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Turrents darts over to Hassan, and nods. ''I know how to put him to rest for good. Though it's odd that he'd be buried at the town. Was he famous there?'' She asked curiously, her wings folded lightly with water dripping off.

''Or maybe they just couldn't put him anywhere else.'' Cass replied, sitting down to Murat and purring lightly.

Murat shook his head. "Not famous...well, more infamous, I suppose you could say. He knew a fair number of people, so he had connections. But I think the story of..." he trailed off and blinked. "Actually, I haven't seen him in a long time."

Hassan shook his head. "That grave used to be outside the city; but we grew so big so suddenly, that we had no choice but to include it. The sudden arrival of thunderbirds and sandbirds hasn't encouraged people to move out either."

''So he's been trying to get your people to leave his grave al--''

Mori tackles her and she yowls, getting pinned down. He growls, though faltering slightly as if he was trying to fight off something in his mind. He eventually let her go and held his head, shaking. ''Grr....N..No...Can't attack....Not fight friends....'' He hissed, eyes looking at the group. Full of hate, agony, and pain.

"Hassan, Turrents, go! We've got it covered here." Murat turned to lend Cassandra a helping hand by distracting Morlia with a swing of his scimitar.

Hassan nodded. "We're going. Let's go." He kicked his camel into a run. "Give us an hour," he called back. It would take half that just to get to the city.

Turrents darted after Hassan, shuddering. ''So whats the deal with Mori and haunting?'' She asked.

Mori ducked at the swing, and swiped at Murat with his spear, snarling. Cass got to her feet, rubbing her head where her speared ear was sliced from the spear. '' Agh. He just won't stay down!'' She hissed, ears pinned back.

Hassan glanced at Turrents and continued running. "Murat knew of Morlia from years ago; but he hasn't been seen in a while. Basically the rumor is that Morlia had a few friends who caught some sort of sickness that killed them slowly. Morlia assisted them in escaping that pain and now he's cursed. I guess he died after that, maybe from the same illness--no one knows for sure. But there's a grave for him apparently that everyone's forgotten about."

Murat dodged back on his feet, trying to avoid the spear tip and bringing his sword back around to block. "Of course he won't. Morlia was never the type to just stand still. You got any sand magic left, Cass? Can you freeze him into a statue or something?"

''So the weird fox boy is cursed to be a phantom because his grave has fell into ruins. Interesting...'' She muttered, running as well. ''Phantoms are spawned when they become upset. Maybe Murat stirred up his memories enough that his curse forced him to return from the grave. Though his spirit body is still harmed by wounds, right?'' She added.

Cass took in a deep breath and froze the spirit within a sand statue..For now, at least. It's mouth frozen agape, claws spread to inflict damage, eyes casting a great glare at Murat. ''Mori's frozen in sand..Gasp...For a bit..'' She wheezed.

"It could have been Murat, but I don't think so; he's too nice for his own good. Something else, or someone else, must be behind it." At last the city came into sight. "The grave is three-quarters into the city. We hadn't planned on expanding."

Murat breathed a sigh when Morlia was captured into sand. "Good job, Cass. The longer you hold him, the more time you're buying us." He held his scimitar ready, in case the spell should break suddenly and Morlia came running at them. Actually, keeping that in mind, Murat circled around behind the statue.

''I can tell already.'' Turrents grunted. ''Who would dare awaken a phantom to attack is? We never did anything to him!'' She sneered coldly, water running down her wings.

Cass nodded, sadly of course. ''Murat, if you and Mori were such good friends why would he be attacking you?'' She asked. A symbol for a certain group of sand knights was visible on the statue.

They stampeded into the city, dodging people, animals, and carts. "I don't know. Maybe someone who has it out for Murat? He was the last person Morlia encountered before he died."

"I don't know," Murat said to Cassandra. "I've asked myself a million questions regarding Morlia, but we've always been on peaceful terms with him; or so I've thought."

The statue starts to crack and Cass starts to back away. ''M..Murat! Theres a symbol on here of the sand knights!'' She shouted as sand starts to fall from cracks that littered the statue.


''Were there any rival knights?'' Turrents inquired, paws leaving a fine mmisty trail of watery pawprints.

"Sand knights symbol?" Murat knew there wasn't much time as the sand began to fall from Morlia's frame. He made a quick circle around Morlia's still-mostly-frozen frame and spotted it. "Uhm, I've seen it before...I just can't place it where."

"Rival knights..." Hassan contemplated as they finally came to the grave stone and its ruined pieces. "I suppose there were some, but Murat never met them, not that he told me anyway. I suppose though one of them could have heard of Murat and got angry. Murat and Morlia were quite close for the short time they had known each other. Right, we're here."

Morlia breaks free and tackles Murat at full force with a murderous snarl escaping his mouth. Ears pinned back, eyes staring into Murats coldly. A gaze filled with an unknown rage, and a hidden sadness buried deeply and not showing. ''You.'' He hissed, the mark now on his forehead.

Turrents looks down, and spies the gleam of stone. ''I'm right on top of it!...And jeez, it's covered in bucketloads of sand and oil.''

Murat goes down hard with a yell, losing his grip on the scimitar. He flailed in the sand before recognizing the symbol on Morlia's forehead. "What's that on your forehead, Morlia?" he asked, wiggling to get at the knife in his boot.

At the mention of oil, Hassan jumps back. "Fire, we'll just smoke it." He reaches into his pockets to find he has no flint or steel. "Hang on, I'm gonna go borrow a flame from a blacksmith." And then he's sprinting off.

Mori growls harshly, drooling. ''Why should you care? You know them all too well to feign ignorance.'' He hissed, teeth bared. ''You knew them so much yet you failed to stop a plan they had years in the making. The plan to stir up the evils, one that you helped them do.'' He barked, eyes narrowed.

Turrents hops back from the oily mural, gagging.

Murat's eyes widened. "What? Me? No, Morlia that wasn't me! I didn't ever memorize the glyphs or runes. That had to be someone else! I was only with you for a short time. Don't you remember? I think it was a year...I wasn't even really a fledged knight yet."

Hassan returns with a torch, probably not the best idea with oil leaking everywhere but it's the only thing he could think of to get it to go away. And using water wasn't about to help--oil and water never mixed.

"Stand back, Turrents. If this goes badly, I may need your help to douse the sand immediately surrounding the oil. Don't, if you can at all help it, spray water onto the burning oil. You'll make it explode." And so saying, Hassan let the torch fall to the oil-soaked sand and hastily stepped back.

The oil ignites as a huge fireball scattered the sand.

Mori hissed in pain suddenly and hopped off of Murat, his fur steaming. ''Lies!'' He barked coldly. ''You know good and well I bet you did memorize them! No one to my knowledge didn't.'' He hissed. teeth gritted as Cass watched his fur smolder.

Turrents yelped and hopped back with a yowl.

Hassan braced himself for the fireball, but even he couldn't be prepared for the heat. "Ugh, I think I lost some eyebrows there." He looked back at the blaze, the smoke pouring out was intense and there were shouts. "Oh no, we have to keep this burning. Turrents, can you use your water to keep the people at bay?"

Murat grimaced as Morlia released him. "Look, honestly, I never memorized them! You told me that if they were in the wrong hands, someone could do terrible things with them. It's why I didn't memorize them!"

Turrents nods and blasts the curious folks with fire-hose strength water. The blaze burns furiously over the mural, the sand getting turned to glass as the picture underneath was revealed.

Mori cringed, still smoking. ''Then who used them, huh?!'' He snarled, and shot a small gust of wind at Murat from his paws. ''Who brought me back into my cursed existence? WHO!?'' He hissed, teeth bared. ''I wasn't even given a proper burial!' He added.

Cass watched in horror, terrified.

He braced himself as the wind pulled at his clothing. He squinted to keep the sand out of his eyes, blindness now could mean his death.

"I don't know! You weren't exactly careful about who your friends were, and didn't you make enemies along the way? Who else did you teach?"

Hassan was faintly surprised as the sand beneath the fire turned to glass. He watched as the mural became clearer. The black peals of smoke were beginning to less now that most of the oil had burned away. "Turrents, you can put the fire out now. Don't touch the glass though--that'll be hot for a while."