{ D i s a p p e a r } }{ Open to All.

[Slone. {Raven}]

Can you hear me cry out to you?
Words I thought I'd choke on.

Cold. There was a chill breeze as she walked out from the building and into the darkness around her, where the streetlights were being lit up in the village. It was quite a quiet night, and there was little to be seen or heard other than the sound of children out playing in the snow which sat on the streets before her, blocking her way with out warning from inside her building.

Well, what to do. If there was one thing Elena hated, it was water - especially frozen water like this. The slush sat in the center of the street as if it had all the business in the world to be there, when in reality - in her reality, anywho, - it had no business being there.

She could simply fly over it, but then she would be forced to leave her clothing there on the ground, where it would get cold and wet, or worse, stolen. She didn't have to many pairs of breeches and tunics, much less a leather vest like the one she was wearing, and this was the only pair of boots she owned. Having them stolen would be devastating.

So, she decided, she would simply have to trudge through it, no matter how much she didn't want to. The leather on her shoes crunched into the snow, making stealth - even for a raven - difficult. She wouldn't be able to sneak up on any of her next victims. Had it not been so slippery, she could've simply waltzed up to a person, stolen their purse, and ran off. Simple as that. But now, she was out of her element. She was in man's element instead.

She found her horse not far down, people looking at it like it was mad, just standing there alone in the snow with nothing better to do. Elena shoo'd off some of the people, looking to her ancient horse with soft eyes.

"Come, m'dear," she said, stroking the old black horse's cheek bone, "let's move on to our home, now."

She pulled herself onto the horse's back, which was bare of a saddle. The only thing between her and her horse was the warm blanket she'd tied over her friend's back. She herself had a blanket draped over her shoulders as well, and was cozy as she rode off and out of town on her horse, no reins in hand and horse unbridled.

However, she stopped just at the outskirts as a something crunchy and cold hit the back of her horse, not spooking the poor thing but scaring the wits out of Elena. She whirled her horse around like lightning, and with fury in her black eyes, searched the scene for a culprit. No one dared to take the blame.

That is, until they pointed out a young, plump-bellied boy with snowballs in his chubby little hands.

"Well, well," she said, glaring at the boy, though a devious smile curled upon her lips, "a little rich boy, hitting a poor maiden's horse?" The smikle was then replaced by a huge, toothy, ravenous grin. "You'll pay three gold'ns for that."

The child stuck his tounge out at the lass, and in an instant, she was out of her clothes and in winged form. She flew into the sky, high above the children, so far up that the villagers looked like little bugs crawling on the ground. Then, gluing her wings to her side, she locked onto her target and dove down.

Sheswooped upward just as the youth tried to scurry away, grabbing his leather vest and the shoulder of his tunic within her beak. The plump male squealed in horror, and simply cowered before Elena could get back to him.

She clawed the sides of her arm, cawing her raucous call, and grabbed the small change purse right from the boy without him even noticing. Then, with her clothes still on the horse, she called to Desiree, and they were off to the other side of town where she could change back into them, forgetting all about going home.

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And without you is how I { d.i.s.a.p.p.e.a.r }

[ninjaofdoom]

Sitting. Waiting for nothing. That's how Riki spent her days recently. She didn't know what she was supposed to do with her life, so she could not carry it forward. In her hand, she held a small leather backed journal she had found under a bed in an inn. It was the only thing she had left of her mentor besides the knowledge and skill he had helped her obtain.

The journal was something she had been looking for for a while. When she was younger, she remembered a night at an inn where her mentor pulled out the journal, wrote something in it...and purposely left it on the bed the next morning when they left. She remembered asking him why he'd left it there and she remembered, clear as a bell ringing, his response: "So that anyone who comes upon it has a chance to tell their story. Everyone wants their story to be known. I suppose in several years, you yourself will want your story to be known, little Riki." He was always so cheerful; she remembered that. This was a pleasant memory, and filled her with a renewed fondness of her past.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Her thoughts were disturbed like the snow that was being disturbed in this cold winter night. She looked around, her golden cat's eyes glowing faintly in the dark. There was a girl, probably not much older than she was. But, things weren't always as they appeared. She should be aware of that, if nothing else. The night was the darkest it had been in a while, nearly blacking out the snow. It was her improved vision that made it possible to see such detail.

The girl walked toward a horse, standing alone but still surrounded by some late night villagers. The streetlights illuminated the circle where they stood, showing a horse that was clearly healthy and strong, but had an age to it. Then the girl spoke. It was unreserved care for the horse, and it rang clear into the night. "Come, m'dear," she said as she stroked the horse's cheek bone. "Let's move on to our home, now." Then she mounted, and was illuminated in the circle of light.

The girl was fairly pretty, but there was something...off..about her. In a village like this, she had come to expect encounters with mostly normal people. As in, people unlike herself. She had realized, however, that there were a few brief encounters with others that shared a magical touch. This girl was clearly one of those few brief encounters. Her long dark hair fell about her shoulders with an unnatural sheen and her eyes were pools of black. Even her lips were black. It didn't take too long to come to the understanding that this girl had very little about her that could be seen as friendly.

Riki watched as the girl rode on her horse back past her, toward the outskirts of the village. But then a kid hidden in the shadows through a snowball at the horse, clearly angering the girl and causing her to whirl her horse around. Her eyes were filled with fury as she set her eyes on a small group of children. None of them stepped forward, but they all pointed at the boy who had thrown the snowball.

"Well, well," the girl said as she glared down at the boy, her mouth curving up into a devious smile. Riki knew only too well the kinds of actions that those kinds of smiles led to. She creeped up onto her feet, not making a sound, and staying standing silent against the tree she had been seated against in the cold black night. "A little rich boy," the girl continued, "hitting a poor maiden's horse?" And then the smile became a toothy grin filled with malice. "You'll pay three gold'ns for that."

When the child responded insufficiently, Riki couldn't quite see what he had done, the girl leaped from the horse and shed her clothes as she became a raven. The raven was as black as this night, and only visible because of yet another streetlight. Riki tensed her muscles, doing what she could not to interfere. She shouldn't go leaping into fights on a whim. It would get her killed one day.

The raven flew high into the sky, until there was nothing to be seen of her and then dove straight down toward the boy. He tried to scurry away, now abandoned by the friends that had ratted him out, but was caught by the shoulder of his tunic. He let out a terrified yelp and cowered before her. The raven clawed his arm, cawing raucously, and moved so quickly Riki could only barely make out the small change purse that was lifted from his pocket. She then changed back into human form, naked in the cold night, and rode back toward the other side of town.

As the girl and horse came riding toward the spot where Riki stood, she stepped out into the small pool of light created by a nearby streetlight. She stood, arms crossed and eyes golden with slitted pupils, in the middle of the street where the horse couldn't get around her and glaring up at the girl.