*****
Last Time:
Fangroar walked right up to her face. He looked down at her. "You know what your problem is? You fell sorry for yourself." He sneered at her as she shrunk, bowing her head and wrapping her arms around herself. "You need people to suffer because if they didn't you wouldn't get all the attention. You're just a selfish little whining bitch, heartless really."
Nika had herd enough, without any warning she hit Fangroar with a wicked right hook. "Shut up. What would you know? You're the guild's golden boy! The REAL Guild Master handed everything to you on a silver platter. The only pain you have had to deal with was Trice. You know, I am starting to see why he betrayed you and I can't say I really blame him." They stopped and stared at each other, trapped momentarily in a stalemate.
*****
Fiery Rage
*****
"Get out." Fangroar said through gritted teeth. His green eyes held nothing but anger.
"Fine!" Nika said as she grabbed her pack, swung it over her shoulder and walked out of the house without so much as a backwards glance. Her dark brown hair swayed from side to side lightly and her crumpled travelling cloak hanging off her shoulders.
"I wouldn't bother coming back to the Guild after this if I were you." Fangroar spat after her. "You know you're right about one thing. You have truly destroyed every home you have ever had." He slammed the heavy door and stormed up a flight of stairs to his rooms.
Nika walked along the well lit streets. It was very late and cold. Nika decided that she would find an inn to stay at and then leave to meet Mya in the morning. Zeth and Talent would be alright on their own, in fact they would be better off without her. Maybe she shouldn't even bother waiting, maybe she should leave tonight.
"Well, well, well, lookie what I found!" A dwarf said moving into the light of a lamp. "You're coming with us." He spat in a gruff tone.
"She looks half decent, and rich." A softer voice said behind her. Nika turned enough to see the creature. A patch covered her right eye and she appeared to be a half harpy half human warrior. "Finally you find someone that has potential to be sold."
"She will fetch a fine price." Another person said as he slid from the shadows of a doorway. "Young and strong she would be able to be used for labour or pleasure."
Nika cursed herself for ignoring her instincts. She noted that none of her opponents were weak. They were obviously skilled and experienced fighters and each wore a weapon or two. The dwarf held a war hammer, the harpy-thing an axe and a short sword and the human male had a long sword and a bow. Her hand want to her belt that held her favourite blades only to find them missing. "Shit!" She cursed under her breath.
"Unarmed dearie?" the harpy asked sweetly, her muddy brown wings uncurling from her back.
They laughed at her. Nika stood there mad as hell. Nobody laughed at her, not if they wanted to keep their limbs. Nika forced herself to relax and slowly a smirk formed on her lips. She tucked her hair behind her ears and took off her green travelling cloak. She casually smoothed out her brown leather armour. "You just keep laughing. When you finish, let me know. With or without weapons I can still tutor you in the art of pain."
"Listen little girl, if you haven't realised, we here are slave dealers and there are three of you and only one of poor little you." The dwarf said in a bellowing laugh.
"You have no idea who you are dealing with." Nika whispered her voice dark and mysterious. Her eyes went wide as she tapped into the dwarf's mind with ease. "You should be careful of whom you challenge Tarthoon of Moriac." She said clearly her mind's eye still searching his mind. "After all you wouldn't want to suffer another humiliating defeat, much like the one that forced you away from your home."
"How did you?" The Dwarf asked stunned.
"It doesn't matter." The human said charging at Nikalee, who effortlessly sidestepped his blow, secretly noticing that the harpy with axe was coming up behind her.
"You are going to have to do a lot better then that." Nika said with a yawn. She spun around lazily gripping the axe's handle just below the blade. With her left elbow she delivered an uppercut to the harpy's chin. Taking the axe from the harpy's grip she flipped it in her hand and drove it straight into the belly of the creature. The harpy screamed as Nika forced the blade in deeper and twisted it to cut the screams off. She kicked the corpse towards the dwarf keeping her back to the human, smiling sweetly. Tarthoon let loose a battle cry pulling his hammer back ready to strike. Nika dodged the first few blows, the hammer leaving large craters in the cobble stone path. The hammer made contact on the fifth swing, utterly crushing Nika's upper right arm. She grasped out in pain clutching the wounded limb. The dwarf stopped and through his laboured breaths he was chuckling. Nikalee looked at him with pure hate.
The human took the opportunity to let loose a stream of arrows, eight pierced Nika's leather armour and became imbedded into her back. She arched backwards in pain, letting a scream pass her lips. Suddenly the streetlamps exploded as if a sudden surge of heat had hit the glass. The flames of the torches that were held in the lamps grew into huge fire balls before they spilt onto the ground. They flowed like lava swirling around Nika, their fiery tongues lapping at her leather and cotton attire. Suddenly the flames burst forth capturing the dwarf and the body that was the harpy. Tarthoon's pain riddled cries echoed through the silent street. Nika collapsed to the ground exhausted from the flight and blood loss, her breaths were short and laboured.
"Who in the name of the Gods are you?" The man screamed at her, she reached her hand out to try to summon the fire again.
Nothing happened. "I don't want him to get me." Nika whispered to herself. She felt something take over her body as he moved closer. His shadow fell over her crumpled form.
"It is just you and me now missy. Now just look at all that blood. I would say that you need some medical attention very quickly or you might now live to see the sun rise." He said crouching down over her his hand gently moving her dark brown hair from her face. Her grey eyes stared into his greenish blue eyes.
"You know they say the eyes are the window to the soul." A voice from deep within Nikalee managed to choke out. "However the shadow is the body of your soul, not many people believe that. And why should they? The soul is held within your body, isn't it?" Nika took a piece of twisted iron, prying it from the railing of a near by building and after swiftly touching the pole to her lips and sweeping it over a patch of blood drove it into the shadow of the human.
At first he laughed, and then his laughter choked in his throat. Blood gushed from his mouth. He dropped to his knees. Then fell forward onto Nika, dead.
She was so tired. She somehow managed to move the body off her and crawl into an ally. She hid herself as best she could under a wooden staircase. The blood began to pool around her as she wept silently in pain, a thing she wouldn't do if another was there. It was then that she passed out and descended into nothingness.
*****
Mya looked down on the young man before him. "Is their anything else? Anything you may have forgotten?"
"No." The man known as Gunnar choked out. "You do believe me don't you? I am telling you Jade has complete control over the city! They now look at her as some sort of hero! She has hundreds upon hundreds of people wanting to join her army! She has cut off trade and the city will soon starve, she plans to use that as motivation to force the people to fight. They will take out cities to gain food, to survive! You have to stop her she. she. She is a monster."
"Calm yourself man. You have said all this and more." Mya said placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Rest now, you can tell me what you had to do to get this information later." Mya turned for the door as Gunnar sunk into the sheets, closing his eyes to drift into a dreamless sleep.
"What did he say?" Malice asked his deep melodic voice ringing through the empty hallways.
"He has confirmed our fears. Jade's army is one hundred thousand strong within the city alone. We can only guess how many more people she has tucked away. I would say she has at least another hundred thousand somewhere, waiting for her orders. She might even have triple that number out there." Mya drove his fist into a wall. His face was twisted in anger. From the corner of his eye he saw the shocked face of his only daughter. He, although a warrior, was not a violent man by nature and his sudden outburst had shocked the young five year old.
"Father, did I make you angry?" The little girl asked her hair was a light crisp brown like her father's but her eyes were a hazel like her mother's.
Mya's face softened as soon as he heard his daughter's voice. "No, no darling. I am not angry with you, but you know you shouldn't be in this wing Seena."
"I wanted to see you Father!" Seena squealed her lips curling into a bright smile. "I wanted to see you and Mr. Malice."
"We are working right now." Mya said sternly his green eyes fixed on Seena's lightly tanned face. "Why don't you go play with the boys? They should be back from their early morning ride."
"They won't let me play." Seena said sadly. "They said that they were going to fight a dragon and that girls can't fight."
"Well wait till our guest arrives then we'll see what they have to say about that!" Mya said lifting the girl up onto his shoulders, ignoring that his red robes were crinkled by this action.
"We are having a guest!" She gasped in delight. "A female guest!"
"Yes we are." Mya said spinning around to face a very annoyed Malice. "In fact Malice was just about to go get her."
"I don't think we are so desperate that we need to get her now." Malice said he crossed his arms over his black robes his dark eyes raging.
Mya then spoke in a very quiet voice so that his daughter wouldn't hear his bitter words. "Malice we don't have a choice. Jade has everything. Even time is on her side! We cannot let the chosen one slip through our grasp. Go to your lab mix the potions you might need to find her then go to her. I want her here before dinner; after all I plan to have a feast in her honour."
"Fine!" Malice sneered storming out of the hall, his black robes bellowing out behind him.
*****
"What are you thinking about?" Trice asked his arm tightly around Jade's waist.
Jade gave a small tired smile. "I was thinking about what my God had said to me. She said the dark one is coming."
"The dark one?" Trice questioned. Pulling the thick covers higher around Jade and himself.
"Yes the dark one." Jade repeated with a shudder. "It is the one thing I fear. I can feel it, you know. It is trying to break free. I wish I knew who the being that held the darkness was so I could kill them before it came out. The dark one's soul is held in another dimension in a cage of light. It is bound to the cages walls by threads made of the hearts of the purest beings. But it is going to get out! The old beings that existed before time didn't cage it properly. Now we must pay for their mistake!"
"What will you do?" Trice asked burying his face into her soft golden hair.
"I must prepare. My spies must go into every land, my armies must move into position. I must take everything now, before this thing shows up. That way I will own the land that it forms on and can be notified of its appearance and slay it before it has a chance to fully develop. Then after I have disposed of this Nikalee girl I can be the ruler of all, none would dare challenge me." Jade said more to herself than to Trice. She rose from the soft warm bed, slipping into a cream shirt, deep red tunic and red stockings.
"I was hoping you would wear one of the pretty dresses that the maids brought up." Trice whined as he watched Jade crawl over the bed to him.
She lightly kissed him and whispered "Dream on." Then she walked out of the room and down into the thrown room. The room was cold, despite the huge wall length fire place that was alive with a well stocked fire. She sat herself down on the new oak throne; a thick red rug at her feet covered the cold slate floor. "Bring me my minister of spies." She bellowed out across the great hall. "And where is my breakfast."
*****
Malice looked impatiently around the street. He couldn't see her; there were too many people. He walked over to a spot that had captured the attention of many. There in the middle of the road two burnt corpses lay. Then to the side were the bloody remains of a man who had no external wounds. The town's soldiers were trying to find a way of removing the bodies but were too amazed by what they saw.
"It is the doing of witchcraft!" An old woman shouted.
"Demon folk, I tell you." A sour faced man said. "Why I was telling Mr. Thosam the other day that there were Demon folk in our city."
"The Gods are punishing us." Screamed a maid.
Malice knew who had done this. He knew only one mortal that could manipulate fire to this extent. He slowly walked along the charred cobble stone road to a dark dunk ally. He could smell fresh blood there. He bent down low and spotted his target, bathed in dry and fresh blood. She was awake now and had moved, opening her wounds. His dark brown eyes noted the extent of her condition. He ran a hand through his black hair. Mya wouldn't be pleased. He might just blame him for her condition. He reached slowly into her hiding place to pull her out. Nika moved further into the dark space.
"Nikalee or whatever you like to call yourself, I am here to take you to Mya there has been a change of plans." Malice said sternly. She watched him; her maddened grey eyes staring soullessly at him. He grumbled as he knelt on the ground to fish her out. Once he pulled her from her hiding place she started to twist and contort screaming like a banshee in her half conscience, half mad state. This caused the crowd of people to turn and take notice of Malice and Nikalee. "You cause me such trouble!" Malice shouted to the frantic Nika who was in the process of passing out again. Malice pulled out a vial of liquid from his sleave and calling out a series of strange words smashed it on the ground causing himself and Nika to vanish.
*****
"Put her in here." Mya said unlocking a guest suit and opening the door so Malice could carry Nikalee in. He gently lowered her to the bed placing her on her stomach so she wouldn't rest on her wounds. "How is she Malice?"
"She has multiple deep wounds on her back and her upper right arm is crushed. She was left unattended for the night, her wounds would have reopened many time. She has lost a great deal of blood." Malice said solemnly. "I am surprised she is still breathing. I can heal her wounds but if she should contract an infection there is little I can do."
Mya smiled at the care Malice took with the young woman. "If I didn't know better Malice I would say that you were going soft."
*****
WOW a real update! Sorry everyone! I have been a bad girl. But really I have been so very stressed out. I will try and update more but everything is just everywhere at the moment and I can't even think straight. You people are the best!
Last Time:
Fangroar walked right up to her face. He looked down at her. "You know what your problem is? You fell sorry for yourself." He sneered at her as she shrunk, bowing her head and wrapping her arms around herself. "You need people to suffer because if they didn't you wouldn't get all the attention. You're just a selfish little whining bitch, heartless really."
Nika had herd enough, without any warning she hit Fangroar with a wicked right hook. "Shut up. What would you know? You're the guild's golden boy! The REAL Guild Master handed everything to you on a silver platter. The only pain you have had to deal with was Trice. You know, I am starting to see why he betrayed you and I can't say I really blame him." They stopped and stared at each other, trapped momentarily in a stalemate.
*****
Fiery Rage
*****
"Get out." Fangroar said through gritted teeth. His green eyes held nothing but anger.
"Fine!" Nika said as she grabbed her pack, swung it over her shoulder and walked out of the house without so much as a backwards glance. Her dark brown hair swayed from side to side lightly and her crumpled travelling cloak hanging off her shoulders.
"I wouldn't bother coming back to the Guild after this if I were you." Fangroar spat after her. "You know you're right about one thing. You have truly destroyed every home you have ever had." He slammed the heavy door and stormed up a flight of stairs to his rooms.
Nika walked along the well lit streets. It was very late and cold. Nika decided that she would find an inn to stay at and then leave to meet Mya in the morning. Zeth and Talent would be alright on their own, in fact they would be better off without her. Maybe she shouldn't even bother waiting, maybe she should leave tonight.
"Well, well, well, lookie what I found!" A dwarf said moving into the light of a lamp. "You're coming with us." He spat in a gruff tone.
"She looks half decent, and rich." A softer voice said behind her. Nika turned enough to see the creature. A patch covered her right eye and she appeared to be a half harpy half human warrior. "Finally you find someone that has potential to be sold."
"She will fetch a fine price." Another person said as he slid from the shadows of a doorway. "Young and strong she would be able to be used for labour or pleasure."
Nika cursed herself for ignoring her instincts. She noted that none of her opponents were weak. They were obviously skilled and experienced fighters and each wore a weapon or two. The dwarf held a war hammer, the harpy-thing an axe and a short sword and the human male had a long sword and a bow. Her hand want to her belt that held her favourite blades only to find them missing. "Shit!" She cursed under her breath.
"Unarmed dearie?" the harpy asked sweetly, her muddy brown wings uncurling from her back.
They laughed at her. Nika stood there mad as hell. Nobody laughed at her, not if they wanted to keep their limbs. Nika forced herself to relax and slowly a smirk formed on her lips. She tucked her hair behind her ears and took off her green travelling cloak. She casually smoothed out her brown leather armour. "You just keep laughing. When you finish, let me know. With or without weapons I can still tutor you in the art of pain."
"Listen little girl, if you haven't realised, we here are slave dealers and there are three of you and only one of poor little you." The dwarf said in a bellowing laugh.
"You have no idea who you are dealing with." Nika whispered her voice dark and mysterious. Her eyes went wide as she tapped into the dwarf's mind with ease. "You should be careful of whom you challenge Tarthoon of Moriac." She said clearly her mind's eye still searching his mind. "After all you wouldn't want to suffer another humiliating defeat, much like the one that forced you away from your home."
"How did you?" The Dwarf asked stunned.
"It doesn't matter." The human said charging at Nikalee, who effortlessly sidestepped his blow, secretly noticing that the harpy with axe was coming up behind her.
"You are going to have to do a lot better then that." Nika said with a yawn. She spun around lazily gripping the axe's handle just below the blade. With her left elbow she delivered an uppercut to the harpy's chin. Taking the axe from the harpy's grip she flipped it in her hand and drove it straight into the belly of the creature. The harpy screamed as Nika forced the blade in deeper and twisted it to cut the screams off. She kicked the corpse towards the dwarf keeping her back to the human, smiling sweetly. Tarthoon let loose a battle cry pulling his hammer back ready to strike. Nika dodged the first few blows, the hammer leaving large craters in the cobble stone path. The hammer made contact on the fifth swing, utterly crushing Nika's upper right arm. She grasped out in pain clutching the wounded limb. The dwarf stopped and through his laboured breaths he was chuckling. Nikalee looked at him with pure hate.
The human took the opportunity to let loose a stream of arrows, eight pierced Nika's leather armour and became imbedded into her back. She arched backwards in pain, letting a scream pass her lips. Suddenly the streetlamps exploded as if a sudden surge of heat had hit the glass. The flames of the torches that were held in the lamps grew into huge fire balls before they spilt onto the ground. They flowed like lava swirling around Nika, their fiery tongues lapping at her leather and cotton attire. Suddenly the flames burst forth capturing the dwarf and the body that was the harpy. Tarthoon's pain riddled cries echoed through the silent street. Nika collapsed to the ground exhausted from the flight and blood loss, her breaths were short and laboured.
"Who in the name of the Gods are you?" The man screamed at her, she reached her hand out to try to summon the fire again.
Nothing happened. "I don't want him to get me." Nika whispered to herself. She felt something take over her body as he moved closer. His shadow fell over her crumpled form.
"It is just you and me now missy. Now just look at all that blood. I would say that you need some medical attention very quickly or you might now live to see the sun rise." He said crouching down over her his hand gently moving her dark brown hair from her face. Her grey eyes stared into his greenish blue eyes.
"You know they say the eyes are the window to the soul." A voice from deep within Nikalee managed to choke out. "However the shadow is the body of your soul, not many people believe that. And why should they? The soul is held within your body, isn't it?" Nika took a piece of twisted iron, prying it from the railing of a near by building and after swiftly touching the pole to her lips and sweeping it over a patch of blood drove it into the shadow of the human.
At first he laughed, and then his laughter choked in his throat. Blood gushed from his mouth. He dropped to his knees. Then fell forward onto Nika, dead.
She was so tired. She somehow managed to move the body off her and crawl into an ally. She hid herself as best she could under a wooden staircase. The blood began to pool around her as she wept silently in pain, a thing she wouldn't do if another was there. It was then that she passed out and descended into nothingness.
*****
Mya looked down on the young man before him. "Is their anything else? Anything you may have forgotten?"
"No." The man known as Gunnar choked out. "You do believe me don't you? I am telling you Jade has complete control over the city! They now look at her as some sort of hero! She has hundreds upon hundreds of people wanting to join her army! She has cut off trade and the city will soon starve, she plans to use that as motivation to force the people to fight. They will take out cities to gain food, to survive! You have to stop her she. she. She is a monster."
"Calm yourself man. You have said all this and more." Mya said placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Rest now, you can tell me what you had to do to get this information later." Mya turned for the door as Gunnar sunk into the sheets, closing his eyes to drift into a dreamless sleep.
"What did he say?" Malice asked his deep melodic voice ringing through the empty hallways.
"He has confirmed our fears. Jade's army is one hundred thousand strong within the city alone. We can only guess how many more people she has tucked away. I would say she has at least another hundred thousand somewhere, waiting for her orders. She might even have triple that number out there." Mya drove his fist into a wall. His face was twisted in anger. From the corner of his eye he saw the shocked face of his only daughter. He, although a warrior, was not a violent man by nature and his sudden outburst had shocked the young five year old.
"Father, did I make you angry?" The little girl asked her hair was a light crisp brown like her father's but her eyes were a hazel like her mother's.
Mya's face softened as soon as he heard his daughter's voice. "No, no darling. I am not angry with you, but you know you shouldn't be in this wing Seena."
"I wanted to see you Father!" Seena squealed her lips curling into a bright smile. "I wanted to see you and Mr. Malice."
"We are working right now." Mya said sternly his green eyes fixed on Seena's lightly tanned face. "Why don't you go play with the boys? They should be back from their early morning ride."
"They won't let me play." Seena said sadly. "They said that they were going to fight a dragon and that girls can't fight."
"Well wait till our guest arrives then we'll see what they have to say about that!" Mya said lifting the girl up onto his shoulders, ignoring that his red robes were crinkled by this action.
"We are having a guest!" She gasped in delight. "A female guest!"
"Yes we are." Mya said spinning around to face a very annoyed Malice. "In fact Malice was just about to go get her."
"I don't think we are so desperate that we need to get her now." Malice said he crossed his arms over his black robes his dark eyes raging.
Mya then spoke in a very quiet voice so that his daughter wouldn't hear his bitter words. "Malice we don't have a choice. Jade has everything. Even time is on her side! We cannot let the chosen one slip through our grasp. Go to your lab mix the potions you might need to find her then go to her. I want her here before dinner; after all I plan to have a feast in her honour."
"Fine!" Malice sneered storming out of the hall, his black robes bellowing out behind him.
*****
"What are you thinking about?" Trice asked his arm tightly around Jade's waist.
Jade gave a small tired smile. "I was thinking about what my God had said to me. She said the dark one is coming."
"The dark one?" Trice questioned. Pulling the thick covers higher around Jade and himself.
"Yes the dark one." Jade repeated with a shudder. "It is the one thing I fear. I can feel it, you know. It is trying to break free. I wish I knew who the being that held the darkness was so I could kill them before it came out. The dark one's soul is held in another dimension in a cage of light. It is bound to the cages walls by threads made of the hearts of the purest beings. But it is going to get out! The old beings that existed before time didn't cage it properly. Now we must pay for their mistake!"
"What will you do?" Trice asked burying his face into her soft golden hair.
"I must prepare. My spies must go into every land, my armies must move into position. I must take everything now, before this thing shows up. That way I will own the land that it forms on and can be notified of its appearance and slay it before it has a chance to fully develop. Then after I have disposed of this Nikalee girl I can be the ruler of all, none would dare challenge me." Jade said more to herself than to Trice. She rose from the soft warm bed, slipping into a cream shirt, deep red tunic and red stockings.
"I was hoping you would wear one of the pretty dresses that the maids brought up." Trice whined as he watched Jade crawl over the bed to him.
She lightly kissed him and whispered "Dream on." Then she walked out of the room and down into the thrown room. The room was cold, despite the huge wall length fire place that was alive with a well stocked fire. She sat herself down on the new oak throne; a thick red rug at her feet covered the cold slate floor. "Bring me my minister of spies." She bellowed out across the great hall. "And where is my breakfast."
*****
Malice looked impatiently around the street. He couldn't see her; there were too many people. He walked over to a spot that had captured the attention of many. There in the middle of the road two burnt corpses lay. Then to the side were the bloody remains of a man who had no external wounds. The town's soldiers were trying to find a way of removing the bodies but were too amazed by what they saw.
"It is the doing of witchcraft!" An old woman shouted.
"Demon folk, I tell you." A sour faced man said. "Why I was telling Mr. Thosam the other day that there were Demon folk in our city."
"The Gods are punishing us." Screamed a maid.
Malice knew who had done this. He knew only one mortal that could manipulate fire to this extent. He slowly walked along the charred cobble stone road to a dark dunk ally. He could smell fresh blood there. He bent down low and spotted his target, bathed in dry and fresh blood. She was awake now and had moved, opening her wounds. His dark brown eyes noted the extent of her condition. He ran a hand through his black hair. Mya wouldn't be pleased. He might just blame him for her condition. He reached slowly into her hiding place to pull her out. Nika moved further into the dark space.
"Nikalee or whatever you like to call yourself, I am here to take you to Mya there has been a change of plans." Malice said sternly. She watched him; her maddened grey eyes staring soullessly at him. He grumbled as he knelt on the ground to fish her out. Once he pulled her from her hiding place she started to twist and contort screaming like a banshee in her half conscience, half mad state. This caused the crowd of people to turn and take notice of Malice and Nikalee. "You cause me such trouble!" Malice shouted to the frantic Nika who was in the process of passing out again. Malice pulled out a vial of liquid from his sleave and calling out a series of strange words smashed it on the ground causing himself and Nika to vanish.
*****
"Put her in here." Mya said unlocking a guest suit and opening the door so Malice could carry Nikalee in. He gently lowered her to the bed placing her on her stomach so she wouldn't rest on her wounds. "How is she Malice?"
"She has multiple deep wounds on her back and her upper right arm is crushed. She was left unattended for the night, her wounds would have reopened many time. She has lost a great deal of blood." Malice said solemnly. "I am surprised she is still breathing. I can heal her wounds but if she should contract an infection there is little I can do."
Mya smiled at the care Malice took with the young woman. "If I didn't know better Malice I would say that you were going soft."
*****
WOW a real update! Sorry everyone! I have been a bad girl. But really I have been so very stressed out. I will try and update more but everything is just everywhere at the moment and I can't even think straight. You people are the best!