Kitrell. "I don't think Lucain can, either. Our claws might be big, but we can't move our limbs around them. And don't worry, our fire is indeed not harmful. Nothing will burn down here."

"It chaooootic fire!" Chaotic agreed. "And I would liiiiike to meet more chaotic people! We could look at moss!"

[Kodai]

"Well, it's a big lake with a cave that pops up right in the center, so if you see it, you couldn't possibly miss it! Although you probably wouldn't miss it anyway since Hakei would come up and yell at you. He really doesn't like anyone going near there, which I still don't understand. I mean, there's lots of rivers in this forest, and there must be other lakes, too." Kayo was about to continue when Taio spoke up.

"I believe his reason is that he prefers the taste of fish and has found that lake to be the best area for catching them," he said, looking up at the Kitrell.

"But then he should share!" she replied a bit angrily, flapping her wings for emphasis. "If he found a place that has a lot of fish, and he knows that other people eat fish, then he should let them eat there! He's just so mean!"

"I do not think he does it to be mean, Kayo," the Bruma spoke up quickly, hoping that their talk of meanness wouldn't snap Chaotic back. "I believe he has some sort of strange fear that, if he lets others fish there, that they will over-harvest the area and he will be forced to move. I do not know why he thinks this, though."

Kayo was confused. "So he thinks that, if he lets others eat there, they'll eat all the fish in that lake? That's an odd thought. I mean, I guess it could possibly be true, but it's not like everyone eats as much fish as he does. I don't even think you eat as much fish as he does in a day, Taio, and you're... you know, a giant Bruma."

"Regardless, that is how he feels," Taio replied, sighing a little, "and there is nothing we may say to change his mind." He continued looking at Kayo and then finally said, "Should you not go back to the House now? Since you were not out delivering a letter, then it is possible that there is a letter there waiting for you."

"Oh!" The Kitrell jumped off the branch into the air. "You're right! I kinda doubt it, since Baron isn't back yet... but I guess it's possible that he's returned by now!" She looked at Chaotic and then Stella. "I've gotta go, then... Maybe we'll see each other again! Bye bye!" With that, she took off towards the sky.

Watching her go, Taio turned back to the Felloxes. "It has been... interesting meeting with you. Certainly, I have learned much from you, Stella, and I thank you for speaking with me. If it is not too much trouble, though, I would like to return to finding a meal." He was very hungry by now, not having eaten for several hours, and his stomach growled loudly as if to add its opinion. "Ah... excuse me. I will be going now, to try to quiet my hunger. Until we meet again, Stella and Chaotic." With that, he moved off down the river, trying to find where the fish had all swam away to.

[Shieba]

Stella listened to Taio and Kayo talking about this guy named Hakei and figured it would really be the best if they stayed away from his lake. He didn't sound like a friendly creature and would probably make Chaotic snap, which was to be avoided at all costs.

"Nuuuh! Don't gooo! I'm not uuuup there yet!" Chaotic complained when Kayo suddenly took off.

"Chaotic, some people have work to do, unlike you", Stella snorted. "Goodbye, Kayo! Hope to see you again soon!"

"Nuuuh! My work is being chaotic! It's important! Great! Amazing!" Chaotic stopped making attempts to 'fly' up the tree. "Booooring! The chaotic thingy flew away!"

Stella doubted that Kayo would appreciate being called a 'thingy' and was glad the Kitrell was already out of sight. She turned to the Bruma. "Yes, of course. Sorry for keeping you so long and sorry for scaring all the fish away. We'll take our leave as well now, too, and I'll try to make the crazy nut return home. I'm sure we'll run into each other again sooner or later, as Chaotic tends to bounce through the forest a lot."

"Uh-huuuh! See you sooooon! I hope you droooown me again then!" Chaotic bounced back to Stella. "Stella, let's goooo! I want to slip on moss!"

"Yeeeah. What's it with you and moss? No wait, don't answer that." Stella waited until Taio had left and then started walking in the opposite direction to make sure Chaotic wouldn't disturb the Bruma again. "Let's get home. There is moss at home. And stones."

"Ooooh! Stoooones!" Chaotic seemed at least not disagreeing and started bouncing forward. "Let's goooo!"

Stella sighed and let her sister take the lead. Hopefully they would get to the Chateau before dark. It was a long way until home - at least with Chaotic.

~ FIN ~