It was still dark around the ruins when the silence of the evening was broken by the jolly morning birds, wich had awoken by the first of morning light. The sun was slowly crawling its way to its dayly position and the droplets of morning dew shittered like tiny diamonts by the rising daylight.

Though even those powerfull ray's of light didn't get to all places, for example a room deep below the grounds surface. Sealed off from any daylight or fresh air, it hadn't been opened in quit some time. All that caught the eye in that room was a large pillar in the middle, in the first flash of vision it would seem like a normal pillar, preventing the cealing from collapsing under the presure.

But it was all but a normal pillar, in fact it was a cristal one though under all the layers of dust and mud it was hardly visable. A small spot here and there that would lit up and give away its hidden secret. A secret that was nothing compared to the other secret in the room. In the inner circel of the pillar there was a man, magicly protected from aging, moving or even thinking and slowly forgetting its former self.

And even while over the many years the magic had decreased in its power, it still held him capture in this 'prison'. But untill now no one had found him there, the doors to his chambers were still sealed and untouched by human hands and even then one would question themself if they were brave enough to roam in the temple ruins.

Ethstar let loose a small growl, slamming a folded fist into the wooden floor. Kneeling upon the boards, he was getting a breather. He had traveled from the marsh to this place, passing forest and plain, yet not being able to find a single city. It was just his rotten luck, that he could wander a land for a few days and not run into one hint of civilization. After crossing a wide river, and trekking across yet another blasted field, he had spotted a hill. Although he didn't think it would be of much help, he had nowhere else to go, so he had started toward the mound of earth. At the time, when he had reached the top, he had been hoping that he would be able to see a small village, or even a house. To his surprise, the rising sun had revealed a city, seemingly made of pure stone.

To his disappointment, it looked as if it had been completely ruined. Just his luck again.

On his trip that had brought him here, he had lived on random foods he had found, the most notable being a large patch of mushrooms near the outskirts of the marsh. It had been a completely random guess as to if the food was healthy or not, but he had took a chance, and it paid off. He had slept near the patch of food, and filled his belly with the shrooms that night. And thank the God's, it hadn't killed him or anything. When he had woke up the morning after, his stomach had been slightly bothering him, and he had almost taken himself for dead. This new world was putting him on the edge, and it was quite disturbing. He had stuffed his pockets with as many of the mushrooms as possible, hoping his minor healing abilities would be able to help him if any late effects showed up.

In the end, some meager hope of more food or perhaps supplies had led him down to the city, which he had proceeded to search. After a few hours of scouring random ruins, he had decided that anything that would have been to some use had long since rotted away. Every inch he had searched had only revealed layer upon layer of more stone and wood. That, and even more dust. Which had put his temper on high rise. He had strode into a nearby stone building, and sat down to get some rest, settling down hard on the wooden floor.

With a curse, he slammed his fist against the ground again, this time, directly upon a large crack in the thick wood. His breath slightly labored from all of the searching, coming a little harder then normal. He had not yet gotten used to this place. It had different effects on him then the Celestial plane had. Suddenly, under his raging fist, a few cracks spider webbed out from beneath his knuckles. Raising an eyebrow, he stared at the cracks, his blue-white eyes widening in amazement. The wood wasn’t that thin, he was sure. "I am not THAT str-" Interrupting him with a loud rumble, the ground gave way beneath his body, sending him falling down into the darkness below.

Performing almost the same flip that he had done when he had been warped to the Material plane, he managed to straighten his falling body so he landed on his feet, crouching upon hitting the ground as to absorb some of the shock. Standing up quickly, he set his booted feet slightly apart, ready for completely anything. Black locks of hair fell in front of his eyes, but he quickly brushed them aside, wanting a completely clear view. His black cloak surrounded his body completely, the only thing seeable being the boots and head. After a few darting glances, his eyes settled upon the pillar, it being the only noticeable thing in the room. It was crystal. Or at least, that is what the beams of sun revealed.

Ethstar stared at it, then stared up toward the sky. It seemed he had fallen through the ceiling, into this underground room. What it had been used for, he could only guess. The certain section he had fallen through must have weakened somehow over the years it had been there. Indeed, several holes were seeable in the ceiling, a result of some kind of insect or beast no doubt. From what he could tell, the layer that made up the ceiling had been rotted wood. What kind of stupid person had built this place, using WOOD as a ceiling? Or perhaps when someone had built the house, they didn‘t know about the room below?

Staring at the pillar while his thoughts wandered, something caught his eye. In fact, it was a closed eye. The beams of light from the hole up above caught the pillar on the upper half, and in a clean patch of pure crystal, he was sure he could see a human eye. Walking toward it slowly, he was almost positive he could see one. After a few seconds of hesitation, he got up close enough to touch, and rapped his fist against the pillar, right near the encased eye. “Hey.”

Damon, the man within the cristal pillar had not noticed any of the happenings outside his prison of centuries. His body and mind had been placed in some kind of stasis, preventing him from moving or even creating a single thought in his head. His entire being was enclosed by the strong cristal, and even if he were to his full spiritual capabilities it would be hard to crack the cristal from the inside. He wasn't even able to move a single finger, stand alone moving his hand to hit the pillar.

Though with the broken ceiling there also came down some pieces of the pillar, the pillar had been weakened with the newly arrived stranger. Ofcourse Damon did not know of this visitor in his warm home, he did not know that the angel was knocking on the outside of the pillar, hoping he could get a responce from him. And if Damon was awake, he would most likely set his hopes uppon this angel to get him out of this strangled position.

The reason he was placed there numerous years ago was that no one understood what he was. He had come from a different dimension, an alternate plain were nothing was to be trusted and everything could attack you. With that mindset he had been transported here, for no obvious reason.

But when the people of that time found him and did not know his race or the place he had come from they started to fear him. An expected reaction that was, mankind fearing what they did not know. Though this time they had over reacted, they called for a copple of powerfull magic users and asked them to close him up in somekind of magical barrier. Wich brings us back to the situation Damon was in right now, trapped in a magical prison of cristal. His future life in the hand of the angel outside of the encampment.

Muttering something under his breath, Ethstar started to circle the crystal pillar, a single white hand from within the cloak coming out to scrub away small patches of dirt. He was fascinated, even though his poker face did not show it. It certainly wasn’t every day that one found a man perfectly encased in a dirty crystal. Ethstar mechanically continued around the pillar, cleaning patches of dirt until he could clearly see all of the face. It was quite interesting actually. Shaking his dirty hand, he delved it back into the cloak, and simply stood and studied the solemn face. His faded blue eyes watched, and simply judged.

He had never really seen anyone like the man. Where he had come from, all of the people were bright, and almost all of them had a silver glow, or shine to the skin. Instead, this one wasn’t really bright… but then again, certainly not dark. From what Ethstar could see, no wings were perched upon the back, and even the stranger, the skin was a light gray. Is this what ALL people in this land looked like? Or perhaps the man was just dead, and had lost his wings, and lost his glow. It puzzled Ethstar, but he didn’t really dwell on it too long. He knew this was a different plane, and he knew that things were bound to look much more different then he was used to.

The man inside could even possibly be dead. Taking a second look, Ethstar considered the possibility. The man's skin didn't have the pasty white color of the dead, although since he was a slight grey, that could be bad. If anything, Ethstar would have swore he was merely sleeping. No rise and fall of the chest was notable, but prisons had a way of keeping people alive. And anyway, if he was dead... who would have bothered to capture him. The faint possiblity of the man being something powerful beyond imagination was quite real, but Ethstar didn't really think about that.

Sighing slightly, Ethstar glanced around, not exactly sure what to do. He thought he recognized the structure, his knowledge of magic greatly aiding him in this. He was fairly sure he had studied about a prison such as this, one designed to permanently encase the prisoner, and one that could not be broken from the inside. The clear color almost convinced him, but like he had noted before… This was a different plane. Did his knowledge of the wizard arts really apply on this plane? If anything, he figured it was worth a try. Not many of the magical prisons he had studied could hurt anyone trying to come from the outside. None of the ones constructed of crystal anyway. He started to scour around the ground, walking around the room, recalling the words of his teacher.

Prisons. You believe that you are going to be encased in one someday? Hardly likely. Well listen good, if you truly want to know. If you are inside the prison, there is not much you can do. But if you are trying to get someone out… the most dangerous ones are the ones were you can clearly see the threat. You wonder why? The only reason you can see them, is because the creator is confident you can’t do anything about it. Usually the threat is not the actual prison, merely the traps around the prison. Make sure you are completely prepared to disable any traps when you go to try and disable a magical prison. The ones that are the least guarded are crystal, or ice prisons. Those are usually just built to hold a person captive for extremely long periods of time, and they are usually hidden away somewhere. Crystal and ice are also the easiest prisons to build. Taking that into consideration, they are also usually the less guarded. Only novices create crystal or ice. Steel is much better for long periods of time.

Ethstar somewhat smirked, recalling the teacher’s arrogant voice. That one had been full of himself. But taken the knowledge that one had given him, he probably didn’t have to worry about traps. So he hoped. If his teacher had been wrong, and the prison WAS guarded… he had little to defend himself with.

Finally, he found what he had been looking for. Leaning down, he grabbed a long shard of the pillar, one that had broken off when Ethstar had fallen through. Hefting it in his hand, he turned, once again facing the pillar. Walking toward it, he grasped the shard like a dagger, the object actually something like one. The shard was a few inches thick, and if used against a being, it would leave a nasty wound. Yet it was not to be used in that manner. Uttering a low growl, Ethstar did an over handed slam, bringing the sharp tip of the crystal slamming into the pillar, directly where the middle of the forehead was incased. Angelic strength and speed put behind the blow, he hoped it would have some effect. If the stranger was indeed still alive, he would want air.

-*Gregori once more had been wandering, though his luck had fared more than that of Ethstar's when it came to finding a town, though Gregori had little use for them. Even so, it had been weeks since he had stopped to rest for more than a sip of water, a bite of food, and a cat-nap.

Thus, a very cranky and irritated Gregori approached a large city that appeared to be very, very dead and gone. At once he began searching for a place to rest, scanning the trees, hilltops, and collapsed buildings.

Finally finding somewhere that looked decent Gregori began his trek towards what looked to be an old dwelling. Upon reaching the old building, the ground began to groan with his weight as if it were made of old, rotting wood beneath his tremendous weight. Too tired to notice, he didn't even bother to check the other side of the building. If he had, he would have seen that the dwelling did indeed sit upon a poor foundation.

With a disgruntled sigh he plopped onto the ground against the side of the building. Had he been given another ten seconds, he would have fallen asleep. Unfortunately for Gregori, the floor gave way the moment his rump hit the ground, and kept going.

With a suprised roar, which under normal circumstances would have been intimidating, was almost drowned out by the sound of crashing wood and his impact with the hard ground below.

By this point he was too disoriented to stand, or even look around. He just lie there on the floor looking up at the rather large hole in the cieling.*-