The shadows of Gloomwood were so thick that they were almost solid things. The trees as black as shadows and the night sky that never left seemed to only prove this point. It was on one of the lowest branches of a tree that a figure sat. Her bare feet swung loosely over the ground and she was dressed in a simple soft leather dress laced up both sides and at the shoulders with a black cotton skirt underneath. The skirt’s edge was tattered with wear, but the dark brown leather seemed newer. On a simple leather belt about her waist was a small bag. She wore a few braided leather bracelets tied about her wrists and around her neck was a silver chain with a ring suspended from it. Her hair was braided in many small braids that hung unbound. This was because the bit of black fabric that had held it back was in use.

AD sat leaning over and looking down as she enticed a small black kitten to catch the end of the black strip of fabric, which had held back her hair. Another cat sat nearby, her eyes half closed and her tail wrapped over her paws. The kitten though, was apt to play and Aether Draka was giggling as it jumped and chased, and pounced on one end while she lead it around by the other end. So absorbed in the game, neither her or the kitten noticed when the older cat’s eyes opened and She swiveled her head about. The cat then rose to her feet and walked over to jump upon the same branch AD was seated. The cat sat there, and looked around aptly. She knew something was close by.

((OOC: A bit short, sorry...))

Eliel basked in the near-total blackness, an ebony shadow following his every step. His boots made muted crunching sounds, while his feline companion made nearly none with her padded paws. He admired her beauty, a river made muscle rippled with every step. He was glad to have such an ally as a friend.

Eliel spent many days here in Gloomwood, the shadows helping to adapt his already keen senses. His dagger was concealed in a cloth-padded sheath under his clothing, his signature gauntlets hanging at his sides. The cloak swept stray leaves and bits of twig off the ground with it's tattered edge.

He stooped dead as he heard a giggling sound, a joyful noise in this wood where the silent stalked. Eliel listened and crept, the laughter growing louder. His curiosity piqued, Eliel peered through the underbrush, seeing nothing in th edark clearing. A source of heat burst into color, however when AD moved, giving his infravisional black and gold orbs a target. He stood quietly and leaned on a tree, watching her with those eyes, full of age and experiences.

After noticing the older cat watching him, he cleared his throat and spoke. "An easy target you would be, for the bandits and rogues that fill these woods so." He had 'spoken' with a stern tone, but his intrigue was quite real. Surely one would not willingly make a noise in this area, but perhaps she was not as she appeared.

A voice brought her away from the game and when she looked up the kitten caught hold of the other end and yanked it from her fingers. She glanced down at the kitten and then back at she stranger. He had made a very interesting observation, but one that was incredibly false in her mind. She was in a very odd mood, no doubt brought on by being in this land soaked in darkness when she thought of herself as a shadow too. She grinned at him then, a slight challenge in her eyes.

“That’s what they thought too. I let them run away though. Running has much bigger consequences here.” She tipped her head sideways then and studied him. She let her bare feet swing for a moment as the kitten tried to eat the bit of fabric it had caught. “Were you planning on trying? I have a game we can play if you are. It’s like hide and seek, but you have to be the one to hide as no one can find me when I do. Unless you would like to try, but shadows can’t be found among shadows.”

The cat sitting next to AD kept it’s dark green eyes on Eliel. She never blinked, just starred as if she was looking right through him. It was at that moment that the kitten seemed to notice that there was someone else there and he leapt to his tiny paws. He dropped the strip of fabric and tried to run over to the same tree. He couldn’t make the jump when he tried and instead tumbled back down to land on all four of his paws. That was when the tiny kitten unsheathed his needle like claws and set to climbing the tree to get to where he wanted to be.

Eliel laughed heartily, the sound a haunting shadow of the voice he never had. He stared at AD with curious eyes, thinking over whatever she meant by shadows in shadows. A faint thought stirred in the gathered consciousness of age in his mind. He thought he had the answer, but it seemed so unlikely. The woman seemed too young for such a talent, gift rather.

He knew well that few could perform the feat she was speaking of, if Eliel's guess was correct. The abilities of a shadow dancer were indeed a gift, a manifestation of the powers of shadow. He would indeed enjoy the power that came with the title.

Eliel gave Gwen a hand sign. She bobbed her head once in aknowledgement, then slipped into the shadows, darkness enveloping her black, lustrous fur. only her piercing yellow eyes remained, which soon disapeared. She slinked around the clearing, watching just in case Eliel needed assistance.

With a nod and a grin, Eliel gave his decision. "I would indeed enjoy playing such a game. But first, I feel I should introduce myself. I am Eraspeola Usreanac, known also as Eliel." He bowed low, eyes never leaving hers. He knew well indeed and respected the power of the one before him, as young as she may be.

“Really? You don’t look much like a bandit or rogue, or act like one.” She tipped her slightly to the side as if she was thinking about something. Then she shrugged and hopped off the tree branch. She unhooked the kitten from his climb and set it next to the other cat. Then she bent down to retriever the bit of fabric, running her fingers across it to rid it of any snags. She passed once more to look at him. She didn’t know why he was interested in the game, but she decided it didn’t really matter. She had discovered the game in the guildhall, to get back at the imps.

As she pulled back her hair once more she said, “You can call me AD for now.” She didn’t bother with the formalities when she wasn’t going to give her full name. She was still hesitant about the name after all, though no one here was likely to know about the keep or what had happened. Imythess was an entirely different world. She did like it here a bit more though.

AD then placed her hands behind her back. “So am I finding you or the other way around?” She asked with a grin.

((OOC: A bit short... sorry. :( ))

He took her first comment with thought. “You haven't exactly known me for long, have you? And sometimes it's better to have friends. Of course, there must be benefits involved.” He gave her a toothy grin. He was really starting to lean towards his drow heritage, very much so in his outlook on survival. He could most certainly benefit from being friends with this one, as innocent as she may seem.

She gave only initials in turn of a name, which Eliel shrugged and decided not to be bothered by it. He had met some strange friends in his time, and even stranger enemies. He fingered the black wooden wand on his belt, seeking comfort. He was rarely comfortable around strangers, never aware of what they might try. He found the comfort he was looking for in two yellow eyes staring at him in the shadows beyond normal visibility.

Eliel shrugged as she asked. He would like to find her and see these powers in action, but such a pointless exercise of finding shadows in shadows would be a waste of his time. “I suppose we could do this the somewhat easier way. I'll hide.” He said with a grin.

AD found herself grinning at him and kept her hands behind her back as she shifted her weight up to her toes and back to her heels. "I’m sure that can change, though I have friends. I don't have a problem with having another. I'll make sure they don't try and kill you if you want, but you'll have to return the favor!" She laughed at that. She saw no danger from those she was calling friends. Her dear friends just happened to all be demonic in one way or another... though not all of them were demonic. A few were vampires too. If she had ever thought about it she would wonder why she was not only alive, but not a vampire too. That thought had just never occurred to her. At least one of her friends had become a God too, since she had last seen him. Being one to wander off and who often sought time to be alone, she had yet to hear of his rise to the Divine.

"Well go ahead and hide then! I'm counting to ten before I find you." She turned about, letting her arms move strength out to the side as she turned about face and hopped back up on her branch next to the cats. Now standing on the branch she threw a glance over her shoulder, then sat down. Her back was to him this time, but both of the black cats next to her were watching him. Watching him even more closely was a pair of tiny draconic eyes belonging to one who AD called Turin. Not that she was going to ask any of them where he was going to hide. That would ruin the fun of it after all. AD then closed her eyes and started counting. "One. Two. Three..."

OOC: sorry it's so short...

Eliel grinned and slipped into the shadows, running down the paths of Gloomwood, Leaves swirling in his wake. He heard AD's voice call out, now at seven. Panicked, he backtracked several yards, and leapt into the trees, taking flight nearer to the clearing. He settled high up into the tree, foliage at his back, he turned in his perch, facing the ground. Gwen looked up at him, then nodded from the shadows.

Gwen circled the area and stopped in the middle of a particularly thick clump of bushes, hidden almost completely. Eliel looked about his position cautiosly, making sure he was hidden as well as he believed he was.

“Eight. Nine. Ten!” AD stood up, looked around once and grinned. Then the shadows beneath the branch rose up high and swallowed her. AD vanished, shadow jumping to the top of a near by tree and she paused, looking around. She had heard him go this way. He was so noisy about hiding. She let her gaze travel along the ground, looking for signs of him making all that noise. Then she saw a mark in the dirt between the branches. Once more she paused. Then she reached into her pouch and took a moment to pull on the black boots she had retrieved. She slipped down branch by branch, moving as quietly as she could, which made her very quiet. The branches didn’t even seem to notice her, or so it felt like. She made it to the lowest branch and dropped out of the tree, landing on her tiptoes and bending her knees to soften her landing. AD stayed knelt down and looked at the mark. He had spun on his foot here, heading back… She looked out and around her, looking for where the debris of almost mulched leaves had been disturbed.

Then she rose to her feet and walked about half a dozen steps back toward the general direction of the branch where the pair of black cats still sat. She was sorting out the difference between the mars that he made when leaving that spot and where he had turned around. He had scattered the leaves everywhere! She grinned, was he really trying to make this hard? Placing one foot in front of the other as if she was walking on an invisible tightrope, she stepped on the air itself with her boots, not disturbing the marks left by Eliel. She was strolling easily along in the air just over where he had doubled back.

Eliel watched the youth with curious eyes. Surely she could make this easier for herself, but she chose to do it the fun way. Beings of a weaker mind would simply choose to put the challenge aside and attempt for a reason to gloat. This one seemd to enjoy the hunt.

He shifted in his perch, causing a couple of leaves to fall. In an attempt to covor himself up, he caught gwen's eyes and nodded. The cat knew what to do. He had a kind of connection with her, but lacked the actual telepathic understanding. Sure, he could speak in her head, but she wouldn't understand any better than if he could speak it.

The underbrush stirred as Gwen skulked out of the bushes and slunk towards AD from a line of bushes slowly, making it appear as if Eliel was hiding behind them. she made a purpousful noise, slight as it was, to catch her attention.

During the diversion, Eliel slithered amoun g the branches of trees, their grouping making them almost grow into each other, creating a suitable foothold for one who knew what he was doing. He began doubling back for the second time. Still, he was careful to circle AD's position.

There was a movement, then a sound that didn't match, and she heard an obvious sound... there was more then one playing here... he was teamed up with his big black cat. She would have to change those odds then, but what way would work best? Then she knew! With a smile and still standing on the air itself she decided to add another tree to this forest.

With a flick of her wrist she drew her wand and drew a circle in the air before her, following with a thin and flowing script. The circle never appeared in the air where she drew it, but the shadows around her solidified into the circle just as she drew it on the ground before her. She stepped down off the air as she finished and stuck the wand behind one of her slightly pointed ears that caused most to think her a half-elf. She knelt and let her fingertips touch the edge of the circle as she did so. As soon as her fingers touched the darkness gathered on the ground, she stood back up and looked around. When she did so, the shadows seemed to pulse to life and grow. The two cats that had been sitting on the tree branch had abandoned it. Now they were casually making their way over to AD. Then, the shadows rose up into the air next to her and she summoned… a tree?

Few would know a treant when they saw one, so Aether Draka climbed up the 'tree' and waited to see if it would be more help or hinder her.

Eliel watched her perform several gestures, resulting in the appearance of what seemed to be a new tree, he frowned. He was sure she had caught Gwen, as even he had heard the sound. He made hand motions to the brush and Gwen walked around, circling to the back of the tree, out of the brush, but still out of sight. Eliel grinned and stuck himself to the tree, attempting to blend in. He let his vision switch spectrums, revealing various heat signatures. He saw AD clearly, along with the cats and Gwen, But he also saw something a bit stranger. The tree AD had summoned was a bit more vivid and a bit brighter than the other trees.

He smiled. He had seen her do several things, as well as hints at being a Shadowdancer, That he would not have thought possible through one of her age or size. But such things were decieving, not excluding the apearance of his own new master. The small sorceror would seem humorous and pitiful to most, yet he wielded several powers that could make most 'wizards' drool with envy.

Such wishful creatures were the ones deserving of pity, humans whose grasp of the smallest magics was laughable, yet they flaunted it as if it were some great power. These hopefuls made him laugh.

He would not mind such things himself. He and his daggers would not have made it so far without the aid of a couple spells and his beloved cat. His newest addition, an Enervation spell, had aided him several times over, defeating those beings that were immune to physical blows. Eliel's knowledge of magic was slowly growing, and he knew not where it would stop.

The treant had helped very much actually as she saw the large cat make it's way out of a spot and it slunk toward her and the treant. With a soft whisper of shadows, the 'tree' suddenly moved, it's branch like hands forming a cage around the large black cat. The beast was unharmed, but unable to aid it's master for the moment. AD took that moment to shadow jump closer to the spot she had heard the sound. She waited then, hidden in the shadow until she moved. Her emerald eyes moved slowly around, looking for the best spot one could see the cat while it was here. He didn't speak, so he either had a way to signal it, which meant he had seen it here and it him, or it was telepathic. A sound? She needed a sound... Scent would help if he had a predominate smell, but she wasn't familer enough with him yet to have that down yet.

Eliel cursed silently. It was not like he could curse clearly anyway. He couldn't even form a sentance. He swallowed, feeling the shard of metal in his voicebox. It moved once in a while, a stab of pain. He merely passed it off and shook his head. The girl he was watching dissapeared into the shadows. His heart raced, making him look about in the shadows for her. She could be anywhere in this damned darkness. His eyes adjusted to the heat spectrum, throwing things into almost complete clarity and color. He spotted a splash of color nearby, the girl. His eyes were also drawn to the treant she had summoned, holding down Gwen.

His eyebrow cocked, fumbling for his wand. He found it and himself pointing it at the girl, but reminded himself that it was merely a game. He put it back into it's spot. He was trapped. He couldn't risk moving, she was too close.

He sighed and waited for her to find him. He sunk into the branch as low as he could. All he could do now was wait.

Gwen struggled against the treant, muscles rippling as she bit the trunk and dug her claws into a couple of branches. She began raking and biting, bark splintering.

The cat didn't seem too happy about the treant, but the cage held for the moment. The attack the cat launched at its prison was full force though, the splintering and marks would weaken it soon enough. She only had a little time. She felt a prickle crawl up her spine, a warning, and she closed her eyes to focus on listening.

Then she heard a sound, slight, but there. AD grinned and moved again. The sound was from a tree branch she could easily see from where she sat. She closed the gap and jumped up to grasp the branch, swinging up with a practiced ease. She saw him there easily but decided to make sure he knew she had found him. She held up her hand and said softly in elven, "Light." A dim light lit up the area as she cast the spell on a single leaf overhead. He was back near the trunk and she grinned at him as she motioned behind her. The treant released the large black cat as AD said, "Hello." Sitting down on the branch she added, a smile still on her face. "That was fun, want to try again?" Her emerald eyes sparkled as the treant vanished into apparent nothingness, banished back to where she had called it from.

Eliel laughed as he was found, closed his mouth, and smiled as she found him against the trunk. He clapped amusedly and pushed off it. He sat next to her with a grin, shaking his head. Making eye contact, the drow grinned wolfishly. "I think i'm done with games. Besides, my partner seems quite agitated as it is." He chuckled as Gwen climbed the tree with ease, staring daggers at AD.

Eliel merely shrugged at this. "Apparently, she doesn't like that which is stronger than she is. poor girl." He ran his fingers through her fur soothingly and scratched her ear. The great cat purred and seemed to calm at her friend's touch. "Can't really blame her. Years of hunting and training and she gets pinned to the ground like a doll." He laughed once more, in a good mood. Better than when he had arrived, anyhow.

"Not very often you meet play with a shadowdancer without hunting or being hunted." He winked at her. "Maybe i'll look into it as well. Could prove highly useful in some places." He chuckled lightly. He had thoughts of returning to the underdark. Not anytime soon, but it might not be possible to put it off for too long. He would have to face his past sooner or later.

AD tipped her head to the side as the big cat climbed up next to them. She was still smiling though and let her feet swing under the branch. "I have other things to hunt, when the time comes, but for now it mostly helps me travel. I can get from here to anywhere I have ever been. Taras, Cascadea, Kellen, as long as there are shadows there, so night is the perfect time to travel and here," she gestured to the dark woods around them, "I can come any time."

She swung her feet forward and let herself dropped off the branch, bending her knees to cushion her landing before straightening and looking back and up behind her. She had decided not to tell him that she had originally learned it to keep out of sight from her grandmother, or that her grandmother was a demon. Instead she turned about and placed both her hands behind her back as she looked up at where both he and his cat were perched up in the tree. Her own cats, though she didn't think of them as hers, came up behind her.

"So, did you have anything in mind? If not, I'm going to see if cats can really learn magic like some people say. Not quite sure how to find that out though." Her head tipped slightly to the right again as she waited for him to answer her.

Eliel shrugged. "I have nothing in particular. And i'm sure cats can learn it as well, if not better, than humans can." Eliel grinned, patting gwen's head. She purred low, rubbing into his palm. He chuckled and dropped down, gwen landing softly behind him.

He brushed himself off. Gwen padded around to sniff around the other cats curiously. Eliel shrugged. He had long since given up trying to find reason in the actions of cats.

"In any case, feel free to drop by my tower anytime you like." he bowed lightly and smiled at the girl. He handed her a paper, with directions written on it to his home. "Gwen and i would love to have you over." He chuckled.

Eliel looked around the woods with a sad look in his eyes. The place brought a memory of the darkest couple months of his long life. Months spent in madness, killing all who had the misfortune to come along. He had gotten his longsword at that place, it now rest on a large wooden plaque mounted on his wall, a reminder of his sad past.

Aether Draka liked the idea of seeing if she could teach the cats magic. She grinned at the idea of a small black cat summoning something like a demonic panther. Then he offered her a peace of paper, a map to his tower. She folded it up and plced it in the pouch on her hip. "Thank you Eliel, I think I will visit some time."

She looked at it for a bit as the smallest of the cats, the tiny kitten, decided it didn't like Gwen's interest and puffed up like a little ball of fir and lit out a hiss that sounded more like a squeaky door. AD laughed at this and took two steps to scooped the tiny black kitten up.

"Shh, it's alright silly one. She's not going to hurt you." AD held the kitten close, it's tiny claws hooking in her clothing as she stroked it. She shook her head. Still petting the very fluffy kitten the turned to Eliel. Her head tipped slightly to the side. I'll see you around then, It was nice meeting you. I think I'll look in Taras' library first. There are a lot of things in that place and I might find exactly what I'm looking for there."

She glanced over at the thin black cat and asked, "So are you coming or staying?" The cat sat down and looked up at her, it's tail wrapping around it's paws. "Alright." AD shrugged and went to leave, waving at Eliel as the shadows curled about her and then seemed to swallow her whole. She was gone, shadow jumping to Taras as if the distance meant nothing.