My pals and I had hastily stepped out into the oncoming wind and rain.  Immediately, we were drenched from head to toe with bone chilling water.  The wind just made it worse.  However, as we all made our way down the streets of the town with Hachi and Paix at the lead, things just worsened.  Thunder echoed in the narrow streets and lightning seemed to be the only light by which to guide us.  By the time Paix, Hachi, my friends, and I made it down to the end of the road, there was already of 2 inches of water covering the cement.  My shoes were soaked all the way through, and by backpack, being very absorbent, weighed about the same as a small elephant.  My wings weren’t sparred.  They were like frozen icicles stuck to my back.  Gwindol, just to top things off, was whining in my head.  He complained about the cold and just about everything else he could find.  All in all, I was just about ready to shoot myself in the head.  Paix, though, seemed like she was having the best time of her life.  She kept yammering on about all this and all that, and her little rain boots stood out like beacons against the drab concrete.  Strangely, no matter how the wind snatched at her of the rain hammered on her, her clothes remained completely dry and her skin seemed to glow with heat.  Hachi, on the other hand, was a sloppy mess.  Her raincoat seemed ineffective against the monsoon, and her boots were full of water.  They sloshed every time she set them to the asphalt.  She, unlike Paix, wasn’t having too good a time.  Finally, everyone made it to the end of the road.  Now, there was about 6 inches of water covering the ground.  I had to literally high knee it.  I swear, the weather just didn’t like me that day, or any of us.  “What in the world…”  Holly raised her foot out of the water long enough to see a fish dart underneath it.  “I just saw a fish!”  Holly bed over and put her face just over the moving surface.  “Why are there fish in the road?”  Hachi turned around.  “The river overflowed, I guess.  There are a whole lot more nasty things in the river besides fish let me tell ya.”  She turned back to consult a map, which was blotted beyond recognition, but still she used it.  But I didn’t get why she needed a map when she was only a couple hundred yards from her front door.  Something brushed my shoe and I cringed.  I sincerely hoped that it was a fish.  Sage, also, suddenly stiffened.  “I don’t think that was a fish.”  She whispered.  The water, now over a foot, was lapping at my knees.  My pants were completely soaked.  But, despite all the water and the storm, Paix was playing in the water.  Her clothes seemed to stay dry even when she went splashing about.  She giggled as she spun in a circle and landed on her rump.  The water hung around her in a ring, not coming within 6 inches of her skin.  Man, talk about the ultimate water proof.  Still, the girl got back up and resumed her leaping around.  “She doesn’t get out much.”  Hachi mumbled, eyeing her friend.  “She’s been cooped up in the shop staring into fountains and hearing those chimes for 700 years.”  Hachi looked back down at her map.  I turned to Jada, who was behind me.  She mouthed back.  700 years?!  I just shrugged.  After what seemed like an hour, Hachi rolled her map back up and stuffed it in her pack.  “Come on, Paix, we’re leaving.”  Paix dropped the fish she had been holding and danced up to Hachi, who just rolled her eyes.  Hachi gave my friends and I the beckoning finger, and we proceeded to follow her around the corner and down an even narrower street.  The windows to one building were completely boarded shut and another had all of its smashed.  “Nice part of town.”  Quinton commented, taking in his surroundings.  A streak of lightning wound its way across the sky, and I jumped.  It almost looked like a face.  I looked up at the sinister sky.  Dark clouds turned it almost black, even though it only had to be around 7 o’clock.  The wind tossed and snatched my clothing and hair.  Water tugged at my feet, making me unstable.  There was a momentary flash of yellow light, which brought my attention back to my friends.  Hachi had pulled a lighter from her pocket, and was trying to light something that looked like a torch.  Had she heard of such a thing as a flash light?  Apparently not…  Anyway, the flame quickly died away, and she tried again.  This one lasted no longer.  A third attempt yielded nothing more.  I sighed, and held out my hand.  Hachi glared at me from under the hood of her rain slicker.  I retracted my hand.  Again and again, the poor girl tried to keep a fire going long enough to light her torch thing.  Finally, after muttering several choice words, Hachi reluctantly handed me the torch.  I snapped my fingers, and the torch was set ablaze.  The light instantly purged all the darkness, and brought warmth back to my frozen little fingers.  I handed the now lighted torch back to Hachi with a smile.  She gave me the evil eye, but accepted it.  She then turned back towards the street and continued walking.  As soon as the storm had come, it died.  The wind still howled and the sky was still dark as could be, but the rain had stopped.  Little by little, the water receded from my knees back down to by ankles.  I wondered where all the water was going, but I didn’t want to stress my brain any more than it was capable.  I just blamed the rip in time.  Maybe it was going to some poor Egyptians who actually needed it!  They would also get some fish too…  Antigone pulled her foot from the water and shook it.  Water droplets showered down.  “Right here.”  Hachi called, standing at the corner of some other side walk.  My friends and I raced over.  Paix just took her time in meandering over.  I peered down the street.  It was a dead end with a brick wall at the back.  I thought that Hachi had finally lost her mind, but she continued down the dead end.  She stood at the brick wall.  At one time, it might have had a picture painted on it, but the paint was long gone.  Now, there were only slivers of color that only hinted of what had once been there.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Holly twirl her finger around her temple at Sage, who just nodded with a sympathetic smile.  “Paix, hand me the candles.”  Hachi called to her friends, who was just now rounding the corner.  Without even a change in stride, Paix continued her lazy way down the street.  Her eyes happily roamed the claustrophobically close walls on either side of her, and she had a loopy smile plastered on her face.  At last, she reach Hachi and pulled 5 white candles and 1 red one out of her satchel.  Hachi snatched them.  Doing her best to clear the remaining water away, the girl took the white candles and placed them in a circle around her.  The red she situated in the center.  Then, retrieving a piece of chalk from one of the many pockets in her rain jacket, Hachi connected the white candles.  Now, she was in the middle of a circle.  She then drew a triangle around the red candle, and let it with the torch.  Instantly, the other 5 candles lit themselves.  Hachi handed the torch to Paix, and pulled a thickly bound leather journal out of her pack.  She sat in the center of her homemade circle, and began to read a passage in Latin.  The candles flickered as she did so, and shivers raced up and down my spine.  “What’s she doing?”  I whispered to Paix.  She beamed.  “Hachi is opening a gateway.”  She continued to smile.  I nodded.  “O.K…”  I caught a few words here and there, but nothing really stood out.  Only towards the end was I able to understand.  It sounded like she had converted to English.  “…  And may we journey safely into the realm beyond, bringing with us peace and good spirits.  I now call upon the magic of ancient times to assist me with the opening of the sacred gate of Nalaen, and grant us safe passage.”  With that, Hachi closed her book, but remained in her wax and chalk circle.  “The gate will open at sunrise tomorrow.”  She declared, then her head slumped to her chest, and I heard a snore.  “What just happened?”  Quinton sounded startled.  “Hachi just opened a gateway to our mistress’ world.  The only time that it will actually open is when the sun first rises.”  Paix sounded like she was talking to a bunch of pre-schoolers.  “Alright, but what was with the Latin?”  Holly spoke up.  “Latin is the language of magic.”  Again, Paix mad us sound stupid by enounciating her words very carefully.  Then, I remembered that when my friends and I began our journey back at the shack, the odd men with the skirts had spoken Latin.  They had called Morian the pater fuscious, which I knew meant dark father.  Coincidence?  I think not…  “But why did Hachi switch back to English at the end?”  I asked, completely confused.  Paix looked at me with concern.  “She didn’t.”  That scared me, so I dropped the subject.  “Then what do we do till the sun comes up?”  “We sleep.”  Paix still looked at me funny, but I ignored it, and went to stand with my friends.  With Hachi passed out and Paix, who was a little off her rocker, my friends were the only company I had.  So, we all huddled together around a campfire, which I had started, speaking in hushed words.  Paix laied down near the chalk circle and quickly fell asleep.  Holly shared with everyone some gum, which was the only thing she had in her pockets.  And, one by one, my pals fell prey to sleep.  Then, I was the only one left.  I pulled an old brick which had fallen down from one of the buildings up to the fire.  I stared into the prancing flames.  The warmth flooded my face, and surrounded me with a blanket of security.  Gwindol was silent in my head, which meant no more head ache for me.  I shifted my backpack, which was still a little damp, but it was no longer quite so heavy.  I longed to let my wings out, but knew it wouldn’t be too good an idea, being in the Below.  Then it hit me.  I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before.  Either I was completely selfish, or I just didn’t have the time.  What were my parents going through right now?  Did they even know I was gone?  Did they think I had died?  Did they even have the slightest idea that I might be in trouble?  A crushing guilt settled in my chest, a cold lump of something almost like fear.  What did they think?  Below me, Holly let out a little breath, and pulled Nathen’s wind breaker tighter around her shoulders to ward off the cold.  What was HER family going through right now?  She was the oldest of 5 children, all of whom looked up to her like a little mother.  Did they know where she was?  How about Sage?  She had a little sister at home, as did Jada and Quinton.  Antigone had an older brother, who loved her dearly, as did her mother.  I had been so absorbed in what I had been doing for the past months, I didn’t even think of MY family.  Back home, I had 2 little sisters.  I was the oldest, and often looked after my siblings.  Sure, they could get of my nerves quite often, but I still loved them with all my heart.  What I wouldn’t give to see them now…  But I knew I couldn’t do that just yet.  I was on a time sensitive mission, and me seeing them might make them a target for Morian.  I felt a tear making its way down my cheek.  I hastily brushed it away.  I missed my family.  Friends were awesome, but I was homesick, and that was a hole you could never fill with something else.  I had a huge, gaping hole in my heart that only my family could fill.  I stifled a cry.  What had gotten hold of me!?  I hardly ever cried at home.  Blame depression or something of the likes.  But, with that, I sat on the damp ground, and curled into a ball.  I though of my mother, and how she always used to sing to me while brushing the hair from my face when I was small, the way she would smile down at me as I drifted off to sleep.  Without thinking, I began to hum a little tune that my mother always used to sing.  I had forgotten the words long ago, but the tune was still there in the depths of my mind, waiting to be uncovered.  And that was how I fell asleep.  The clouds swirled overhead.  The rain drained and trickled at the ends of the streets.  Hachi’s candles flickered.  The wind howled.  I fell asleep.