[Wolfie_Barrow]

A dark haired man, perhaps in his early twenties, stepped out of the foliage and began plucking random twigs and leaves off of his clothes and out of his black hair. He grumbled something about, "Why me? Why did I have to go..." and stepped farther into the clearing before him. His dark red eyes swept it, searching for anyone or anything hiding... Finding nothing, he shrugged and sat down, resting his chin on his hand.

Kaj, the constant complainer, simply sat there, waiting for the company he was supposed to be meeting. He'd woken up that morning, ready to go hunting for a bear or something, and instead found Wolfie leaning over him, telling him that he was to meet someone. She didn't say whom, but he guessed it was this "Indigo" he'd heard about.

Pleasant.

In his head, he complained.

[Indigo]

A girl of about six with long, tangled black hair wandered into the clearing. She was somewhat pale under the thick layer of dirt and freckles. She looked around in a confused manner, spotted Kaj, and ran over to him. She threw herself on the ground, sobbing. "Oh, please, sir, I'm so alone. My parents abandoned me and I'm starving. If you would just take pity on me--"

"Shut up, Faron," said a voice. The girl continued to plead with Kaj until a tall boy ran up the hill to her. He had enormous gray eyes and hair that looked like a similarly colored porcupine was sitting on his head, barely showing his pointed ears. Oh, and he was green. He grabbed Faron's wrist and pulled her away.

"Aw, c'mon, Roe. I almost had'm," complained the thief. "No one's let me steal anything good since the stupid Liverpool thing."

"And that had absolutely nothing to do with the way you kept breaking random people's arms and taking their watches," said the voice from before. Its source was Indigo, strangely without Lysander, following Roebuck at a more leisurely pace. "Not at all. Hello. I guess you're Kaj." She waved, then wiggled her fingers. A pair of blue handcuffs materialized around Faron's wrists. "Hey!"

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Kaj rolled his eyes and muttered, "Children," under his breath. He cleared his throat and stood. "Yeah, uh, Wolfie sent me..." He trailed off, his eyes focused on a tree behind Indigo...

Two large brown eyes stared back at him with amusement.

"Triileef!" he cried, taking a step back and pointing at the eyes in case the three standing before him thought he was insane. The dryad materialized in front of the tree and grinned, brushing a couple locks of grayish purple hair away from his face. His skin was an olive green color.

"Hello, Kaj. Wolfie sent me to make sure you didn't complain too much." The dryad crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the tree. "Go on. Be friendly."

"Shut up," Kaj grumbled. He shook his head. Triileef could be so annoying.

[Indigo]

"Us think you're insane? You've got it backward," Indigo said. Roebuck glared at her.

"Reading minds is rude," he said. A blob of yellowish-gray magic popped into existence a few feet away and hovered for a moment with a lost air, then vanished with a ploop. Roebuck made a strange growling sound.

"Lemme outta here," Faron complained, struggling. "There're too many green people around here. I feel like it's a, a wossname...alien invajun or somethin'. An' I wanna watch. I collect 'em." She shot Kaj a dirty look, which mixed with the rest of the dirt on her face and caused a random explosion in another galaxy, possibly.

"Fine." Indigo snapped her fingers and the cuffs evaporated. "I don't really need the hand stuff," she added, "but people expect it."

"I have a collapsible top hat," Roebuck said.

"..." Indigo carefully pronounced a row of dots. "So. Hi. We're all mad here give me my watch back now." Faron sulkily returned the watch.

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Kaj's eye twitched. He glanced at Triileef, expecting the dryad to laugh at him or grin, but instead the purple haired freak simply licked his lips and began playing with a dead twig he'd found on his shoulder.

The vampire sighed. A list of complaints he could say right then and there dashed through his head, but none of them seemed good enough for the moment. He scratched the back of his head.

"So," he said. "You do magic? So does Chouko..." he trailed off, not feeling up to finishing the sentence. Of course the girl, Indigo, was a sorceress. If she wasn't, then his name was Mud. He thought about the strange tattoos that the young girl had...

He wasn't used to asking questions.

"Have you ever heard of... magical tattoos? Markings? That glow and move?" he felt nervous, probably for the first time in his entire life.

In his head, he complained about asking questions.

[Indigo]

Indigo propelled random streaks of blue glowy liquid in circles for no particular reason. "Yeah. I've seen them. Middy has them. Well, they don't exactly glow...but yeah. Why?"

"'Cause he wants to know," Faron mumbled. "This is gold, innit? Can I keep it?"

"No." Indigo snatched her watch back, not bothering to ask how she'd got it. The six-year-old was an amazing thief and could probably outsteal much of the Thieves' Guild in Ankh-Morpork, or at least Terrel. "Anyway, why do you want to know?"

Roebuck pulled a pack of cards out of his pocket and absently began shuffling them. He'd beern trained as a conjurer before leaving to find Indigo and tried to keep in practice. The cards turned orange with purple spots and built themselves into the shape of a fish, which moved. He blinked.

[Wolfie_Barrow]

"Um..." distracted by Roebuck's creation, it took him a minute to remember what he was talking about. "Oh, right, Chouko has these weird blue tattoos that cover her entire body, and they... they pulse, and glow and move and whatnot. She's had them since the beginning, or, at least, the beginning of her life with Wolfie and me..." He sighed. "We don't know what they mean."

Triileef smiled. "She's probably got ancestrial blood or something."

"Ancestrial blood?" Kaj wasn't familiar with the term. Hd thought it sounded cheesy, like something you'd find in a cultish religion [cough, cough].

"I think it has something to do with powerful witches and sorceresses. They're children, grandchildren, et cetera, usually end up having markings on their skin and natural powers. I'm not sure why, though."

"So you're saying Chouko's grandma was a powerful witch?" Kaj said, frowning. It didn't just sound cheesy, it sounded Chedder cheesy. With extra Mozzerella.

"I suppose. Either that or it's something more devine. But, considering how much better she is at weaponry than magic, I don't think she's the decendent of a god." Triileef grinned.

Kaj shook his head. "I'm more willing to believe she's related to a powerful witch."

In his head, he complained about the cheesiness.

[Indigo]

Indigo stared vaguely into space for a few moments. She was the kind of person who gave you the feeling that she was reading the script while you were busy acting, and possibly marking off all the things you were doing wrong. Then she turned around and noticed Roebuck's fish. "How'd you do that?"

"I didn't." Roebuck looked behind him. There was a yellowish glittery mist. He ignored it and tried to disassemble his fish, which wriggled and swam a few feet away. Faron tried to catch the mist, and then went back to picking everyone's pockets.

The mist solidified into a small girl with wild purple hair arranged by some accident of nature into a flat surface with bits sticking off the sides. Her ears were pointed, tipped with blades, and six inches long. She was wearing a backpack full of large pointy things, and was a trained assassin. Most called her Blodweudd.

Her real name was Tinksy.

Blodweudd, whose name meant "flying moose" in her native language, was following Indigo. This was not necessarily all that bad.

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Kaj shook his head. "Too many purple haired people."

"Oh, be quiet you constant complainer."

The vampire jumped, whipping around at the voice to find Chouko standing a little ways behind him, a bored expression on her face. After a few moments, a small white rat made it's way up to her shoulder. It squeaked, and jumped down, turning into Wolfie as soon as it touched the ground. She laughed hysterically and rolled onto her back.

"What, now you can turn into a rat, too?" Kaj groaned.

"Not just a rat," she sat up, grinning. "I can turn into a large list of animals."

"I'll call you Fishy," he said sarcastically. She laughed again. Noticing Triileef, she hopped to her feet and saluted him.

"Good work, soldier!" she said, and then burst into another fit of laughter. Triileef shook his head and began tossing a rock from one hand to the other.

[Indigo]

"Who else has purple hair?" Indigo spun around. A fine gold mist floated around her head. "Oh no, you don't. I've used more than my fair share of disguises myself, you know." She collected the mist and very carefully enclosed it in a blue bubble. It shifted into the form of Blodweudd, who squealed indignantly.

"Let me out," she demanded. "Or do you want me to slash through your silly bubble?"

"I'd like to see you try, Blod." Indigo watched as her captive flailed at the walls of her prison, then extended the blades on her ears and spun rapidly. A long gash grew in the magic, which healed itself. The assassin growled and sat in the bottom of the bubble.

"Who made the fish?" asked Faron. "Assassins don't have magic, do they?"

[Wolfie_Barrow]

"FISH!!!" Wolfie, who was in a very silly mood, pointed at the magical fish with wide eyes and a large grin. Chouko blinked. She's moved things before, but never made them do something like that. Seeing the assassin in the bubble, a smile began to spread on her face.

Seeing this, Kaj groaned. There was only trouble in the future when Chouko smiled. Usually it ended with Valenth storming into the picture and making everyone declare peace with each other.

"STOP BEING A BUNCH OF IMMATURE BRATS AND GET OVER IT ALREADY!!!"

He shuddered at the memories.

Chouko, who wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings, drew one of her swords and stepped forward. "Indigo- let the girl out. I want to fight her."

[Indigo]

Blodweudd hissed. "I do not fight with mere mercenaries," she spat. "I am a highly specialized instrument of death, and so are my weapons."

"I bet she's genetically engineered," Faron suggested. "They always are in movies and fings. I saw one once. It had a monster in it, but it wasn't very good."

"Oh, well." Indigo dissolved the bubble, dumping Blodweudd unceremoniously on the ground and wisely ignoring the thief. "Go on, then."

"If you insist." Blodweudd's backpack exuded sharp metal in all directions as she stepped toward Chouko. "Let this madness begin."

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Triileef, not being a big fan of violence, approached Wolfie. "Could we... leave while they spar?"

She nodded. "Sure. You wanna come, Kaj?" she glanced over to find him sitting on the ground, his eyes drooping, his head sagging. He was falling asleep. She laughed once, and put her arms under his, beginning to drag him back. "We don't want him to get hurt while they fight..." Triileef helped her lay him in a comfortable position, and then he was out, z's rising from his silent form.

Chouko was grinning, enjoying the air around her. She had one of her favorite swords in one hand, and a long dagger in the other. Lunging forward, she struck at Blod's arm, the one that held her weapon. Her years of practice and experience showed with her movements...