I've loved before, believe me, dear
It tore my heart apart
Love fades, I'm sure, forgotten fear
Should halt me 'fore I start
But still I fell for you.

And what's a girl to do?

The voice was the living embodiment of pain and longing as it blew on the sandladen winds over the Wailing Wastes. A pair of mutants looked up and grunted, then fell silent and bowed their heads, eyes darting nervously to the southern horizon.

Should I worship at the shrine
Of lovers lost and found?
Dead memories so often shine
More brightly underground

In the bloody rays of the setting suns, something moved. Spherical and bobbing lazily, three black balloons drifted and dipped in the wind, barely visible over the crest of the distant hills, coming from the direction of the Yuttos village. They left long shadows that danced with the shifting dust in time with the mournful, dirgelike lovesong.

Twice I fell, and lost my heart
It's still there on the ground
Scattered, lost in hell, it's broken all apart
Still waiting to be found
All for want of you.

But what's a girl to do?

The mutants blinked in confusion as a scorpiod raced past them, fleeing northward. It screeched in terror as it ran. Very unusual. They watched it as it disappeared to the north, fading into the amber winds like a shrieking ghost. Then they looked southward again. The great, omninous balloons were closer, and they could make out the sillouettes of two humanoid figures accompanying them. It had become apparent that the taller of the two humanoids was the source of the mournful sound. It seemed as if it would never end. The voice was the colour of pain and loss, drowning them in an ocean of tears.

Should I worship at the shrine
Of lovers lost in time?
Memories so often shine
Too brightly to define

And what's a girl to do
When there is no longer you?

One of the mutants stepped backward, head ducked defensively between its shoulders, tentacles flexing nervously. It made a questioning sound to its companion, who stood staring at the strange procession. A pair of yuttos followed behind, shepherd's crooks swinging slowly as they trailed the strange, tall singer and her tight-lipped, bone-white companion with his ominous entourage of floating anger.

"Alchemy, are you sure you want to do this? I don't doubt that what you heard was true. I know better than to doubt your dreams anymore... but wouldn't it be better if you left finding him up to me?" The bone-white male's voice was sharp as broken stone and soft as the hiss of a blade slipping free of its sheath as he addressed the singer...who had fallen miraculously silent.

The mutants breathed an audible sigh of relief, freed of the weight of her sorrowful song. They watched the bizarre procession pass them, moving north at an unwavering pace, as steady as the passing of the suns, which had dipped below the horizon.

Her voice, when she finally answered, was mellow and musical, sweet and smokey like sand mantis honey and burning herbs. "I have never been so sure of anything in my lives, Harley Grimm. Either of them. Nix needs me. He called for me. I will find him. I have seen it. Before THEY come, I will have found him again, and you will show me where."

The bone-white man frowned and nodded.

"As you say, Saint Bootay" he replied, "But I fear that there might be some danger involved."

Emerald green eyes glittered in her pale face as she looked up at the moons, as pure and as clear as clean water in the shadowlands. Her voice was a whisper, but it carried far in the night winds, flying before her like a promise.

"As you say, Brother Grimm." she said, "But if words and reason will not bring him home, then I will bow to your... wisdom... and those who resist your persuasions will not have long to regret their lack of wisdom and compassion. Will they?"

_____________________________
Alchemy "SaintBootay" Blue - neutral trader
leader of the Universal Church of Bootay (neutral sect)
"There is more wealth in friends than there is in credits and possessions. Your GA MK 3 will not hold you when you cry."