[GrayGriffin]

[Hmm...I was planning on having the Dappled Tengumi you gave me for Christmas be the owner of the shop. Would it be possible for Umberto to be helping him out there or something?]

The man, after a bit of wringing his hands, finally took hold of feathers on either side of Eurydice's neck, as if he was holding a horse's reins. That was the most comfortable and familiar position he could find, and he savored it. Even so, he was totally unprepared for the actually feeling of the takeoff, and nearly let go.

Shawn took off, giggling slightly, after Eurydice. From this vantage point, he could already see the next traffic light that had been pointed out to them.

"Looks like it really is close!" he called.

[Freezair]

((Umberto's a drifter. Specifically, he's an angel wandering the world to look for people he can save. He can manage. If your Tengumi makes mention of him, it can be in a "Oh I have this visitor" way.))

Strangely, there was something almost familiar and right about having a human riding her back. The way his legs fell over the sides of her neck, the way the blades of her shoulders formed a sort of saddle for him to sit in, even the height of her feathers on her neck seemed to be right for him to ride on. She tried to glide at first, and tried not to pump her wings. But she realized that, even with her muscles rippling, her neck was posed just so to keep the man held on tight. He felt very sturdy back there, sturdier than any of her smaller passengers ever did. Perhaps she should look for some other human friends some time soon and give them rides. She could probably be of good help to a police force...

But the ride came to an end quickly. The building the doctors had mentioned was right there. Perhaps on the outside, it didn't look like a magical society's headquarters. It didn't have an antiquated old front or a hanging wooden sign--at least not from this angle. But it smelled like a magical society should--like ozone and dust and something a little spicy and sweet. There was no doubt they were in the right spot.

"Not airsick, are you?" Eurydice asked. "This is our stop! All ashore that's going ashore!"

[GrayGriffin]

"Seasick?" asked the man. "This is the smoothest flight I've ever been on!"

As the two Paragon landed in the parking lot, there was a shuffling sound, and then the back door opened, revealing a tan-skinned man in a hooded cloak. His most prominent features were his large, hooked nose and bright blue eyes.



"Why are you here?" he asked. "Come to buy a potion, or a charm?"

"No," replied Shawn. "We're here to ask if you know a Diosol!"

"A Diosol, eh?" he said, rubbing his chin with a gnarled hand. "Well, I don't have any with me right now, but I do have a visitor who has mentioned knowing about them..."

[1] [Only tracking postcount for the Tengumi right now]

[[Do you mind if I say that Umberto happens to be at his shop right now?]]

[Freezair]

((Shore thang.))

Eurydice felt a surge of pride. Queen Maree always complained of having a funny stomach once she got off the rides. The fact that this man had actually enjoyed the flight--and when he'd seemed so scared!--made her light up inside. She had given someone a good flight! She was good at flying people after all! She tripped along in such a happy state that she nearly stumbled over the hooded man.

"Oh--sorry! I didn't see you," she said. "A visitor, huh? Well, we've got a visitor too! We need to figure out how to get him back to his own world. We figured a Diosol could help us do that! Or maybe you know some other magic? That'd be useful! We just gotta get this guy home, because he doesn't belong here and he's all confused and things like that. If I were in his place, I'd wanna go home too."

[GrayGriffin]

"A lost dimensional traveler?" asked the cloaked man, tilting his head back to look at the other man, who was sliding somewhat shakily off Eurydice's back.

"Well...not a traveler. Just...someone in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Still lost, then. I'm sure it'll be fine, though. You see, you have arrived at a most auspicious time. That visitor I mentioned previously just happens to be here right now. See how fortune favors you?" The man turned back, moving back into the shop.

"Umberto!" he called. "There are people out here in need of your assistance."

[2]

[I...assumed he still uses Umberto as his name even if he is in disguise?]

[Freezair]

((Umberto isn't even his real name. He is an angel, so he has a more heavenly appellation for his boss to use.))

Eurydice paused. From out of the shop, a soft form fluttered from the door.

"A Diosol!"



The Diosol drifted out of the shop's confines, a soft glow surrounding his wings. He moved at an unhurried pace. His drift through the air was as lazy as a bubble's. But his eyes glimmered with a sharp, knowing intelligence. He ruffled his ears with his paws in a very rabbit-like fashion, but assessed the group in front of him in a deep, human man's voice.

"Hmm? This is curious." His lapine nose twitched. "There is a smell of strange magic about this place. One... no, two--two kinds not native to Evelon. What has happened here, my old friend?"

Eurydice babbled on in the background--ostentiably at Umberto, but mostly to Shawn. "Oh, thank goodness! He is a Diosol! I bet he'll know what to do. Diosols always know what to do, right?"

[GrayGriffin]

[Ah. I see then.]

"Two?" exclaimed the hooded man in shock. "I was only told that the human there has somehow stumbled into Evelon from another land, and seeks to get back."

"And I know I'm not from far away! Am I?" asked Shawn, crouching down and looking concerned. The man shook his head.

"Now that I take a closer look, I can sense that you aren't."

"You're from another world too?" asked the man who had been riding Eurydice. "Well...but we're not from the same world! I know because I've never seen anything like her in my world."

[3]

[Freezair]

Eurydice looked down at the small Diosol with wonder. "Wow! Your nose must be really good, if you can tell I'm not from Evelon. But it is true!" She nodded to Shawn. "I'm actually from a place called the Dream Realm! I think I mighta mentioned it to this guy." She gently nudged the lost man with her tail. "But yeah, I was summoned to Evelon by my boss to protect her and her whole kingdom! And before that, I got summoned a few times in this one other place, the Moonlands, where they summon dream creatures like me a whole lot more often than they do here on Evelon. So I guess people like me who are dream creatures aren't so common around here!"

"This is true. You are not," Umberto nodded. "But from what you tell me, you are surely meant to be here, and see no problems with this situation. So clearly, you must be seeking assistance for this fellow here." The Diosol drifted up into the face of the man, wings and nose twitching. His ears swiveled as if he were trying to pick up radio signals, broadcast to him from far away. "Yes... you are from far off, aren't you? It is not merely that you smell of a different magic... you smell of a land with hardly any magic at all. You have come a long way, my friend. What has happened to you, and how did you come to be here?"

The Diosol floated up to the man's face. Umberto's dark, smoky purple eyes stared deeply into the man's. "I'm sure you have spent much of today telling people how you came to be here, and I'm sure you tire of it by now. But I wish to hear it just this once more. It will help me to determine what will be done about you."

[GrayGriffin]

The man stared at Eurydice in surprise. Creatures...from the world of dreams? He'd have to listen more to his children's stories when he got home.

"Well..." he said, "I was just walking through the woods behind my house...and then all of a sudden I came out in this field that was definitely not behind my house! And then those two-" Here he waved a hand at Shawn and Eurydice, "-swooped down at me all of a sudden!"

"You looked weird and suspicious!" replied Shawn.

"Calm down, both of you," said the hooded man.

"Well...yeah, they called out some doctors and did a bunch of interviews before sending me here."

"To me?" said the hooded man in surprise. "Well...I wasn't expecting that. Imagine that! Referring people to me!"

"Uh...so, can you help me?"

[4]

[Freezair]

Umberto turned towards the hooded figure. "My friend, I think what transpired here is that the doctors--and more importantly, our draconic friends here--were quite desperate to help this poor man return to his homeland. But, being doctors and Paragon, as opposed to magic-users and world-travelers, they made the assumption that any magic user would know how to work a world-walking spell in order to return this fellow to his own world. When that is, of course, not necessarily the case. Am I correct?"

"We weren't looking for any magic user!" Eurydice huffed. "We were looking for a Diosol specifically! Because Diosol know more about traveling worlds because that's what it said in that book about that girl. Right?"

Umberto shook his head with a chuckle. "You shouldn't believe everything you read in books, my dear."

Eurydice looked hurt. All of her feathers, from the tip of her head to the top of her tail, drooped and plastered flat against her skin. Her wings fell to the ground and dragged across the floor. "You mean... you can't help him get home?"

Umberto's eyes twinkled wryly. "Now, now. Did I ever say that?"

[GrayGriffin]

Shawn could barely hang onto the words the Diosol was saying, so he just nodded along with both what the rabbit and Eurydice said. However, when he mentioned not believing everything you heard in books, Shawn butted in. "But...there are lots of books that you're supposed to believe what they say! And Miss Eurydice is smart, I'm sure!" The hooded man frowned and made a "shush"ing signal, which Shawn reluctantly obeyed.

Upon hearing Eurydice ask if the Diosol couldn't help them after all, the man gave a small squeak and leaned weakly against her arm. The next reassurance prompted him back into wakefulness.

"Why did you say that?" he demanded. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"I don't think your lifestyle is quite conducive to you getting a heart attack," commented the hooded man, "and my friend was merely giving you an additional lesson to remember in the future."

[5]

[Freezair]

"Indeed," Umberto nodded. "After all, the book which you spoke of is a flight of fancy. It was written to entertain. I'm sure, no matter what world you are from, you tell stories to entertain, do they not?"

Eurydice slunk back. "But... but the whole reason a story is good...! But there's gotta be something...! But if you don't believe the story then it won't be as good... or something..." She backed towards Shawn and slunk into his wings.

"Now, now. No need for that," Umberto said. "There is a certain charming childishness in believing in fairytales... and perhaps who are we to say that they are wrong? I'm hardly a person to speak of what people believe." Umberto's lapine face almost seemed to smirk. "But it is perhaps a bit unkind, to yourself and others, to believe that simply because one person does or can do something, that all other people like them will do it as well. What do you think?"

Eurydice's tail thumped. "...Yeah... I suppose that's pretty unjust. You wouldn't think that somebody committed a crime just because they were nearby! Innocent until you prove it and all that stuff!" Although perhaps Eurydice had jumped to a few conclusions in her time... oh, whatever. That wasn't important right now. The man was! "But... you said that you could do it anyway? Or sounded like it?"

"Alone, I am afraid I cannot. Certainly not like the rabbit in that story. But together, with my old friend here, I believe we may be able to do something. What do you say, friend? Can you help me?"

[GrayGriffin]

Shawn frowned as Eurydice shrunk back next to him. "It is good to believe in things!" he declared. "Even if they're things that other people don't believe in! My dad always says that someone needs to believe in those kinds of things because everyone deserves to be believed in!"

The hooded man turned. "Of course," he said. "I am here for the purpose of helping out everyone who asks, to the best of my ability, after all. I assume you will not mind my interference?" he asked the man.

"Of...of course not! As long as it gets me home, I can take it!"

A chuckle. "I don't think it will be painful."

[6]

[Freezair]

"Well, if the three of you believe in us, then that will surely be the best kind of belief," Umberto said. For a moment, his face almost resembled that of a monk, serene in thought while his students figured out something without him. "In fact, I daresay that I will need your belief in order to pull it off. Come closer."

Umberto was already close, of course, but he landed on the ground with a puff of dirt and loped off towards the shop. Eurydice followed as Umberto moved around the side of the building. The Diosol kept lifting his ears and looking back to make sure the others followed him.

"Now, I cannot disclose everything to do. I apologize for this, but there could be a great deal of trouble for many people if I go telling my secrets. But, to put it simply... I do not have many powers of my own. My powers are merely lent to me, by certain... forces. But they are only given to me when the need is great and the cause is just. Do you understand?"

Eurydice, for her part, nodded. The word "just" was all she needed to hear. Special powers, based on how righteous the cause was! Sounded like her kind of magic!

"These powers are primarily for the helping of other people. The amount I can muster at once, when my cause is fully believed in by my employers, is generally enough to help one person out of a... a fairly large scrape, shall we say. And one of these... scrapes, especially the kind that I deal in, is helping people from one world to another. However. The worlds that I typically ferry people between are fairly... fixed. I usually have a set few I go between. So while I have the power and the right sort of spells to take a person from world to world, this man's world is not one of the worlds I know how to reach. Are you still following?"

Eurydice nodded energetically.

"But with the help of my friend here, who is free to use his powers for whatever he wishes, he can divine the place to send this man to and set up the 'anchor' of the spell, as it were, so that he can be taken there. My magic will open the portal and provide the 'push' that sends him home. The man can help with the divining by telling us about his homeworld."

Umberto flew up to Eurydice and Shawn, and hovered in their faces. "And you two. You two can help by believing as hard as you possibly can, alright? My employers are some very good people." He saw a twinkle in Eurydice's eyes, and nodded to her. "They know what's right and wrong. But the more people believe in what they can do--what I can do--and believe that it's the right thing to be done, the more power they'll send me. Can you help with that? I'm counting on you two."

[GrayGriffin]

Shawn listened intently to Umberto's explanation. "Ooh, like a train on train tracks?" he asked. "And so he helps you make another track?" he continued, gesturing to the hooded man.

"That is a very good metaphor," the man admitted. "Although in this case, it would be a temporary track, only good for this one trip. But hopefully it won't be needed again."

"No, it won't! I'm building a fence around that spot as soon as I get home! I don't want my kids falling into there!" replied the other man.

"Of course we can believe!" continued Shawn. "Helping others is a great thing to do!" The man said nothing, but merely closed his eyes, already thinking back of home and his family. The hooded man stepped closer.

"I'll need to touch you for this," he warned.

"No problem. You won't need to go into my mind?"

"No. Your arrival here is recent enough that I can discern your world merely from skin contact." Already, he was laying his hands on the others' arms, focusing hard.

[7]