Kitharsis stares at the grains of sand lying in front of his eyes, his face planted in the sand and his body mostly covered with the stuff. Pushing himself up with his arms, he winces slightly as his head throbs. The sands flows off of him and onto the desert floor, small clouds of sand rising where it touches the ground. He straightens his back and rests on his knees, the sand giving way and letting him sink into it a few inches. A heavy sigh escapes from his lips, specs of sand stuck on his lips fly out along with his breath.

"I'm sorry, I was longer that I expected to be." Kitharsis explains.

"There is no excuse for this. You deliberately disobeyed me, losing my trust completely."

The shaman points a finger at the tiny skeleton with a stern look on his face. The tiny undead stares back with its empty eyesockets, apparently not really giving a damn whatsoever. A pity, for it really should have. It would have been the last damn that it had ever given...

A faint shrieking should eminates from the tiny skeleton that crescendos rapidly. Once it reaches an ear shattering frequency, the poor creature explodes into millions of particles of sand. Spraying not only the desert with its remains, but Kitharsis and the shaman as well.

"That was NOT neccessary!"

Kith is on his feet and approaching the shaman with hate in his eyes. The sand arond him swirls then cakes onto his limbs. The particles mold together and freeze him in place mid-stride. The shaman looks on dissapprovingly.

"Do you actually think that you could harm me in any way, your skills are horrible. It would take you the whole of the evening to muster up enough of your precious little energy to even scratch me. I would have taught you how to be great, how to harness your power and to use it for good. Instead--"

"I was using it for good!" Kitharsis cuts him off. "Are you that blind!? Jihon is after a prime evil and I would help him destroy it. Have you forgotten about the battle with the warp lord? The long days of chasing after and being chased by the Dark Legion? I thought that you had wisdom, but I am not sure about you now. You may know some things, but do not judge me in a matter of seconds!"

An intense yell roars out of Kitharsis's mouth as he strains against the sandy barriers. He feels each induvidual particle of sand as it strains to hold him at bay, the energies inside of each of them and how they react to both him and the shaman, the potential for he himself to bend the sands at his will. He seems almost attuned to them, the way that they are reacting to his senses at the moment like nothing else has ever had.

The bonds begin to melt away, the sand bending to Kitharsis's will. Each particle reacts to him as if he were pushing it along with his own fingertips. The sand falls away, but does not touch the ground, instead they begin to circle around Kitharsis. Soon the sand on the desert floor around him joins their brothers in the air. The whole desert reacts to Kitharsis, every particle recognizing its master and heeding to his will.

"Do not hold me back," Kitharsis screams as the sand swirls around both him and the shaman. "Do you see now that I am not evil, I would use my power for good." The swirling sand stops in midair, each particle holding their place in the air like a huge jigsaw puzzle put together. Then, as Kitharsis lets go of his hold on them, the particles of sand fall to the desert floor to rest once more. The wind is still and the landscape is a serene as an untouched lake. It is as if the ground would break if anything would move, the peacefulness of it awe inspiring.

The shaman slowly turns his head to look around. His jaw hangs open and a blank look is spread across his face. As if waking up from a dream, he shakes his head, closing his mouth and blinking his eyes.

"And once more you surprise me. The Tirthandara have never claimed control over any of the elements, it is unheard of. But of course, there has never been a Tirthandara that has as pure of a heart as yours. I must say, this is both terrifying and astonishing. Forgive me for your little companion. I was blinded by emotion... Apparently there is still some to learn for someone as old as myself. Come, let us learn together."

The two grin, both glad that the other does not wish to destroy them anymore. They walk back to the shaman's cave silently, each reflecting on what exactly happenned just moments before.

Kitharsis leaves no footprints in the warm sand underneath him. It no longer shifts underneath him, making his steps stable and certain.

The sand, vast and endless, and yet so small at the same time. That was quite unexpected to say the least, but now that it has happenned I don't think that I would feel right without it. The sand is comforting, its energy warm and open. It is as if it were waiting for me now, anticipating my next command. This feeling is hard to explain. No, I am not its master, but perhaps its companion...

Something thrusts out in the dark, knocking Kith onto his back on the apparent floor. The surface seems plastic and unreal. It does not reflect the glow from his tattoos either.

He stands, only to feel the wind of something swinging at the ground where he whould have been moments before. Another black shape attacks from the front. Swinging his arm to block it, Kith grunts slightly. The blackness passes right through his arm and smashes into his chest.

I suppose that they can't be stopped conventional ways...

A tendril of red energy crawls out of a tattoo on his forearm. The next black shape thrusts forward from the dark. With slight effort the red tendril extends and collides with the dark shape. A dull spark cracks from where the two meet. Both the dark tendril and the red one fade away, causing Kitharsis to gasp. Apparently he will need a lot of energy to even survive this encounter.

More red tendrils erupt out of the tattoos on Kith's arms, just barely breaking through the surface of his skin before they meet a black shape. A grey spark flashes as they meet their targets. Slowly, the glow coming from his tattoos start to fade.

I need more energy, but these things give me no time to concentrate on drawing upon more... I must make time.