Covered in blood and with an angry look on her face, Aeacus trudged through the tan sand of the desert untill she reached a tiny oasis. Stretching her giant black and red dragon wings she flew to the top of the tree and stood there for a minute or two. Her eyes were closed as the wind whipped around her and carried the great stench of death. Opening her eyes, a distance away you could see ten to twenty bodies lying dead and mutilated on the desert ground, all at her sword.
Flying back down and leaning against a tree she situated her self so she could heal and be alert at the same time. A small pool of water lay next to her and she scooped up handfulls and poured it over her, washing the blood away and tinging the sand crimson.

Master Ace walked slowly across the sand. The wind whipped through his jet black hair. Bruno walked along side Ace in the form of scarlet panther. Ace streched his ebony wings as he saw a figure in the ditance. It seemed that a winged creature had flown to the top of a tree by he Oasis. Bruno's lifted his nose as he smelled a famialiar scent, the scent of blood. As Ace got closer he noticed the figure was a woman with wings simmilar to his own, only her wings had a mix of colors where Ace's wings both were the same color though the color changed with enviorment. He identified the figure as a female. Before Ace could get a good look at her she flew down and leaned against the side of the tree opposite to Ace, leaving her completely out of sight. Ace continued his pace as he headed to the oasis. He hoped that the woman was freindly, she seemed to be a hardened fighter. Bruno was pleased that the scent of blood was getting stronger as they came up to the Oasis.

Aeacus heard and sensed a man with wings and the scarlet panther next to him long before they were close to the oasis. But Aeacus gave off no signs she knew and continued to clean off the few bits of flesh that shown beneath her armor, clothes and weapons. Once the man and panther were close enough though Aeacus seemed to dissapear in the night, covering herself with her wings in the shadows so she was completely undectable and invisible. One hand on the hilt of her sword and the other hand holding her throwing dagger dipped in poisen, she readied herself for a fight if nessacary.
When the man approached the oasis he would see "What do you want?" written in blood in the sand. What he wouldn't see his Aeacus in the shadows and most of her bloody clothes and armor in the tiny lake, all hidden. Taking off her blood soaked items she was now wearing a thin cotton shirt and tight pants, all black. Aeacus waited silently and ready for his action.

Ace and Bruno slowly walked up to the oasis. When they got there the saw Aeacus' writing in blood. Bruno salivatated slightly as he did his best to resist the urge of licking it all of the ground. Ace immediately looked around after reading her message. He could see as well at night as he could at day due to his natural ablities and his shadowdancer ablites that seemed to come only when Bruno was near, even with his vision he could not see Aeacus who was well hidden behind a tree. "Either we have come across some one who is really paranoid or we have found someone witha foul sense of humor, " Ace thought to himself. "We mean no harm. We were just passing by and saw someone in the distance. I'm sorry if we interrupted something," Ace yelled as he looked around. He quickly started to feel in danger himself. His tail moved slowly to the hidden hilt of his dagger.

Aeacus made a mental note about each ot them, the man and the panther. He had wings, like her, but just one color though slightly differnet, like it blended. He also had a tale, which rested on the hilt of a dagger. Aeacus stayed were she was but changed her voice so it was deeper and had a slight accent to it. Interrupted something? I've finished with my killing spree, if you did not smell the blood in the air or see the bodies laying in the sand a ways off. I just do not like random creatures approaching me, especially right after a battle. Fair warning, you do something to me I will kill you. There was basically no emotion in her voice, but you could tell that she was not joking. Aeacus awaited an answer and still said hidden and out of sight.

Ace wasn't too happy to hear the deep emotionless voice. He was even less happy to hear her words. "RANDOM CREATURES!!!! WHY The nerve of this person. I've already said we mean no harm what more does she want me to say?" Ace thought to himself. "I've already stated that we mean no harm. Apparently you are not in the mood for company," Ace called out as he turned to leave. He did not wish to play silly games, even if it was because some one was overly paranoid. Bruno slowly turned around still eyeing the blood with saliva dripping from his mouth.

Aeacus rolled her eyes at the man and his pet. Judging by the tone in his voice and actions he meant to do her no harm, but she always had to be cautious. Aeacus decided to come in the open, since he sounded like he meant no harm and was very protected. Aeacus flew out from out of the shadows, making it appear she was walking on the water when she was just flying over it. "You can not blame me for being cautious. Like I have told you and what you can smell I just killed many men and they had friends who want revenge. Also I'm not the most pleasant person so I am one of the most wanted out there to be killed." Her thin white shirt blew against her in the wind as she bent to retrieve her cleaned and soaked armor underneath the water and lay it in a tree to dry.

Ace saw her fly out of the shadows just as Ace had started turning. She moved with such grace that it seemed as though she walked upon the water. Ace listened to her and watched her as she pulled her clothes from out of the water. He was curious of why she was killing this mass of men. He decided that he would be safe in asking about it. "May I ask why you went on your killing spree?" Master Ace said as he leaaned against a small tree. Bruno moved over to the wrighting in blood and was slowly rubbing his paws in it. He liked the feel of fresh blood against his skin. He loved the smell and taste, but Bruno contented hin self with simply covering his paws in the blood of Aeacus' victims.

Aeacus had her back halfy to him when he asked, and turned to give him an odd look out of the corner of her eye. She then went about her bussiness again of setting her clothes out to dry. "You may, though not very wise, though I am in a slighty good mood. They came to me, I did not find them. Apparently they were a band of desperate, robbing bandits who tried to rob and probably rape me. Unfortunatly for them, I have skills in many combat areas as they do not even know how to swing a stick, let alone a sword." Aeacus spoke crips and clear, with no accent in her voice but her own feminism. Aeacus gave the man a quick flash of her bright yellow and red rimmed eyes before looking at his pet. "If your panther is such a fan of blood why doesn't he go bath in the dead just beyond that dune?" Aeacus asked for the reason just to ask something.

Something about Aeacus' story just didn't quite check out. He knew his first question was relatively okay, but this one was certainly a bit unwise. "I do beleive you, but I do not find it preasonable that a large mob of bandits travel together without a thoroughly important cause, even if they all have fighting skill to rival a door knob. You have already stated that you are wanted by many, prehaps this attack against you relates to that rather than being a completely random event," Master Ace said.

Bruno looked up at Aeacus' question, but found a response irrelevent."The blood of at least 15 or 19," Bruno whispered softly to himself as he licked the blood on one of his paws. The taste was good, but not as divine as blood from wounds he had caused on his own. He contented himself with simly feeling the warm blood on his paws.

Aeacus flashed him a look with a small and very evil smirk then turned back to the last of the clothes and turned completly towards him. Her bright yellow and red rimmed eyes flashed a light blue before returning to their normal color. Except for the small smirk that faded, Aeacus showed no emotions or expressions. "Possibly. Most likely anyway. But I did not ask, and I did not let them answer." Aeacus kept her answer short and simple and sat crosslegged in the sand, actually slightly above it but you couldn't really tell. Aeacus had her hand held tightly on her side but tried to hide it the best she could so it looked natural when she had a deep wound that was slowly and painfully healing. "Since when did my business or enemies occur to you?"

Master Ace noticed the change in her eye color and the small evil smirk before her emotionless reply. He found her reply funny, but repressed his laughter since her tone was far closer to serious than it was to joking.he watched her sit on the ground with crossed legs and her positon as if to be hidden from veiw. Ace would not have found it too odd, if one of her hands were not held so tightly at her side. "Prehaps the they weren't as skill-less as she made them seem," Ace thought to himself. Master Ace was expecting her to ask a question similar to the one she asked him. He usually did not like to get into people's buisness, but hje usually did not come into such a situation. "I'm sorry for being so nosey. I was just thinking that your story seemed a bit strange. Either you were unaware of the possiblity or you were hiding a bit of info from your story."

Aeacus sighed softly and stared off into the distance for a second before facing him again. She was still wearing her pale, expressionless face but her eyes told more than she did. Instead of her yellow and red rim color, it seemed a gray cloud misted over the color. "It is human nature to be curious, though you may want to be carefull with it. It will get you in a world of trouble. But you are not wrong, I am hiding things from you. Since I have just met you, I do not even know your name, I am not going to spill my life's story to a stranger." Aeacus tone was soft but to the point. There was a rush of wind and the sounds of wing beat's then the ground vibrated in one loud thump as a black dragon in the distance landed in the battle zone. Aeacus smiled and shook her head as she watched Bestia, her dragon, devour on the dead. "That would be one of my pets." After finishing Bestia walked over to the oasis, much bigger than it, and sat behind Aeacus, with her tail wrapped around Aeacus. Bestia's mouth and teeth was drenched in blood as it laid gently on Aeacus' shoulder, who asentmindely scratched Bestia's chin. The dragon stared hard at the man before them, her large red eyes seeming unfriendly.

Master Ace was curious of Aeacus' eyes that were changing colors qickly. His own changed colors, but never did so so frequently. His eyes changed with magic and enviorment, but her did not seed to follow this pattern. If Aeacus was not so good at her "poker face" Ace might have guessed that changes were related to her emotions, but he had seen no sign of a change in her emotion at all. Ace listened to her words and blushed slightly. He was about to say something, lost track of his words at the intoduction of her fang loyal dragon. Master Ace knew a lot of this hostile territorial dragons. His mother had taught him well of dragons. Seeing the blood drip from the dragon's mouth remind him of Bruno and his strange love of blood. He quickly shook the thought from his head and returned to conversing with Aeacus. "Oh, my. I've been so flustered with this strange prediciment that I have forgotten to introduce myself. I am Master Ace. I work at the academy of magic," Master Ace smiled. "Bruno, Introduce yourself, please."

Bruno stood on his hind legs and quickly changed his form. He soon took the form of a small humaniod child of an age no older than eight. His hair was bright red short and messy. He had ruby wings similar to Ace's ebony wings. Blood was bripping from his hands. He waved and smiled ,"I'm Bruno!"

Aeacus noticed a glint in his eye that showed he was curious with something about her. Since Aeacus had nothing else interesting about her, she guessed it was her rapidly changing eye color. Making sure he was looked at her, Aeacus used the only color she controlled and turned her eyes completely white. After a moment she changed them back to their color of yellow, gray and red. Aeacus smiled slightly when she turned back to him. "So you have noticed my rapidly changing eyes? Annoying to me, I can keep my face straight in any situation, but my eyes tell the story. They change color with emotions. Red is anger, yellow is normal, purple is fear, orange is fight, blue is caution, green is sadness and gray is pain. Just to clarify things. My name is Aeacus, I do not work anywhere but the random jobs of assassination." Aeacus nodded to the both of them and kept her face the same and talked casualy with the only the slightest hint of an Irish accent. Bestia blew out a puff of air as her own greeting, making Aeacus' hair fly back.

Master Ace was surprised to see her eyes go white, but even more so to see how talkative she had almost suddenly became. A minute ago she was giving threats and nows she was giving away what at least Ace would call personal information. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Aeacus. My eyes also change color along with my scales and hair, but it is not set off by emotion, but rather enviornment. It seems as though one of your random jobs has made you quite popular," Master Ace recalled the grayish cloud over her eyes as she explained the coloring of her eyes. "I thought I saw a hint of gray in your eyes a few seconds before you made them blank. If you are hurt I can help you," Master Ace offered. She seemed the type not willing to except help easily, but Ace was already wrong with one immpression of her.

Bruno watched them idly as he rubbed his hands together and swilred his scorpion-like tail in the warm blood. He cast an occasional glance at Bestia. She was the only thing he truly found realtively interesting about their current encounter, besides of course the blood.

Aeacus nodded as he spoke but made a quick, cautious glance when he mentioned something of a wound. Damn these eyes! He knows I am wounded, He could take me. Well, try to anyway and possibly inflict another wound. *sigh* Nothing is ever easy anymore, even though it never was. Aeacus thought to herself, still not showing any expression on her face. "I am fine, nothing I can not handle." Aeacus looked at the water for a second before thinking of another question to ask him. "What are you doing wandering around in the desert this late? Just something you do?" Aeacus asked for her curiosity and just to spark a conversation. Bestia eyed the bloody boy and his tail carefully, making sure he did not get to close.

Ace had thought she would be unwilling to have help. she seemd like one who could handle her own affairs and would prefer to do so. "I'sure you can handle yourself if you say so. We are here to see a rare plant thought by some not to even exist. It only surfaces out on nights like this. It's blooming is said to be a glorious event. If you are done tending to yourself we could investigate it together. Or you could go about your own buissness, all the same," Master Ace said smiling. He hoped he had not offened her too much by offering to help her.