• Prologue - And then the world stopped.

    As dusk fell on the deserted forest road, a man with a white cape wrapped tightly around him walked as quickly as he could while dragging a large stake, tied to his back, behind him. This, incidentally, was not very quickly. A rustling in the undergrowth next to him made him jump, as a female elf in a blue dress chased a curiously orange-skinned catgirl with crimson hair out through a bush.
    "I said give it back!" shouted the elf angrily, completely ignoring the man.
    "Haha, no way... 'tis mine now!" replied the catgirl, poking out her tongue.
    "Gyah, you damned alley cat!" shouted the elf, swinging a punch at the catgirl, who easily dodged, looking just as angry.
    "What did you just call me!?" she demanded, glaring at the elf.
    "Oh, so now you're listening?" laughed the elf, about the draw the sword from her belt.
    "Uhm... excuse me ladies?" asked the man, a little timidly. They both turned to him, glaring.
    "What?" they both demanded simultaneously. The man tried to step back, the stake making that difficult.
    "Could you direct me to New Paradigm City please? I seem to have gotten a little lost after my travelling companions left me tied to a stake in Bear Country." replied the man uneasily. The catgirl and the elf noticed the stake for the first time, regarding it critically.
    "That's some heavy excess baggage." said the elf, stroking her chin whilst nodding.
    "Well it's just a couple of hundred pounds of solid oak. I guess you get used to it. Oh well... in any case, could one of you charming ladies direct me?" asked the man hopefully.
    "What's in it for me?" asked the catgirl, walking up on one side of him, stroking his arm a little.
    "Hey, who says he's going with you?" demanded the elf, marching over and grabbing his other arm, pulling him away from the catgirl by it.
    "Uh, I think you'll find that was me." replied the catgirl, pulling him back again.
    "Yeah, well he's not going to listen to you! I want to take him!" said the elf, pulling him back towards her again.
    "Not as much as I do!" replied the catgirl, pulling him back again.
    "Fine, I'll mud wrestle you for him!" declared the elf, pulling him back again.
    "Oh, it's on!" replied the catgirl, pulling him back again.

    The man from the story, sitting on a barstool with the catgirl on one side and the elf on the other was just bringing his drunken story of their first meeting to the bartender to a close, both of them looking indignant.
    "And, yeah, that's how it happened, our first meeting. I remember it as if it were yesterday..." he sighed, before two fists connected with his face, one from the catgirl, the other from the elf, knocking him backwards off the stool to the floor.
    "That is not what happened at all, you letch!" slurred the catgirl a little drunkenly, waving her hand at him threateningly.
    "Not to mention it really was only yesterday." added the elf with a sigh, turning to stare out of the window. The man clawed his way back up to the barstool unsteadily.
    "Ow... oh yeah, I remember it now, like it were yesterday." said the man, sitting back down. The elf sighed.
    "You liar. I bet you and your tiny human brain, couldn't even remember what happened 5 minutes ago without adding a perverse twist, let alone nearly 24 hours ago." she replied without even looking around. The man leant on the bar, waving a hand at the elf.
    "Hey, I'm perfectly capable of remembering things on my own thanks." he slurred, before the catgirl grabbed his shoulder, spinning him back around quickly.
    "Oh, you mean like how you remembered to tell us in advance about these?" she asked coldly, holding up the golden bracer on her arm, identical to the bracer the other two wore.
    "You were the ones who put them on." said the man, taking another sip of his drink. The catgirl sighed, turning to the barkeeper who'd been watching with interest and amusement, but not actually intervening.
    "You see, it went a little more like this really after we met..." she said to the interested barkeeper.

    On that same dusty path, the man's face is now being held down into the ground by one foot from the catgirl and one from the elf, while they look at him suspiciously.
    "Reward for getting you there, huh?" asked the catgirl.
    "What kind of reward?" asked the elf. The man made some muffled noises under their feet.
    "Huh?" said the catgirl, straining to hear, with more muffled noises in reply.
    "What's that?" asked the elf, followed by more muffled noises. The elf and the catgirl looked at eachother for a second, before they caught on.
    "Oh, right... hard to talk with a mouth full of road I guess." said the catgirl, as she and the elf removed their feet. The man raised his head, spitting out several lumps of gravel.
    "Well... there's some legendary bangles there, which you can each have if you want them." replied the man, standing up and dusting himself off. The two considered this for a moment.
    "So... I just need to get you to New Paradigm City, right?" asked the catgirl, thinking still.
    "Well, I need to be there before nightfall." replied the man. The elf looked up at the sky.
    "What? It's twilight already!" she shouted. The catgirl laughed.
    "No problem, though the way we're going you won't be able to follow, so see ya, elf." added the catgirl, grinning. The elf looked doubtful.
    "You got a coach up that top that's barely big enough for the two of you?" she asked sarcastically.
    "The two of me?" asked the catgirl, perplexed. The elf looked almost apologetic, though it was obvious that she was mocking.
    "Oh, I'm sorry... you're just so wide, I thought you were a pair of Siamese twins or something." she laughed. The catgirl looked sour.
    "Oh, ha. Ha. Ha. But I get the last laugh..." she added. A glowing aura surrounded her as she seemingly pulled a white cane with a clear jewel at the top out of nowhere, beginning to twirl it round faster and faster, like a baton.
    "Temporal... Disruption!" said the catgirl, her words strangely echoey, a barrier spreading almost instantly out from the cane, leaving everything inside with a slight purple tint.
    "And... that did what, exactly?" asked the elf, standing behind her. The catgirl jumped in surprise, totally shocked.
    "B... but I... and you... and... but... What kind of demon are you!?" demanded the catgirl, clearly knocked off mental balance by this. The elf glared at her.
    "Demon? I'm an Elf, you dumb Catgirl... can't you tell from my regal posture, and poise?" she demanded, waving her arms around in grant gestures.
    "Most people usually just use the pointy ears, and the arrogance. And we prefer 'Neko-Neko'". replied the catgirl quietly.
    "Yeah, whatever. What're you getting so worked up about? If we don't hurry, no reward!" added the elf. The catgirl shook her head.
    "Not exactly... we have all the time in the world." replied the catgirl, nodding at the man.
    "You killed him? Nice, but how do we get the reward now?" asked the elf sarcastically. The catgirl sighed.
    "He's not dead, just frozen in time." she replied.
    "Frozen in time?" asked the elf, not quite believing what she was hearing.
    "Yup, whole world is right now." replied the catgirl.
    "So... does that mean we can do whatever we want to him then?" asked the elf, pulling a pen out of a pocket in her swordbelt. The catgirl laughed.
    "No, unfortunately as soon as we touch him he unfreezes." she replied. The elf looked uncertain, but poked the man anyway, who quickly lost the purple tinge.
    "Hmm, at least we don't have to carry him then." replied the elf, with a small sniff.
    "Huh? What happened?" asked the man, looking around at the trees frozen in the middle of blowing, and the static clouds overhead.
    "Nothing much,I just bought us some time. Let's get moving." replied the catgirl as they started walking towards New Paradigm City. She looked at the Elf critically, wondering how in the name of the Seven Merry Hells she avoided the spell that had frozen the entire world.