They leapt and their heavy stone bodies were coming stunningly nearer and nearer and then suddenly the huge doors of the temple burst open and a weirdly dressed man came out.

“Down, down you stupid lixias,” the man ordered as if they were pets, and the beasts backed off yelping. Sophi had fallen down in fright when the animals had begun to pounce at her so the weird man helped her up and brushed her off.

The man wearing the strangest cloths she had ever seen before with the broadest array of colors know to hum… Zabadians?!?! His pants seemed to be silver and his wrap around shirt that was almost at his knees was bluish purple with a trimming that was lime green, he wore a black hooded cape that covered his balding silvery gray hair. His sandals were colors she had never seen before and probably couldn’t give it a name if she tried. Around his neck he wore a long gold chain at the end was a medallion, it was some sort of symbol and she remembered vaguely of seeing it before but couldn’t put her finger on it at that moment. He was an old man probably 80 and didn’t look at all bad in those wild and exciting colors.

“Lixias? Hey I remember reading about those. Stone beasts that guard the sorcerer himself,” Sophi began quoting of the top of her head about lixias, the stone lions. “But these aren’t as big as I imagined.” She looked again at the lions that were huge, they had to have been twice the size of any large lion.

“Oh don’t worry they’ll get ten times that size. Their just babies,” the man assured her.

“Oh well! Do you think maybe… you could let me in to see the sorcerer? Which was pretty much my reason for doing this whole trip, except I didn’t really think it would be this easy.”

“Young lady, you do not know that I am the sorcerer,” the man had a look of sadness on his face.

“You! You can’t be the Zabadi, he’s supposed to be like180 years old. You’re like 80!”

“Little human, magic and this place has taken age away from me. Like it will do the same for you if you stay here long. I called Earth my home once too, just like you do. But then I couldn’t leave, and I doubt that you will be able to leave also. With all this place’s demons it has a lot of good things too. The lixia’s are actually very loyal and honest creatures but their populations are limited seeing as there is only one sorcerer.” The man motioned for Sophi to go inside, and she did.

The inside of the temple was just as interesting as the sorcerer’s clothes and the creatures that guarded him. The sorcerer’s chairs looked as if it were made purely of animal horns, other chairs in the room were made of what looked like pitch-black wicker. Several bowls that seemed to be filled with water the color of gold held in a large, metallic yellow stone saucer supported on gigantic stone animals’ arms, the large talons gripping into the saucer.

“This place is infectious my dear. Once you’ve been here a while you’ll find yourself unable to leave, you will simply not wish to leave. Its prosperity’s never seem to end, even now I’m mesmerized by this place’s powers, and I’m not just talking about this temple. This whole world is just a swirling vortex of powers of both sides, and good always prospers. As you take your first step outside and into Kitopan forest, where the day never touches and the vampires dwell, you will never be able to leave. I haven’t been to Earth in 165 years, and I don’t plan to go any time soon. I cannot give you any information until you’ve done something nice for a rightful Zabadian. This is just a warning… if you ever wish to go home turn back now, for to help that Zabadian you have to go through those woods.” The sorcerer pointed out a window towards the woods, they were extremely dark even though it was very bright outside.

“When do I leave?” Sophi asked pretty much not listening to anything that Rabehethos had just warned her about, a strange look came over the sorcerer’s face. “I didn’t want to go home anyways.”

“Well then, you can set off in the morning. You’ll need to fit in so I’ll get you some clothes to wear. You’ll also need a few things to keep you alive here.

“Okay the latest fashions are these,” Rabehethos handed Sophi skintight silver pants and a shirt the color somewhere between blue, lavender, and teal. He told her that her army hiking boots would be fine. He also gave her a choice between a cape either black or mauve (she couldn’t choose so she took both). “While passing through the Kitopan forest you’ll most definitely come into company with vampires and werewolves. Seeing as here in Zabadith every moon is a full one, you’ll need this.” Rabehethos slipped a sprayer filled with garlic and silver spray into her pocket. He also advised her that garlic really hurts when its sprayed into a vampires eyes since garlic is one of vampires most hated things. And that silver at this quantity would do nothing more that sting on contact to a werewolf’s skin but would give you enough time to get away. Sophi thought that this item would help at least get through the Kitopan forests.

The doors burst open and into the temple came a cloaked figure, his hood fell from his face to show two sharp fangs hanging over his bottom lip and two glowing yellow eyes with black slits through the centers. His hands came up to pull the cloak off of himself, and she got a glimpse of furred hands with sharp claws on them. She had seen pictures of vampires in the books but none had had hands like that, they almost looked like the hands of a werewolf in mid- shift but vampires can’t become werewolves it was against the laws of werewolfdom. Could they?