He looked at the tall old man and Elise as they spoke. Even if things were confusing before, all of this, order this, order that, Article business made things more confusing still.

"So basically this makes us important too, right?" Noah said with a smirk. Alfred laughed at him weakly.

"Yes, yes, my boy. But you see, being an Article bearer carries a great responsibility, and whether you like it or not, the three of you now have a destiny which can not be changed. With this you are linked to each other, and all worlds as a whole," he cleared his throat and walked over to them. He towered above them and yet he still managed to look weak. Noah checked him up and down again and squinted his eyes to make sure he was seeing things right.

"As I just said, you need to gather the remaining object. That is your destiny," Alfred said with finality.

"Yeah, you said that," Noah said flatly, "but why?"

"Why you ask? I just said-"

"What happens when we collect them all?" Noah continued. He put the watch like object into his pocket and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm sorry my boy, and dear friends, but we can not tell you that. The bearers of the Articles need only follow one path. Deviating from it can be treacherous," the old man said. his tone had slowly become more condescending when he spoke.

"Like hell I'm gonna accept an explanation like that old man," Noah said angrily. He grabbed Alfred's robe and pulled him down to his eye lever, grasping his collar tightly. The guards that had been standing on the outskirts of the large room moved towards the group.

"It's alright, it's alright,"Alfred said as he waved for the guards to stop.

"But minister-"

"I said it was all right," Alfred said through gritted teeth. Since he was holding him by the collar he had seen the minister's face up close and there was something unsettling about the look in his eye that Noah really didn't like.

"Now, I know that you all hail from less civilized civilizations. But please understand that I am not allowed to tell you any more than this, just know that by doing this you can save all dimensions, including your own," the Minister said.

"HAAA!? What does that mean!? Since when were our dimensions in any danger!?" Noah asked. the guards moved in closer, though cautiously as they did not want to upset the Minister.

"That's enough!" The Minister bellowed. the guards took this as a cue to remove Noah from his current position.

"Hey! Don't touch me!" Noah yelled as he swatted away one of them, they took that as a hostile response and aimed their spears at the group. "Whoa, now that's a little-"

"I am the Minister of the Holy Order!" Alfred said forcefully, he had looked so weak a second ago. This sudden change in attitude was unnerving. "I do not need to explain myself to anyone, let alone you foreigners. If it were up to me I would simply take the items and distribute them to loyal able knights," he cleared his throat and straightened his robes,"but as fate would have it we need to depend on you people." He walked back to his tall seat and sat down on it. "You will do as you're told or we'll simply do away with you," he said with a flourish of his hand. The guards who had been pointing their spears at them closed in forcing the three of them to back up against each other, another one made sure to point a spear at Echo as he flew above them.

"We can find new Bearers easily, so I suggest that you do what we say," the minister said in a superior tone as he rested his head on his wrist.

"this isn't good..." Noah said as he smiled awkwardly.

As the three backed against each other, threatened by spears, Wil frowned at Noah.
"Why can't you learn to just keep your mouth shut?" he uttered through his teeth. "You're right though--this doesn't look good." He fixed his glance on Echo who was also faced with the tip of a spear. Echo seemed more confused about the situation than scared.
"Echo! We need a diversion!"
"yeS, mAsTEr! rIgHT aWay, MaSTeR!" Suddenly the hatch atop his head opened and a small instrument emerged, one with a round bulb on the end. "Close your eyes," he whispered to the group. A sudden blinding white light flashed followed with some smoke. When things finally cleared, the guards and minister were standing in a room without captives.
"W-what?" Alfred only seemed to become more irate. "Find them! Quickly! We haven't much time!" The guards nodded and evacuated the chamber in search of the four who were already fleeing the garden in that moment.
Of course they didn't know where they were going or if there even WAS a way out of this garden, but hopefully by running in one direction they could find an escape route. Wil ran behind the other two, occasionally looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was pursuing them. Echo zipped ahead to scout the area as instructed. No end to the garden seemed to be in sight. William was beginning to feel his breath being robbed of him. They had been running for quite some time now. Could they ever hope to find a way out?

"Ow ow ow...that hurt..." Peering around, Gate quickly realizes
she is no longer in the jungle. Rising to her feet and rubbing
her now sore hind side, she tries to figure out where she is.
"Let's see...I was in the jungle, there was a flash of odd light
...and now I'm here. Could the Voullne have done this? I don't
even think they have a conjurer powerful enough to teleport
anyone anywhere though... I don't even know if I'm in Vanter
anymore... I'm so lost." Playfully knocking herself
in the head, Gate begins to wander around the clearing she fell in,
becoming much less concerned in how she got there and much more
interested in the fountain and garden she is now surrounded by.
Sitting on the edge of the fountain, she leans back slightly and
peers to the sky, "I don't think I've ever seen anything so blue...
or water so clear..." she says as she tilts her head downwards,
gently dipping her hand in the water and raising it again, watching
the water run off of her mechanical hand. "Maybe I should figure out
how to get out of here..." she mumbles to herself as she slowly drifts
further into the peaceful setting...

Suddenly she hears the sound of hurried footsteps coming toward her!
Startled, she jumps to her feet...and stumbles backwards into the
fountain. "Aww...that's not cool..." Lifting and tapping her left arm,
it lets off a spark and begins to smoke. "Could this get any worse?"
Remembering the footsteps, Gate looks around hurriedly, hoping to get
a jump on whatever is coming her way. As she turns her head, she sees
a small...ball? Floating ball? Jumping to her feet, and not falling
this time, she pulls out her Ripper and shield. "Don't come any closer!
I'm warning you!" Just as she was about to try and swat the ball from
the air, she sees two people round the corner, a boy and girl. "Oh,
finally! Hey! Can you guys help me? I'm kinda lost!" she yells as she
runs towards them, waving her arm in the air...with her Ripper
still in hand.

"Liana," the old man said, smiling at his granddaughter. "Just the person I was looking for. I've just had a strange encounter...I think things are finally going to change." Sir Adric respected Liana as a member of the Order, even though she was not officially a full member yet. Liana cared just as much about the state of their world as anybody. She was also upset with the turn of events on a personal level, making it more difficult to keep things from her. This, he thought, was reason enough to give her some information.
"I ran into a young man today-he would have killed me if he could-who had one of the Artifacts. The northern one...the watch. And judging by the commotion that's been going around the palace, I'm guessing he's arrived."
"Sir Adric." One of the guards stepped forward nervously.
"Yes?"
"There are more of them, Sir."
"Really? Not...not all-?"
"No, Sir. There are three. The Southern artifact isn't here."
"Of course," said Sir Alric. "We know who has that and she's not likely to give it up anytime soon." He looked at his granddaughter. "Come with me. I need to tell you something." He walked a little ways away from the other people who were milling around.
"I know your training isn't complete, but you need to know this now, because things are not going to wait three months. Things are happening now. You have the ability to travel dimensions now. The ceremony is important, but right now...you might need to use that ability."

Elise ran behind Noah, with Wil and Echo following right behind her. This stupid spoon, she thought. She hated carrying it, and really, it was the cause of this whole mess. Now they were running from some sort of palace guard–a palace guard! Like in a movie! Juvenile!–and she sincerely doubted Noah, who was leading the way, knew what they were doing. Why was she following him in the first place? He was the one who decided to mouth off. She was just as willing to hand over the spoon and be done with it.
The garden was a maze–one of those topiary numbers, weird animal bushes and all–and the more turns they took the more lost Elise felt they were getting.
"We're probably just going further in!" she finally gasped angrily. "How can you be sure we're not more trapped than before?"
Then she spotted a figure ahead. A woman? She was holding a weapon that looked like a rotating saw and a shield. She was not dressed like any of the palace guard, but that did not make her appear any more friendly.
The whole situation was getting to Elise. It was as though they had been dumped into a time-machine, shaken, then tossed onto a fantasy-land.
"Brilliant. Now what? The guards or her with the decapitating machine?"

Noah hadn't expected a strange girl with a rotating sword and a shield to be at the fountain where the small group had first met. He quickly stopped in his tracks and stood in front of Elise protectively.

"Oi,Oi, what're you waving around a dangerous object like that for?" Noah said trying to talk the woman down. He noticed something shining in the fountain, a sort of gold disc. Had the new girl been carrying it? Could she be the 4th item bearer that the Minister had seemed so fearful of? Noah narrowed his eyes at her.

"We're kinda in a hurry, so if you'll excuse us," Noah said.

Just then, another girl appeared in the small courtyard with the fountain. Exclaiming something about leading them.

"What the hell? One crazy after another!" Noah said in an exasperated tone. "Let's get out of here!" He grabbed a wrist of both Elise and Wil and started down another pathway, dragging them along as he went with Echo following his master. Little did he know though the area that they had all been in was really just a garden, the path that they entered now was the start of an expansive hedge maze.

"Why is everyone in this crazy world out to kill us!?" Noah exclaimed as he ran.

As they entered the maze, Wil stopped and freed himself from Noah's grip. He shook his head upon seeing the maze.
"Enough of this randomly running around business. Echo, fly up and tell me what you see."
Echo motioned in a nod. He ascended.
"tHeRe's a FoREsT t0 tHe eAsT!" he shouted down to William. Wil nodded.
"Alright, Echo! Lead the way!"
Echo suddenly felt very important and that made him happy. "YeS, sIR!"
He zipped along above the hedges while the three chased after him. It wasn't long before they were out of the maze... and standing on the outskirts of a gloomy-looking forest. Twisted trees choked the sunlight. Everything was shrouded in gray. There seemed to be no sign of life. In fact, the forest itself reeked of death. Wil shot Echo a glare which the droid didn't seem to pick up on. He wondered if they weren't better off in the garden...

"Wha..!" Looking at her hand, Gate realizes that waving her Ripper around isn't the friendliest thing she could do. "Oh, no, no! This isn't what yo..." Before she could even finish, the strange orange haired boy grabs the two people he was with and starts running away from her. "HEY! HEY! Where are you going?" Throwing her weapon back into its sheath, she starts to run after them, "Wait for me! I don't know where I am!" After a little running, gate looks around and realizes that she's lost them. "Aww...today is not a good day..." Just then, she saw the little floating ball shoot up from somewhere in maze in front of her. "Gotcha!" She cries with glee, pulling her Ripper out again, she starts tearing through the maze walls, heading in the direction the little ball flew in.

After a few minutes, she finally emerges from the maze. "Phew, how troublesome." Looking around her, Gate notices that she's now standing in front of a dark forest. It made her skin crawl just looking at it...made her feel cold and sad... "Eep!" she yelps with a start, frantically looking around her, she notices the small group of people she saw earlier come out of the maze, some hundred feet or so away from her. Running towards them again, and making sure to have her sword put away this time, she starts waving her arm again and yelling. "Can you guys help me? Are you lost too?Why are you running so much?"

As they reached the forest, an immediate feeling of unease passed over Noah. The trees were tall and dark with thin sharp looking branches that became obscured in darkness the further back you looked. They all tangled together to the point where you couldn't tell which branch was coming from which tree. The leaves themselves were dark shades of greens and blues that faded into black just like everything else. The trunks were twisted much in the way a towel looks when you ring the water out of it, they bent at odd angles, some were growing into one another. The bark looked sharp, and was also a dark color, the ones in front of them appeared to be a moss green sort of color, but some of them appeared to be red as well further in, they served as creepy dots and lines of color in the darkness. Down at their feet there seemed to be a small overgrown path leading out from them and into the forest, it too became lost in the darkness, despite being the middle of the day you couldn't see all the way in, no matter how you looked at it, it seemed like the worst option possible.

Noah Turned around and looked back at the entrance of the Hedge maze where they had just emerged. In the distance he could hear the yelling of Knights and other personnel in the distance, they seemed to be closing in despite the fact that they had just run through a maze.

"As much as I hate the creepy forest option, they're closing in," Noah said to the others. Just then another person emerged from the entrance of the maze several yards away from them, it was the blond girl in the strange outfit who was carrying that crazy weapon that they had seen earlier.

"Ah shit! That crazy girl found us!" He looked around at Elise ,Wil and Echo.

"Crazy forest it is!" He exclaimed as he pointed towards the path, "Come on!" He said as he grabbed them again and began to run down the overgrown path.

The three ran through the forest, through the blinding darkness. Wil fumbled around as he was pulled along. "Wait, stop--" before he could warn Noah in time, the three stumbled and fell down a drop off. As William rolled down, he could feel the rocks bruising his arms and legs. All he could do was close his eyes and hope that the bottom was near.
Then he felt the sting of the ground beneath him. He sat up and rubbed his head. He tried to peer through the darkness to see the others, but his eyes hadn't adjusted yet.
"Hey, are you kids okay? Echo? Anyone there?"
Suddenly a bright, white light shone in his eyes. Wil shielded them immediately. "HEY!"
"sORRy, mAStEr... I tH0uGhT yoU c0uLD usE sOmE LiGHt?"
"Yeah, about five minutes ago," he scowled at the robot. Then he rose to his feet and brushed himself off.
"All right, let's look for those kids. I hope they are all okay--"
"MaSTeR!!"
Wil spun around as Echo flashed his light in his direction. Perched in the tree behind him was a giant bird. It was an unusual creature with teeth and black feathers. It was shaped kind of like a vulture only it's talons were more like that of a reptile. It opened its mouth and let out a terrible screech before it leaped at the two, ready to devour the human who invaded its territory.

Wil fell backward, barely avoiding its talons. Then he heard the call of another large bird. Then another. As his eyes began to adjust, he noticed that he was surrounded by them. These things were everywhere!

"Oh...why do they keep running away..." Slumping to the ground, Gate runs her fingers through the grass as she peers into the forest. Even though it was daytime, or what she assumed to be daytime, it looked as if the forest was getting darker...like it was sucking the life out of everything around it... "Do I really have to go in there...I don't rea.." As Gate begins to mumble to herself , she heard a sudden shriek resonate through the forest. Without thinking, Gate was on her feet and running into the forest, fearing that the worst might be happening while she just sat and played with grass...

It wasn't until she was well into the forest that Gate realized where she was. A chill climbed up her back as she wavered forward, gripping her Ripper so tight that if it had been someone's hand...there really wouldn't have been a hand left. "Ugh! I can't see a thing!" Switching her vision mode to "Night", her eyes began to glow a dim green. As her sensors adjusted, she began to notice movement, a lot of movement. "Eep!" she yelped as she started back, stumbling and falling. Quickly jerking her head back and forth, she tried to take in everything around her, finally noticing that while there was lots of moving, none of it was in her direction. "This place is really weird..." Slowly rising to her feet, she started following what she thought might be a path, not really knowing where it would take her but knowing it was better than just sitting.

Suddenly, there was another shriek! This one much closer than she would have liked and definitely not human, or anything she had ever heard for that matter. Knowing something might be horribly wrong, Gate began to dash in the direction of the noise. Without warning, the ground beneath her feet disappeared and she started tumbling down a hill, into a ravine. Flailing about, trying to grab something, her face met the bottom with an unpleasant thud. "OOOOOOWWWWW!", she wailed, grabbing her face, trying to rub it better.

As Gate's vision adjusted to her surroundings again, she noticed a floating, bouncing light. "Ooo, fairies!" Jumping to her feet, she then saw the older man that ran away from her earlier. "Waaaait. That's no fairy! You tricked me! Who are you anywa..." Not even noticing her, the man stumbles backwards as a large, shadowy creature just barely misses grabbing him.

Instinctively, she lunged at the creature, grabbing one of its legs and using her weight to slam it onto the ground. Surprised, the creature began to thrash about, trying to get whatever pulled it down off of it. Not wasting any time, Gate grabbed its head and ripped it in two, then reaching for her Ripper...it is nowhere to be found. Improvising, she shoved her hand into the creatures chest cavity, grabbing something and twisting it about. With the creature now just a twitching corpse, Gate quickly came to her senses and jumped back a little, "Ew, ew, ew! What was that thing!" Remembering the man, she walked over to him and, trying to act as cute as possible, reached down with her clean hand, "Are you ok? Let me help you up."

Noah was surprised by the fall down the cliff, after all, in the darkness he couldn't see much, so the lot of them falling off a cliff in the forest was quite jarring. He rubbed his back as it was sore from the fall and muttered to himself about being careless.

The sudden call of a twisted creature snapped him out of his daze, although the forest was dark he could see the outline of it against the black trees. It called out horribly as it began to descend upon them.

"Run! Run Damnit!" Noah yelled at Wil as he helped Elise stand up and tried to hurry her out of the way, the beast seemed to want Wil though and didn't pay any mind to the others or the droid hovering around it's owner.

"Hey! Old Man! Get out of there n-!" Noah was interrupted as the girl they had seen earlier came running at the creature, knocking it out of the way and slashing it with her brutal weapon. She gutted the creature until it lay dead, a heap of lifeless flesh. The way she had thrown the gigantic monster around as if it were nothing was definitely not normal. She had saved their life, but Noah wasn't sure what to think of this girl. One thing was for sure though, she had a good deal of destructive power.

"How the hell did you do that!?" Noah said as he took a step closer to her, she was across the clearing from him, and Wil was standing in-between them. Echo seemed to be flying about excitedly despite the fact that he had almost been ingested by a gigantic monster.

It seemed that by coming into the forest, they had escaped the majority of the knights of the order, something about that forest seemed to be keeping them at bay, whether it was because of superstition, or something else there was no way to know. Silence seemed to be the norm in this place though, you couldn't hear the sound of animals or insects, or even the wind for that matter. Everything was standing still.
There was no way for them to know now, but they were being pursued, hunted, by something in the darkness. It too was silent, and made sure to keep it's presence hidden, even the sensors of the cybernetic girl could not pick it up. It watched them from a distance, simply watching now, waiting for the moment that it wanted.

Noah scratched his head, "So if you saved us from that thing then you don't want to kill us? So you're not an enemy...?" There wasn't much time for the girl to answer as the call of the repulsive birds sounded throughout the forest again, breaking the silence. They had answered the call of their comrade and although they were too late to help it, they weren't too late to avenge it. They moved through the trees, passing the watcher without notice, and headed for the clearing, their wings beating the air furiously. They all called out awkwardly at different intervals as if it were some kind of twisted language.

"Shit! More of those things! We don't have time to talk! Run!" Noah said as he grabbed Elise's hand and waved at the others to follow him deeper into the forest. The sounds of the birdlike creatures called out after them, getting closer with every second. Noah ran as fast as he could without loosing pace with Elise, but she was shorter, and not as athletic as he was.

"You're too slow!" Noah said as he grabbed her so that he could give her a piggyback ride as he ran through the forest. He hadn't even asked as he did it, and simply threw her on his back. "Hurry it up!" He called over his shoulder to Wil and Echo and the strange girl.

Suddenly hearing noise behind her, Gate quickly turned around to see the funny orange haird boy yelling and...running...more... "Aaahhhh! Come on old man, we have to follow them!" Taking the orange haired boys lead, Gate grabbed the old man's arm and began running after the boy. For a few moments, it seemed like the older man Gate was dragging was dead, but he seemed to come to his senses after about a hundred feet and started to carry his own weight. "Welcome back!" Gate said with a smile at him.

For awhile, it seemed like Gate and the old man would never catch up with the funny boy, they couldn't even keep up with the glowing orb...or rather the old man couldn't, Gate could've gone faster but didn't want to leave him behind. "Gaahh!" yelled Gate in frustration, grabbing the old man's arm once again and running off after the boy with all her might...

It took a few minutes before Elise realized what was happening. Was...was that boy carrying her? All right, that was uncalled for.
"What are you doing?! I can run myself! Put me down!" Noah kept running. Well, this was disgraceful. She hardly even *knew* this boy, and now she was being hauled around on his back...okay. Maybe it wasn't that bad. At least then she didn't have to waste her energy. She looked over her shoulder. The trees swished in and out of view, wobbling up and down with the rhythm of Noah's legs.
"Wait...they're coming! I see that girl with that...thing...where's Will?" It was getting harder to see anything, really. The further they ran, the darker it became. The sun had been blotted out completely by the foliage, and soon the light would be as well. It's like swimming, she thought. The deeper you got, the darker it was...it was as though they were diving deeper and deeper into a sea of forest. She squinted through the trees as they sped by. Then she saw something. It was only for a split second, but there was one thing that could not be mistaken. It had teeth, and the teeth were glowing.
"Keep running!" Elise cried, rapping Noah on the head firmly. "I think I just saw an angler fish!"

Wil had a dumbfounded look on his face as he was drug along by Gate. This was crazy! What was he even doing here? There had to be a way out of this mess...
William glanced ahead at Elise and Noah. They were getting too far ahead of them. They made a sharp sudden turn, one that Gate failed to notice immediately.
She tried to slow and make a sharp turn, but as she did, she stepped into a peculiar-looking pool of mud, dragging Wil down with her.
The two were up to their knees and could feel no solid ground beneath their feet.

And they were sinking.

Fast.

William realized that this pool of mud was actually a pool of quicksand. Wil had encountered quicksand before, but never fell into it. Echo buzzed around the area nervously, unable to make heads or tails of the situation. William desperately looked around for a tree root or branch to perhaps pull himself and the girl to safety, but there didn't seem to be any. Things seemed almost hopeless. The two were already up to their waists in quicksand.