Fianlly...I posted the next chapter, though it's completely different than what I had initially planned out. If you've noticed, the chapters alternate between Avia and Dante (just didn't want to confuse anyone). I'll just shhh for now. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Dogpile or Wikipedia.

Dante sat at his desk, staring at the blank computer screen before him. He was frustrated, but he couldn't decide if it was with the police, himself, or the world. His boss had told him for days now to take some vacation time, but Dante felt better surrounded by people than alone and worrying in his apartment.

He was realizing how much he had taken Avia for granted, especially when the quiet overtook him or when he found himself talking aloud with no response. And, at night when her side of the bed remained cold and empty, he desperately hoped that she was okay, wherever she was. Feeling the misery claw its way into him, he stood and strode forcefully past his secretary, down the stairs, through the lobby, and out into the blinding sunlit morning.

A week had gone by since his meeting with Detective Solen, and no word had come yet. Ignoring the cold chill that raced towards him, he found himself drawn to the park. Something about the bare branches and untamed silence soothed his raw nerves. As he walked along one of the less known paths, he could hear the faint footfalls behind him. Thinking it must be a jogger, he turned off and headed towards the old willow. Still, the crunching of dirt followed him. Spinning around, he was surprised, and disturbed, to see nothing but trees. Thinking that he had been mistaken, he trudged on. Sitting at the base of the tree, he leaned back to rest his head on the scaly bark.

"I've been looking for you for a whole Earth week." A high pitched voice reached his ears.

'Earth week?' Dante's brow furrowed at the strange reference. Glad that he wasn't the one being whined at, he sighed.

"You're not even listening to me, are you?" The voice sounded closer. "I'm not sure how Mistress Sera-I mean Avia, puts up with you."

Dante's eyes snapped open at the name. Standing before him was a tiny woman with funny, green colored hair. She looked pleased at his shock but brushed away any questions she could see in his eyes. "Avia has ordered me to come and relay a message to you. She loves you forever more and she's sorry that she was, is, kidnapped." She nodded to herself. "Good day."

"Wait!" Dante sprang to his feet and grabbed the woman's arm.

"Pixie's feet and bird's wing! What more do you want me to say?" Tawny eyes glared at him.

"Um, how about where my girlfriend is? Why she was taken away? What her real name is?" He took a deep breath. "Take your pick." He let go of her arm and stood back.

"So demanding." Fluffing her green hair, the woman rolled her eyes. "Your girlfriend is in the Sylph Kingdom."

The laughter that exploded out of Dante sounded bitter and hollow. "Great, just great. I'm listening to a crazy person who makes up words like 'sylph'." Dante laughed again, even though he heard the faint, hysterical note that threaded its way into the sound.

"I'm not crazy." The woman stomped on his foot and whirled away. Glancing back she gave a defeated sigh. "I've said my piece. Now, good day, sir." With that she was gone. No smoke and mirrors included. Nothing, just gone.

Rubbing his tired eyes, Dante finally gave in to the idea of a vacation. Then he could spend his time hounding the police until they became better at their jobs.

--

Three days later, Dante had given into the curiosity that ate at him since he had met the crazy woman. Sitting at his computer, he debated whether or not he was going to search for the word 'sylph'. Deciding that no one would know if he did, hit enter on the Dogpile search.

"10 hits." Dante whistled softly. "Let's try...Wikipedia."

Sylph is a mythological creature in the Western tradition. The term originates in Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as invisible beings of the air, his elementals of the air. There is no substantial mythos associated with them.

"So she's a crazy, mythology-loving stalker. Perfect." Dante murmured. "Hey Avia come lo-" He sighed deeply. "Yeah, I know, still not here." Fear seeped into him. Even if he believed the Sylph story, there was little hope that Avia would just show up at home, with that vague smile she wore on her face, anytime soon.

Restless, he paced the expanse of his living room. A million plans of tracking down the kidnappers like they do on T.V. swept across his mind. Maybe he could go to the Mafia, but how could you tell if someone was in the Mafia? It's not as if they wore nametags or handed out business cards. Did they? Nah, too obvious.

He paused to watch the sun settle behind the skyline with its last tendrils of light reaching out as if to stop the inevitable darkness from coming. The sky melted, behind fluffy clouds that were scattered across it, from its original light blue hue to pink then purple before settling into a deep navy blue. He was so entranced with the natural phenomenon that at first he didn't see the crazy woman knocking on the sliding glass door to his balcony. For a moment, he stared at her in confusion before realization dealt him a swift blow.

"What the h-" He raced to the other side of the room. He struggled with the door until he noticed the look on her face.

"You might need to unlock it first." She pointed to the metal latch. "Just some advice."

He growled softly as he undid the lock and pushed the door open. The little woman strolled in, surveyed the couch, his electronic corner, and finally let her eyes settle on a photograph of him and Avia dancing at a charity ball they had attended the year before. Avia smiled at him from the picture wearing her silk, blue dress and her hair in a bun with curls framing her glowing blue eyes.

"You shouldn't climb up balconies, especially not this far up." Dante gestured towards the glass door.

"I didn't climb, I flew up here." The woman didn't miss a beat. When she turned, Dante expected her to babble on about sylphs so it was a surprise when she burst into tears. "M-m-my mis-tress, s-s-she's gone!"

"Who's gone? Avia?" Dante knelt beside her. "Please talk to me. Where has she gone?"

"I was only gone a day, just a day. And, when I returned the dungeon was empty! And there were feathers everywhere! My poor Sera."

"Dungeon? Feathers? Sera, who is Sera?" Dante, frustrated, ran a hand through his hair. "Okay." He took a deep breath. "Start from the beginning and we'll sort this all out."

"But my mistress." The woman cried.

"We can't help her until I know what the hell is going on." "You still think I'm crazy?"

"Yes, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt...for now." Dante scowled, he couldn't turn away a crying woman.

"All right then. The beginning you say?" She frowned.

"Let's start with your name."

"Oh, I'm Zara." She stuck out her hand.

"Dante." He shook it lightly.

"I know, Sera told me in a letter. Oh, I mean Avia."

"Who is Sera?"

"Sera is Avia. Avia is the woman you call your 'girlfriend', but her real name is Seraphinite of the House of Arianhod. When she ran away she needed a new identity to hide from her mother, Lady Arianhod. That's when Avia was born, you see?" Zara smiled up at his blank face.

"Um, okay, yeah I understand." Dante shook his head to clear it. "Go on."

"She was kidnapped, two days ago Sylph time, two weeks ago Earth time. It's all very different." She lifted her arms to gesture towards the room, then dropped them heavily. "She asked me to bring you a message, that's why I left, and when I went back..." She bit back a sob, "...she was gone." Her face crumpled.

"And the feathers?" Dante had been trying to puzzle out what those had meant, but the best he could come up with was that Avia's mother was a chicken thief.

"Oh, it's a terrible thing." Zara wailed. "It means that she is no longer a full Sylph. She has lost her ability to travel the wind currents, it's a most terrible tragedy." Haunted eyes turned to Dante. "She has become one of the Fallen." She looked out the window. "Under Kingdom."

"Under what?" Dante shifted.

"Under Kingdom is a place like, well, and Earth prison. Any guilty of treason against their Kingdom or any who have been stripped of their Freedom are sent there. It's a forsaken place. Once you go, you're as good as dead, though some say that it is better to be dead".

Dante leaned back on his heels. "Sounds pretty bad."

"Worse than bad. Much, much worse." Zara had tears in her eyes. "My poor, poor mistress."

"So what's a freedom?" Dante's mind raced with whether or not the story was even possible. In the end, he figured he needed to find this woman a nice, quiet mental institution.

"A Freedom is an elemental's pass to other Kingdoms, it protects us from the barriers." "And Earth is a kingdom?" Dante rubbed at his forehead. "Of course, it is ruled by the Gnomes." Zara nodded solemnly.

"Gnomes, huh?" Dante had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

Zara began to nod again until she saw a trace of laughter in his eyes. Straightening her shoulders, she stepped back. "You don't believe a word I've said. You think I would joke while my mistress is suffering from the Wrath of the Gods?"

"Wrath of the Gods? Can't you hear yourself? Sylphs and gnomes don't exist, except in fairytales. I live in a world of facts and numbers, concrete things." Dante walked to the phone.

"What about the wind? It's there, though you can't see it. You believe wind exists, do you not?" Zara gazed unblinkingly at him.

"Yes, yes, the wind is real. But, that's different from a mythological being." Dante brushed aside her statement.
"Not as different as you would like to believe, human." Zara sneered slightly before shaking her head. “What about faith? I've studied your Kingdom excessively since my mistress ran away. You have faith in miracles and such, am I correct?"

"I believe in possibilities." Dante dialed the operator. "Mental hospital, please."

"So why not this once. At least let me prove my words are true."

Dante replaced the phone. "You sound a lot like Avia."

"I should hope so, I raised her." Zara let out a sigh. "Sit, if you will." She gestured to the ground as she sat cross-legged. "Anything specific I can do to prove what I have been saying?"

"Can you create fire in your palm?" Dante smirked.

Zara shot him an are-you-stupid look. "I'm a Sylph, air elemental, not a Salamander. It has to be wind based."

Feeling stupid for having his joke blown up in his face, Dante thought hard about all the movies he had seen as a teenager. "Make the couch fly or something."

Zara let her gaze slide to the couch and groaned. "Why must it always be the heaviest object? You would think I was a bloody noble. Pixie's wings!" She gave an audible sigh and let her eyes drift shut. Dante tapped his fingers on his thigh while he waited. For a moment, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stir. Bored, he looked up to Zara and froze. She looked as if she was caught up in a miniature tornado. She brought her arms slowly together, though it looked like her had a tentative control over how fast they moved.

Dante tensed instinctively as Zara let her arms, and the wind, explode away from her body. He nearly fell over when the rush of wind slammed into like an invisible wall. The wind, tinted silver, sought the couch and hefted it into the air. Struck dumb with awe, he watched the couch lift higher and higher until it was suspended in mid-air. Time froze...or, it did, until Zara fell to her knees and his couch came crashing down with a loud crack.

"Y-you dropped my sofa!" Dante snarled.

Zara's eyes widened. "Well choose something lighter next time I give a demonstration." If you haven't noticed, I'm small, as in tiny, miniscule."

"But my sofa." Dante started at its broken form.

"Do you believe me now?" Zara asked, exhaustion slurring her words.

"Of course, no human could do that." Dante nodded vigorously.

"You'd be surprised, humans have never felt the need to test themselves." Zara crawled to the recliner and climbed up. "I'm...I need...sleep..." She curled into a fetal position.

"I bet." Dante went to a small closet searching for a blanket. He found a sheet instead. "Hey Zara?" He watched her lift her head slightly.

"Hmm?"

"Are we going to get her back?" Dante let a small hope well in his chest.

"Did you have any doubts?" Zara mumbled to herself. "We have to meet with the Gnomes first. Tomorrow...we'll go tomorrow." She fell asleep.

Dante stared down at the tiny woman while tucking the sheet around her. If Avia had trusted her, then he would too. But, what could they possibly need to see Gnomes for?