Immolation and Cyrus appeared in an umimpressive burst of teleportation energy somewhere on the outskirts of Paris. It didn't seem like anyone noticed.

Immolation had barely enough time to snag his armor, his weapons and what little gear would be useful before they both needed to be teleported.

"So, do you want to do diplomacy? Or should we kill it and take the orb by force?" Immolation said, loading a fresh clip into the .44 magnum pistol he had and then adding it to the bag of holding.

Cyrus had a generic bag slung over his shoulder. He had put Cran's documents inside. He would need to find the psychic sooner or later. His cape was draped around him, seeming a bit closer to a cloak at the moment, as well as concealing his armor.

"It is likely that we run into an agent or two up near the dragon's lair, as well as the creature itself. If so, it would be wiser to stop the agents than to kill the creature. And be careful pulling out a gun like that. We do not want some Parisian seeing us and thinking that we are hostile."

Immolation chuckled. "Cyrus, that is going to be easy to achive and even harder to avoid." The fire elemental said, giggling at the thought as he took the sunglasses from the bag before removing his sheathed sword into the bag of holding as well.

"I do suggest that once we find this thing's lair, depending on it's type, either you or I keep on the near outside and watch for any agents." Immolation said, looking around without the sunglasses on.

"My friend, you think far too lightly of such a magnificent creature. As much faith as I hold in my swordsmanship, even I do not think I could stand up to any extranormal breaths it has, and despite your immunity to fire, I doubt you are immune to being bitten in half. We should both go in together."

Cyrus looked around.

"But, I have an idea of how to find it. I need to deliver some of Cran's things to a psychic somewhere near here. He may be able to help us find what we are looking for as well."

Immolation briefly raised an eyebrow.

"Ok... Sounds good, how do you suppose we find him as soon as possible without wasting our time?" Immolation asked.

Cyrus looked back towards Immolation.

"He is a psychic. He should... find us. And give us a beacon of some sort. Maybe even put the directions right into our heads depending on our luck."

"Maybe with you but i really hope that psychic doesn't feel like tinkering with my head...." Immolation said, putting the sunglasses on and then realizing that they were also enchanted to show the magic field of the immediate area when looked threw.

"I said depending on our luck. That does not always mean good luck."

Cyrus looked around, keeping most of his concentration on trying to get the psychich, Black, to notice him.

As a side conversation, to pass the time, he turned back to Immolation.

"Back when we... served together, I really did not get much time to know you. We may be waiting here for a few minutes, so would you mind talking about yourself?"

A few minutes later, Cyrus would receive a quick message. The message gave him directions to a rather well hidden cabin in the outskirts of Paris, as well as a confusing warning about frozen hotdogs being thrown around.

Cyrus paused for a moment, then helt his hand up.

"On second though, it can wait. The psychic just sent me directions. Make sure you have your things and follow me."

Cyrus turned, and walked off, following the directions now put in his brain.

Immolation quickly followed Cyrus. "Alright. Although, i doubt that he'll show us to the dragon... Immolation said, looking around with the MDS's* for any increased density of magic in the surronding area.

(*hereby dubbed the Magic dectection sunglasses.)

A few minutes later, Cyrus and Immolation arrived at the 'rather well hidden cabin'. But really, if the directions have been imprinted in your mind, it's not really that hard to find at all.

Cyrus silently motioned to Immolation to stand guard for a moment a few meters away, in case the psychic turned out to be hostile, and the place was a trap.

Cyrus walked up to the door, and rather normally knocked the tune 'shave and a hair cut, two bits'.

Immolation stood guard, looking around for any abnormal sings of increased magic density in the area.

"FOR THE CABIN!"

A hotdog flew right at Immy a few moments after Cyrus knocked. Black opened the door quickly and motioned the pair inside, slamming the door behind them.

"Those two need hobbies..." Black sighed. "Welcome, Cyrus, and welcome to your friend, too. I'm surprised you came so soon."

Black walked over and took a seat at a small dinner table. "What have you come with?"

Cyrus casually walked over towards the table after Black, and slung the bag on his back down on the table.

"Some of Cran's things. Some notes and diaries, among other things. I do hope that this can help you find him."

Cyrus paused for a moment.

"Oh, and if you don't mind, I would like to ask you a favor. We are looking for a dragon's cave somewhere near here, and were wondering if you could use your abilities to help us find it."

Immolation quietly contemplated who exactly would be insane enough to use a hotdog to defend a cabin.

Black ignored the second question for a moment as he opened the bag and removed a random book. He opened to the first page. Black skimmed through a few pages, closed the book, and then reached for another one, skimming slightly through it, too. He set it aside.

"Thank you. I should be able to use these to find out a few things. With any luck, Cran will be found."

Black finally addressed Cyrus's request. "Finding a dragon isn't hard. I'll only need a few seconds." With that, Black closed his eyes and tilted his head back. He shot his mind above the cabin and let himself become tuned to the world. He was eventually ready and searching.

...

Some minutes later, Black straightened his head, again. He opened his eyes. "I think I've found it." Black closed his eyes again, and Cyrus would feel information coming to him. "There's your directions. Anything else?"

Cyrus stood patiently while the psychic searched. After 'recieving' the directions, he paused and blinked.

"For now, no. Thank you for your assistance. I may come back when we are done with our mission here to talk to you, and I would like it if you could contant me should you find anything pertaining to Cran. I would like to find him, as well."

After quickly scribbling down some contact information, should Black wish to send him anything non-psychically, he gave his farewells. Then, he and Immolation were on their way to the dragon's lair.

The dragon's lair was quite a trek from Black's cabin, but luckily enough was on the same side of Paris. With directions, it was difficult to find; without directions, it would've been nearly impossible. Clever, subtle magical traps caused anyone not actively searching for the location to veer around it without realizing that they weren't still going in a straight line; even with clear knowledge of where to go, it was like pushing upstream to get to the correct place, and that was only after several frustrating realizations that they were headed in circles.

Finally they reached the cave, a gaping mouth in the side of a rocky hill that delved steeply downwards. Massive claw marks on all sides of the edges clearly marked the occupant, and red-brown smears gave warning to exactly how bad an idea it probably was to go inside.

The strangest thing, however, was the payphone sitting just outside the entrance.

After the frustrating attempt to reach the cave, Cyrus and Immolation arrived. To be greeted by the strange sight of a payphone. He stopped, and motioned for his partner to move as little as possible as well. He stepped a bit closer to Immolation, and spoke rather quietly, not sure if anyone else was around, or how good of hearing dragons had.

"Those sunglasses you have, can you ditect any major magical enchantments or traps in or near that payphone? It's not natural for something so mundanely civilized to be in such an uncivilized place."

Immolation found the sight of the payphone abnormal adn highly weird.

"Checking now." Immolation said, looking at the payphone first and then checking the area around it, including the entrance.

The payphone was an odd little island of complete magicless-ness in the swarm of magical energies that was the cave entrance. It was flooded with energies of alternately painful, deadly, and rather amusing types until it was impossible to determine exactly what was where, or what any given action would do.

Immolation could almost make out a pattern in it, however.

It seemed to be words, writing out in fancy script: "Nice try, suckers."

((edit:)) The message was repeated in several languages, including Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese, Swahili, and Russian along with English and French.

((better? :P))

"Well that is very highly odd." Immolation said, staring at the cave entrance.

"The payphone is completely devoid of any magic but the cave entrance is riddled with traps merant to spell out the words to 'nice try, suckers.' In several different languages.... Clearly this dragon has mental issues." Immolation said, debating on an idea or not.

(I saw that edit, Mordain. :P )

Cyrus suppressed a bit of a snicker. For some reason, 'suckers' didn't seem like a very draconic thing to say. He looked back from the cave to Immolation.

"Either that, or it wanted to get the point across. Although, I really would have expected something more along the lines of 'You have failed, foolish mortal!' This dragon has obviously had some exposure to the outside world. But, I will go examine the phone. You should stay a little ways back, in case there are any traps, and to give you a little range to lay down suppressive fire, if it is needed."

Cyrus cautiously walked forward, heading to examine the payphone as he had said.

Immolation took a step back, creating two medium sized fireballs as he did.

As Immolation formed the fireballs in his hands, he felt an uncomfortable stinging sensation in his palms, as if something was telling him that this was a bad idea.

Cyrus looked at the phone. It appeared to be a normal Parisian phone, blocky and mostly dull grey in color, and blue on the sides. It came complete with a slightly used phonebook attached to the stand with a chain. From all appearances it was in full working order.

'What the..." Immolation thought briefly before he intentionally caused the fireballs to dissipate into smoke.

Firstly, Cyrus picked up the phone book, and began rifling through the pages to see if it was a normal phonebook as well, or if there was anything strange written inside.

It appeared to be a perfectly normal phone book, but as Cyrus turned the pages he realized that they were rather - crisp.

At the very end there were a series of numbers scrawled onto the last page. They weren't labeled, but appeared to be for various spots around the country.

Making sure not to accidentally break the crisped pages of the book, Cyrus set it carefully down, chose one of the numbers at random, picked up the phone, and dialed.

The phone rang five times before it was picked up. There was a long pause, and then a male voice spoke. "<Hello?>"

((Yes, I know the word for 'hello' in french, but in the interest of simplicity, anything in <>'s for this part is in french.))

Forgoing any subtlety in interest of saving time, Cyrus cut to the point.

"<Hello. Why is your telephone number written in a book near the cave of a dragon?>"

*translated from French

"<I did not know that he had written this number there... that wasn't very nice...>" The voice on the other end seemed amused. There was a long pause with some muffled sounds, as if he were speaking to someone else. "<A practical joke, sir, and now I'd like to know who you are and how you happened to come across this phone book? It should be rather difficult to find, and I don't believe he was expecting company.>"

"<I am but a soldier, sent to retrieve something dangerous from the... treasure of the dragon. I passed several enchantments that would have deterred me if I did not know where I was going. I found this phonebook with your number written in the back at the entrance to the cave.>"

<"Yes, I knew that."> There was another pause. "<Well... if that's all, goodbye.>" There was a click, and then the dial tone resumed.

Immolation briefly piped in. "Any luck?"

Before Cyrus even had a chance to hang up the phone, there was a sudden rumbling in the ground, almost like a mild earthquake. When the shaking subsided, several things had changed.

The most immediately noticable to Cyrus was that the phone had entirely disappeared, right out of his hand. There was no sign that it had done anything but simply vanish.

Immolation noticed a sudden change in the magical aura around the cave. It seemed to lessen, then there was a sudden bright flash that blinded him momentarily. When his vision came back, he couldn't see any magic at all through the glasses.

Physically, the cave had changed slightly as well. It was now plainly not a natural cave at all but an arched entryway, and considerably larger than it used it be. The floor, now smooth stone, still sloped downward at nearly a 60 degree angle, however.

"Uh oh....." Immolation, said, quickly approaching Cyrus.

"Are you alright?"

"<That was strange->" Cyrus caught himself, "Rather, that was strange."

He turned back to look at Immolation, saying "I am fine, but I did not find anything of use. However, it does not seem to matter in any case. For now, we should just press on into the cave."

Cyrus went cautiously over to the entrance, and began down the slope.