The biggest Lu-ser...

Luilfr had never had it terribly easy. She was named Luilfr for crying out loud. Much of her life was trying to explain what a name like that meant. She just introduced herself as Lu and left it at that normally. Of course it just didn't seem like anyone care that much about it in Brazil. They were just there to do their work.

Well do as little as possible for as much as possible was some of the natives' mottos but for the most part she was blessed with hard workers. She spoke the language of course and was hustling and bustling about. Her long blone hair was tied out of her face into a ponytail. She had never felt so fufilled in all of her life.

The mission in Morro de Sao Paulo was to collect some strange plant life that was seen growing around the small island. Of course they were staying in the sleepy town that inhabited the island but as far as Lu was really concerned they weren't even there. She was quick to get the extra hands to set up the camp in the jungle. They were at least a six hour hike away from any real kind of help should anything bad happen.

Of course Lu didn't like to think of it like that.

It was privacy for her studies.

She smiled as she thought about her fiance back home, he was being so good about her leaving for two years. She had invited him to come on the exibition but he had said that he couldn't leave yet.

She understood without really getting what he meant.

He was stuck to the life of materials and shit.

Lu was proud to say that she wasn't like that. Or at least she didn't think she was. She would have had enormous problems without all of her equipment but she could live without it.

Tents were set up efficiently and the sleeping back was opened and prepared for sleep.

But a note distracted her for a moment. She frowned as she looked it over.

Dear Lulu,
Jason here. I just couldn't tell you before you got on that plane. You're needed in Brazil and no matter what I will always have a special place in my heart for you. But I can't keep waiting around.
Jason

Lu stood there for a moment before finding she couldn't cry. She should have been able to cry over him. She loved Jason... didn't she?

She spent the next two days in a bit of a haze trying to figure out if she really loved him or not. Practicality told that if she had to really think so hard on it, that it was unlikely that what she had felt for Jason was love. Unfortunately, she continued to argue with practicality because she had devoted a whole year of her life to Jason.

Yes it had been her fault that they hadn't been married yet. And yes it was her fault that she wasn't emotionally available for him like she ought to have been. She didn't know what was wrong with her now that she thought about it.

But it was eye opening whatever it was.

She sat in the jeep on the road back to Morro de Sao Paulo, they bounced along the unpaved road. The whole situation was proving difficult. The radio was playing some music she didn't understand but quite suddenly the static really picked up on it. Even the driver looked confused.

He fiddled with the radio as they continued to bounce along the unpaved roads.

And then she looked hard at the radio as it started to sound like there was screaming coming from the static. She couldn't imagine what was going on... maybe picking up some weird radio show?

With both of them so concerned with the radio neither of them saw the other car headed straight towards them.

Lu was the one to notice it.

Her heart leapt up to her throat, she couldn't speak, she couldn't scream, she couldn't even breathe.

The sound of metal smashing against metal and the sudden violent jolt of the car pulled her from the mortefied awe long enough for her to scream. It was strangled somewhat, due to her being bounced around. She held onto the seatbelt as she felt the truck flipping over.

They were rolling...

The car was actually rolling...

As the mashed up metal that was the roof of the truck met the unforgiving muddy earth she found her voice again. Much stronger this time.

Her driver was thrown from the car and just when she thought it was all over...a small mudslide sent the car crashing into a river at the bottom of a ravine.

Anyone within two miles could hear her screaming until the car hit the water. She tried to get out but with everything so mangled... Not even her seatbelt would come undone. She fought and fought, the air that she had taken into her lungs before the cab had filled with water was starting to burn her lungs.

'I have to get out!'

And even as she struggled she felt her body slowing down from the lack of oxygen. And then there was a strange pull as she lost consciousness.

Was that what it was like to die?

Cold.

It was all that went through her mind as she was forced to open her eyes.

Rocks... dirt.... water...

Her brow furrowed in frustration as she realized that she was wet. She was in the water. Her body didn't immediately respond to the need to remove herself from the water. She just laid there for a moment closing her eyes to try and think without distraction. The noises from the radio still ringing in her ears from earlier. She could pick out a strange chanting she hadn't noticed behind the screams of... was it a woman? A girl?

And what had happened to her?

She didn't know.

Something was on her wrist and as she looked up to see what it was she was met with something that looked distintly spideresque but it was unlike anything she had ever seen in her studies or in her time around the world. If it was a new species it could mean funding.

Unfortunately the fear of being bitten struck a strong cord in her and she was up out of the water and shaking her arm like a lunatic. Of course something was off and she tumbled back into the stream sending up large splashes of water as she tried to get away from the arachnid.

She gasped for air as she sat in the middle of the water and stared at the scape before her. She could see an open plain just beyond a few scattered trees. She looked down and around her to try and find that spider thing.

Instead she noticed that she wasn't clothed.

At all.

Her hands flew to her chest to try and hide her nakedness, she closed her legs and it was about that time she noticed her feet... well, they weren't her feet. They were scary reptillian or birdlike feet.

She gasped and a small panicked scream escaped her lips as she tried to shake the appendages off of her. Hoping she was just having a hallucination she started to look around for her clothes.

A mist formed out on the water, though it was still clearly day light. It curled along the water's surface, skimming towards the bewildered avian. Soon, however, it dissolved. Disappearing as fast as it had come.

From the trees that circled the water's edge, a figure emerged. Swathed in deep black, the only hint of flesh an ivory pale hand that rested on a black clad thigh. A hood encased the head, deep enough that even the bright sunlight could not penetrate its depths.

Seeming to glide fowards, the ivory hand reached up to grasp at the edge of the hood, pulling it back in a slow, sweeping movement. Warm brown eyes were revealed in a pale face with a wash of pale pink lips. Long, glossy black hair fell from the hood to cascade down the woman's black swathed back.

Pale lips smiled, revealing sharp, overly extended canines, "Welcome stranger." Two hands moved this time, unclasping the cloak and revealing a lithe body beneath. It too was clothed in black, though in a form of a long, shimmering shirt over a long skirt gathered at the waist. The warm, friendly eyes at odds with the strange canines, smiled as the woman stretched out a hand, the cloak gathered in her long, claw tipped fingers in offering.

"Here, take this, I have no need of it right now. It seems that you do, though?" she raised an eyebrow, everything about her seemed slow and deliberate, graceful. Yet, strangely, menacing. There was a growl in her soft voice that was unmistakable for anything friendly. But she smiled and the menace seemed to melt away.

"I am called Wraith, may I ask your name?"

Luilfr gasped as she watched the woman virtually materialize before her. She didn't know what to do but fear had a strong hold on her and she couldn't move. She wanted to scream, run, anything really but she couldn't. She couldn't take her eyes away from the woman.

She was beautiful and that smile.

Well she found she had the ability to move her body again. And despite the fear she reached out and took the cloak to cover her body. She took a step back and concerned herself with just making sure her decency was intact.

"Lu..." she managed. "I'm... Lu..." She was still a little lost. "W-where am I and... what exactly happened to me?" She wanted to hide but she seemed to not be able to do what she wanted at the moment.

"Welcome, Lu," for a moment, Wraith's warm eyes went a deep sad, but they soon returned to their normal state. "I'm sorry Lu, I have to tell you this..." she paused then bravely continued after taking a breif, deep breath. "You are in a place called Illusion Vale, at least, that's what I've called it. The name just kind of stuck." She smiled then and it seemed to be somewhat apologetic.

Though her voice was soft, there was a strong timbre that could not be mistaken for anything but the mantle of authority, "You were taken from your own world, for reasons that are at the moment beyond me, and brought here. It seems to be a nexus of worlds and realms... I think..." she paused again, gathering her words carefully.

"When you came here, you were most likely transformed. If I knew where you came from, I think I could tell you a bit more about the transformation. But for now, you are different from who and what you were. Funnily enough, genders never seem to change.."

The black woman trailed off then, caught in a web of her own, complicated thoughts. She stared at nothing for a moment... then seemed to shiver before she went on, as if she had never stopped talking.

"I'm working on a way to get you back to your world, but for the moment, I'm afraid to say that you're stuck here. But don't worry, you're not alone. There are many others who were dragged here beyond their will too. I'm one of them..."

She paused again, "Actually, I was the first..."

She looked away, her eyes returning to that deep seated pain that could have only scratched the surface of her feelings. Strangely, her fangs seemed to recede and her claws became natural fingernails once more. The etheral quality of her figure seemed to shrink until she looked somewhat normal. Though she was still somewhat impossibly strange, menacing and beautiful at the same time.

When she turned a smile towards Lu, it seemed forced, but genuine. "It would be best to get you out of here, to the City where you can have food and shelter while I figure this thing out."

She failed to mention just how long that endeavour had been taking.

Despite how well meaning this woman seemed Lu wasn't sure if she really could trust her. There was really only so much the young woman could absorb in so short a time and really her body still ached fromt he car crash. She held the cloak tight around her body and frowned.

"So... you're in the same boat I am..." She asked thinking it over slowly. "So... You're trying to find a way out and you want me to go with you... How-how many others are there?" She asked curious now.

She bit her lip thinking quite hard.

It was obvious from the knitted brows.

"Ok... I'll go with you but I need clothes," she said. "And your word that you're not going to eat me or something," she said still looking like she wanted to run. This was the only person she had met so far.

Was she making a mistake?

"I'm from Earth..." She said hoping this information would prove useful.

She laughed, sharp canines glinting in shafts of sunlight, "Why would I eat you?" she seemed genuinely puzzled, however, at her reaction. "I wouldn't even think of such a thing, I promise you."

She beckoned the avian out towards her as she began to walk along a hidden path towards Vale City. "Come, I can provide you clothes though."

She raised an eyebrow, "Earth? May I ask what time period? We've have some people from earth," she didn't mention herself, sometimes if they were from the wrong time period, it was sort of confusing.

Then she frowned, "We have a few others here. Enough for a small village. We've managed to eke out a living here, at least until we find a way home. We should have about a thousand, at last count."