A Wonderful End to the Day }{ [Ask Krae]

[Lujayn]

“I still think of myself as a crow... so, no. No I wouldn’t. Even if I didn’t, I rather much hate you. Please keep your disgustingly perverted thoughts to yourself,” Krae muttered, stepping over a chair that had been knocked over at some point. She was beginning to wonder if the corridor ever ended, they’d been travelling down it for quite some time.

It did give her some time to think, however. Mostly, they were plans on getting clean, fed, and rested. She may have been a demon, but she did need the same things any living creature did. And so, most likely, did Den. The other thoughts were directed as to the appearance of Antirosh. While it was true was absolutely insane and rather obsessed by her, it made no sense for him to be out and at risk of being caught.

Unless his obsession had increased to the point where he was taking risks to get her. She frowned; it wasn’t a good thought...

Finally, they reached a door. “Ugh. Finally. I was beginning to think this place went on forever...” She opened the door... and then quickly slammed it shut, throwing down the bar in the process. She calmly turned to Den and said, “There’s a legion of soldiers out there. They look quite unhappy, and I think they believe the source of their unhappiness is us.”

[Silvarn]

"By all the dark fates of the Blue Blazes, can we never get a lucky break?" Edward groaned, rubbing his temples to relieve the irritation in his brain. He had only so many tricks up his sleeve, and all of them combined would not be enough to take on an entire legion. If he had his cohorts with him, he could try to induce revelry in the soldiers, who were probably secretly dying for a good time. But, alas, he was stuck with this crow of a girl who probably could not hold a lute correctly. Odds being, she would use it as a club and demand why it did not sound right.

His sigh turned into a grumble as he furiously searched his mind for some sort of plan. Then a cruel smile spread across his chalky features. He placed two fingers in his mouth and let loose a powerful, albeit inaudible, whistle. He blew for about five seconds, then grabbed Krae's hand and drug her over to a corner and held her there, ignoring the livid glares from her.

In a matter of moments, the room began shaking, becoming more and more violent. Soon, crashes accompanied the growing cacophony, then guttural bellows. Then about half a dozen trolls burst through the door he and Krae had been through, thundered their way across the room and through the barred door, and proceeded into the waiting legion.

As the hoarse military voices shouted, scrambling to accomodate this new threat, Edward muttered, "Now is our chance," and proceeded to slip into the chaos, hoping to remain unnoticed as the soldiers occupied themselves with the trolls, and make his escape.

[Lujayn]

“But that would be too easy,” she replied dryly, leaning against the door so she could better listen to what was happening outside. Orders to barge the door down, lovely...

Her thoughts were cut off when she was dragged off to the side, and she had to bite down on a cry of pain as her battered body protested against the sudden movement. She stared as the trolls thundered by, crashing through the door and into the legion with rather unfortunate consequences to the soldiers in the immediate vicinity of the door.

Den disappeared out into the fray, and she muttered one volatile curse before running after, pushing the pain out of her mind for the moment. Being a demon, Krae could run very fast, especially when aided with the very little power she had left, and used her momentum to leap onto the back of one of the trolls, and then just as easily jump off, gaining a good deal of distance across the fray before landing (and only just avoiding landing on Den in the process). A quick stab to the throat of a soldier who got to close, and then she was out of the chaos and darting into the surrounding forest once again, a tad ahead of Den.

When he would catch up, he would find her near a small river, nearly doubled over with the pain, breathing hard. Angry eyes turned to him and she snapped, “What is wrong with discussing your plans with me first you idiot?! Did it not occur to you that there was an extremely high chance we would have been stepped on?! I do not want to repeat that experience, thank-you very much!” She spat out one last mouthful of blood, then grabbed him, picking him up- surprisingly enough, considering what bad shape she was in- and tossed him into the river without ceremony.

She blinked then, staring down at him, somewhat ignoring the cursing coming from him. “Now why are you in there?” She asked, having experienced a slight blackout because of pure rage. It didn’t happen very often, but it did provide a great deal of confusion in times when she ended up covered in blood and didn’t know why. “Well, you need to clean off anyways,” she continued, seemingly totally fine now that she had- unconsciously- gotten her anger out.

[Silvarn]

Den smirked smugly as the trolls thoroughly thrashed thorough the troops. He kept his focus and made the quickest exit he could, noting Krae took off like an arrow loosed. It gave him a certain satisfaction to see her running away from danger faster than he.

Once both the soldiers and Krae were out of sight, he lessened his pace to conserve his energy. Around Krae, he was never sure when some fiend would show and desire both of them dead. When he came upon Krae again, he grinned through her tirade. But, when he suddenly found himself in the water, he was genuinely surprised. He blinked several times underwater, the black flames licking at his body causing the river to churn out copious amounts of grey steam. The blood and dirt were removed from his body by the flowing water, and the cool waters gently extinguished his black flames. When he finally realized what had happened, he emerged and caught Krae's ranting: "Well, you need to get cleaned off, anyways."

Then he smiled.

Like a bat from hell, he burst from the river and through the obscuring steam, catching Krae by the shoulders and tackling her to the ground. Pinning her arms down by the wrists, he brought his face close to her, and his smiled broadened, revealing his elongated canines. Then he whispered, "But what if I like being dirty?"

[Lujayn]

Krae hit the ground with a hiss, her wound pulling in the rather awkward position she now found herself in. She glowered at him, and then her expression turned to the sort of resigned look mothers had when their child did something stupid. "Well, if you want to become a disgusting mess, that's your business, but if you do, please keep away from me," she muttered, wrinkling her nose and sticking her tongue out slightly in the universal expression of disgust. "If you plan on having any more of your 'performances' like that, however, I wish you luck attracting anyone like that. The stink would keep away all but the most barbaric of outlanders." She then rolled her eyes. "And if you are, by any chance, speaking in innuendo, I am going to inform you that I am happily mated, although I find myself of a different species as of late, and most likely Akraw will peck out your eyes... or try to, and then you would kill him, and then I would be most obliged to tear off your head" What a pleasant thought. "Not like you're using it for anything, if your 'plans' are anything to go by."

She grimaced then. "In all seriousness, however, you really do need to get off, this hurts." At a closer inspection, she was quite pale, her slightly darker skin looking almost native. It was apparent that she was doing worse off than she was letting on; in truth several of her ribs had only just slid back from puncturing her skin, and a few more were still not fully healed, pushing her innards in awkward ways that was not helped by her current position.

And it seriously irked her because she hated showing any sort of weakness.

[Silvarn]

"Bah, you're no fun! No fun at all!" he whined, promptly removing himself from atop her. Placing a respectable distance between the two of them, he muttered, "Heh, and I'd like to see that birdbrained lover of yours try to even touch me." the thought of him slicing and dicing the male crow, then roasting it with his own black flames entertained him, and lifted his slightly depressed spirits. He never had handled denial well, akuma or not.

"Well, I must say, I've had enough of an adventure for one day. It's time to sleep, and by sleep I mean crash into oblivi -- hrk!" he doubled over as the demons in his throat scrabbled, wrenching his tired eyelids open. "Apparently," he croaked, "we're not to sleep just yet." the demons ceased their clawing.

His devilish master knew something was up, and now it was a matter of waiting until something happened. And Den had never handled waiting well.

"Sooo..." Edward began hesitantly, taking a seat next, but not close, to her, "Demon crow, huh? How did that happen?"

Good. Small talk. Something, anything to prevent him from passing the time by committing acts of wanton destruction

[Lujayn]

Krae sighed. She could have used a nap, she really could have. One that lasted for a decade or so; yes, that would have been very nice. Or a bath. That would have been nice, too, and most likely a change of clothes. Dried and clotted blood wasn't exactly pleasant to have all over you and in your clothes... and hair...

She rose her eyebrow at his question. "Does it really even matter?" She asked dryly. "It won't really change much, knowing. Maybe what you think of me, at best." She thought about that. "Although it would mean you actually did thinking once in your life..."

He was never going to hear the end of that. Ever. His headlong rushes into dangerous situations would forever haunt him while she was around to remind him.

"Hmm, I suppose if you really want to know..." she murmured, untying that one layer of hair so that she could put it back, a little neater. "I was a crow for about two years, before Kæs- that is the name of my master- found me. I was quite happy then... as happy as an animal can be, I suppose. Animals do not think of things the same way as a humanoid creature.

"And don't ask me to explain; it's like trying to describe sound to a deaf person. Where was I?" She finished tyeing up her hair as she thought. "Kæs is a very minor devil, so he can sometimes walk around up here and escape notice from the angels- if they're not too close by-, and it was during one of those excursions that he saw me, and on a whim, he said to himself 'I wonder what would happen if I changed that crow into a demon?' And then he did, quickly whisking me off to his part of the Underworld to do all the tinkering he would need to do to make me an actual thinking creature."

She smirked then. "And then I bit him very, very hard, and it was about then that he regretted giving me canines. Although he would be regretting that far more if I had had chicks at the time... lucky for him the last brood had only just grown up and left so there hadn't been time to make another..."

Krae had been a mother. What a terrifying thought.

"And that's really about all there is to my origins," she said, stretching a bit. "He trained me for about two years, during which I met that wonderful fallen angel, Antiroth. The circumstances of which I refuse to talk to anyone about, especially you, so don't ask." She looked slightly haunted before she shook it off. "And then I got dropped- literally- up here, two years ago. Making me the only six-year-old with the ability to kill many men in a very short amount of time."

She was glossing over quite a bit, but he didn't really need to know about anything else- what purpose would it serve?- so she didn't bother elaborating.

"So that's my origins," she said, somehow producing a cookie (where did she keep these things?) and nibbling on it. She slid her eyes over to him. "And how did you come about? You are of human origins, I can tell that much, but you've been greatly changed. Tell me; what was so important that you agreed to lose your soul?"

And then she gave him a smile. A smile that would have been considered cute on anyone else but gave off a terrifying effect from her. "And if you say anything that translates out to 'none of your business' I will break your fingers."

One wondered if Kæs had implanted this nastiness in her, or if it was already a part of her before.If you're curious, the smile is something like "^u^" -

[Silvarn]

He smiled nastily, opened his mouth to speak, hesitated, and when no unseen force stayed his tongue, he reciprocated his origin tale to Krae:

"Where to begin, then? My father was quite the prestigious musician, but he could not sing to save his life. I, on the other hand, possess a magnificent voice, I'm proud to say, but I cannot learn to play any sort of instrument. I soon outstripped his talent and sought fame and fortune on my own, but all I found was a man after money and my life. He gave me the chance to perform, no doubt, but my life was so scripted and so strict, I -- I couldn't handle it. My only solace was being able to watch other musicians, to learn the wants of my audience.

My favorite was a woman named Nightingale. She had the voice of an angel, metaphorically speaking. When I heard her sing, I spent three days wandering around the town, taking in all the sights and sounds with the naive joy of a child. Of course, when I finally remembered my place, my employer was seething with me. I had forgotten a huge showcase number which cost him thousands in gold coin. As such, he hired a shaman to blind me, break my hands, and then cut out my tongue.

As I laid there, bleeding out of several orifices, a dark figure came to me through the haze. I only remember his voice, silky and velvet and comforting as the night, and that he carried a lyre crafted from obsidian glass. He offered me freedom and power and revenge, so long as I sang the songs he wanted me to sing, and when. Frankly, he had me at revenge. So, I accepted and promptly blasted apart my former boss with sheer sonic force." he smiled with grisly satisfaction.

"I think that about covers it. Oh, I almost forgot to point an important distinction between you and I. You see, you are a crow given a demon's body, if I'm not mistaken. I, on the other hand, still retain my human's body, and I am not under demonic possession. Rather, I possess the demons. I assume you're familiar with the term 'akuma,' correct?" he smiled widened, "I do ever so hope you don't think any the less of me because I am not a true demon?"

[Lujayn]

Krae was silent for a moment, staring at Den with an almost blank sort of expression. Then she sighed. “It’s always a woman. I do not know why, but it always starts with a woman, somehow. What is it with the females of this species that make you all lose your mind? I do not understand it...” This last sentence was muttered as she stood and walked over to the stream, taking off her cloak so that she could wash it of the blood.

“And as to your first question; no, I have not ever heard of the term ‘akuma’. Then again, I was only in the Underworld for about 2 years... and a good portion of that was trying to remember I could no longer fly,” she said dryly. “And the rest learning the basics of how a human acts. But I have never thought of you as a demon. You don’t have the same... aura, is it? You are definitely human; changed, I grant you that, but very much human.” She threw the wet cloak over a branch to let it dry, and then smiled at him with one of those creepy smiles of hers. “And don’t worry. There’s no possible way I could think any less of you than I do now.”

How nice.

She unlaced the thick leather vest she wore, pulling it off to unceremoniously dump it in the stream. “And I’m not really a crow anymore, you know. I do think of myself as one, usually, but in the back of my mind is always the knowledge that I can no longer return to what I was. I am a demon, and so I shall remain until another Devil, or an Angel, manages to destroy me. Which could be never, as far as I know. I have asked my master to allow me to die if I do happen to be killed, but knowing him...”

Strange, that she would actually wish to have an end to her life, when so many wanted to extend it.

[Silvarn]

Edward's eyebrow and lips twitched upward as he watched Krae casually undress. Maybe having animal instincts translated into a lack of modesty? One could only hope ...

So, here they were, wet and alone with nothing to do but wait. Edward sighed with bored frustration, never a good thing.

"You said your master's name is Kaes, right?" he began, the words rolling idly off his wicked tongue, "Such an eccentric fellow. It makes me extremely curious why my master would want anything to do with yours. My master is strictly no-nonsense, and yours, well..." he left it at that. Then chuckled lightly, muttering, "Oh, Kaes."

"Which brings about the question: Why were you in that jail in the first place?"

[Lujayn]

Unfortunately for Den, Krae's removal of clothes stopped there; not for any point of modesty, but because she figured he would be happy to see her unclothed, and she refused to be responsible for his happiness. She was a bit mean that way.

Krae gave a bark of laughter at his words. "Kæs goes beyond eccentric, I'm pretty sure. Then again, he's only 100,000 years old, give or take, so he's still rather young. Youth tends to be a bit silly, in my experiences."

Thank-you ever so much, Krae. Remind me, why do I like you? Came Kæs' grumbled response through the mind-link. Krae chose to ignore him.

"As to why your master would want to have anything to do with mine... that really depends. I don't know yours, not in the slightest, so most likely he's far, far further in the circles than Kæs is. Kæs does have his uses, though. As few as they are- ow." A medium-sized rock had magicked itself in the air and fallen on her head. There was little doubt as to who was responsible for that.

"And it's not like he can't be serious. He's pretty terrifying in his own way, if you manage to push him passed his patience..." She made a face as she recalled the one time she had seen him that way. Any doubts that he had been a true Devil had been entirely eradicated by that one display.

She was quiet for a moment when Den asked his question, trying to think of a way to answer that wouldn't make her appear to be a complete fool. There wasn't really any way to, however. "Short answer is I was sent to assassinate someone and got caught. Long answer is... I got... distracted..." She grumbled out these last few words. "Everyone has their weaknesses, and mine happens to be anything sweet." Another cookie appeared in her hand as if to make a point, which she nibbled on. "And in one of the rooms I was passing through, it was decked out for a party, with a very nice cake. It didn't help that it had a SPARKLING decoration on it."

She looked fairly disgusted (with herself). "Jeez; normally I can resist the instinct to "get the shiny thing", but compounded with this stupid need for sweets... by the time I got my act together there was a patrol that stumbled across me. I had little enough power as it was and I was not risking going crow for something like that.

"But since they couldn't PROVE that I was there to kill someone, they threw me in the jail for attempted theft. And the rest you know." She sat down and leaned against a tree, crossing her arms and staring and Den. "And what got you thrown in there? No, wait- I have an idea. You did something remarkably stupid, yes?"

You know, if he kills you because of your mouthing off, I'm just going to laugh at you. Long and hard.

[Silvarn]

Edward smiled wolfishly, "You remember that little show I put on in the forest? Let's just say I tried to do the same thing, but within the city limits. And, let's just say the authorities weren't too pleased with it. Spoilsports, I say." he reclined a little, then sat up again, "Wait. You said you were sent to bump someone off -- did you ever follow through with that. Because, if not..."

A his smile became devilish, "I think I figured out what we're resting here for. My master greatly enjoys being cryptic and making me figure things out for myself. Since you failed in your assassination attempt, it's evident my master wants this fellow out of the picture as well. So, he wants us to work together to ensure this person is iced. In the meantime, though," he reclined again, "I think I'll take a nap. Important errand or not, I'm bushed."

[Lujayn]

"Ah, so you did do something incredibly stupid. Well, at least you don't dissappoint," she said dryly. "And no, I never followed through with it. When would I have had the chance? I've been with you since then. And I don't really plan on following through with it; I killed the man who hired me since he lied to me anyways. I won't be getting paid, so I refuse to do it. Kæs and your master can just deal with it.

"And what the hell would your master care about some stupid minor noble anyways?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "I would think he had other concerns."

She stood once again, seeming incontent to remain still. "Well you go sleep then. Since you've just been so busy today and have been through so much..." A very thinly veiled criticism and a pointing out that she was far worse off than he. Not very subtle, but she didn't really work that way. Krae was about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the knee.

She wandered off further down the stream, picking a spot far enough that she was easily out of eyesite of Den, but close enough that if he got attacked she'd be able to hear it and be given ample time to go over and laugh at him. Once she'd chosen a good spot, she finished pulling off her clothes and gave herself a proper bath. It wasn't as nice as a real bath, with hot water and whatnot, but she was running on rather limited funds so she couldn't just tromp off to the nearest inn.

She felt much better afterwords, having rinsed herself of a few days of accumulated dirt and blood. Her innards still twinged a bit but she just ignored that.

[Silvarn]

Edward squirmed a little as he got himself comfortable, a content grin gracing his pasty face. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly, trying to remember what the air had smelled like before he had the constant stench of demon in his windpipe.

He caught himself singing the chorus to a song he had not heard in years, and the tune was perplexing, coming from his lips. He let his voice trail off, then opened his eyes and stared with distant eyes at the sky.

Why is it always the females of this species? he remembered Krae asking.

"Because she was like me, but so different." he muttered. "I wanted to be like her." he chuckled grimly, "And then I died."

He sat up when he realized sleep was not coming. He wrapped his arms around his knees and sighed. He wondered where Krae had wondered off to, and considered searching for her. Then he remembered she had mentioned something about a bath, and decided he had better not. It was very likely she would rip his eyes out of their sockets if he caught her naked. He smiled at the thought -- of Krae naked, not his eyeballs being wrenched out.

[Lujayn]

Krae returned in short order, wearing a different shirt that left her shoulders bare, revealing her master's mark on her right shoulder. She normally kept it hidden- the religious were everywhere- but she figured she could get away with it for the time being. She was also going barefoot, for no other reason than she could. She had very nice looking feet, though.

She also had aquired two rabbits at some point, held carelessly in one hand as she dropped her bag under a tree, which landed with a heavy thud and a slight 'crash', hinting that she had several metallic objects within. Most likely more daggers and other such pointy objects, knowing her.

With silent efficiency she set up a fire, skinned and gutted the rabbits and set them up to cook, although it took her some time to rummage through her bag to find the flint. Normally she'd use her magic, but she was close enough to turning crow as it was, she didn't need to push it further. She wasn't the most careful of packers, however, so it was more than a little inconvenient to look for the silly bit of stone in all that mess.