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*Maya was now thoroughly frustrated. What part did this girl not get? It couldn't happen! She couldn't defeat them on her own. It would be hard enough to even protect herself on her own. Good demons, sorcerer clans, good vampires, and even humans had all been trying together for thousands of years to defeat them, and none had yet succeeded. What made Spirit think she could do it herself? "Spirit!" Maya yelled running up in front of her and holding her to a stop. "You cannot go off on your own and try to defeat them! Do you know what will happen if you get involved with them? If they put you under their spell? We would have to kill you! Is that what you want? Do you want to get killed?" Maya took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. "Look, I know that you don't know me very well, but please, please, just trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I don't want the situation to get worse than it already is." Maya studied Spirit for a moment. When you got down to it, Maya couldn't stop Spirit. It was her choice. In the end, she would do what she wanted, whether or not Maya liked it. But, she could advise her. "Just stay a couple more days here, okay? At least let me give you more information, before you take off." Maya waited for Spirit's response.

*Maya was suddenly filled with realization. How could she have been so stupid? Spirit was putting on an act! She didn't plan on going out to face the Dark. She would have to be pretty dense, and Maya could tell she was anything but dense. For a split second, Maya was angry that Spirit was lying to her. But Spirit hardly knew Maya, so it wasn't abnormal that she would lie to her. Spirit didn't yet know that Maya was trustworthy. Still Maya wanted to know what was really going on. "Okay, game's up. Tell me what you are really going to do, Spirit. And don't say that it is none of my business either. Whatever concerns the Dark is my business."

*Maya felt guilty about upsetting Aly so badly. But getting her point across was so important to Maya. She thought that maybe she should tell them her story. She usually tried to keep it hidden as long as she possibly could from other people, she had even had a hard time telling the people of her clan the story. It made her feel like a monster. She had a good reason to do what she did, and she was bound by law to do it, but it was still terrible. These girls around her, nice and innocent as they were, were also very stubborn. The only chance she had of convincing them was to tell them the story. She put on her usual expressionless face to keep her from looking sad or pained when she told the story. Then she began to talk, "I'm sorry I upset you, Aly. It's just that you all really don't know how urgent this is. I've been trying to tell you, but you just don't get it. Now I have to tell you...I...I...have..." Maya broke off, choking a bit on her words. She closed her eyes, and tried again. She opened her mouth but no words came out. With shaking hands, she took out her water pouch and took a swig. She closed it and for the third time tried to tell the story. "When I was 12, almost five years ago, a girl in my clan went missing," she began. "She was a friend of mine. Everyone in the village was really worried about her. She was such a sweet, innocent girl..." Maya felt herself trembling, but she kept her voice clear. "Everyone feared that she had banged her head off of a rock and fallen into the nearby river, and drowned. I went looking for her over a succession of days but could never find her. Then one night I was out walking by myself. I had been sent to fetch some firewood for the yearly bonfire. As I walked deeper into the forest I heard voices, and being curious, I followed them. They were eerie, unnatural, whispering voices. Then I felt this sharp burst of pain well up inside me. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them she was standing there. She did not look like her old self. Her eyes had turned red, her clothes were tattered, as if from a struggle, and she had a black aura. She had been possessed by the Dark. Now, by then I knew the rules of my clan, and had undergone much training. There was no known way of turning anyone back from the Dark, so the rule was that if anyone had gotten involved with the Dark, they had to be killed. I didn't listen. I thought it was still her inside there, deep down. I told her who it was, and I told her to snap out of it, and that I would take her home, and that everything would be okay. She tried to hurt me, so I bound her with my mind, but she was still causing me awful pain with her own. They had gotten her for good. So I did what I had to do." Maya stopped. She planned on taking a pause for a deep breath, but instead she started sobbing wildly and uncontrollably. "I KILLED HER!" Maya screamed. "I destroyed her right then and there. I uprooted a tree and made it fall on her, and she suffocated. She didn't deserve it! She didn't deserve it because it wasn't really her doing it, but I took her out anyway. And then when she died the Dark left her and she looked like her normal self, but she was gone. Gone! Because of me! I'm a murderer, and I was never punished. I was CONGRATULATED! Her family was devastated, and everyone was happy for my so-called victory. And she was forgotten by everyone except her family, her closest friends, and me." Maya drew in a breath and it made a horrible sound. She had collapsed on the ground and she turned her head up towards Spirit and Aly, tears streaming down her face. "Do you see now? Do you see why I'm so desperate? I'll have to kill you!" Maya buried her face in her hands. Her loud sobbing had turned into pathetic whimpering. "Please," she begged them, "please, just listen to me."

*Aly felt empathy toward Maya. She had suffered through a major crisis in her life and obviously had never gotten over the fact. She understood that it was hard for other people to get over the fact that she had killed her friend, even for a good reason. She took a step towards Maya, wanting to comfort her but stopped, because she had never really experienced taking a friend’s or even another person life. She just stood there, her tears had finally dried up and she looked back and forth. It was just then that she heard Spirit talk. Her eyes turned from empathetic to fury. Whatever Spirit was saying was not exactly making sense to her. It sounded like she wanted to go and see for herself about the Dark clans even after everything that Maya had said. Even after Spirit admitting it, she found it hard to believe, but she really was being selfish. To go and want to look for the dark clans even after Maya said that they would have to kill her and her not wanting to. Something inside of Aly snapped, if she could help it, no one would be going anywhere by there self.* “My gosh!” Aly snapped, “Spirit, so help me, if you are saying that you are going to find these Dark Clans, you have another thing coming. If I ever find you wandering off and even thinking about heading there, I will hunt you down, literally hunt you, and I will drag back your corpse to the lake. That is where I will beat you senseless. You may all ready be dead, but every bone in your spiritual form will ache! You will wish that you never went off by yourself because I will flip! Now just sit down and shut up! No one is going by themselves because I don’t want to have to kill any of you and by gone, Maya isn’t going to either! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?” *Aly gasped. She had never actually yelled like that before and she hoped that she didn’t just embarrass herself. *

*Spirit had never seen so many mood swigs, including hers, in her life. Both Maya and Aly had gone from one emotion to anther, and now Spirit could feel her whole body filling up with rage. She quickly jumped to her feet, she was so mad that she could practically feel her face burn up and turn red. “Are you saying that I have no choice? Your going to make me do something I rather not do anyway I look at it, and who gave you that power? Last time I checked you were not my mother! I remember now why I preferred to not hang out in groups, they make you do things that you don’t want to do, well I’m sorry if I was a big selfish nuisance, but don’t you worry I won’t bother you again. I’m out of here.” With that she turned on her heel and began to march away from Maya and Aly. Her mind was still buzzing with anger and she was clenching her fits so tight that she could feel her nails digging into the palm of her hands, the one thing she hated most was people trying to make her do things, it pissed her off. But she didn’t care anymore, she would go on her own find these Dark people and regain her fear, after that she would just continue on with her life alone, without any connection to others, it was the way her life was meant to be.*

*Spirit had only just passed through the beginning of trees when she felt her feet freeze in place, her eyes angrily darted from side to side. “What the hell?” she said under her breath when she remembered what Maya had said, she had told Spirit that if she didn’t stay with them that she would somehow bind her. Spirit felt her anger rise over and above anything she had ever felt before, “MAYA!” she yelled “Let me go right this minute!!........ Fine! If you won’t let me go then I promise that I’ll be the hardest person that you have ever bound!” With that she fought with all her might to begin to move her legs, she filled her mind with as much determination as she could, hoping Maya wasn’t finding holding her too easy.*

*Aly’s face fell. She knew exactly what she had just said to Spirit made her look as though she was trying to mother her. She never wanted that and with Spirit gone, everything seemed to cloud over her once again. She had to admit, she wanted to tell them in the first place why she had even gone into this forest, but if she did, she knew it would cause a lot of… emotions. When her family had found out about her thoughts, they went in hysterics and watched her constantly. It all happened after her mother had died and it seemed to all go downhill after that. She stopped eating, she moped, she became depressed. Maybe now, it was because of her presence and her emotions that had once again, caused a stir among the people she cared about. It had happened once before, so it could happen again. Aly knew what she needed to do. She had to accomplish what she came there to do in the first place. To end everyone’s problems and even solve her own. After just witnessing the power of Maya’s magic, she knew that the only way to get away from her was to use her own magic. She closed her eyes, and felt for the magic within. Once connected with it, she opened her eyes and muttered a quiet goodbye. With that, she vanished and became one with the environment. She knew that Maya would not be able to located her, for she was the wind, earth, trees, everything that had to do with nature.*