Vervain

"It all started out simple, didn't it? But now we're off on this crazy chase to nowhere."

Vervain was getting pretty tired of all this. She still remembered the day about six months ago where she had been running for her life, a mountain of snow falling down around her. She remembered her tiny piece of time travel, a fragment of the silver pocket watch, needing to recharge and thinking 'I'm going to die here'.

. She also remembered the dark, shadowy blur, the flash of brilliant blue... and she especially remembered suddenly standing in a different place, in a different time, and realizing that this fellow was also a time traveler. But not just any time traveler. After all, Vervain would recognize those spiraling eyes from anywhere.

. It was Malorin, the Darkness of Silvarum himself. And she couldn't let him know she had a piece of the Blue, or else he'd become even more powerful.

She thought he would just let her go on her way, but things were never that simple. She knew that if she teleported away he would know that she had a piece of time travel. So Vervain traveled, by foot, to the nearest town, with Malorin saying that she owed him for him saving her life. Vervain shrugged it off and thought nothing of it.

. She could just walk all the way back home and then teleport back into the past. It was a simple idea. The journey began - she started on her way home and prepared for the long road home. One step in front of the other, the young longneck walked through forests and towns, down endless paths, finding places to sleep in trees and under old logs. After two weeks of her travels, she found herself walking through a lonely cornfield, and started thinking. Why not just teleport home here? Surely she was far enough away by now?

But Malorin appeared again later. He showed up in yet another flash of blue in that very cornfield... almost like he knew what she was planning on doing. Or at least had suspected something. "Hello again, dear," the villain said with a sly grin. "Are you willing to help me out with something?"

. He asked her questions, many questions. Questions about time travel and about how her journey had been and she knew he knew. There was no way he'd have been able to tell where she was if he didn't know about her special piece of time travel. And then, finally, he stated it out-right. "You're hiding something from me. A piece of the greatest power in all of Silvarum. It's very simple - you can hand it over, and I'll let you go home." He extended a clawed hand out towards her, and she knew in that moment there was nothing for her to do besides escape.

. Vervain reached into the brown pouch around her neck, pulled out her piece of pocket watch, and thought intently of the place where this whole adventure had started. She vanished in a flash of Blue just before Malorin's claws would have grabbed her.

. She'd be on the run for the rest of her life.

. Well, keeping the world a little bit safer would be worth it.

She had heard of a group of longnecks down by the skyedge, the very tip of the world. Maybe she'd go there for a bit. Whatever happened... she was certainly going to have quite the adventure ahead of her.