Darkness swept through the area surrounding Richimon Lake and Cheshire grinned from behind his dark mask. He loved the darkness and night and when it came, it always made him grin; but then again, a lot of things made Cheshire grin. Another sight that made Cheshire grin evilly was the water that was so silently still, it would attract people, perhaps people that he could create mischief with. He looked down at the water from a far, and then glanced sideways as a cat that he had sat down next to him. He had found the poor beast while walking along in the darkness of Gloomwood one day, and decided that he would keep it. The cat itself seemed to have it's own personality, a personality that matched Cheshire's almost identically. The cat was large tall and had strange markings all over it's gray colored fur, the symbols were mostly black but some were lighter in color, but still darker than the fur. It's ears were pointy and there was an earing that pierced the cat's right ear.

The cat stared out into the water, completely silent, just as his master did. There was not a word that Cheshire could conjure that explained the mysticism of this place, it was just evident. His eyes narrowed as he looked over the “beautiful scene” and he felt a hatred grow up inside of him. The sight of this tranquility, this peace, annoyed him to no end. Nothing in life should be this simple, everything should be hard, rough, and chaotic. His grin turned to a scowl and he heard the cat next to him hiss. Cheshire reached behind him and grabbed the staff that was hanging around his back. He swung it out and twisted it around several times in his fingers before slamming the bottom into the soft dirt. He felt slightly better, it was a way of him expressing anger, he leaned heavily and watched the water as it grew darker to him...

((OOC: I apologize, it's not the best one I've made with this character but...))

And out in the darkness surrounding the masked one, out in the reaches of the night, that was were the man would be. Not a single step would be heard, not a single movement would give his position away. He could easily see the cloaked one in the dark, and his eyes judged the forboding man with a look of wariness. He simply felt a forbidding feel in his stomach, one that warned him this new person was not as silent and calm as his still stance made him out to be. Not a glance would be given to regard the cat, for he did not feel it to be a threat at all, nor something worth keeping his senses trained on. So for a few more moments, he watched the motionless shell of a man simply stand in place. A light breeze picked up at the edges of his cloak, and he briefly took his mind off the man to cast a Control Winds spell, sending the breeze in another direction. He didn't want any distractions at the moment, especially the cold fingers of night air. They had a very unique way of getting under his skin, chilling him to the bone no matter how many protective garments he had on himself.

At the spinning motion used to manipulate the man's blade, Ethstar nearly took a step back. That was a rare weapon, one that he hardly ever saw. With a shake of his head, he continued to watch and wait, just like he used to do in the old days. Blinking as the thought crossed his mind, he let loose a small growl. He was gone from those days, he was not that type of person anymore. With this thought ringing true, he made a stubborn desicion within the depths of his mind and took a defiant step forward. He would not lurk in the shadows and listen in on people. He was not that person anymore, and he needed to quit acting like he was.

Turning to see him, Cheshire would set eyes upon the very thing he seemed to hate. A man radiating peace and serenity, a beautiful smile lighting his handsome features. A black cloak would shroud everything from the neck down, mainly two arm blades sheathed on his left hip. Unique weapons that held a unique curse, one that Ethstar was not aware of in the least bit. One hand was firmly gripping the top hilt, ready to pull it out at any given notice. He was still uncomfortable around the man, but his face was managing to hide it. "Hello, milord. What would you be doing out tonight?"

There was a moment of silence as Cheshire continued to lean on his scythe in the darkness, staring into the pool of dark water. There was no indication of anyone approaching and so the voice nearly startled him, but before turning around he regained his composure. As he turned around there was a grin on his face, behind the mask, and his red eyes flashed brightly. There was a slight pause as Cheshire Lenny observed the man's appearance. Simply a man like himself, a bit taller, but there was nothing spectacularly amazing. He was just a normal man on a dark night, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Cheshire glared at the man as he spoke, and Lenny prepared a response; he would lie to this newcomer, for he had told one to many people that he was there for the same reason, which was to cause mischeif. “I'm here... enjoying the scenery,” He really hated the tranquility but he would lie for the perpose of creating chaos, which he loved to do so much. “And you, what are you doing here, on such a night like this... the night is unusually dark, I love it...” He waited for the man's response, from the look of this man, they might be out for the same reasons. This was going to be interesting.

Ethstar's eyes were calmly focused on the weapon the masked one was carrying, not yet really caring about anything else. He was wondering if the being was planning on using it, and if it would be wise to go ahead and draw his own blade now. He lightly caressed the hilt of his weapon, stroking his long fingers up and down the leather length with loving care. He had taken fondly to the two armblades beneath his cloak, fondly enough to completely abandon his former weapon, the Long sword. He faintly remembered the weapon, but it had been more of aan attacking type of sword. The ones he had required grace and practice, grace and mastery. He would have a lovely time trying to master the weapons, to make them into steel extenstions of his body.

He sighed, and then realized the man had asked him a question. Blinking, he gave a few sharp nod's to let the being know he had heard him, not taking any notices of the pauses within the sentences that had been spoken. He took a few more steps slower, not feeling anymore comfortable at all. The man seemed polite enough, but that didn't change anything within Ethstar's own thoughts. He let loose a small cough to clear his throat, trying to keep the nervousness he felt from showing up in his speech. "I am a wanderer of sorts." Ethstar nodded once again, as if to confirm this to himself, and continued on. "It was by pure luck I wandered upon this place. I have been here before, but it is kind of hard to find your way back to familar places in the depths of the night."

After this words were out, he let silence flood across the area once more. Only then was it that he reviewed the conversation, and noticed the lulls in the words of the cloaked one. His eyes focused on the dark surface of the water as he tried to figure out if this was anything important. Perhaps the man just took his time speaking, to make sure the words came out properly. The flashing red eyes were something of worry, but he had learned long ago to ignore such things. They weren't as important as most people made them out to be. It wasn't as if red was an evil color or anything.

Cheshire’s cat purred and Lenny seemed to be able understand the creature, as if it were speaking his own language. He smiled from behind the mask, a gentle smile, no evil grin, but eventually, it would turn that way. Cheshire was far from gentle and definantly evil so, he would not remain in this state very long. His plans were that he would be cruel to this man, just to be that way, for it is what he loved to do best. Create chaos and be cruel. He would wait along time to say anything, and even as he did, the eyes would flash bright red again. From a direct look, a person could never tell in which direction he was looking, for they never moved from side to side, only staring fully at the person. It was as if to them, that he could peer into their soul and his eyes never blinked. They grew dim as he spoke, but the words would not leave from his mouth, instead, his cat would speak, in his voice.

“What luck you have to be able to come here again. Perhaps it was good luck…” There was a pause and Cheshire leaned even heavier on the scythe as the cat spoke again, “…or perhaps it was bad. You see, being here, with my comrade, on such a dark night is not good luck. What is your name wonderer? And he shall tell you his.” The cat released a deep purr and it almost seemed to smile at the man. The cat preceeded to wash his paws and wipe them on his face; Cheshire waited for a response.

As he did, he recited a dark poem in his equally dark mind:

Someone’s blank stare
Deemed this warfare
Someone’s mouth said
Paint them all red
We are the propagators
Of all genocide
Burn through all the world’s resources
Before we run and hide…

These were the last words that were spoken by the man who ruled over Cheshire when he was young. That man died after those words left his mouth. Cheshire swallowed the thoughts of the man’s horrible death and grinned as the cat spoke again, “Well… what say you?”

Ethstar blinked as the creature spoke, his mind not noticing it before. He blinked once more and focused his gaze on that area, now noting the small creature that was qouting poetry at him. He racked his knowledge of magical creatures for anything that may resemble the creature, and found nothing whatsoever. It didn't resemble a dragon or wyvern in the least bit, nor did it look like any kind of elemental he had ever heard of. With a light sigh and a mental shrug to himself, he addressed the cat politely, accepting it as another one of the quirks of the Material plane. He shifted lightly on his feet, pulling his weight from one leg to another, then finally settling himself in the crouch-like position.

"I am Ethstar, milord. And what would you be? You look like no elf or human I have ever seen, nor have I seen any magical creature like you."

He gave the cat a polite smile, lifting his eyes to the masked one and giving him the same smile. It was more of a show of courtsy, he really had no other reason to smile at the moment except for that. He still had the core of nervous energy revolving around in his stomach, and the creature that he could not regconize had not helped the feeling in the least bit. Yet his attentions were now focused on the masked one. For a moment, his eyes tried to see beyond whatever was cloaking his face, but it was not something he could accomplish. Yet another impossible attempt at something that would never succeed, but then again, that had been the definition of his life. The very thing that had carved his existance. That, and many other irony's of the world.

"And you milord, what would you be, if I may ask? Human, elf, magical creature? If you do not want to tell, feel free to hold your response." He was trying to keep a lively conversation up, and it was slowly getting hard. His gaze was laready wandering, dancing back to the surface of the water next to his tall figure. For some reason, his mind was looking for the strange water creature he had noted in this lake before. Something like a fish, that was what Sekuda had said. If he was right, and remembered correctly.

Cheshire was a bit confused; most normal people would be scared or remotely affected by his fact that a cat had just talked to them. Of course, if had never seen a cat before, he would not have known that naturally the creatures do not talk on their own power. Of course, it was merely an illusion, the cat itself was real, and the cat talking was far from the real. It was just Cheshire’s illusionist powers causing the creature to look as though its mouth was moving, and words were coming out. He looked back at the cat and then back to the man, the cat would speak again, for him.

“The man that is standing before you is called Cheshire; and that is how you will refer to him throughout this interesting encounter. And if you are to address me, I am merely known as Lenny.” After the formal introduction, the cat waltzed forward, putting on paw in front of the other, gracefully walking towards the man named Ethstar. “I can tell that you are not from this world… am I right in saying so.” The cat held out its paw, for a greeting, suggesting that the man take the paw and shake it, “If I am right then you have no idea what this gesture is. I understand, take the paw and shake it; it is a custom of the human world.”

Cheshire knew that this man could not be from this dimension or from this plane. Due to the fact that this man was accustomed to cats’ talking or had never seen a cat before; Cheshire was assuming the second. He grinned from behind the mask, but not evilly, not yet anyway.

The grip Ethstar had on his hidden blade tightened slightly as the cat walked up to him, the uneasy feeling in his stomach not going away in the least bit. The two had seemed polite enough, although the masked one had been unusually quite for the past couple of moments. Sparing a glance for the one with the scythe, he scanned over his cloaked body quickly, then pulled his light blue eyes back to the cat who was now holding his paw out for him. Ethstar knew of this gesture, it was something that was quite common on the Celestial plane. He stretched out his own hand, trying to hide his strength as he firmly shook the paw that had been offered to him, going about the action with complete innocence in his actions. He obviously found this pretty casual, for he was reacting like most humans react to other humans.

"No, I am aware of this gesture, thank you. Although, with you, would I call it a paw shake?" His tone was completely serious, no hint of teasing or joking held within. He was actually wondering if he was calling it by the right term. Leaving the cat to answer this question, he slowly walked pass the creature, and made his way up to the masked character that had been so quiet of late. With the same hand he had used to shake the cat's paw, leaving the other free to remain on the hilt, he reached out for a second handshake. His face looked slightly nervous, but it wasn't because of the intimidating nature of the man he was greeting. It was the fact that the cat seemed to know so much. He spoke, but his heart wasn't really in his words.

"Nice to meet you, Chesire. And your friend, Lenny as well."

His mind was already racing with ideal lies and alibi's, searching for a way to negate any questions asked of where he had come from. The cat had already mentioned that he must come from a different dimension or plane, and he had carefully avoided answering that specific question. He was extremely wary still of letting ANYONE on this plane know of his heritage. It was dangerous, or so he believed. Although, now that he thought about it, there were some he wouldn't mind letting know. His eyes grew a little distant as he thought this, his mind wandering off to other people and other places.

Cheshire watched Ethstar shake hands with his cat and his eyebrows raised behind the mask. The man knew the gesture, amazingly enough, however, he still was not from this plane, which was Cheshire’s final opinion on the subject. Suddenly his eyes flared as Ethstar walked forward, past the cat, and came closer to him. He raised an eyebrow and stared at Ethstar’s outstreached arm. He couldn’t decline this gesture and seem good, he would have to shake the man’s hand. Cheshire’s hand slowly rose to meet Ethstar’s, he gave it a good hard shake and recoiled it back to his cloak.

The cat walked up behind Ethstar and leaned up against him. It eyed him warily and jumped high into the air, hoping to land on Ethstar’s shoulder. As the cat landed on the shoulder he spoke again, “You see Ethstar, this truly is a human. Unfortunantly for you, this man is very, very disturbed. And as much as he is disturbed, I am that much more disturbed. For normally, us ‘cats’, which is what we are called in human terms, are not supposed to talk. I am special. And my friend here wants you to know that now is the time to realease panic. The dogs of war are loose tonight.”

The cat leaped from the man’s shoulder into a nearby tree and laughed evil. The cat’s eyes flashed from their normal green color to red. Cheshire backed a few steps away from Ethstar and spoke for the first time since their encounter, “How fine I look all dressed in rage, I am unlucky though,” He acted as though he was thinking for a moment, “Red-eyes suit so few.” He brought the scythe down in front of him.

He gave the masked one a firm shake in reutnr, once again making sure that he wasn't clenching too hard to arouse any more suspicion. As the masked one's hand pulled away, Ethstar removed his own hand as well, retreating in back into his cloak and waiting for the next move to be made. He lightly flexed his fingers under the cloak, noting that there had been nothing strange to the masked one's handshake. Just like any other normal human being, light and to the point. Behind him, he heard movement, the slight crunch of a padded foot agaisnt soft blades of nature's grass. He turned his head slightly, letting his blue eyes rest upon the slowly walking cat.

Ethstar raised an eyebrow himself as the cat lept for his shoulder, the only sign that the motion made him wary being the tightening of the muscles in his sword arm. He somewhat longed to draw his steel blade and attack the beast, but that was only on instinct. Good will and common sense was good at keeping him from making ill fated moves like that one would be, so the cat was in no danger of being cleaved in half. At least not in the physical reality that they were in at the moment. The mental image of the cat being slashed in two had certianly flown through his mind once or twice. He tried to calm himself though as the cat started speaking, willing his slowly tightening muscles to settle down. (They were starting to solidfy throughout his body, and it was slightly nerve-racking.)

He wanted until the cat was finished speaking and had leapt off of him, and then formed his own response. He still seemed unfazed by the speech of the cat, even though the creature had told him he was special. "Well, I have ran across many a strange creature, so you are nothing new. No offense intended, be assured." He gave a smile in the direction of the cat, then shifted his eyes to Chesire as the being spoke. "Red eyes? Ah. Yes, they suit few. I haven't seen them that much, myself."

The cat grinned through the shadows of darkness and spoke once again, “No offense taken. I promise you one thing though, you would be unhappy if I were offended. For if I were offended, then Cheshire would be offended as well, and that would not make me or him happy at all.” The cat frowned ever so slightly as he watched Cheshire take one step forward, “Cheshire? What… may I ask… are you doing?” Cheshire cast a look up to the cat in the tree and smiled from behind his mask, “I want to get a closer look at this man…” He continued to take a few steps forward. Lenny, the cat, would only look on the scene with a grin of pleasure and await the next happenings.

If Ethstar would allow it, Cheshire would circle the man, observing the back and front of Ethstar. His scythe was in his hand, however, to Ethstar, the scythe would be lying on the ground next to the river. Ethstar would see nothing in Cheshire’s hand even though truly the scythe would be there. It was another minor illusion, that could wind up causing Ethstar some trouble. However, Cheshire was not ready to start any major chaos yet. He would bide his time, perhaps until he either angered the man, or relaxed him to much. Cheshire finally stopped in front of Ethstar and the cat jumped from the tree and landed near the water.

The cat would walk up, standing next to his master and give an odd look at him, “Well, what did you find out about this man?” The cat would ask Cheshire and; Cheshire’s eyes would flare red, “I don’t know… he is no man… there is something about him. Something that makes me want to know more. He will not reveal to me any of his secrets, his appearance is that of human, yet his mind is not human at all…” Cheshire hoped he was right, and with the last of those words, the cat would ask the true question, “My dear ally, Ethstar, what are you? For it is obvious to us that you are not human at all…”

Ethstar gave a short nod to the cat, giving the motion to acknowledge he had heard and digested what the creature had said. Of course neither would be happy if the other was offended. Did anyone really stay happy when someone offended his dignity, or something else entirely? Sure, you could hide your true feelings behind a mask of uncaring, but that still did not help to change the fact that there were still angry feelings held underneath. Although, Ethstar had learned that people on this plane were quite talented at hiding their emotions, as well as lying to other's faces without even flinching. It was somewhat amusing, but at the same time, somewhat horrid. It made these humans hard to trust, hard to rely on, hard to really do anything with that involved some form of truth.

With these dark thoughts running through his head, he refocused his eyes from his mental thoughts to the cat and the masked one. They were talking about him now, and the masked one was heading straight for him, having left his scythe lying on the ground. Ethstar didn't mind the observation by the cloaked and masked figure, or so it seemed. Inside though, he was growling out curses. He got these same kind of looks from people at the villages, they just went about it a little more discreetly. He let loose a soft sigh and let the man continue his observation, conducting his own study of the man all over again. There wasn't much to see, although the man had his hands out in the open this time around. Finding nothing new or interesting, he turned his attention to the weapon lying on the ground, conducting a short study for it as well.

He simply blinked as the man soon walked away, and conducted a short conversation with his cat. As soon as the man finsihed though, and posed his question, Ethstar had already been given enough time to think and prepare a response. "I will tell you. If you reveal your face." He offered a polite smile, hoping this answer would be okay. "You see, we all have our things we like to hide. You hide behind your mask, I hide behind... whatever I am hiding behind." He raised an eyebrow, his voice coming out firm and strong. He was pretty sure he had actually found a good response.

Cheshire grinned evilly from behind the mask and thought about doing what the man had asked. It would definantly make things interesting to say the least, and the thought of this brought demented joy to Cheshire’s black heart. His red eyes looked at the cat, and the cat looked back at him. They exchanged no words, but the meaning was understood between them both. Cheshire would create an illusion, the illusion, to Ethstar would be Lenny removing the mask that covered his face and revealing Ethstar’s own face. This would be very demented and fun in the eyes of both dark souls. This illusion would be easy to control, seeing as he had an image of Ethstar’s face fresh in his mind as well as the fact that he could see the face in front of him, giving him a clear reminder whenever he needed it. Cheshire would’ve done this normally, but to be honest, he knew that no answer would come from the man if he saw himself… he was curious about this and therefore would have to be serious.

His hand slowly rose to his face, the mask, he had not taken it off in so long; and he was not about to take it off now. He clutched the edges of the mask and that is when the illusion started, an illusion would be of him removing the mask and revealing a young face. He was conjuring this face from the mixture of several memories from his childhood and shoving them altogether. Normally this face would shatter and the illusion would break, but he knew these people well, and therefore, the illusion was perfect. Unless this man had the ability to see through the illusion, there was no way the face would seem fake.

Cheshire’s face resembled a young man about the age of sixteen and matched his body size perfectly; however, the only thing strange about the face was the fact that it had two bright glowing red eyes. He spoke, “Are you dreaming? It’s not a dream…” He put the mask back on his face and the eye slits flared red again before dipping back to their normal shade. The cat spoke at this point, “We lived up to our end of the bargain, now you must live up to yours…”

The Fallen Angel glanced at the face, a unreadable look running across his own handsome features. One eyebrow was raised, but that was the only thing that may give off any kind of a hint to what the man was thinking inside of himself. He took a step forward as if to get a better look of the features of the unmasked man staring at him, then remained in that area until Cheshire put his mask back on. The eyebrow remaining raised, the look on his face remaining unreadable, he let his gaze fall to the cat as the interesting creature spoke of the deal that they had made earlier. Staring silently at the cat, it looked as if the Fallen Angel was quickly running things over within the depths of his mind. After a few more moments of this silent scrutiny, the cloaked Fallen would step back, turning around so his back was facing both Cat and Man.

"I am..." He paused a moment, then continued on. "A human. What else could I be? Elf, or Winged elf?" His voice paused once again at this, a slight blush rising to his cheeks, yet hidden by the darkness of the night. "I have neither pointed ears, nor flowing wings." He let these words flow out and took a long and deep breath, as if he didn't trust his own version of things. Silence would once more gather across the lake area as Ethstar reviewed this feat within his mind, examining it with a picky eye that would hopefully find any hidden errors held within the logic. He couldn't find any at the moment, so he simply decided to continue on with his speech. "You may make any assumptions you like though, it is not up to me to define your line of thought, correct?"

He turned his head at this, the side of his face turned toward the cat and man. With a beautiful smile crossing his features, he swept himself into a low bow, the motion quick and polite. As soon as he straightened, he turned his face away, ignroing the blazing red eyes of the masked one that seemed to draw him like lightning to metal. he took a step forward, part of his body getting swallowed up by the darkness. "I must go though, I need to make it to town before daybreak. Good day, and it was nice to meet both of you..."

And he was swallowed up, vanishing into the night.

Dark Cheshire waited patiently for the man’s response; honestly hoping that the man would reveal some sort of deep secret, perhaps one that is similar to the one that he has. Then again, this man could deny that he was nothing more than a mere human, and that there were no dark secrets that he was hiding. However, Cheshire knew better than this, everyone has a secret, whether it be good or bad, whether it be loving or hating, everyone has a secret. This was a serious thought, not necisarily dark, and so it was expelled from Cheshire’s mind as soon as Ethstar began to speak.

He would deny the fact that he was anything more than a human, giving examples of things that he wasn’t. It was evident that he was neither of elven decent or of the drow bloodline; no pointy ears, no tinted skin, and no wings. There was a pause after the mentioning of wings though; Cheshire thought about the flaw in the man’s speech, the pause meant a lie. He did have wings, but he wasn’t elven; putting two and two together, Cheshire made the assumption that this man was some sort of off-worlder. Most likely the man was a Celestial or a Hellion; hopefully a Hellion, they were always Cheshire’s favorites. The man simply made the point that Cheshire could make any assumption that he wished; and he did, deep in his mind, he would remember this Ethstar, and that he was of a different plane.

Ethstar turned and bowed out slowly, signifying that he was to leave. This was a gesture that he must have learned in Imythess, normally, there was different ways of sayng goodbye, but… that mattered not. Cheshire didn’t bow back and the man claimed that he had to leave, which is not what Cheshire wanted, but he didn’t want to start a fight. He already had to be at the arena the next night because of a fight he started with a dwarf…

Ethstar disappeared into the night and Cheshire watched him leave before running into the darkness. Thoughts ran through his mind, about the man, about the past, about the face he had created. ‘Mischeif is afoot this night,’ He thought to himself, ‘then let it be, for tonight only…”