(well, it would appear that the one vote has it... This is such a historic moment in the saga of all that is great... a moment truly worth a thousand words... not sure if I'll write that much, but we'll see what I can squeak out before I have to go to bed.)

Ungsten reached out with his hand and felt the wood of the spear in his hand.  It was rough and felt a little old, but so did everything else in this town.  He easily found the smooth parts where people had held it previously and ran out into the street after unlocking and opening the door.

The people were just passing him now, and he looked back to the shop from which he had run to try and find his father.  Apparently the few seconds he was gone in the shop was long enough for Papa to lose himself in the crowd.  Either that or it was just difficult to see past all the flashes of blue, brown, white, and other faded colors as people ran by him in the street.  People looked back in horror, trying to run faster than the quickly approaching shadows.  It was clear that they wouldn't be able to outrun these enigmas, as they seemed to gain speed as the crowd became more and more frightened.

Ungsten wasn't one for strong language, but he still felt the bitter sting of a curse escaping his lips as he started running through the crowd, trying to get to where he had last seen his father before the shadows did.  Arms, legs, elbows, all were fighting him and his face as he tried to run almost perfectly perpendicular to the crowd.  For crossing such a short street, it felt like an eternity.  Making it to the other side was another eternity, and he had just started running toward his goal, when he felt a strong tug on his side.  He held his hands and spear between whatever was pulling him and prepared to fight off whatever the thing was that would distract him from his quest, but quickly let down his guard when he saw that it was his father who had pulled him aside.

"Don't you ever leave me like that again!" He heard his dad shout at him over the noise of the crowd.  His father pulled him deeper into the alley that Ungsten had just realized they were in.  He was quickly pulled behind some boxes, and he watched through a small hole in between the boxes as the people finished running past and the shadows flitted by.  He almost let out a gasp when one of the shadows stopped briefly to look down the alley, but his father must have sensed that he would make a noise and quickly covered his mouth with his hand and pulled him away from the peephole. 

It wasn't long until sounds of screams and blades filled the air.  It was hard for Ungsten to just sit there, especially now that he had a weapon in his hand.  "We need to go help them," he whispered to his father, which got him a long stare in return.

"What we need to do," came the stern reply, "is go home and get your sister and mother out of the house.  That is our responsibility. These people may be our friends, but your mother and sister are our family."

Ungsten could see that arguing this point with his father would have as much effect as trying to have a nice, civilized chat with a donkey.  So, when his father shifted to a nearby doorway and tested the handle, Ungsten moved just behind him, pointing his spear toward the entry to the alley, just in case anything decided to peek in on them. 

Fortunately, the door wasn't locked, and his father quickly passed the entryway and motioned for Ungsten to follow.  He entered the house, but forgot how long his spear was, and accidentally knocked down a clay mug that had been on top of one of the boxes while doing so.  His father quickly grabbed him, shoved him inside, and slammed the door shut as quietly as one can slam a door.  Another stern look told him that his father wasn't too pleased with the noise.

"We need to move quickly and quietly from here on out.  One more outburst like that, and you can find your own way home."  His fathers tone was unsurprisingly unpleasant.

It was at this point that Ungsten wasn't sure what he should do.  His father clearly wanted his help, but couldn't risk him making more noise and drawing attention to them.  There were also people to save, and it sounded as if the towns guard hadn't even been able to be rallied together yet.  What was a poor boy like him to do?

(Anyway the wind blows doesn't really matter to me.  Should he go with his father, try and find his own way home, saying that he'd meet up with his father somewhere outside town, go to help the people in the town, or something else?  I'm trying to see if I can get a poll set up with the options, but feel free to write what you'd like to see happen if it's not up :)  I hope that your week is filled with good times, friends, and a healthy dose of Truth mixed into everything.)