Half an hour after the meeting with the lawyer the four left his legal building, Esaer carriying the box under his arm very tightly. He hadn't had a chance to look inside of it, but it must have meant a lot to his grandfather for it to be left to him. In the end both he and his father would receive a healthy two and a half thousand each, though that amount could vary depending upon the price his house was sold for. Whats better was that Jennifer and Jezzelle couldn't touch it, and had no legal claim to any of it. That made the boy smile, deep down anyway as on the surface he had to keep a straight face. His near step mother and near step sister were in foul moods. As if the heavens themselves could feel this, the day had gone from sunny and clear to extremely misserable. After discussion with his grandfather's lawyer, Esaer had wanted the money to be put into trust, so it would be working for him. The lawyer had managed to get hold of a financial advisor from another department,and had spent a few minutes going through it all with Esaer, and setting it up.

He had nominated his aunt Evelyn, who had constantly voiced her opinion, which reflected his own and his grandfathers, on Jezzelle, and her daughter. Mr. Wentworth didn't see any problem with Esaers trustee being in another country, though it would still take a while to arrange, a few months or so, had been his estimate. The drive home wsan't a pleasant one. The enforced silence seemed to be even more present than on previous occassions. Even the sharpest of knives could quickly become blunted on that atmosphere. The rain didn't let up once on the drive home. If anything it seemed to get worse infact. Esaer was just glad that come tomorrow night he would move to his mothers, though that still left his poor father in the knarled clutches of Jezzelle. Esaer wouldn't be surprised if he came back in a fortnight to find them married, with her doing her best to make legal claim to the money he had just inherited, that's just what she was like after all. Patience, to her was probably a country in the middle east.

The corners of his lips flicked up at this thought. Before he realised it, they had arrived back at his father's house. Carefully carrying the box, Esaer grabbed his own house keys, bolted for the door, shoved it open and dashed up the stairs, and into his bedroom, slamming and locking his door behind him so neither Jezzelle or Jennifer could follow him in, and try and persuade him to hand over some of his money, which knowing them, they probably would, and it would be soon. Esaer lay down on his bed. He was glad to have persuaded his dad to put a lock on his door. He lay belly down on his bed, the box infront of him. "Open it now, or open it later?" He asked himself, though it was a rhetorical question, as he already knew the answer. Getting off his bed he began the countdown, timing it as he approached the sterio.

5...4...3...2...1..There was a thud outside his door, which was the sound of someone walking into it, thinking it was unlocked. He turned his sterio onto full at that moment. After Jezzelle tried the door she would then try talking gently to him, then knock...soon becoming bang, on his door, and adter a further two or three minutes would storm away, and then sent his father up to talk to him. It had happened a couple of times in the past month, with Jezzelle wanting this or that from him. He got back onto his bed once he was satisfied that the music was loud enough. The box was very inviting at that point. Feeling the rush of blood speed up through his body he reached out his right hand, suddenly feeling like he was watching himself from the back of his mind, as if he was no longer in control of himself, like Destiny herself weas acting through him. 'It's just a box' he thought to himself, though he didn't believe that for a second. It was something of his grandfathers...'it has to be more than just a box'...He slid out his left hand and lifted the lid. He brought it closer to himself. Then he looked inside.

===================

Samantha Van Dryé twizzled her heir loom in her fingers. She hand't known her grandfather Paul Van Dryé at all, though she knew he had been present during much or her earlier life, but then he had lost his wife, and become an old man, living on his own, out in the countryside. As his first grandchild, he was proudest of all to have her related to him, as if she was something special. Well, she must have been, otherwise he wouldn't have left her his magic eagle amulet. She had soon learnt how to master it's power. It gave the ability of flight, though this was only temporary. It also seemed to really boost up her sight. She had also found the small inscription around the edge of the amulet, and had spent the two months from his death trying to find out what they said. But so far her searching was in vain. She had a high suspicion that it wasn't even human. She had carefully copied it down, then had it copied to make it bigger, and had given it to the librarian who spoke many languages, in the hopes that he could tell her what it had said. He had taken the copy of the text...and spent a night trying to find it in one of his books, but to no avail.

It didn't matter so much, after all, she was only curious. Samantha closed the book she had been reading. Even with immensely eagle eyes, her vision was starting to blur. It was then that the energy wave hit. It slung the amulet around her neck, pushing it away untill it began to choke her. Something major had just happened on the astral plane. The eagle design on tyhe amulet was glowing slightly now, but that quickly faded. She dashed out of her room, ran down stairs, grabbed a small jug from under the sink of the kitchen, and then turned the tap to fill it. Now she had a magic amulet, basic magics of the world were open to her. Once the jug was mostly full, she turned off the tap and hurried back up the stairs to her room. She closed the door with a slam. Under her bed was a basin, red in colour, and oval shaped. It had been the best she had been able to do, it wasn't what the book she had read had exactly called for for this spell, which made the picture fuzzy.

Samantha transfered the water from the jug to the basin, tring y not to spill any.

"With my strength,

I wish to see,

no matter what length,

what is beyond me,

spirits heed my roar,

Stretch forth across space,

Show me who's power I saw,

which affected your place!"

She grasped the amulet tightly. Then she began to repeat the verses, reaching out under her bed to get 'Thy vial of Shades' which was infact one of her mothers food dye's, this month it was green. She unscrewed the top and then added, drop by drop, the dye, stirring the mix now with her amulet. Then her mind was dragged into the mixture. She felt like she was lifted out of her own body and gently tugged across the country. Like the last couple of times she had done this, though with altered verses, the 'picture' was a lot less fuzzy. She could barely make out houses from streets, it was that bad. Then she was spirraling downwards at an alarming rate.

She closed her eyes untill the movement stopped. Carefully she prized them open. A boy was lying on the floor, seemngly having an epileptic fit or something. The image was too unclear to make out any features, apart from the amulet he bore, on it, glowing fire red was a tiger. She looked down at her own amulet. The eagle was an icy blue, which it had never turned before. She knelt down over the boy. Still his face was undestinguished.

"Amulet, feel my power,

across this thin fabric,

that seperates our worlds.

Amulet of the Tiger,

I call unto you,

I emplore,

stop this murder forever more!" It wasn't her best rhyme, it didn't even come close, but she was panicking. Nothing happened, even after several repeats. Samamntha seized the eagle amulet she bore and yanked out a large amount of its power. Her existance in the spirit world was weakened because of this, but that didn't stop her. She hadn't gone into a fit when she had put her amulet on, but then maybe each one was different. Feeling the power crackle between her hands, she jammed it down into the boy's body.

Samantha shuddered back to life in her body. "Did it work?" she asked herself. There had been a blinding light, and then...she didn't even remember the journey back, that's how fast it must have been. She looked at her own amulet, and jumped back slightly with surprise. The eagle had changed its position, so that it was now gliding, where-as before it had been turning, dipping it's left wing. "I don't think I'll do that again." She told herself. Then she looked around...and swore. Somehow, she had knocked over the basin, and now her white floor had a green stain upon it. Her mother was going to kill her, unless she could get it cleaned up in under an hour, which was when her parents were due back from the theatre. She dragged herself downstairs to get all the cleaning products that were in the house, hoping one of them could remove the livid green from her floor.

===================

Far away, across an ocean, deep within a hidden vault, something stirred, awoken after thousands of years. It's counterpart piece had been used again, with enough force to wake the dead. The staff of wind turned to face the direction of the flare it had felt, knowing that soon the wearer of it's counterpart would come looking for it, for more power than they could imagine, and this made it glad. Still, there was some time left before that day would come, and so it couldn't hurt to get a bit more sleep. With that the staff of wind relaxed again, and let the sleep of objects overcome it once again. It's last thought was, 'I wonder if my brothers felt it aswell' and then it was resting again.

===================

The staff of chaos barely opened its eye at the shift of power, after all the events of the staff of wind didn't concern it. It was now only a month before it prophesised that it would soon be free, especially with it helping the mortal who wielded the amulet of the snake, to decript the elven tongue. What's more was that the person felt great hatred, born by his etire family, against another...and revenge lead to chaos, which in the end was inevitable. Soon true power would be unleashed, and no one would even dare locking it up again. There was still the problem of the ancient guardian that lurked in it's tomb, stopping all intruders. That indeed could be a problem. The amulet would not be able to help much against it. But that was a problem for a later date, right now it would follow it's brother's example and sleep.

===================

Esaer awoke. He felt like he had died and been born again. It was late afternoon by now. His CD in the sterio had reached the end of the record, it was clear infact that it had done this a long ime ago, as the small clock had reapeared on the face of the sterio, which only happened if it was left iddle for a while. Esaer looked down at the amulet he bore. "It was a stupid idea putting you on. You could have killed me!" he told it, and then laughed at himself when what he had said had sunk in. "I'm going crazy, what'll I do next? pretend I like Jezzelle?" he asked himself. The thought of that was horrifying. 'Amulets couldn't kill people, it must have just been a coincidence that when I put it on I had a fit.' He thought to himself, getting up and dusting himself down. His throat was a little parched, so he walked over to the door, unbolted it and gently walked down the stairs. His father had probably gone back to work, which meant he was left alone with 'the two rapid dogs', which he thought was easier to think than Jezzelle and Jennifer, and more fun.

He looked around carefully, but it seemed like they had gone out. He thanked his lucky stars. Esaer headed towards the kitchen. His stomache was starting to rumble. He reached out to the fridge handle and pulled. Then he pulled some more. Then he looked at the side of the fridge. Someone had attached a lock onto it, so it could only be opened by wh ever had put it on. The image of the boney, shadow eyed, hag, also known as Jezzelle, flickered across his mind. So this was recompence for him getting something when her precious child hadn't. She was going to starve him. He looked again at the lock. It was big and chunky, and unlikely to budge unde rhis feable muscles. She had also put a lock on the snack cupboard, preventing him from getting a packet of anything that even remotely tasted good. He began to utter mild curses about the pair of them under his breath.

He went into the lounge, and slopped down on the sofa She had bought, trying his best to brake it. He grabbed the remote and aimed it at the TV. He hit the stadby button several times, and then took the back of the remote. The two batteries were gone. It was those exrta small ones that people didn't buy in bulk, ever. He launched himself up off of it and walked over to the set, hitting the button on that instead. It failed to turn on. 'Surely she hasn't....' his thoughts trailed away as he looked at where the plug ought to be. He lumbered over to the sofa and sloshed down even harder onto it. Somewhere under neath nim there was a satisfying crack of something. This called for payback. This called for revenge. On a nuclear level. Esaer stormed into the kitchen. The sharp knives had been locked into one of the draws that had a lock on it, as had the matches.

Venom was now filling his heart and mind. Esaer looked out of the kitchen window, not at anything particular, just looking, thinking. Then he saw something that could really heat things up around here. In an instant his old spark was back. 'But, who's bed do I put it in?' Simon and Jezzelle, whilst intermate, weren't sharing rooms, yet. She had been put in the spare room, and her bully of a daughter had gotten the old computer room next to the lounge. Whilst Jennifer would scream louder, Jezzelle would scream longer, claiming over and over again that he had it in for her. Well, he never said otherwise, after all there was no point lying. The wasps were flying around in low numbers outside, but there must be hundred in their hive. If he took the lightbulb out of Jezzelles room, she would most likely get into bed without beig bothered to turn it on, and then the fun would begin.

"Thank you." He said to the great beyond, as he saw an old rake that hadn't been meticulously put away, like the rest of the things in the house. He didn't know why it hadn't, and to be frank he didn't care. Esaer walked out of the back door and over to the rake. He looked around. She'd even left the window open to let in a breeze to refresh the room. "How considerate." He thought to himself, as he approached the hive, rake held at arms length, and unstoppable evil grin spreading across his face.