There was no time to defend against it. He was only aware that the energy was there a split-second before it hit him square on the chest and sent him hurtling off his chair.

Jian flew like a weightless rag doll from the impact, then landed, face first, on the floor.

//What happened?// his mind asked dazedly. //Who hit me? What is going on?//

Amidst the shrieks and hushed whispers and the crescendo of curious murmurs, Jian staggered to his feet. When he straightened, his entire body shaking uncontrollably, blood was dripping from his temples and the corners of his mouth.

He blinked.

~Help me~ said a disembodied voice. ~I cannot die like this.~

Visions, not his own, flooded before his eyes. Black wings. Startling white fangs. Green growth. The scent of predators closing in on the kill.

Then they all disappeared, faded, until all he could see was a pair of dark eyes that had once uttered a silent plea. ~Help me.~

His voice was raspy and rusty as he spoke. It would seem he had not used it in years. "Shinrei," was the only thing he could say.

Dylan would have been quicker in his reaction time, were it not for the suddenness with which Jian's sudden fit of oddity came. As it stood, however, he was the first one on his feet, shooting a silent, warning glance at some of the twittering Gryffindor girls and drawing closer to Jian. He heard the name, saw the curious look in the other boy's eyes, but said nothing on that. Dylan had a sort of grounded practicality, especially when blood was involved.

"Y' all right, Jian? Bleedin' a bit, there, y' are. Wha' happened?" Dylan stopped to consider Jian for a moment, then shook his head. "I reckon it's either get y' cleaned up or go off an' save th' world. Y' tell me."

Sometimes, it seemed, all they ever did was get neck-deep in weirdness, and charge in deeper with 'everybody on the count of three.' Niki was right. Gryffindors definitely didn't plan well.

Jian looked at Dylan as he wiped away the tiny streams of blood trailing down his face. It took him several seconds to digest the other boy's words.

He felt like everyone all around him spoke in a different language, something he did not quite understand.

"I am all right. Thank you," he said, with so much accent that he sounded like he was choking. "I have to go."

He pondered for a moment more. With eyes glazed and face as white as death beneath his natural dark colouring, he spoke once more: "I tell you that she needs help. Her life is in danger...and she has called for me."

//And so, the chain of the yin and yang broke. Something has to end, for a beginning.//

His bloodstained hands reached into the pocket of his robes and closed around the silver-and-black pendant that had fallen from its broken chain earlier that night.

Without another word, he began to stagger out of the Great Hall, going as fast as his badly shaken body could move. It seemed as if he might not even make it out of the door conscious.

Dylan sighed heavily, then caught up with him. "C'mon. You're lucky you can stand. Jus' where is she, anyway?" He almost wanted to brace Jian, so unsteady did he seem. Dylan wasn't about to let him wander off looking like death warmed over.

**********

Raphael was lucky. He'd managed to remember to be quiet, even with the thoughts spinning through his head. And he'd found where he'd been before - spiders den, the sick black traces of them around - and the sight of it...

Black shards of their bodies, lying dead, around the place as they had whipped themselves into a fury. But that wasn't what Raphael saw. In his mind, the place was cast over with lightning piercing through the driving storm, whipping light. And while he was following something, desperate, something was following him, too: malice and desperation against the pursuer, and vengeance and need in the pursuer. He was both: hunter, hunted.

And he knew where the black thing - things? - had gone. He slipped through the forest, shielding his face from rain that wasn't there, slipping around on the leaves with feet toughened by six months of living in the woods.

And he stopped before he reached the recumbent pair, a cream wolf and the strange girl, on the floor, and waited in the woodlands. But then he saw the things - black creatures of the night - and fire roaring up, fanned by air, and drew a veil over his eyes. And over his mind.

And then Raphael was a beast, fighting perhaps for a reason, but a beast netherless. Out of control. Unaware.

He leapt on the rock behind Shinrei and the wolf that was Randal, and looked not at either of them: crouching, Raphael looked at the spiders that approached, with taut muscles that ached for release. Behind Shinrei, though, all she could see was the cloak of dark that had wrapped around him and his face and his hair that turned his visage into something dark, and the hand that was on the rock behind them: twisted in the dim moonlight.

But she could, if she chose to look, see his intention: to kill the black that approached her. Why, though, none knew, not even he. But he waited for...

The boy was so confident and yet he was just a boy. Flesh. The spider moved with blinding speed seeking Raphael's blood. It would be sweet and the flesh would be sweeter but.....

The Forest Lord had commanded. This boy was to be 'removed'....

There was movement to his left - smell - thudding lights, twisted like the world had been struck by lightning - spider. Raphael turned, quick as a flash, and leapt, bodily, towards the beast.

But as he flew through mid-air, he thought, thoughts of madness that poked through his feverishness. He was in combat. Fighting. Don't flee - use magic.

But the rationality fled as he impacted on the thing from the side.

Raphael leapt into the thing, bowling it over with pure force of momentum, and then, in a heap with thething tried to rip off it's leg, without thought biting as well as grasping and ripping. Grasping. Ripping. Tearing. Tear off the things leg with his teeth. Foul taste of spider ochre filled his mouth.

He didn't notice as the other legs, spurred into mad action, started to rip apart his robes, scoring lines across his flesh within moments, one ripping cruelly at his left shoulder, a spiderclaw tearing the muscle. But then, Raphael rolled away, and leapt up onto a rock, and the spider righted itself and started to advance once again. On to a log that was a ramp on to the rock.

But Raphael did the unexpected, a thought of flight in his mind, breaking through the barriers of fire, and he leapt into mid air, spinning into a single forward flip. And then, he came down with his left hand first.

But as they impacted, his fingers outstretched, for a second enough, they were more like claws. And Raphael way by the log, the leaves making sure that the only hard impact was his locked hand. The thing, impaled by Raphael's hand, screeched and wailed as he tugged on it's innards and turned it inside out, bashing it repeatedly against a tree until it was but a shell. Inside, though, a part of him was screaming along with the spider: he had ripped the tendons across his left shoulder where the spider had pierced him and where he had taken the falling force of his own killing blow. But, then, the part screaming couldn't stop him.

Raphael leapt on to the dry forest floor before Shinrei, and resumed his defensive position, looking at the spiders and wolves that had started to crowd around...

*GODS.*

Shinrei instinctively made a small backward leap when someone--or something--made a cutting movement through the tense air and landed before her, beside the wolf.

Pale moonlight spilled on a familiar youthful countenance, someone she knew, but not quite in the way she knew him to be. When before he was hesitant in his actions and seemingly a little timid, now he looked older and somehow more--she fumbled for a word--feral. Very dangerous, with something fatal in his sharp gaze as he looked at the creatures surrounding them.

"Raphael-san?" she asked tentatively. "What are you doing here?"

**********

After Dumbledore left Nimue turned to Nathaniel, "I haven't time to make sure Mahou gets back - can you and Sarah please make sure she is fine."

With a final confused glance in Mahou's direction, she ran off towards the castle.

Nathaniel didn't hear a word that Nimue had said to him. Raphael was in the forest, he knew that. He also knew that he could not follow Raphael in there again. Not today. Not for the circle, not for his friendship, not for anything could Nathaniel have stepped one foot inside the forest.

It was old. It remembered. It made him remember.

He was vaguely aware of people moving around him and he managed to have presence of mind enough to follow along with them.

Each time he lifted a foot, he expected it to set down as a paw. He remembered the seamless shift from human to bear, the ripple of muscle and fur and bone and sinew. The smell, the sight, the sound. He felt sick. Physically nauseous.

He wandered through the castle without truly seeing anything, and somehow ended up flopping into a large chair in the Ravenclaw common room. He stared into the fire, and remembered the blaze sweeping through the forests, burning, incinerating. There was another memory of fire. One that his mind would not - could not - permit him to recall.

Nathaniel stared into the flames, lost.

Mahou started back to the castle by herself. She didn't need any human making sure she was alright. She was better than that. Like she would get lost or in trouble on her way back to school? She wasn't that bad...

Keeping her eyes forward, Mahou watched Nimue run off to the castle. More points lost now.. and all to Gryffindor more like. It was Mahou that went into the woods first.. then Raph.. Oh well. Silly points. Who needs them?

Thinking, Mahou came to the conclusion that she would petition to be put into the Elfin magick school. That is where she belonged.. and she thought to write a letter once she got back to the dorm.

************

Nimue ran into the Great Hall. Seeing Professor McGonagall, she went over to her and passed on the message from the Headmaster.

After Nimue had spoken to Professor McGonagall, the professor hurried out of the hall. On her way she bumped into the new student, Ian, and Oriana.

"Ah! Ian Blaise, there you are. Um... Oriana would you care to take Ian to dinner? I will catch up with you later, but I must attend to something first."

She did not stop for a reply, but hurried in the direction of the forest. She knew that once word got around, and it always did, that more students would be trying to jump to the rescue.

After Professor McGonagall had rushed past, Oriana looked at Ian. "Well we're off to the Dining Hall. I hope you're hungry. I guess you'll have to talk to McGonagall later." She smiled at Ian. "Do you need any help with your bags?"

Ian was slightly irritated. There was absolutely no finesse in this place. There was no decent welcome to speak of. Just dinner with the rest of the students, on his first hour, as per orders of whom he presumed was the Deputy Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall.

He therefore decided not to join the masses. He wanted to be at the Slytherin table, of course, but not now. He had his pride not to go around assuming things. He was not yet Sorted. He could wait.

"Thank you for your company, Mademoiselle Nort," he said with a touch of a smile on his face, "but I'm afraid I have to wait until my Sorting, until Professor McGonagall returns. I believe it wouldn't be that long a wait."

He bowed low over Oriana's hand, in his elegant French manner of greeting a lady, and wandered back out to the corridor.

*********

Professor could see one such student already. "Jian Hupi!" She called after him as was heading for the forest. She had no need of a spell to make her voice loud and imposing.

"I really hope that you are not going to be another one of those students who is always rushing into danger? You will not enter the forest!"

Jian stared at Professor McGonagall, then at Dylan, and back again. Reality came crashing all around him. If he disobeyed the teacher's wishes, he would most likely lose even more points for Gryffindor than he had on his first night in the school. If he disobeyed, his true background would also be questioned, too, why he was the way he was.

If he disobeyed, he might still make it in time. Curse House points, curse Mian-Ju-Tao, and curse China. At the moment, he did not care. "Xiexie, Dylan," he murmured to the Welsh boy. "Thank you for your help."

Jian turned to Professor McGonagall. "Professor, I am sorry." He shook his head, which was still bearing traces of blood. "If the school wishes, I shall return to Mian-Ju-Tao tomorrow, in punishment for my disrespect and disobedience."

The real reason he was sent here was to heed the call of a higher duty. To protect, above all. Something he was not going to fail in.

Especially when it was //her//.

Fully aware of the worst that could possibly transpire afterwards, Jian turned and ran, very unsteadily, but determinedly. He trailed blood on the floor as he went on his zigzagging path.

Professor McGonagall was not impressed by this. She sighed. Students always wanted to be heroic. Out came the wand and quickly she performed a fully body bind spell. Jian fell over where he stood.

"I will NOT have any more students in that forest!" She gave Dylan a meaningful look as if threatening him to try anything. She stood ready to stop any others who might try.

*********

Not far behind the Wolf Form of Randal Marvo came running on, avoiding the spiders with as much distance as possible.

"Kat, see to the Spiders. Andy, help her, remember they can't hurt you" He shouted

Kat nodded at Marvo and she and Andy moved round to where the spiders were. She pulled out her wand and started some of her distraction spells. She started with the on that was attacking Raphael.

"Tarantellegra!" It started to dance away from Raphael....

"Now, what do we have here?" Marvo said more to himself as he watched Branwen enter and waited to see who would make the first Move. This 'creature' was unknown to him. He had read of some legends about a 'Lord of the Forest' but he didn't know they were true. If they were this was an extremely delicate, and dangerous situation! However, not only was his job to look after students, but he had put himself forward as Shinrei's protector!

"Hold in the Name of the Ministry of Magic. Desist from your action and leave her alone" He shouted to anyone willing to hear.

Marvo strode forward in the standard 'I'm an Auror and I'm important manoeuvre - Wand held out in front of him. The next thing he knew he was sitting on the ground rubbing his behind.

It was as if every blade of grass under his feet had simultaneously jump up and threw him down

"Ninja Grass! That's all I need" He mumbled to himself, starting to get up.

But the grass in front of him moved and squirmed and changed into the shape of the head of the Lord of the Forest

"You have no authority here." It roared. "Where is Dumbledore! We wish him here.. NOW! Or we shall raise the castle to the ground!" As he said the word 'now' the ground shook with the force of his words.

"Oh dear" Said Marvo. This was getting serious!

**********

After the conversation in the Owlery, Niki had gone to the library. After glancing furtively around, she pulled a small leather-bound book from her bag and began to pore over it. She glanced from time to time in another book, much larger, entitled The Big Book of Runes.

As she read, she whispered to herself. "//Hier soir...j'étais à la cuisine avec ma mère quand elle m'a dit une histoire//...odegra...how do you pronounce odegra? It's...ae...so that's...graekav...and in Gobbledygook, that means very interesting... Yestedat evening I was in the kitchen with my mother when she told me a very interesting story."

Niki sighed. This was going to be VERY tough going. "Merci, Mama," she muttered.

Hailey Daniels flicked another small, paper ball into the open flame of a nearby candle, watching with fascination as the parchment was slowly consumed until all that remained was ash. Her friend, Ali Bonavelli, was leaning studiously over a large and dusty volume spread out on the library table, scribbling furiously.

"Hmmm, was that three or four...oops, five ogre toenails" Ali mumbled, as she finished the last sentence of her Potions homework. She looks up at the candle, and watched her friend take aim with another ball. "So, will this be a one pointer, or 3 for distance, like in, what's it called, base-ket-ball?" She pronounced slowly.

"I'd say three-pointer, it's way behind the free-throw line." She squinted and sent the ball flying with practised ease. "How long is your Potions essay, anyway?"

Ali shook her head, and then caught the paper that Hailey had flicked. Before she could complain. "You know I'd only let you copy if you were dying from some horrible disease...and boredom doesn't count." She threw the wad into the fire.

"Just wondering how many rolls of parchment I should bring to History of Magic tomorrow," Hailey said absently as she lined up for her next shot. "I figure I'll cut the amount of work you've done in half and still have a perfect paper."

Ali blushed, and took the book she was using and put it back on the shelf to hide her rose-colored cheeks. "Thank you, I try. But you know, if we had something else to do, I'd do half the work too."

"Yeah, seriously," Hailey groused, quickly hiding her paper balls as the librarian walked by. "Either you play Quidditch or you're entertaining yourself by writing two extra scrolls for Potions essays." She picked up the thick rolls of parchment and examined the tiny, perfect handwriting in disgust. "And you, Ali, are not doing anything to exonerate the Ravenclaw bookworm reputation." Hailey stood to help her short friend get the large book on a high shelf; Ali was on her tiptoes and had no hope of reaching. Absently, she dropped the Potions homework on the table…and knocked over the candle in the process.

Ali turned around, hearing her friend's movements away from the table. She wasn't about to ask for help, but if Hailey was going to give it, she might as well take it. She looked at the table, just as her paper caught fire. Ali yelped, and ran to put it out.

Hailey deftly caught the book, and turned around to find Ali smothering the fire with her book bag. Replacing the volume, she walked over and said guiltily, "Sorry about that." She peered over Ali's shoulder at the singed paper. "It doesn't look too bad…well, that sentence right there looks more like 'Give the boot to Man Snape' instead of 'Get the root of mandrake' but…" Her voice trailed away and she shrugged.

Ali picked up paper; now she could hardly read it. As much as she wanted to kick and scream, she sighed, and saved the singed parchment in her sketchpad. Seeing the worried glance on her friends face she smiled and replied, "No worries, I can always rewrite it, that way it will be in grained into my head. Hey, It could be worse."

"You could spontaneously combust!" Hailey pointed out, alluding to their disaster last year in Potions, watching her friend's precisely controlled movements warily. That usually meant she was out for blood, and Hailey could guess whose.

The earthquake that started in the forest rocked the entire school. In the library books fell from the shelves, cupboards in classrooms were shaken open, chandeliers rocked and all the lights flickered.

Niki screamed and buried her face in her arms, but to no avail. The heavy books on the shelves around her began to pelt her, until she finally hid beneath the table. When it was finally safe to emerge...the leather-bound book was gone.

In the dining hall, Nathan looked up as dust fell onto the tables. He sat silent while others screamed or ducked. "Great," he muttered. "Great. This really IS my day today."

At that moment, the castle conveniently decided to start shuddering wildly, throwing books off the shelves, sending the students diving under the sturdy tables.

When at last the earthquake stilled, Hailey cautiously poked her head out and stood up, despite Ali's persistent tugs on her robes in a futile attempt to keep her down. "Everybody okay?" she called out.

"All the lights are out" Shouted someone. Ali quickly found the candle and whispered to it a quick spell, and soon it was a light again.

"Ya think?" Hailey muttered under her breath. Out loud, she said, "Is anyone hurt?"

From the sounds and lights that arose from the others, everyone seemed okay. The library was a disaster. "I will never use that cliché again," muttered Ali. A mass of students left the library, and Ali began picking up stray books and putting them back on the shelves.

"And we all appreciate it," Hailey replied sarcastically. Grumbling, she grabbed a book and stuffed it on the shelf. "I guess we'll just ignore the fact that something really interesting and exciting is happening and start re-shelving books."

"Yes. That is exactly what we will do." She said a tad coldly, as the book in her hand whined about being in the wrong spot. She moved it elsewhere. "Have any better ideas?" She said, trying to lighten her tone and distract Hailey from the task at hand.

"Go exploring?" she said hopefully, glancing wistfully at the darkened hallway.

"Not on your life. Or at least mine. Anyways, after that shake there is bound to be teachers everywhere. You'd get caught."

"So?" she whined. "At least then we'd be doing something!"

Ali lifted the chairs, "We are doing something!!" She snapped, then, apologetically, she added, "I know that you are bored here, frankly, I am too, but the only things that are interesting here are either against the rules, or involve flying." She shuddered.

After moving all the chairs, Ali stumbled on a very dusty book. "Hmmm, this looks interesting."

Niki emerged from under the table and glared balefully at the two girls. "I believe that's mine, thank you." She held out her hands for it. So that was where the journal had gotten to in the earthquake...

"Oops, sorry, I d-d-d-didn't realise this was yours," Ali stuttered, hoping Niki would forgive her. She didn't read anything of what was inside, and she hoped that in the low lighting the other girl would not assume that she did so. She quickly handed the book back to Niki, stumbling through a couple more apologies, and then continued flipping through the other aged volume.

Niki shrugged. Even if the girl had read it, she wouldn't have been able to understand--an eclectic mixture of Celtic and Norse runes, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Arabic script, spelling out Gobbledygook words which were then translated into French...--it was hard for even Niki to read.

"It's all right," she said, finally. "Are you new?"

Ali closed the book she was looking at, and was surprised that Niki was still talking to her. She didn't remember that ever happening to her before.

Hailey sneezed when Ali shut the book, waving her hand to disperse the cloud of dust that had settled around her head. Eyeing the girl's house colours warily, she was determined not to prejudge her, and stubbornly remained open and friendly.

"No, I'm af-f-f-riad we're n-n-not new." Ali said, trying to bring attention back to her friend as well. "You p-p-probably never really no-no-noticed us around school before. Your name is Niki, yes? Mine is Ali. And th-th-this is Hailey," She added, waving her hand in Hailey's direction.

"Hi!" Hailey said warmly and took a step closer to Ali, hoping her presence would calm Ali's nerves. "I think we had Potions with you last year…of course, if you did, you would probably remember us…" She smothered a giggle at Ali's suddenly flushed cheeks. "Spontaneous combustion does tend to make a lasting impression. So it was probably a different class." She shrugged. "Usually we tend to blend into the background."

Ali blushed profusely at the reference to that embarrassing incident, thanking the powers-that-be for the poor lighting. Then she turned to Hailey, relaxing a bit. "It's not as if that was my fault, Muggle!" She said too high, and her voice cracked. She cleared it and spoke in a lower pitch, "As I can remember, you said, 'ape snoots' instead of eight newts. How was I supposed to know he was going to make us drink it?"

Hailey laughed and rolled her eyes. "We've been over this, Windsock."

Ali blushed even redder, not wanting to talk about her crooked nose. She was more embarrassed about her nose than anything else about her, including her lack of height. Whenever she shook her head, it gave the appearance of one of those devices, and that had become her friend's favourite nickname for her. Instead of responding to that jab, she turned her attention back to Niki, "So, what are you doing here in the library? I mean...er...b-b-b-before the earthquake demolished it."

"Err...you know...just some reading...and studying...for...for classes!" Niki said, completely disregarding the fact that classes had yet to start. "And it was awfully startling...and, you know... I wonder what caused it!"

"I have no idea," Hailey said. "But I'll bet it wasn't natural. That was at least a 7 or 8 on the Richter scale, and it's not as if we're on top of a geologic fault or something."

Ali had no idea what a Richter scale is, but she did not want to make her friend seem unintelligent in front of Niki. She would tell Hailey later that earthquakes were caused by nature, not faults. So instead, Ali nodded.

"Yes, it does seem a little odd, d-d-d-do you think it had to do with the people in the..." Ali started, then eyeing the new comer warily, she added, "I have no idea h-h-h-how it could have started." She was curious about Niki's earlier statement, but chose against pushing her further. It wasn't her business to pry.

"Perhaps we could find out?" Hailey asked hopefully. She figured that if Niki was on her side, they'd be able to drag a reluctant Ali along with them.

"I don't know," said Ali, which was her silent way of saying absolutely not. "I r-r-r-really ought to finish this essay for Snape. He said at the end of the last school year that he wouldn't let me in Alchemy without it. And there are other things to do as well....." She eyed the old book curiously.

"Ali! This is important!"

"Is it? Last time I checked, Ravenclaw, this isn't a life or death situation that we need to get involved in," Ali said forcefully.

Hailey glowered at her friend, promising retribution in the future, and turned to Niki. "You're not a sensible, obedient Ravenclaw like Ali here," she said with another pointed glare. "What do you think we should do?"