Dreams swept past her vision as she lay there in the city curled about the ruins in a form she had taken the night before. Her body was completely black and drew attention from the sun, her large leathery wings folded at either side of her body. Her cat lay body splayed out in a comfortable position and her long tail with bladed in twitched ever so often. The horns on her skull situated just behind her ears were ebony as well as the tail blade that was hidden in the silky black fur. Her claws were white though and there were orange stripes across her body. Her nose twitched though as she felt the warm air from the desert sweep into the city of Istan. She stretched subconsciously screaming –No I don’t want to wake up – And then flipped over to face away from the sunlight that poured into the building. After a few moments though her eyes slide open and showed to be Ice white iris’s with soft pale gray pupils and black rims. She yawned to show pearly canines and sharp teeth used for rendering flesh. She stretched her paws and extended her claws out and then finally dragged her paws under her form and lifted her body to, and off the ground. Stretching her forepaws before her and then pulling her haunches upward she felt the bones in her spine pop and crackle from the nights rest. Her tail fluffed slightly when she stretched then she pulled with her front legs and let her back legs stretch outwards pulling this time from her shoulders. A loud pop sounded and that was her hip. She then shook herself wholly and then made her way to the fountain in the center of the crumbling room. The water in the basin was rich and cool how it had stayed that way in this ancient city was unorthodox to her. She shrugged the thought away though and continued to sup from the cool water.

After taking her fill she looked up again and sniffed at the air. There was a storm coming in from the east…no since and leaving now, even if she could out run or out fly it. She would rather take her time. It was hard enough getting to this damned city let alone the three days she had spent asleep in the city’s buildings lounging in the shadow during day and in the moonlight by night. It got cold at night here…she found that out the first night here and found her mortal form wasn’t going to cut it. But now that day had reached and the temperatures were scorching she felt the black fur was getting too hot. She stretching one last time before shaking her fur and then jumping on hind paws her arms shrunk her joints switched places her tail shrunk away and her wings pulled back into her shoulders and down her back. Her nails retracted and her toes turned to fingers and mortal toes. Her long ebony hair fell down her back in silky layers and her normal shifting dress fell around her finally. She stood barefoot eye quirked at how much cooler she felt now that the ebony fur was gone. Her icy white orbs glanced around the area the colored world was so much different then a Draken Lions eye sight. She smiled and stretched her natural pale black nails clawed the inside of her palms and the insides of her wrists had a black opal each embedded into the skin. She twirled and hummed some seeming slightly insane in this place all alone. She enjoyed the desert for some reason…no one to watch…but that was good as well as bad, her curiosity the last few days had drove her to climbing just about every thing climbable here and getting into all sorts of trouble yet none were there to scold her. She sighed and sat back down in the beams of sun coming from the crumbling ceiling as she sat in the once was thrown chair. She slide down and kicked her legs off to the side and over the arm rest and lay her head on the other side holding the back of the chair with one hand and letting the other hand drape down the side. “Bored bored bored…” Her nightingale voice chimed over and over.

Tuil was awake again. He never knew when and where he would be next, for all of his times and places had mixed together in the many blows he had suffered to the head. This time he was...
Somewhere. Some when.
"RIFF!" he shouted, because he knew that Riff was superior to him. "SIR RIFFINGTON!" But there was no answer, and the cold-looking gray of the stone ruins crossed with the reality of the heated wind.
"Bored bored bored," someone said from a distance away.
"Someone spoke," Tuildir said to himself as he often did, "and that means that someone is here. Unless of course it's one of those, and then it doesn't matter either way." Tuil vaulted forward, his faithful boots crossing over rubble and the havoc of an ill-used street. Objects glittered and were kicked across broken cobblestones as the wild elf raced to where he thought the noise had come from.
The area must have been a ruined palace at one point, a thought that struck a memory within Tuildir that he really couldn't bring to mind, just a general feeling of impending -
Thunder struck.
Tuil'd head cocked to the side and he readied his faithful spear- which was no longer a spear. For some reason he was holding a hand and a half sword, and a strange one at that. It was covered with curved and dancing glyphs, the like of which Tuildir would have seen had he ever taken normal magical training. He would have known, then, that the sword said, "Take the key and release what is locked away."
But he didn't. His spellbook was in plain Common tongue, and there was no second language in his mind save for the Wolves' tongue.
Unconsciously, Tuil stopped and knew what was waiting around the corner. He knew there was some large being with a cat's breath and demon's tongue, but none of this crossed his mind.
"Smells female," he thought, and he straightened his back.
Instantly, Tuil became a gentleman. His stride straightened, his pose became regal, and his face smiled with a charm unknown to him five minutes past.
"Good morning, m'lady." he spoke richly, with inflection. "And what of your day?"

Adriell looked down fromt he cracks in the ceiling as she felt the presence of another coming her way. -What in the ...- She stopped though and stared towards the entrance of the thrown room and watched as an elven man walked in. Her right brow quirked. She thought something but shut the thought away quickly. She didnt move though she was to lazy at the moment. And he showed no threat. Now if he had she would have been a whirl of motion changing forms to something more large and vicious then her mortal form. She blinked at his stiff back posture and titled her head the tiara at her forhead clinked lightly. He was curt and finely shaped and yet seemed to be slightly mis placed here. She quirked her brow again and then slowly pulled herself to stand. She moved to the back of the thrown chair and stood on its back with a cat's agile balance and then turned on toes to look at him before crouching again. As he spoke she smirked common language yet no elven.

"Morning...I thought It were mid after noon....I mustn't have slept as long as I wished..."She says looking at the open windows that showed the clouds of dust in the far far distance heading there way. "And whom are you"She asks her voice as soft as a nightingale but also as icy as the ice queen herself. She wasnt nice to strangers. She titled her head as her scent shifted back to the normal moonflower intoxication. She slide her feet out from under her carefully and sat laying her hands on either side of her hips and leaning back some. "And why are you here?" She asks her icy white eyes studding him,

A lithe cat-like form prowled along a broken and shattered wall in the ruined city, its four lengthy limbs seeming to almost slide along the edge. The figure’s head bobbed up and down, side to side, as if dancing to a little rhythm – a movement copied by the long, prehensile tail that spread out behind it. Rianna sat down for a minute and looked around, head tilted to the side, and began to clean herself, her rear paws tapping on the wall. She miscalculated her position, though, and fell off the wall. Yowling with irritation, she flipped and landed on her hands and paws, glaring up at the wall as if it were its fault. Her head tossed, flinging raven-black, red-tipped hair in a halo around her face, before the dark locks settled down. Since it was pulled back, today, only a few strands of hair reached her shoulders, and these brushed lazily against the bare skin shown by her tattered shirt. She sighed, snorting air through her nostrils, and leaped easily back up onto the broken wall, beginning her steady march down the length of the city.

A noise caught her sensitive ears, though, and the elf-like tips twitched, flicking slightly as they registered sound. What’s that? she asked herself, bounding off toward the area she thought the noises had come from. She could be wrong, of course. All this rubble could easily throw sounds off. When she got closer, however, her nostrils flared as she caught the scent of a male and a female. The female smelled oddly familiar, though there were undertones she couldn’t quite place. She had to be even closer to know. Rianna crouched down low and stalked toward the scent, her vibrant emerald eye and icy blue one – for once, the blue was not covered by its typical patch - focused on the area a few feet in front of her. Her katana, slung across her back, thumped against her shoulder on occasion as she quickened her pace, hunting instincts coming into play. Perhaps the other smell was food, and this familiar one would share with her.

"Just passing through, m'lady. It's a long way, from Davon." Tuil surveyed the empty and crumbling landscape as though it were a rich farmland; a pretense, to be sure. "I cannot say that I've been to this land before; might you know a good hunting ground? And from somewhere I need to procure a spear over this deuced blade. It brings me no comfort, even as a ceremonial blade." Tuil turned to the being. "I am Tuildir Sellen'as, of Davon and Khoria. This place, as I said, is odd to me." Tuil licked his lips as he asked his question.
"Where is it?"

Adriell really quirked her brow now. He was lost this was grande and he was new...she titled her head though her long ebnoy silk bangs falling before her eyes. "I am Adriell Lotus Delesangre...Shiftress " She says smirking "And you Sir Tuildir Sellen'as, of Davon and Khoria are in the ancient city ruins of Istan. And I am afraid your stomache will have to wait." She says turning her rather stunning icy white gaze towards the window again. The light around them had been over cast though it was noon the sun was almost completly coverd by sands. "A storm is coming nothing will be found in the desert for a little while, and for one to venture out during the Sand hell would be riped apart...." She says "I am about to move bellow to lower levels of the temple we are currently in...seeing as the windows here will allow entrance to the sands..." She says hearing something her eyes dart past Tuildir and to the doorway she waited knowing someone was about to enter. Her seductive form tense suddenly as if ready to fight.

When Rianna reached the temple-like structure, she paused and glanced up at the entrance, her eyes widening, the blue seeming to darken slightly in color. Her nostrils flared slightly, and she began to laugh, amused. “Well! We meet again, shifter!” she called as she approached the entryway. “And just in time, too. What is that odd weather I smell?” A pause, and she approached, peering inside, taking notice of the elfin male. So, that was what she had smelled. Not food, then. She sighed and washed the back of her hand, her tail flicking absently back and forth, the red stripes and tip seeming to blur with the black fur. She was fairly tempted to put her boots and eye patch back on, but decided against it, instead brushing past Adriell into the dilapidated building, her tail teasingly flicking against the shifter.

She began her absent-minded head-bobbing, and it became clear, after a time, that she was moving in sets of four, her feet tapping out an alternate rhythm, as if she were practicing something. Her fingers made random movements, curled up as if she were holding a flute, and her lips occasionally formed a pouty expression, air blowing through them as she practiced the things she’d learned with Astalder the elf.

Tuildir followed the two, not quite understanding the social interactions but noting them as odd. "I take it you two know each other, but we've not yet been introduced, you and I. I am Tuildir Sellenh'as, of Davon, of Khoria. And as I understood the lady, we are to get below for fear of the storm." Tuildir tried to remember how he had gotten to this Istan, and why it reminded him so much of a golden moon. As odd a thought as that was, Tuil kept moving. The wind had begun whipping, and hell would indeed be burned if the wind constantly picked up as it was. Tuil wrapped his cloak around his neck and over his shoulder, giving him the impression that he was held. Not that Tuil had been with a woman recently, but it was something that haunted him: the impression of a dark woman, eyes red as blood, smiling at him from the other side of the bed.
Odd thoughts.
Tuil raised his eyebrow as the unintroduced female began to make strange motions, and, not understanding, Tuil sat back to watch her.

Adriell smirked as Rianna made her appearence "Ello again..."She says and then turned her gaze from the tail to the outside again it was now almost completly night. She smiled and leaned her head back and took int he smell of sands. "Time to get downstairs" She says sliding from where she sat and making her way down the stairs thinking about her summons and which ones she would want to play with later if the SandStorm Welks came out. They were lizard like fish of the sands with millions of teeth and more like sharks then fish. She smirked some and sighed walking her usual saunter, her hips rocking back and forth on her body as if she were a cat. She smirked. "So Rianna How have you been my dear?" She asks remembering there last meeting when she was attack and they had to run.

Walking down some stairs she found herself looking at everything around her. She examined the glyps and snatched up a torch she had lit earlier. She smiled only lightly and continued her walk down the long flight of sand stone stairs.

“I am quite fine, Adriell,” she said, pausing her tapping to look at the shifter. “It seems fate has graced us with another meeting.” Another pause, and she flushed slightly, bowing to the elf. “Pardon. I am Rianna Dirada of Gloomwood Forest. A pleasure to meet you, Tuildir Sellen’has.” For a daemon, her speech was impeccable as she fell into an old style she wasn’t aware she’d known. It seemed memory worked automatically, sometimes, though she could not bring up where she had learned to speak so politely. A nuisance, it was, and it was grating on her nerves. How she wished she could remember things! She followed Adriell down to the lower levels, nodding slightly in agreement. She didn’t wand sand in what fur she had or in her clothing, that was certain!

Her pupils expanded to allow more light in as they descended, and she hummed softly, some random tune she’d picked up in her travels. It was light and airy and it amused her, so it was a good tune, in her mind. The lyrics that accompanied it went along the lines of:


Come with me in the twilight of a summer night for awhile
Tell me of a story never ever told in the past

Take me back to the land
Where my yearnings were born
The key to open the door is in your hand
Now fly me there

Fanatics find their heaven in never ending storming wind
Auguries of destruction be a lullaby for rebirth

Consolations, be there
In my dreamland to come
The key to open the door is in your hand
Now take me there

I believe in fantasies invisible to me
In the land of misery I'm searchin' for the sign
To the door of mystery and dignity
I'm wandering down, and searchin' down the secret sun

Come with me in the twilight of a summer night for awhile
Tell me of a story never ever told in the past

Take me back to the land
Where my yearnings were born
The key to open the door is in your hand
Now take me there
to the land of twilight


Maybe she could learn to play it on the flute one day. That was a nice thought, and kept her occupied as she continued humming the song the further down they went.

Tuil followed the two females down different corridors, deep into a place he had never known, smelled, or seen. There was no place here that would offer him comfort, though the song had come close. His eyes, betrayers as they were, watched both women with a sexual stare, but he tried not to let them notice. He was, after all, a gentleman, and his demons would be controlled.
It did not help, however, that the females had tails and seemed to glide along.
To take his mind off it, he hummed to himself, recalling Rianna's song.

Adriell led them through curves and passages and half crumbled hallways. She had been here long enough to know just about every part of it. She came into a room though that was already lit and warmer then the rest "I have been sleeping down here during the nights.. The torches never go out." She says and smirked "Plus I feel she is watching me" She says pointing at the statue of Bast at the end of the room. She did a half kneel and then stood back up. She had listened to the song as they both had recited it. Adriell walked over to a corner where she had pilled pillows and furs of creatures she couldn't place the scent of. She flopped herself there and sighed out lightly and felt herself sliping to a comfortable postion before looking back at Rianna and Tuil she titled her head smirking a little more "So Rianna... It looks liek Fate smiles down upon us..."She smirked again and then looks to Tuil. "So what do you do ?" She asks wondeirng what his perferred occupation was in this world he might be tested.

Rianna watched Adriell for a time, and Tuildir as well, head tilted to the side in an expression of curiosity. She peered at the statue, and after a moment of consideration, she pounced upon it, landing on the base, where she immediately curled up, watching her two companions, her tail swishing idly from side to side. “Fate is good to us, then,” she said softly, thinking back to a conversation she’d had with another, not long ago, on fate. “A cruel mistress, at times, but otherwise, good.” She laughed softly, shaking her head, and began to clean the back of her hand, her rough tongue removing any dirt that had no place there.

When Adriell asked the Elven man what his occupation was, she turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised up, waiting for his answer. It would be nice to know, indeed. Was he a mage? A warrior? Something darker, more sinister? Or perhaps light, good, though his appearance did not lead her to that. Of course, one never knew how a person would turn out by appearance alone. What was that old adage? Don’t judge a book by it’s cover? The same could be said of people. Don’t judge them on their appearance alone – what you see might not be what is true.

"My occupation is architect, as hard as that might be to believe." The two blinked at him, eyes moving from the sword to his scored leather armor, disbelieving. "I have only held one true contracted job, and that was to a noble in Davon. Since then I have been a researcher of sorts." Adriell snickered, and Tuil's smirk widened at this. "I research a certain... curse, one that follows whoever it touches until it overtakes their mind and body. Sometimes it brings about physical changes, such as skin change and even complete transformations. I've only found two other cases, and each was a change from a good-natured person to an animalistic nature." Tuildir had the women's attention, he noticed and settled away from the strange cat-statue as he explained. "The contact could have been anything, even just passing over an unpurified dead body that had been cursed. The symptoms begin as a colored mark, small at first; it then spreads to cover the whole body as the mind is corrupted to reflect the body." Tuildir awaited the next question as he studied the two: obviously they knew each other, obviously were quite feline in nature, and both held respect for the other.

He was the intruder here, he was the outsider in a strange world. Things such as the curse that was hidden under the layers of leather he wore, the inky black that grew up his arm, around his torso, and even down his legs, such things were not as important.
For now.

Adriell looked up at Tuil as he spoke her interest wanning she wasn't one to listen to long drawling conversations. She yawned though and tried to pay attention. But when he finally hushed she yawned again and purred some curling up into a ball and suddenly her form shifted. Her bones snapping and reforming and then fur sprouted across her form. Two tails with bladed tips and large dragon wings and two dragonic horns. She took on the form of her draken-felis again and curled up tightly pulling a wing over her face she purred loudly. The sound echoing down the shafts and halls, and corridors of ruins. -You two should try to rest we'll be down here for a while- She purred lightly and curled tighter and felt her attention span falling completly away. Her eyes grew to heavy and she shut them. There was one good thing about this form. It liked to sleep ....alot. She finally felt her mind slip away into the murky deapths of her imagination and dreams ran firey across her eyes.

Rianna tilted her head as she watched Adriell shift her form. She rolled her eyes and went back to curling up at the base of the statue, tail wrapped around her waist and draping slightly over the edge of the platform. She yawned, her tongue stretching out and then curling under and around her six sharp, feline teeth. A small, squeaky mew came from her throat, a sound quickly stifled as she clamped her mouth shut, embarrassed. After a moment, she looked back to Tuildir and watched him closely, her eyes narrowed slightly. "An architect, you say? That is rather hard to believe." She smiled slightly, her green eye glittering slightly, blue one bland, impossible to read.

Another pause, and then, "The researcher part I can imagine. An explorer of sorts, is what a researcher is, no? And you have the look of an explorer." Another pause. "This mark, though.. why do you study it? Is it important to you in some way?" This was where her curiosity had been sparked. He spoke of a curse that left a mark, and he spoke of it in such a fashion as if he had intimate knowledge. Perhaps someone who had been beloved to him had contracted such a curse, or perhaps he'd no other choice but to study it. It was this that she wanted to know.

Tuil smiled at Rianna, having heard her squeak; he thought it was cute. The teeth were, however, a bit more fearsome than cute. As well, the differently-colored eyes were not what one would call comforting.
"I know someone who contracted this particular curse, and since then I've become something of a field researcher." Tuil smiled, his eyes turning to slits. "Yes," he said with a hint of something deeper in his meaning, "An explorer. I've learned a lot, since Riff and that time." The torches fluttered wildly as a stray gust of wind came from somewhere higher up in the building. Tuil's attention turned there immediately, but he kept speaking. "If I can cure the man, I believe I can be redeemed for what I did all those years." The blue eye, her eye that was often hidden under a patch, bothered him somewhat. There was a gleam in that eye that said, "I know, and I'll kill you for what you've done," or "I know, and it doesn't matter," or something. But that eye said that she knew.
Tuil's mind went back to the day his family had risen from the dead and decided that a limb of Tuil would taste rather nice, thank you very much and pass the gravy. He laughed, involuntarily, at that memory and felt embarrased.
But why was he here? Why were two attractive and exotic women leading him into a far-off spot and telling him to rest? But of course, Tuildir didn't think about this much, as it might have made him suspicious one way or another.
"What are you doing here, Rianna? This place is not often frequented, and I can't see yyou enjoying a dusty place like this."