"Hm... and?" Then the young man smiled brightly, holding up a finger. "Let me guess. Your house was bombed, and crumbled down. An adolescent boy with a green parrot named Jay saved you and asked you to become a magician. You accepted the offer, got a nice little familiar, then started your first type of training, which is normally physical training. You got frustrated with Jay, because he commanded you to do all sorts of things you were too stressed out to even try to do. So, you ran out of the cave and down a nice little hill, and here you are. Am I right?" The college-age male smiled sadly at Ruby. He began toying with a few bits and pieces of metal and wire.

Ruby's eyes widened in shock. "Y-Yeah... how did you know that...?"

The guy sighed. "Happened before. Jay finds this girl that he cares enough about to recruit. He gets frustrated with his girl, after she gets frustrated with him. Sometimes the girl comes back, sometimes she doesn't, but we apprentices ALWAYS hear about the situations. You're lucky," he said, flicking a finger at Ruby, "really lucky that Jay didn't explode and swallow you with a big fireball. Now that happened. He almost died for that. But yeah. Jay is... soft, I guess you could say. He... I suppose... gets huge crushes on girls he tries to train, and, ultimately, expect the most out of them. And, as you have experienced already, that most certainly never turns out too well." The dude smiled at Ruby. "As for me, I don't train people. I'm not that good at giving commands or what have you. I'm an engineer. I make things." While he had been talking, he had also been fiddling with something in his palm. Now, he opened his hands, and a mouse automaton scurried through his fingers and ran into the forest. "Jay... he makes fireworks and stuff like that. Or magic fire. Or lamps. But, generally, fire is a destructive force, and Jay has a lot of that."

Ruby's eyes widened and she blushed softly. "He... likes me?" She looked down as he continued talking. "I understand what you're saying... I do... but I just can't handle all that after what happened only yesterday."

The guy chuckled softly. "Don't you worry; everything, and everyone, comes out alright in the end. Everyone has magic, it's just the first magic coming out that hurts. Me? All they had to do was give me wires and metal, and my magic enhanced my abilities. Done. Jay? After physical stuff, they went at him with flame and needles. Once he was scorched, his magic kicked in, to prevent him from getting burned. You? I dunno. Hopefully it's not some stupid trauma like Jay's. But it's gonna be much tougher than mine." He sighed, then turned to look at Ruby. "You know, I'm one of the only people with a familiar of my own sex. My familiar, Caeven, here," and here he pointed at the little bluebird, "and I chose eachother. Much as anyone. All the females frowned at me. Probably because of my red face and all that muscle. Girls like the lean guys." He laughed heartily. "Nope, Maersk is too robust."

Maersk smiled at Ruby. "As for Caeven, nobody liked him because he's half blind. He's only got an eye. However, all you need is a good eye to invent."

Ruby smiled softly as he talked. She looked up at the bluebird and waved softly. "Hi Caeven." She looked back at Maersk and sighed. "I should go back... shouldn't I...?"

Maersk shrugged. "It's your life. The choice is yours. You know it will be hard. You know it will be even a bit dangerous, especially with a boy as reckless as Jay." Standing up, Maersk said, "You could stay in that broken city of yours, find a nice lad, have a few children, sew for a living. Or, if you'd prefer a harsher but more fruitful life, you could walk back up that hill, back into that cave, apologize to your Wizards, bleed for Magic, have a dangerous little life with few or no children at all."

Caeven flitted to Maersk's shoulder and looked at Ruby with his good eye. "I predict many changes in you," the little bird said. "I see much danger to come. I see a difficult life, whichever fork you may take."

Maersk held his hands in the air. "Which will you choose?"

Then both Maersk and Caeven dissipated into smoke, and the smoke drifted and dispersed. Ruby was left alone to ponder her decision.

Jay stumbled through the forest, looking for someone he forgot the name of. Rosie? Rudy? He didn't even know what sparked him to start searching-- he just did. For what reason? And how? And why? The feeling was like having some word on the tip of your tongue, but not even having heard of it before. It just... came.

But he knew it had been done with magic. This strange, compelling feeling... this was probably all Justin. Justin, the Mind-Reader, the Mind-Speaker, the lady-charmer and the absolute idiot. The one nobody should have ever trusted. They should have killed him long ago when they discovered he had a male familiar...

Suddenly, Jay saw a familiar face, slumped against a tree.

Ruby.

Ruby looked up and her eyes widened when she saw Jay. "Jay...?"

Jay blinked hard. "I-I... am sorry..." He felt suddenly very dizzy and saw spots. He felt around for something to grab on to, and fell against a tree trunk. "I... don't know... what happened... to me... Justin... somebody..." He squinted hard, and slowly slid down the tree trunk. His legs crumbled beneath his body. "I..."

Ruby's eyes went wide. "Jay!" She knelt beside him and looked at him worriedly. "What happened?"

"Justin..." He struggled to speak but his throat caught. He managed to whisper: "Find Justin. Please..." Then his eyes rolled back into his head, and every muscle in his body relaxed.

A bluebird flitted onto a branch and cocked one eye to stare at Ruby, and a soft chuckle emanated into the atmosphere.

Ruby's eyes widened and she looked up at the blue bird. "Caeven! Please help me! Where's Justin!?"

Know what the little bird did? He laughed. Laughed long and hard. And, as he laughed, he took a new shape, grew new feathers. He morphed into a raven with shiny black feathers.

"See? I'm no Caeven. Not anymore. Never will be again." The raven's one good eye blinked mockingly at Ruby. "Your little baby bird hurt? Tell him that, if he demands for a Justin again, he will have his eye pecked out. Okay? We only pitied you because you were a girl. Now, however..." The raven spread his wings, and the sky darkened. "... we don't. Tell Damien he can kiss the Elementals' asses if he wants! Jay has always belonged to us. Didn't know he would drag along a girl with him. Oh well. You will have to come too. Can't let a prisoner go without a bit of torture, can we now." The raven seemed to smile evilly. "You can't escape. We have gotcha now."

A man Ruby would recognize as Maersk stumbled out from behind the trees. He had his hands tied behind his back. His deep brown eyes looked sadly at the ground. Someone pushed him from behind, and he fell to his knees.

Ruby's eyes widened in shock, she looked around frantically. "Agnes! Raven! Help!"

The Maersk fake laughed, and spread his hands. His eyes switched colours, from dark brown to a vibrant blue. "You call for a little bird and a cat?" He waved his hand, and smoke formed itself into a big cage and a smaller cage; Raven lay down in his prison, and Agnes's chest and face were skyward. "Your familiars, reduced to nothing. By moonrise they will be dead. There is a storm stirring! I bet you disgust yourself at how I had seemed so... trustworthy?" He laughed. "You think of me as Maersk. Jay thinks of me as Justin. Everybody thinks of me differently! I was born with no name, why should I have a specific one?"

Ruby's eyes widened in horror. "Stop this! Why are you doing this!?"

The guy smiled widely, spreading his palms. "Because I am an Elemental!" The storm clouds above darkened, and heavy rain started falling. "I am a Water Elemental. Jay is a Fire Elemental. I knew it, all these years..." He stared up at the sky, then at Ruby. "Don't worrrrrry, my dear. We'll find a suitable man for you."

Suddenly, an Asian girl with vibrant green eyes came charging out of the forest followed by two boys, one with tan eyes and one with bright red eyes. "YOU!!! AGAIN!!!" She jabbed a finger at the stranger guy's chest. "Ranger, I TOLD you to stay back at camp. NOT bullying around poor guests. They're GUESTS, remember, not hostages! Cooper! Take these two back to camp. And, since we found the companions of those two familiars, please reunite them."

The boy with the fair hair and tan eyes stepped forth, holding out a hand. "Hi. I'm Cooper. I'm sorry about Ranger here. He bullies everyone he comes across. He was stripped of his name, because of that. That over there, the guy with the red eyes, that's Avery. He's the only one in the world to bear the Dragon's Trust. He is the leader of Dragons. That's Sam, his girl. She's a Nature Elemental. She does everything to do with Nature-y stuff, like talking to animals. I'm an Earth Elemental. I control the ground. You look like you might be an Arcane Elemental, seeing the future and all that. Who are you?"

Ruby stared at the boy nervously, holding up Jay in her arms. She held him tighter as the boy approached but once he spoke she said slowly. "Ruby... I haven't... found my magic yet..." She looked back at their familiars then down at Jay. "Can you help them?"

Cooper smiled. He whistled, and the earth around the smoky crates flew up to cover the cages, then fell. The cages had disappeared. Agnes looked around curiously, then noticed the boy. With eagerness, she yelled, "COOPER!!!" -- and flew to his shoulder. She nibbled his ear gently.

Ruby didn't pay attention to their happy reunion, she looked over at Raven as she held Jay. "Raven...? Are you ok?"

Raven stood up and shook the sleep from his head and looked over at Ruby. He padded over to her and rubbed his head against her side. "That's what I was thinking..."

Cooper smiled brightly, and clapped his hands. "Now that we've all been happily reintroduced, reunioned, and whatnot... shall we go to the camp? It's not much; we're a bit far from our homeland, but still, it is something. Unless, of course, you want to go back to Damien's Hall of Magic. Jay is an Elemental; he is, by law, not allowed to be out of the Elemental Hall."

Ruby looked down at Jay nervously. "I-I don't know... I don't know anything about this stuff." She said, internal panic clear in her voice.

Raven sat and thought for a moment then said. "Let's follow them Ruby, I think you need some more time away from Damien's Hall of Magic."

Cooper shrugged. "It's all your decision, of course. I can only provide the accomodations."