Kaolin tugged Solstice into the bedroom and pushed it onto the bed. “I’d love…to know where you got all that gold…” He whispered softly, pulling Solstice’s frilly black shirt off. Of course, finding out where the money was coming from wasn’t Kaolin’s prime priority, getting Solstice out of the tight, see through silk was. “You are so…hot…” He whispered, trailing his lips along Solstice’s throat and to its lips.

“Hot?” Solstice asked, arching against Kaolin’s hands, its soft moan swallowed by Kaolin’s hungry lips. “Wh-why…? Don’t feel hot…really…”

“Oh…but you do… hot… like the desert…” Kaolin whispered; tickling Solstice’s sides gently, he delighted in the soft, tinkling sound of Solstice’s laughter.

“I no feel…like…ooh! What you doing?” Solstice asked between peals of laughter as Kaolin pulled its tight, full-length, pants down past its ankles and let them pool, in a puddle of silk, on the floor.

“Not much at all…” Kaolin whispered softly, trailing kisses down Solstice’s stomach which heaved up and down as the creature giggled. “Just…tickling you…” he breathed, a mischievous light dancing in the amethyst pools of his eyes.

Solstice made a surprised, pleasured sound when Kaolin dipped his tongue into its navel, causing a shiver of pleasure to run up Solstice’s spine. “That nice…” It whispered between small delighted bursts of giggles.

Kaolin was on the move once more, lips making their way up to Solstice’s sensitive nipples. This action silenced Solstice almost immediately.

Kaolin sat up, the silence startling him; he so desperately wanted to pleasure Solstice it hurt. “What don’t you like it?” his voice was tinged with concern, though this emotion was quickly followed by relief when Solstice moaned, a bit belatedly. Kaolin smiled in both relief and triumph.

“You did like that didn’t you…” he whispered softly, pulling Solstice up and into a sitting position. “I could make it feel even better…” when he finished these whispered words, he swirled his tongue in Solstice’s ear, making the creature jump. Kaolin chuckled softly.

“It feel all nice and different, confusuled!” Solstice said; its voice filled with the confusion it’d mentioned. This merely caused Kaolin to laugh

“Do you remember that time between you and Dien? Just before those women interrupted?” Kaolin queried, trailing his hands down Solstice’s sides, tickling it lightly once more. This was a good distraction, and thus he continued to tickle Solstice with one hand while the other slipped between its legs and began teasing where he knew the slit would appear.

Over the few weeks ‘Sair’ served queen Damica and harboured the suspicion that she knew who he was, this was proven when she stormed into his living quarters one day, surrounded by guards.

“I know who you are Sair, you’re brilliant you elements… especially you, Air,” the queen had snarled before ordering the guards to take Air to a small room in the depths of the palace.

And now, tied down to a chair, with magical restraints, Air was being drilled for information on Solstice. “What do you want to know, you bleeding idiot, Solstice just is,” Air finally snapped at the queen.

“That creature has slipped through my best girls; it’s gotten out of the Palace. No one leaves the Palace!” Damica snarled angrily, pacing back and forth before Air.

Air merely shrugged slightly, observing Damica’s worry. “If you keep pacing you’ll wear a hole in the floor,” Air said dryly, earning himself a slap from the queen.

“Shut up!”

Air was silent for over an hour, watching the queen think, she did it rather loudly, ranting and raving about this and that. But finally she decided she was going to lure Solstice to the castle with the promise of giving up her crown, thus allowing the rightful heir to the throne to reclaim his rightful position. Air nearly laughed. Solstice may be childish but it most certainly wasn’t stupid.

“And as for you…” Damica smiled nastily. “I have a little surprise for you, as a thank you for being so stupid as to serve me. Now that I have one element trapped, it won’t take a lifetime to get the others,” Damica’s smile was far worse then a shark’s as she pulled a pouch out of a bag, which was sitting on the floor next to Air.

“Now, I hope you enjoy pain…”

“Jeez…when Toben said you were hard to tire he was right…” Kaolin groaned, sprawled across the bed, limbs aching from the strenuous sexual workout he and the brat had just undertaken.

Solstice smiled, somewhat tiredly and curled around Kaolin, resting its head on Kaolin’s chest. “That was fun…” it yawned softly. “We do again tomorrow and next day and next?”

Kaolin groaned again, he wasn’t sure if he could, Solstice had tired him out and all he wanted to do was sleep. He sighed and turned his gaze towards the window, another groan escaping his lips. Solstice had kept him going until the sun rose…

“Wanna sleep now…” he mumbled, eyes drifting shut in exhaustion.

Solstice listened to the relaxed beat of Kaolin’s heart for sometime, wondering, if after all this, it would get to stay with Kaolin and the other two, it did not wish to leave Kaolin’s side. A lone tear made its solitary track down Solstice’s left cheek to pool in the centre of Kaolin’s chest.

“I no want to leave ever Kaolin… I… I in love…” it whispered softly, how could it have happened? It had been created solely to help Kaolin reclaim his throne, reclaim his position, and what had it done instead? It had fallen deeply in love with the lost prince turned Key…

Sighing softly, Solstice stood up and walked over to the lone window in the room and looked out miserably.

The rich fertile land of Lyra marched ahead and into the moonlit night, and if Solstice looked to the left or the right it could see rolling hills of silver sand, the desert that surrounded the small river country, perceptible borders of two giant super powers. “Look at you…” Solstice whispered softly. “Wasting ‘way under... under murder rule…”

Once again Solstice sighed, the exhalation of air enough to convey its deep, soul wrenching sadness.

Air screamed, struggling against the magic-ed restraints that kept him tightly held down. Oh gods, it felt like he was being destroyed, inch by inch, as if someone was pumping volatile pollutants into the very heart of his elemental soul. “Please…please stop… you’re killing me…” Air cried in a soft breathy voice, every breath hurt, as if someone were stabbing hot spikes into his lungs.

“Nope,” Damica replied calmly, thrusting another of her small, poisoned tipped needles into Air’s left hand. “I hear that that brat can feel what you elements feel if the emotions are strong enough,” Damica chuckled darkly. “Perhaps I should feel sorry for it… nah…”

Toben held Solstice close as the cart lurched; wondering if Solstice would vomit again. It shook with what seemed to be a delirious fever, he didn’t understand, what was wrong with the little angel? Why was it suddenly so sick?

He knew it wasn’t the cart because Solstice had been delirious before they’d hitched the ride, heading for the inner city of Eikare, towards the barricaded inner walls of the queen’s castle.

“Toben! No go! No go back! She kills! She kills!” Solstice cried, clinging to Toben desperately, it had been doing so for over an hour now, fear visible in the simple way it babbled on about how the queen would kill them if they went behind the castle walls.

“Solstice, relax…” Toben whispered, staring at the walls with slight apprehension, inside… he’d, no, Kaolin had lived inside that castle at one point, and now Kaolin was ranting in fear. He didn’t want to go back into that, as he called it, ‘death pit’.

“No… Toben, she’ll kill-kill! She no want you back! No want three princes! She no want life in castle! She want death! Toben death you wants she!” Solstice babbled incoherently, its fine chin length white hair matted to its face.

“Solstice, calm down, calm down and relax… talk when you’re better…” Toben whispered, unable to understand Solstice’s hysterical, fever induced babbles.

“No… no she kill! No go in! No go in…” Solstice cried softly, its voice pitched high as it began to cry softly, its delicate shoulders trembling in what could be perceived as fear.

The cart shuddered to a halt and Toben looked up, searching for the cart’s sudden stop, his violet eyes fell upon a tall stranger in a brilliant obsidian cloak, strands of bright, scarlet hair caught in the wind.

“May I join you?” The stranger asked in a soft, smouldering voice, he was apparently asking the driver who simply shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah, fare’s 5 kestrels, doin’ the rounds ya know? Be doin’ the castle tour inna few minutes,” the driver drawled in slow, Lyrian accent.

The stranger may have smiled as he handed the driver the coinage but it was difficult for even Toben’s piercing violet eyes to see through the shadow that surrounded the stranger.

He sat next to Solstice and Toben…

“I see your little child is sick,” he murmured in an unidentifiable accent.

“You notice a lot…” Replied Toben, cradling Solstice close to his chest, something about this stranger unsettled him, he wasn’t sure if he should be afraid or welcoming.

“And you are but a child yourself!” Laughed the stranger suddenly, catching Toben off-guard with his strange humour. “Should you two not be travelling with your family?”

“I have none…” was Toben’s soft, whispered response.

“Where are you heading for, little Key?” The stranger asked, this time catching Toben unawares with his reference to Toben’s place as a Key.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Toben hissed, trying to see into the shadows of the man’s cloak. “How do you know about that?”

The stranger removed the hood of his cloak slowly, revealing dark umber flesh, piercing amber eyes and fiery crimson locks which fell just below his shoulders or there about.

“Allow me to introduce myself to you, Zenith Key, I am known as the element Fire, I am known among my peers as a selfish bastard who eats up anything in the path of total destruction and throws it out after I have had a good long chew, in short, I am Fire, and I am here to help you and Solstice,” Fire said with a brilliant, white smile.

“Solstice mentioned you sometimes… it used to speak of the fire as if it were real… I guess it was right all along…” Toben murmured, stroking Solstice’s forehead gently, eliciting a soft, delighted, mew from the delirious Solstice.

“Solstice would,” Fire replied calmly. “Tell me Zenith Key, do you know why your little lover is feverish?” Fire asked, seemingly curious.

“No… Solstice just got sick yesterday, I don’t know why…” Toben whispered. “It just collapsed in the middle of the street…”

Fire nodded. “Let me hold Solstice, Zenith Key,” Fire murmured, holding out his arms for the shivering creature.

Toben was cautious at first but slowly gave over Solstice who looked up at Fire and smiled slightly.

“Air sick-sick,” Solstice whispered softly, curling up in Fire’s arms and resting its face against Fire’s broad chest. “No go in castle… she kill-kill…”

“Ah…” Fire smiled softly. “I know little Solstice,” he whispered, combing Solstice’s hair with his fingers. “I know my sweet Air is sick… but he won’t be sick for too long now…” Fire choked on his words, eyes wet with shimmering tears.

“Can’t we rescue Air and get Solstice better?” Toben asked curiously, curiosity bought on by worry. “Please tell me we can?”

“I wish I could say…” Fire murmured, staring into a distance no one else could see. “I think we need to restore you princes back to your thrones before we can rescue Air…”