((OOC: I would like either someone with demonic heritage, or someone to fight with. Both if possible. I’m also thinking of putting a campground ahead, or a stuck wagon, maybe…))

What use was it? She knew that she really should rejoin the fight on the side she had always fought on, the side of good, but she hadn’t really been fighting that fight for some time. Instead she was coming to grips with herself and now… now she didn’t want to be part of that war anymore. She knew beings from both sides, had allies and dare she say even friends on both sides. She owed debts to both sides, to the good and the evil, and she was also both good and evil. Aether didn’t dare rejoining that war. She really didn’t have to, did she? It wasn’t like she was really that useful of a fighter. What use was it?

AD had caught herself in circular logic as she traveled along at a quick pace. She was running, though not from anything or toward anything. With no goal in mind she had simply taken off. She just needed to move, had to move. It had never mattered where she was going or where she had been. It wasn’t like AD had a place she could call home anyways. Home was simply the wilds, no one to bother her, no one to judge her.

The forest she was in was cold and damp in the late evening. Clouds darkening the sky with the promise of yet more rain. She ran along a road, or at least what resembled a road, and still her boots and pants were covered in a splattering of mud. Her thick burgundy braids lay heavy with water, as she had been out in the first drenching from the clouds. The woods along the path would seem dark and foreboding to most, but would have provided shelter from the downpour if she had taken refuge in them. If Aether Draka had bothered to think of the woods she would have retreated to the trees. Instead she continued to run even though her legs were starting to protest along with her stomach.

Then, quite unplanned, she stopped running. It had started with her slipping on the edge of a pothole, followed by a loud plop as her other foot followed. Stumbling forward, she slipped once more on the mud. Catching herself before falling she stopped. One of her shoes was now full of pothole water and her legs had started to hurt. Abruptly she fell on her knees and sat back on her heels, gasping for breath for a moment. It didn’t take her long after that to once more become lost in thought once more. Perhaps ignorance was bliss…

((Edit 1/16/07: I got board and added more...))

Storm clouds hid the sunlight from her sight as AD simply sat upon the muddy road. She wrapped her arms about herself and hung her head. Why was she even trying to save herself? She knew she was more evil then good, she considered them friends now when once she had thought them her foe, the enemy. That was when she had been a fool.The truth, the reality, was just too much to know now. So much was wrong with it, too much of it she didn’t want to believe. She couldn’t even cry now, just hurt. It was almost as if she had been betrayed. She had managed to fool herself for so long. No doubt most of her life was gone and only now did time seemed to matter. How long did she have?

Aether Draka shook her head afraid of time now. Her soaked hair hid her face as she looked at the palm of her hand where a thin raised scar, white with the cold, ran unmistakably across. A reminder… she couldn’t forget it now. She would never forget. Closing her hand around the mark, for her a mark of her reality, she staggered weakly to her feet. For the first time in a long time she realized how lost she was. The road was coated in mud, but it was going to take her back to Cascadea or perhaps some other falls. She needed to head a different way, back to Taras. She needed to find and speak with Oppal. She had learned of Shadowdancing from him and it had brought her control over her darker powers. Now she needed something else, a form of guidance, someone to help her reforge herself.

She took a deep and shaky breath. Only she could fix her now. Feeling better she started walking once more, looking for a path that would lead her to Taras. More then likely she would have to make her own. As she turned a bend in the road she stopped. A wagon lay overturned on the road. It’s contents, and passengers, scattered across her path. With the distant feeling she had right then it didn’t click what this was. She walked forward once more, feeling as if this massacre wasn’t that… it looked as if it had been a one sided war.

Nearly unconsciously she formed a shadowy form that stalked silently behind her like some form of guardian or protector. Made of pure shadow illusion she found she felt better just knowing that it was there. If Gregory had seen it he would undoubtedly attempt to destroy it. The shadows had taken on a demonic form… the form of someone she knew and was unable to truly join the side of good once more even if they would have her because of. He was her friend and she didn’t think she would be able to stand it if she found herself going into battle against him. It was because of that chance encounter with the half-fiend seemingly so long ago in the city she was now returning to that she couldn’t join the battle of good and evil now. Not on the side of good at least, even if that meant betraying Raven… She hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Then the sky let go of yet another drenching downpour, the shadow form became nearly invisible in the freezing rain. The corpse and broken wagon were also masked by the storm. She paused, thinking of taking shelter in the upturned wagon for a moment before doing so. Not the best weather in the world, but at least it wasn’t snow yet.

Imythess...it had certainly been some time since he'd been here, and it brought back memories. Lots and lots of memories, to be more accurate...after all, he had spent about three years in this place before eventually no longer having anything to tie him here apart from his position as Chosen of the Moon Goddess, and leaving.

He'd even come back for a time, though it hadn't lasted long. A lot had changed in Imythess, he'd noticed, and he didn't recognize anyone.

But these days there seemed little to tie him anywhere, so he'd decided to return to Imythess, of which he'd heard Laoura no longer resided. He could still feel the power of the moon flowing through him in these evening hours in the Hauntwood Marsh, a place he'd been to a few times previously years ago. He could still use the Star Magic...that much was good at least. And since he was here, he could retrieve his old equipment, which he'd hidden not far away.

Seeing a figure ahead of him on the path that he himself hadn't strayed far from, however, he turned his head in order to look better in that direction, his right eye, which no longer existed, covered by a dark blue headband that held up his unruly, snow-white hair, of which was flattened down by the wet weather anyway, his left a blood red, with a piercing stare behind it. Adding to this non-human part of his appearance, he bore a pair of jet-black, dragon-like wings jutting from his shoulders, folded up against his back, and a similar tail out of his tailbone, though in the evening darkness and the rain that was falling these were hardly noticeable unless one looked hard enough.

Feeling he may as well go see who they were, if they needed anything, before he went to collect his small collection of blades and the shadow dragon that was guarding them, he walked silently over to where he'd spotted them, noticing an upturned wagon nearby as well. Whether or not they had any relation to the wagon was beyond him, not that he cared much anyway.

"Probably not the best place to be stuck in the rain," he said in a calm voice, befitting the more human part of his form. "You going anywhere in particular? It's been a while since I've been around Imythess, but I still know my way around pretty well," he offered. It was likely enough that if they were going anywhere, especially if that wagon was theirs, they were going to Taras City.

Still sulking and wishing she wasn’t, the dark figure hidden under the edge of the wagon looked up through the rain to see someone approaching. For a moment she paused, the white hair reminding her of someone… Unconsciously she griped the demonic silver ring on a chain around her neck. She just looked at him for a moment, not really sure what to do with this development. He wasn’t Alex but something still reminded her of him.He looked a bit draconic upon closer inspection though, even if the red eye reminded her of Lynthaer. Unfortunately he seemed to also be able to see a bit in the dark.

Then he spoke and she felt a shiver run up her spine even though the stranger’s voice was calm. "Probably not the best place to be stuck in the rain. You going anywhere in particular? It's been a while since I've been around Imythess, but I still know my way around pretty well," Part of her bid her to answer his question, but she really didn’t want to. She didn’t want anyone to travel with her. This was something she should deal with on her own.

She stood up, stepping out of the shelter of the overturned wagon. “Rain makes no difference.” She shrugged and turned her thoughts to his question. Her voice was quiet and sad, strained from crying and running. She was hungry and exhausted, but she didn’t sleep and had no food on her.

“I’m heading back to Taras.” She finally stated flatly, hopeful that she was indicating she had been there before and knew the way. Annoyed with, well… the world in fact, she turned her back on him and started walking toward Taras in spite of the rain just because he had mentioned it.The demonic looking shadow form followed her as she turned to go, shifting like a ghost in the sheets of rain. AD didn’t bother looking back, part of her was afraid to.

Lance nodded at the girl's response, noting the tone of her voice the first time she spoke. It seemed like she was upset about something, though it probably wasn't any of his business what. As he watched her begin walking off toward Taras, where she'd said she was heading, he figured that she was also rather independent, or maybe that was simply because she was upset.

Shrugging to himself, he began walking in her direction, catching up to her easily enough after a few moments before glancing around at the road ahead. This place was notably dangerous at times, and now, in the night and rain, could certainly be one of them.

"Hope you don't mind if I come along, then," he said. "Haven't really got anything else to do, I know my way around Imythess pretty well, and one never can tell what'll show up around these parts."

This stranger seemed to not want her by herself and she wondered if perhaps that was what she really needed now. She needed some sense that things really hadn’t changed with the rest of the world even if she felt different about it before.

She didn’t look at him when he caught up with her or even when he spoke, Her head was bowed to the storm and she almost had an air of defeat to her. It was herself she had defeated and there was no victory in realizing you had been living a lie. It was time to start over then.

After letting the silence streach on, with only the rain and muddy steps to fill the pause, she finally spoke.

“No, I don’t mind. Thank you.” She pulled her wet brides over one shoulder and ignoring the fact that they would soon become dreadlocks if she didn’t redo them once it was dryer out. That was when she bothered to really look at him as they walked. She felt her curiosity growing as they walked.

“Why did you leave Imythess, and why did you come back?”

Glancing over to the girl for a few moments after he spoke, Lance shrugged and turned his single-eyed gaze back to the path ahead, feeling she probably didn't want to say anything at the moment. Not that he could particularly blame her, given how upset she seemed. Granted, he would've preferred not to leave the marsh so quickly, without even picking up any of his old things, but he could always come back.

He clearly had to think for a short moment as she asked him a question, however, but came up with an answer soon enough. "I suppose I left because there was little left for me here, especially after someone I cared about left me for reasons I never was entirely sure of," he said. "Came back because I've gotten rid of most of my ties to my past, and figured that this would probably be as good a place as any to start anew. Maybe even see if anyone I once knew is still around...though it seems the goddess of the night has since left."

Laoura...and Athiyk and Jhael...he'd give plenty to see even one of them again, though that probably wasn't to happen. Shrugging to himself, realizing the girl probably wouldn't realize why he was doing so, he knew that one could always hope.

"Anyway, my name's Lance...and I guess this would be Shadowfire," he said, glancing off to the side as a visage gradually came into view by the trees, that of a large, black, pointed head with a pair of short horns jutting from the back, and deep jade eyes. The head of a shadow dragon. Meaning he probably had Lance's old things with him.

She let the shadow illusion go when she began to mill over his words, comparing it to her own life for just a moment. Things were better here. War wasn’t swallowing the place whole, she had friends, and for once she had a true choice. She could choose not to fight in the battle between the angels and demons, she had so much she could do, but it was the choice she was having trouble with. She realized she had never actually been given the option like this before. So she needed to find things out, the more the better. If she was going to choose what she was going to do with her life, she wanted it to be an informed choice.

She was a bit disappointed by the fact that he didn’t know the game of questions, but that soon faded when she saw who Shadowfire actually was. Almost instinctually she switched languages, turning to a not quite perfected draconic. She smiled at the shadow dragons and actually managed to smile. “Shadowfire is a wonderful name.”

She turned her gaze back to the man, and changing back to the common tongue too, decided that perhaps he wasn’t that bad… perhaps. “I’m, Aether Draka. I was left on my own before my first time coming to Imythess. I’ve made some friends here though, so it’s not that bad I guess. I didn’t know there had been a Goddess of Night though, and where would she have gone? How do you meet a Deity anyways? Do you have to be a cleric or priest or something?” She stopped there, though her curiosity was starting to build once more. Questions were flooding her mind, but she could do much better at picking and choosing her questions then she had in what now seemed forever ago. The rain had slowly lessened to a drizzle again. AD looked up and wondered if it was night or day behind those dark clouds.