Spirits of the Earth

Wind blew towards the water, coming from over the Kilanthro Mountains, through the foots hills, down the beach past Releah and out to sea as Releah sighed sadly. The shoreline wasn't what it used to be. She wasn't what she used to be. It was a little cold, but it was midday, and the land breeze was going strong. She entertained the thought that it was another wind spirit, probably unaware that she was, or had been, a wind spirit, too. But sometimes, the wind was just the wind, just the after trail of a wind spirit. As she looked at the ocean, though, lapping at the gravely beaches than had never held any interest to her, she missed the old shape of the world. She missed the fjords! Releah always used to speed and race through them, in her moments of coherency. Why did they have to get rid of the fjords?

Seeing the ocean was so different. Releah finally understood what colors where, and  why the spiky waves were called "white caps". She still didn't understand hunger, but maybe she would eventually. For now, she reclined against the loan bleached, dead tree on the shore, closing her green eyes and letting her black hair falling away from her face, as well as the hood to the tan cloak she was wearing. It was nice out here, but lonely. Being able to interact was the best part of being silent. Aside from being able to see.

Sarivi dragged his feet through the leaves a bit as he moved, not caring about the loud crackling they made; it wasn't like he could expect to hide anyway, not with his coloring. He'd spent the whole morning wandering around, trying to find different things to explore. The day hadn't been especially fruitful in that regard... But he had found one of those funny food trees! And this time he didn't end up falling down until after he had managed to knock down some of the tasty things!

His rump and dorsal fin were a little sore from the inevitable fall, but the taste of the food more than made up for it. The sprite had already finished one of the food things, and he had another in each hand.

As he neared the edge of the trees he smiled to himself, licking the odd juice from his lips and tilting his head back as a breeze swept past him, making his longer fins sway a little. Even if it had been uneventful... This day certainly had seemed nice, if a bit too chilly for his likes. Far nicer than other days, when he had gotten inland just enough to have problems when it inevitably started to rain. Now he knew better; rainstorms seemed to happen -after- the sun had reached it's zenith, so he would just stick a little bit closer to the ocean at that point! It certainly was far more fun to slip beneath the waves than get stuck under the rain, which to his skin was almost cold enough to be freezing.

Just a few more moments and he was slipping from beneath the trees, toes curling a little over the sun warmed pebbles. He smiled lazily, hazel eyes flickering about as they adjusted to the sudden lack of shadows... Then inexplicably lit upon what looked like a figure, only a little bit away from him closer to the ocean.

The sprite's eyes lit up with curiosity. He hadn't seen a person since he got to this place! "Hello!" Sarivi said cheerfully, pale feet shifting against the sand as he took a few steps closer. He didn't even give a thought to the person maybe being dangerous. Not with the ocean right in running distance like that.

Releah started a little--she hadn't spoken to anyone except the mage child, far to the north in her rickety old house on the tundra. And to find them here, in what the mageling had called, "Really really really a bunch and a lot of no people", was a bit odd. But never the less, someone to talk to! She stood up, a little to fast, and stumbled a little, unused a little, still, to being solid. Releah looked at him--and how interesting he was! Was that a fin? A water creature! A water creature, oh, she had so rarely felt those, not able to reach beneath the surface of water.  Remembering that he had spoken she said brightly, "Hello!"

She jogged a little closer to him, clutching her cloak to her body--wasn't he cold? She would have to ask him. He was older than the mage child, maybe a little older than her body. She would ask him. And also about being cold. And also about being underwater. And the fins. And--and--and a bunch of things. But first! "I'm Releah! What's your name?"

Sarivi blinked in surprise as the person stumbled, but before he could move much it seemed that she... Was it a she? Sarivi was fairly sure it was... but humans were so hard to tell with sometimes. Apparently their whole obsession with cloth had some sort of stylistic difference that could help, but it did make things utterly confusing when they insisted on covering up as much as they did. At least... Was she even a human? The sprite really didn't know enough about the different creatures here to tell for sure.

His eyes lit up and he moved a few steps closer as she said hello back. So it was a friendly person! Who spoke the land language he knew! The mostly eaten red tree-food fell from his webbed fingers as he forgot to keep a hold of it, but since he still had another one he wasn't altogether too worried about that. His mind was more focused on all of the different questions he could ask someone, now that he had someone to ask! Granted, people couldn't always answer the questions he asked... But it was impossible to find someone who could answer his questions if he didn't ask things of everyone he met! Far as he could see, even without adding in people curious about people, that alone was more than enough reason to inundate land dwellers with questions!

"I'm Sarivi!" He exclaimed, bouncing on his heels as he studied the girl. He was pretty positive it was a girl now, definitely looked like it, though it was hard to be positive with how she was clutching that cloth to her... Maybe she was cold? It was chilly; almost enough to make Sarivi understand why people liked to cover themselves (though his loincloth really wasn't doing all that much to help him.), but it wasn't -that- cold... Was it? There was another question for him to ask, though he probably should at least -try- to keep his priorities straight or he'd totally forget about things.

"Is there a human place near here then?" He asked, waving his now free hand around at the surroundings, which certainly lacked any signs -he- could pick up. "I haven't been able to find anyone to talk to since I was a few days more south!"

He was exuberant, a little different from the mage child, but still acting very young. Her head was cold, and her hands--they weren't exposed, but she had bad circulation or something--and so she clutched at the cloak and smiled at him. They could trade questions, maybe? Why was he only in a loin cloth? But she had to answer his question! It was a he, right? She hadn't ever had to worry about these things before, but he didn't have--breasts, was it?, so he must be a he, if that was that the he's, the males' of his species looked like. If his species had males? Well, that was a good question!

"Well--" she said, and then paused to think, "No, I don't think so. No one but the mage child, at least. In the great flat place." She meant the tundra, of course, and then she asked a whole flood of questions, "What are you? Where did you come from? Does it really get warmer to the south? Are you cold? Do you swim? What's it like under water? Can I touch you, you look like you'd feel neat." Releah, unlike Sarivi, did not keep her priorities straight, though at least she asked for permission to touch him, instead of leaping on him as she was wont to do.

The sprite frowned slightly as she answered. He knew what mages were, he had gotten someone to explain that one to him, but what was the great flat place... Plains? Was that it? Maybe, he supposed he really couldn't be totally sure! His head tilted slightly, a little bit of pale green hair falling over his eyes as he opened his mouth to ask what she meant, then stopped as she started to speak again.

Sarivi watched with wide eyes as the girl suddenly started babbling out questions, grinning to himself as he tried vain to actually catch them and organize them in his mind as his ears caught them. "I... I'm a sprite!" He exclaimed, bouncing again and shifting his stance "We live out in the ocean, more down south most of the time, and somewhat far out!"

So many questions... In some ways it made the sprite inordinately happy, since he hadn't met another person as curious as he was! The only problem was that it was hard to actually remember them! "And... Of course I swim! I live there. And underwater is... Well it's different than being up here, all free and weightless and..."

The sprite frowned slightly, then shook his head and grinned again. "I don't know that I feel any different than anything else, but you can if you want to! Haven't had anyone ask me that before! Just be careful of the fins, they're delicate."

For a moment he stood silent, the fins on his ears twisting slightly as he tried to organize his mind and avoid saying a bunch of questions at once. He was sure he had missed something... But now was his turn! Or were they taking turns? Whichever, now he could ask a question again! "If there aren't any humans about, then why are you here?" He asked, staring at her and seeming rather childlike in his expression. "Or are they all in this great flat place? Or are you even a human?" He figured the last question was probably a relevant one. He was obvious in his own species, but not all peoples were!

She moved closer to him, reaching out to run a hand gently over the skin of his cheek, delighted to find it a familiar feeling. Like those mammals from the sea, that did flips sometimes! She reached up gently to feel his fines, but hadn't felt anything like that before. Releah was careful with them, ask he had asked her to be, smiling brightly at him. "Swimming sounds like when I was the wind! But more relaxed..." She took her hands of his fins, tucking them back into her cloak--it was cold.

"I was a wind spirit, but then the mage child made a mistake and I'm stuck in this human body! She said that she couldn't control her magic so I have to go south and find a better mage to release me because even though we think that I'll go back to normal when the body dies, we want to make sure. And--and I had to feel you because I'm not used to seeing thing, just feeling them, and your skin seemed kind've familiar and I was right!" She bounced back a little, grinning brightly now. "But I don't know why the mageling was up there, but she was the only one."

She looked around, considering for a moment, "She said that there was a city on the other shore, east of here, and also across the mountains, but she said that just going south was easiest."

Sarivi's head tilted a little at the feel of her hand on his skin and fins, grinning slightly. Touching was something he hadn't had very much of lately, which was a stark contrast to the constant twisting around each other that happened when he was with his own kind. For some reason most people on land seemed to view it as some sort of bad thing. Or maybe they thought it was special to not happen often? Either way, they rarely ventured to touch him and he'd learned that the random grabbing and brushing up against that he was used to back at home had all sorts of hidden meanings here.

It was -fun-, learning about different types of people, that was why he still kept coming onto land! There were just some things that were... Odd, especially with how he had grown up.

As she spoke again he blinked in surprise. The wind... Did that mean...? Maybe she was something like a sprite! Or... Well as she spoke it didn't sound like she was overly like him, since far as he knew all of his kind could go between liquid and solid form at will, but she was still an elemental, which was far closer to his kind than anything else he'd met!

His excitement shone on his face and he bounced on his heels as she spoke, fins flaring just a tiny bit. It seemed odd that a child would be on her own up there... but then that seemed to happen sometimes. Maybe humans didn't need to watch their littles as much as sprites did; he already knew that they were much more sturdy than his kind. "That's how it is when I change to liquid! Only my kind can switch back and forth as we please... Maybe it's something of the same thing just you guys can't change..." He trailed off, then his mind seized on something else she had said "What did it feel familiar to? Have you felt one of us before? Or one of the creatures with skin like this? I know there are some, lots of things that can breath air have the same sort!"

If he wasn't careful, he was going to start spouting off a barrage of questions to rival her earlier one, so he stopped himself before he could start babbling about the two earlier things, organizing his thoughts, "I've seen a map and there's lots way way over these big tall things called mountains... They don't look very big on the map, but the humans said they were. I know there are different places with humans south of here that I've been through though! Maybe that's what she meant?"

She listened avidly to his questions, bouncing up and down a little in excitement of something new and also someone new who didn't mind her questions, which had occasionally annoyed the mage child. But! Sarivi didn't mind questions or her touching him, and he was really nice. Maybe he would travel south with her? She added it to her list of questions. Having someone to talk to was good! Talking was new, too.

It was hard to describe being a wind spirit, because Releah had been one for a very long time, but only became aware of herself and others when something new happened. Something new to feel or hear, and sometimes smell. Sometimes one of her fellows would find something, and in brushing against her with their long trails pass on a memory of what they had felt, heard, or smelled. That was how she had learned language. She couldn't read, except for braille but that was gone now, wasn't it? Maybe she should reinvent it. There must still be blind people; from what she knew it was rather hard to cure.

"Are you conscious, when you're not solid?" she asked, thinking that they probably were, if they switched back and forth, and then followed his switch in conversation, "They were--uhm--fish? They chittered and leaped into the sky, and that's how i know the feel--they didn't have fins like you have, though, and I think that they were--oh, what do you call it? Mammals! Are you a mammal?"

Another shift in the conversation. "Yes, that's probably what she meant! She said the the mountains are dangerous." She glanced at them, "But if you want to see the humans, why don't you just go over the mountain?"

"Of course I am!" He answered, blinking in surprise at the question, "Are you not then?" Sarivi couldn't really imagine not ever being able to think. When he was viscous he generally was just as active as he was before, just with a whole different set of senses that he used in order to be so. Lots of bouncing around off of things and tangling with sea creatures in order to get to somewhere he could form solid again.

The sprite let his eyes go vacant for a moment, shifting his feet over the pebbles as he thought and tried to figure out what she was describing. Fish that chittered and leapt into the sky but didn't have fins... He wasn't entirely sure what the word 'mammals' meant, but if they didn't have fins... "Oh! Dolphins and whales, you mean! They do have the same skin as us!" The boy grinned brightly at her, eyes shining a little as he added, "And... I don't know. I don't think I've heard that word used before! Just fish and land creatures." He would have wondered if 'mammal' was a word for something like a dolphin... Except she asked if he was one, so it had to be something even more generalized.

At the question that came immediately after he frowned briefly again, sighing and glancing at the distant lumps that apparently were much more majestic to behold from right by them. He rather thought it would be wonderful to see... But there really wasn't much way for him to get that.

"I can't. Have to stay near the water to survive, and I've only been able to follow the rivers so far inland before it gets a lot harder to do so!" Sarivi shook his head at himself, tendrils of hair flying into his face before he pushed them back behind his webbed ears. "Are you heading south then? Or over the mountains? Is there a city down south too? I haven't explored everything so I figured I probably missed somewhere with lots of people!"

If she had any idea where people were then that could be really good for both of them... Granted, from what she had mentioned about her past it didn't seem very likely, but it could never hurt to ask!

The girl shook her head emphatically, "No, not really--I mean, we're kinda aware of what we're doing but we don't really think about anything unless it's new or different or exciting!" Like the end of the last earth, that had been fun! Spun her in a tizzy and destroyed the fjords, unfortunately, but oh, what a ride! She had been conscious for years, hadn't been lulled back into normalcy since the change! And now, well, look at her! Amazingly interesting! She could see! She still wasn't sure what love was, though.

Oh! But "mammal" was something that she knew! Excited about being right, and knowing something, she launched into an explanation of what a "mammal" was. "Well-uhm--there's a lot of them! They mostly live on land, but they're in the sea, too, like the-the dolphins, and they mostly have fur, but some don't, and they have their own body heat, and--oh!--their children aren't born in eggs!" She finished proudly, grinning for knowing something.

"I think that I felt more then I was south," She said with a slightly silly grin, "They don't really like the cold! But we can go find out together, right?" Traveling with him would be fun! They could find stuff out together and she would have someone to talk to and he could teach her to swim! She wished that she could teach him to fly, but probably not. Which was a shame, because flying was so fun. She couldn't fly anymore, though, either, but that was alright, because now she could see. It was almost a fair trade, except that she couldn't feel stuff as well as before.

The sprite's earfins twisted a little bit at the first words. Only things that were new or different? He could see how that could be fun... Old things could be fun too though! Sometimes little things were just beautiful, like trying to see the sunset from all different types of places. Though he supposed she hadn't ever been able to see that before now.

His mind swung back from whatever musings it had been on the brink of falling into at her next words, and his eyes lit up as he realized he was about to learn something he hadn't known before. Sarivi fixed his gaze on her as she spoke, filing the information back in his mind and grinning in amazement. So there was something of the same between water creatures and land creatures then? He had always just thought of Dolphins as fish who could breath air like he could! "I guess I'm not one then!" He said, answering the earlier question, "Our littles are formed in eggs. It's this whole complicated ceremony and they always do ten of them at once, not just one or two like land things do. I've seen dolphins with their littles though, and I guess they're the same way! I hadn't thought of separating on something like that! Fur makes sense though..." The sprite frowned slightly "I think I have my own heat though, so maybe I'm somewhat that but not totally or something."

Sarivi stopped himself from rambling on even more to actually contemplate what she had finished up saying with. He hadn't planned on stopping this soon... But it was already starting to get cold, and he really didn't love the cold all that much. One thing he had gotten one of the few humans he'd already met to tell him about was that it tended to get chiller as one went more north. Exactly why that happened utterly baffled the boy, but apparently that was how it worked.

"Well if you're going to find people I might as well!" He said, grinning brightly after a few more moments of consideration. The sprite shifted his stance a little, webbed fingers splaying out as he bounced on his heels again, "I would need to turn out sometime soon anyways, and you're the first person I've found who's looking for answers to questions too!"

Releah tilted her head, mulling over what he had said. "Maybe... it's only for animals?" she suggested, "I mean, you can't classify wins spirits like that because I don't think that we're born. At least, we can't remember being born or having a childhood or a family. I've often wondered what is was like--and what's being an egg feel like? Do you remember? Do you have sibling? What's that like?" Oh. She was off track again.

Heading south was beginning to sound good now--night was falling and her head was really cold. She pulled the hood up over her black hair, but that didn't help her nose. She needed a scarf! Releah sighed a little, at least she wasn't shivering. Temperature was such a bother! It was easier when the only time she felt heat was during volcano eruptions and forest fires. And now! Cold at the slightest wind! Horrible.

Finally getting back on track, she said, "Yay! We'll have so much fun! We can learn things and ask questions and get answers and double team people!"

Sarivi shifted his feet a little as he thought over that, barely getting his mind into wondering about that before the girl suddenly cut herself off and started in on the questions. Once she had paused he laughed, grinning at her, "I can't remember that far back! First memory I can think of was at least a couple years after I was already out of the egg." His mind flicked back to the ocean, to discovering things for the first time... Especially fish. Scary things, fish. He could the first time he had gone liquid, and it had been the strangest but at the same time most exhilarating thing.

Of course, siblings were something he had in abundance. "Lots of siblings though!" He half laughed to himself, thinking of the small tribe of people in his family... Which was considerably more than a small tribe if extended family was included, especially since sprites didn't define family within the same small unit that people here did "That was always fun, especially with the ones who were littles when I was one! We got into a lot of trouble together!"

He couldn't imagine not having grown up with them really. The other sprites had shaped him so much into what he was... "Do you not have any then?" He asked, tilting his head curiously. "I'd think it was a lot better than being alone. Do people do that? Keep littles alone? How could someone actually learn things right if they didn't have a bunch of other littles with them to figure out what they were doing wrong?"

The sprite stopped himself from outwardly musing more as the wind spoke again. Her words caused him to giggle slightly, imagining the trouble that they could get themselves into. Humans always seemed to be taken aback with just one person lashing them with questions! What would their reaction be to two? Probably something amusing, and maybe with two he would be more likely to get the answers that he wanted when interesting things came up!

"That's what I want to do anyways! It'll be so much more fun to find things with someone else looking too!" He exclaimed, grinning even more widely at her. Of course, that had more questions coming up in his mind, but he settled on the one that was bugging at him the most, "Are you looking for anything specific, other than the mage? Or just different things to find?" The boy shook his head at himself, grinning impishly, "I just love learning just about everything!"

"Oh, I've never had a family," Releah said, smiling sadly, "It would have been terribly lonely, except that I could never really grasp most feelings, except excitement or curiosity or patience. Hearing soap operas and the like was confusing." Releah would like a family; it would be nice. Maybe Sarivi would be her adopted family! But he had said that he had a lot of family already. Well, she would just consider him family, and not tell him! Yes, that sounded like a good idea. He didn't have to know.

Looking at her new family member—Brother? Cousin? Uncle? Perhaps not uncle. Brother, she had always wanted siblings. Older or younger? Well—she was older than him, technically, but it didn't feel that way. [i[Twins, [/i]  she decided. Twins would be fun. They should work on speaking in unison! It was too bad no one would actually believe that they were twins... Not that she was probably going to tell anyone. She might not know much about human customs, but she didn't think that they went around just randomly declaring people that they had just met their family. This was probably true with other species, as well. But if she didn't tell him, how was she going to convince him that they should speak in unison? Bugger.

To cover up this brief lapse in her thought process, Releah grinned brighter, "I want to see stuff! And know stuff! And make some friends! And I want to learn about emotions, because as for as I can tell it's like being orange!" Emotions, that is. She hadn't been able to really see any yet, which upset her, because that was what she was most looking foreword to.

That really was rather sad... Though he supposed it was totally different from how he had grown up, and it would have been hard for her to be sad about something she didn't really understand. Really, he couldn't imagine not constantly having a barrage of emotions running through his mind. That... That was just how he was!

One thing had him totally confused though. "What's a soap opera?" He asked, brow furrowing slightly as he tried to figure that out. He knew what soap was, it was that odd stuff that humans used to clean themselves, the slick blocks that they sometimes put flowers and such in to keep things smelling good. Maybe it was a type of soap? "What does soap have to do with emotions?" He added, shaking his head then brushing the resulting hair from his eyes and blinking at her in curiosity. "Does that go with how they're so body conscious maybe? I suppose to get soap on themselves they'd have to take all of those pesky clothes off, and they seem to link that to emotions and stuff... Is that it?"

It would have helped had he known what in the world 'opera' was. Though then he probably would have assumed it had to do with soap and singing on a stage... Closer, but not exactly the reality.

His mind flickered back as she spoke again. His fins flared a little as he grinned back at her, "Seeing and knowing stuff is what I want to do to! There's so many interesting things up on land that I've never even had an idea existed before!" That she needed friends went without saying... Sarivi couldn't imagine not having friends to go back to, even if they had all jokingly called him insane for wanted to venture up on land, where they suddenly went from strong and fast to impossibly weak. Their loss, they would have to learn things just from what he said now instead of seeing it themselves!

Of course, what she said actually gave something he could imagine... Though he wasn't sure exactly how emotions could be like being a color, that didn't make much sense to his mind. "Emotions are... Well they're like the feelings you said you had before, except a lot more of them! Like if you start acting differently or feeling differently about something, that's an emotion! Being happy at finding someone to travel with is an emotion, same with if you felt lonely before. There are a lot of them and we're always feeling some type of it!"

Oh. Right. "They don't have them anymore," she said, and was going to leave it at that except that he seemed terribly interested in it but had the idea all wrong and it wasn't like it was going to hurt anyone for him to know... She thought for a moment about how to explain it so that he would understand. Oh, why did the world have to go kablooey? It was so inconvenient.

"They were like really dramatic plays," She said, biting her lip for a moment, "And a lot of them were sponsored—paid for—by the people that made soap. They had really ridiculous love where everyone was jealous or in love or sleeping with or hating everyone else. Where is love, anyway, and how can it have that many people in it?" Maybe it was a country. "Is it a country?"

She'd always thought that emotions were like special patterns or something, because when she was a wind spirit she'd searched long and hard for something that felt like love but no matter where she went she felt nothing like "love" or "sadness". Just rock and ice and fur. When she had searched for "evil", for "trust", for "hope, she had found sand and water and people. Releah thought that it must be something that you see or taste, because she couldn't find it.

But now she could see and taste, too, and she hadn't felt it, she didn't think. Maybe she had missed it? But—he had continued talking—"Feeling?" she asked, confused, "But I felt all around the world, and I couldn't find it."

Sarivi fixed his eyes on her as she explained, his mind trying to wrap around it. He really didn't understand still, mostly because his culture didn't have an equivalent of theatre, but he figured from the word 'play' that it was some sort of game. Why people would play a game like that -- and what in the world it had to do with soap, she said that the people who made soap paid for it... but why would you pay for a game? -- totally elluded him, but he supposed it was just another oddity of human nature that he hadn't managed to figure out yet.

He would have questioned her more on the subject, but by that point she had asked her own questions, and the question itself caught him offguard enough that he simply stared at her for a moment.

"You don't know what love is?" He exclaimed, blinking at her incredulously. Concepts like that were ones that he had simply grown up with... But now that he tried to actually think of an explanation he found the possibilities slipping through his mind like air through his fingers. "It's... It's like a feeling. Not one that you feel with your hands, but it's an emotion! In your head. Like if you don't know what something means you feel a certain way in your head, and sometimes it'll make your body feel a different way!"

The sprite paused, arms flinging out and his head going back as he tried to think of some way to explain it. Especially love. The others he had felt more, but that one he had only felt in the platonic way, for his siblings and parents. From what he knew from others it was an even more amazing thing to feel when it was for someone in a decidedly less platonic way.

"Love is a really special feeling... There are different kinds too, like for siblings, or for someone more special. You won't always know when you feel it, but it means that you'd do anything for someone if you love them, even die for them sometimes." He shrugged, grinning a little sheepishly, "I guess you have to just feel stuff like that to really know what it's like. Little things you've probably already felt though!"

Did... he just say that she had to feel stuff with her brain? What?

Releah blinked and then nodded slowly, like she understood, and said brightly, "I see!" She didn't see. Didn't understand. But apparently it was only of those things that you can't really tell someone about. She would figure it out. Eventually. Hopefully.

But let's face it. She might enjoy sight, and taste. But she wasn't planning on staying in this mortal coil. She liked getting answers to her questions, she liked meeting Sarivi, but he had other people who liked him. They had just met. She had just met the world. She liked it, but it was too strange. For creatures who are only alert when something is out of the norm, this experience was like torture for Releah. Her dreams were frantic and muddled, and when awake she couldn't stop looking at everything. She wanted to fade again; she had been on the cusp of it when the mageling Diana had pulled her into this body. And now there was no escape because humans didn't do that. And it wasn't worth it.

So though Releah wanted to understand emotions greatly, though it had puzzled her for thousands of years, she wasn't heartbroken that she didn't currently understand. She would let the topic drop, and maybe she would grow to understand by the end of her term in this body. The woman would not be heart broken if she didn't understand.

TO change the subject, she said, "Tell me about what it's like to swim!"

Sarivi bounced on his heels as Releah said that she saw, a childlike grin spreading over his face. He was rather overjoyed that he had actuallly managed to get the concept across on the first try! It wasn't like it was something very easy to understand if she didn't know what it was. Especially if the concept was totally foreign... Though she did seem really smart, so maybe that helped her catching on so quickly! Usually Sarivi had to puzzle over things a bit before he managed to actually get the things he hadn't been exposed to before.

Her next question caught him a little by surprise, making him blink at her for a moment before grinning again, "I guess you wouldn't know how to swim either, would you? Not much use for swimming while you're all made of air stuff."

Instead of launching into an answer, he paused for a moment, head tilting and eyes going vacant as he tried to think of a way to describe what swimming was like, especially for him... He had a feeling it was different for humans, stuck with just their arms and legs and no fins to actually make it fun. They seemed to have fun though, maybe it was because they had no comparisons.

"Swimming... It's... It's exhilarating." He finally said, eyes flickering back to her with a smile, "There's so much pure strength in being able to send myself shooting through the water, dodging around things, twisting my fins just a little bit to get what I want. It's probably somewhat like when you were air, only instead of being water we're often in a solid form. Totally weightless, as it were, and able to go pretty much anywhere" The sprite paused again before speaking, "It's different for humans, I'd imagine, but really swimming is just something that we learn from when we're little littles on up. To use our muscles right and twist our fins right for directioning. Actual swimming is pretty easy, just using our armfins and legfins to propell us thorugh the water, using them in different ways for different cadences and speeds..."

For a moment the boy glanced out at the ocean, "We could swim here... Maybe not the best place for you to start though, since there are some strong currents in this area. I would be able to pull you out easily, but I know humans can only spend so much time underwater since they don't have gills to breath it with like we do... Maybe if I find a river in this area... Or a lake or something! Those don't have currents! Is there a lake here?"

[I suppose I can jump in now.  I waited because I didn't want to interrupt the posting pattern.]

It had been six days of travel since he set off toward the coast of the continent, having tired of the small village whose residence decided they didn't want to be too friendly with a demon that just happened to cause half the townspeople to lose their minds.  But all Deimos did was declare that he had done it in self defense against certain pitchforks of flesh-poking death and set off without a second thought.  It wasn't like he had anything to take with him though so leaving a place behind became pretty easy these days, taking with him only the black leather clothes on his back and the shadow that clung to his shoulders in the fashion of a dark, smokey cape.  It would be an easy and common sight to see his tall form walking away toward the sunrise with silvery white hair and crimson sash ends flowing freely in the wind.  Then again there wasn't much to do in a thousand year exile on some world these humans called Earth.

Deimos, other than not wanting to be driven through with giant forks, traveled because he had long wanted to see something mortals called 'the sea'.  He had a vision of what this might be but things were different in the Netherrealm of Etheros.  There, time had no corporeal relevance, everything seemed pretty much as if in an eternal sunset and that which were considered oceans on Earth were seas of red on Etheros.

After scaling the many cliffs and wandering through many confusing footpaths, he made it through the mountains and the sound of small pebbles crunching beneath his black leather boots told him that he had reached the shoreline.  He had trialed through blistering cold, a small gang of would-be thieves, large bloodthirsty animals, and other dangers that could quite possibly prove to be lethal even to an immortal creature as himself.  Deimos squinted slightly as he moved through a small patch of trees before moving further onto the uneven layout of the sand.  And before his sight came the edge of the land and beginning of the infinite ocean, flooding red with the sunset.  And what might have proved to have been a glorious sight to others only caused a scoff to escape the demon's thin pale lips and his red-orange eyes to burn in triviality.

"I walked all the way toward here for this?!" he exclaimed loudly, leaning on one hip in disappointment.  But as he gazed more closely as to how the waves crashed against the shore and rocks to the left of him and washed away the sands into their eternal depths he suddenly reconsidered his first evaluation.  There was a certain beauty to be found in this sight, something he knew that couldn't be found in the deathly still oceans of Etheros, thick with screams and terror of lost souls.  These waters were blue with life, almost green at the correct angle, and moved with the same recklessness that coursed valiantly through Deimos himself.  He smiled slightly, a menacing smile on a considerably pale face crowned in long white hair, braided at the front to keep it from his face, and walked toward the shore, wading until he was waist deep into the water, sash floating.  It was such an unusual feeling, this coolness, but not one that he wasn't completely unfamiliar with.  It was strangely soothing and thus caused him to toss his entire body into the water, shadowy cape and all.

After about ten minutes of swimming and letting his body drift southward while keep the waves from carrying him away, Deimos opened his eyes when he felt his body hit the shore once again. And with the fading sunlight disappearing over the ranges, he climbed to his feet to find two strange figures before him.  They were but about ten feet away.  Deimos took three precarious steps toward them, clenching his fists in alertness with the shadow hanging on his back hissing viciously in his head.  His steps covered about six feet of the distance between them and he spoke warningly toward the short hooded figure, "Who are you?"

Before the strange, rude man appeared, Releah had been enraptured, trying to think of something that felt like that, and She though deeply for many minutes before exclaiming, "It's like starting a tornado! Or a sand storm!" And indeed it was, because you twirled and twirled and twirled and soon you were off, and nothing else mattered because you would just go around and around and around for what seemed like forever, dodging things caught up in your swirl and eventually burst out the top and continue on your way. Releah had done this often, and had unknowingly cause many, many deaths. Not that this really meant anything to her, because Releah would never die. She might fade, might forget, might become so bored with the world that she "slept" for a very long time, but she would not die.

She was about to say to him that no, she didn't know if there were, but that they should find one(because it would be fun!) when someone came out of the ocean and wanted to know who they were!

If Releah had been a normal human, she would have been offended--after all, he was the one to climb out of the water and be all wet and creepy! What right did he have to act like they had threatened him? But Releah, obviously, was not at all a regular human. So, instead of feeling vaguely threatened and insulted, she felt excited! Because look, a third person that she would now know!

Following this vein of logic, Releah immediately and almost literally bounced over to him, words pouring from her mouth as well as Sarivi's, the kind of babble that reminds you of a large ball bit breaking--you see it coming, it fills you with dread, you know you should run--but you're so stunned that you just stand there.

"I'm Releah and this is Sarivi! What's your name? What are you? You're wet! Are you a water sprite like Sarivi? That would be cool. Do you like to swim? Why were you in the ocean, if you don't? Are you human? Do you know where we could find humans? Are you a mage? Did you see a lake on your way here? What's that, and why is it hissing at me? Maybe it's purring, is it purring?" She eventually paused to take a breath, because her body was still human, and then she started up again, "Are you cold? Are you hungry? I don't have any food, but I've never eaten before, either, is it fun? What's being hungry like? What's your favorite color?" She broke off rather abruptly, apparently realizing that the man would need some time to answer her questions. Was he a man? Maybe he was a woman! he didn't look like a woman, but what did Releah know? Seeing wasn't really her forte, after all, nore was telling the gender of someone by how they look.

Sarivi's immediate response to Releah's comparison was "What're those?" He blinked at the girl curiously, shifting on his feet as he tried to imagine. Obviously it had something to do with the type of feeling that came from swimming... But since she had literally been air, it was impossible to know for sure what she was talking about. Maybe some type of air currents! Or weather! She might not know, being as new to all this from this side of the spectrum, but he was sure that if he remembered to ask some land person they met up with he'd get his answers somehow!

He was perched on the edge between just waiting for her to answer and asking more questions about it when the new person appeared. The boy's head snapped towards the sound of words and he blinked at the man for a moment, a bit surprised. He looked a little bit different than Sarivi was used to humans looking like... And he had come out of the water! Not walking down the coast, but out of the water! Maybe he was some sort of water creature from the north? Certainly wasn't any type that Sarivi had seen before, but it was fairly likely that he would have not seen something in his as of yet short time in this region.

After a brief moment of surprised silence he started to burst out with questions, then stopped himself with a sheepish grin after only a couple of them as he realized that Releah was doing the same thing. It would be rather impossible for the poor man to catch anything, with them both barraging him like that!

The sprite's fins flared as he curiously fixed his eyes on the man, ears tilting a little to catch Releah's questions, grinning in slight amusement at some of them and agreeing with others that she asked. He could have told her that the man definitely wasn't another water sprite... But a lot of the others perked his interest as well.

Since he wasn't speaking at the moment... The boy's eyes flicked over the man, studying him and automatically trying to fit the pieces together in his mind as he would a puzzle. Only he didn't quite have enough pieces to classify the man the way he was trying to. He looked close to human, to Sarivi's inexperienced eyes, but he wasn't sure if he could definitely say that for sure. At this close distance he had to tilt his head a little to look up at the man and study his face, silently (at least for the moment) searching for clues.

Slowly but surely Deimos unclenched his fist when the hooded one, who Deimos could tell was a female human from experience and apparently called herself Releah, spoke to him in a burst of questions.  Of course a creature of his trained intelligence was wont to realize that if she or the slightly shorter being beside her wanted to attack him they would have done so already and would not have been bouncing around on their heels like silly children.  From what the demon could observe in the face of the girl, she was not young enough to be a child but young enough be beautiful, though not of his tastes.  His eyes flared momentarily as he studied her smiling face as she persisted in her barrage of questioning.

Instead of getting annoyed as he was wont to do in a situation as this, with someone he barely knew having to ask him, the Lord of Shadow, so many questions that would have made a less intelligent being's head spin.  He thought her actions toward him so utterly silly he smiled only a slightly, a thin contemptuous grin that went in unison with the way his eyes danced in belittling laughter.  She asked if he was human and this furthered his amusement.  No, of course he was not human and while he appeared as one who had been long dead for at least three whole days, he was not one in the least.  He had paled skin, as most dead did, and burning orange eyes and glistening white hair that now dripped incessantly with water.  Deimos slightly widened his grin as he waited patiently for her to finish for a breath and nonchalantly squeezed the water out of his hair before combing back the front with his long, slender fingers.  He answered slowly and that same cool politeness he awarded strangers in observing the human social structure.  "You ask a lot of questions for such a tiny person, but I'll indulge you.  I am Deimos, the demon of shadow.  That hissing you hear is my cape telling me what she thinks of you.  Don't bother talking to it because she can speak only to me.  The reason I'm wet is because I was drifting in what humans call the ocean.  It was only for a moment until I landed farther down on the shore.

"I did see a few humans down that way but they were all strewn across the ground and covered in something red."  He paused for a moment and pointed across the beach to the east.  "But that was three days ago.  I'm sure they've all rotted by now.  Cold and hunger are not as fun as you may think, but thankfully demons don't need to eat as often as mortals do."  He stopped for a moment, thinking about what she meant by asking him if he was a mage.  His brows furrowed into a what appeared as contemplative grimace, and his eyes burned.  "I've--er practiced various magics in my travels.  What do you want with a mage?"

It was then, quite suddenly, that his attention momentarily turned to the creature standing beside her whom she had called Sarivi and, apparently, was a water sprite.  Despite his immense knowledge, Deimos couldn't say that he had come across such a creature before but he wasn't in a hurry to get to know it.  After a second of consideration, he figured the sprite to be male.  Out of habit, the demigod sniffed in contempt him and gave him a nasty glare before spitting out rhetorically, "And just what the hell are you looking at?"

[Me: Deimos.
Deimos: Yes?
Me: You are such an asshole.
Deimos: I know.]

It took her a moment to remember what being covered with "something red" would look like. Like being covered in red water, right? But she'd never seen red water, or paint, and neither she nor the mageling had been injured before, where she could see. She also didn't know what "rotting" would look like, but thought that it was probably really icky because it didn't sound like something she'd want to happen to her.

But! That was not what needed to be addressed at the moment! Instead, the reason that she had left for the more populated areas should be addressed. It was important, after all. Just as cheerful--taking his smile to be a friendly thing, because she did not know emotions well and she could not reed them in facial expressions except that she knew that people were happy when the smiled, weren't they?--she said, "It's nice to meet you, Deimos!" She was grinning at him, not, and her bouncing had upset her hood, and it began to slip from her head, revealing her green eyes and her nose that was just a little too small.

The former wind spirit continued, "Am I really that small? The mage child is the only other human I've met! Have you met a lot of humans? Do you like them? The books I read said that some demons eat humans, are you going to eat me? I don't think that I really want to be eaten, it seems like it would be uncomfortable." Releah paused for breath, and then launched into the part of her babble that actually mattered, "Well see up North on the big, cold flat place, there's this child mage that lives there and I was just minding my own business blowing some snow about and having a good old time and then she had this out burst of magic and there was a whistle and now look at me!" she gestured to her apparently normal body, seeming a little upset about it, "I mean being able to see is nice but I don't like being conscious all the time unless I'm sleeping, and the sense of touch and hearing is so much worse and less spread out and I want to go back to how I was but the mageling didn't know how and there wasn't anything in her books, so she said that I should go south because there were more mages there that might be able to help me!"

By the end of this, Releah was a little frantic, bouncing on her heels again and giving the impression that if her hands weren't tucked inside the cloak she would be waving them around emphatically to try and explain what had happened to her. Seeing stuff and learning stuff was nice but she wanted to fly again. She wanted that feeling of freedom back, the kind that you can't feel when trapped in a human body. Releah hoped that he would help her; he seemed nice enough to her. This was probably because she didn't know enough to hear the meanness in what he said to Sarivi or the mocking way in which his eyes laughed.

[[Me: Releah.
Releah: What?
Me: Shut up.
Releah: What does "shut up" mean?]]

Sarivi kept his eyes fixed on the strange man as he was speaking to Releah, wondering what a demon was. He'd never heard of those before, and they certainly weren't something that he had ever run into under water... Unless they went by a different name there? That was always possible! Though Releah's comment that she's read somewhere that demons ate people was a little disturbing. And the description the man gave of the dead humans and what Sarivi was pretty sure was blood was even more disturbing... At least it didn't sound as if the demon was the one to kill them? It was odd, hearing someone caring so little over death, and the boy wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

The sprite took a step back, though fat lot of good it would actually do him if the stranger was dangerous. Now he was rather glad he had chosen to quiet up until the other was done talking... Though maybe Releah didn't know that it was good to give space to things that may or may not be dangerous. She certainly didn't seem to be reading anything into the strange man's manner. Maybe the boy was overreacting a little, but he'd figured out pretty early on that he was rather delicate on land, and the stranger was between them and the water so he'd err on the side of keeping his fins intact.

Of course... The man was smiling at Releah, so maybe he wasn't near as dangerous as Sarivi's overactive imagination was telling him. One little comment, and off his mind went, assuming things and trying to fit them in. Hardly a good way to think, letting himself get biased about his puzzles like that. And since he still didn't know what a demon was, and asking lots of questions wasn't a good idea until he knew if the much taller man was dangerous or not... He got to be a puzzle. Either that or something to pepper with questions from far away, though Releah certainly seemed to be doing a good job at that!

The sprite blinked in surprise and took another couple steps backwards as the man's attention suddenly switched to himself. And judging by the glare, didn't like him for some reason. It had the boy utterly confused, an expression which no doubt shone through clearly on his face. The man had seemed almost nice towards the girl, why was he suddenly glaring at him! After a moment of just blinking up at the man in confusion, Sarivi answered, voice tinged with nervousness, "Um... You? Isn't that sort of obvious since I am looking up that way..."

Okay, probably not the best way to say that. He glanced over towards Releah and took another step back, fins twisting a little. His arms crossed as he moved, limbs and fins partially covering his bare chest and fingers half grabbing onto the fins of the arms opposite in a nervous habit he didn't actually know he had. After half a moment's pause he asked hesitantly, "What are you? I know you said a demon but I don't know what those are..."

((Hehe, assholes are fun to play with though! At least for me, Sarivi probably wouldn't agree >.>;;))

Deimos quirked an eyebrow at the girl with a stoically hardened face.  Cold flat place?  He supposed she meant the tundra.  Why would she be out in the middle of a tundra, a hundred miles away from any possible civilization at least from what Deimos assumed.  But she said there was a small mage child that she encountered, so that meant that there must have been more people around, parents or guardians of some kind to care for the child.  Then Releah had his full attention when she referred to her body and he recognized the fact that she seemed to be disgruntled because of it.  Of course his natural maleness took over for a moment as he admired her face, smiling like a serial killer, when suddenly his curiosity claimed him.  So she wasn't human before?  He didn't know exactly how one became human, other than by spiritual means or religion or something stupid like that, but as it was: Releah stated that she had just recently been turned human.  And by magic!  Perhaps she was trapped?  Deimos was just about to ask what she was before she 'turned human' when Sarivi's comment made his head swivel in the water sprite's direction.

His white brows furrowed on his paled face as he recognized his question.  Deimos was almost appalled inside, though his face did not show it, at the question.  What was a demon?  Did he really ask this?  Sarivi must have because Deimos was neither deaf nor stupid and was reported to be an excellent listener.  "Demons are the creatures of the underworld, otherwise known as 'Hell' to humans.  They are the dominant creatures of monstrous entity, power beyond your wildest dreams," he answered tentatively.  "I am not just any demon.  I am a demigod, not of complete divine status but of immense power.  It is the lesser demons, which bow to me and do my bidding.  To put in short, a demon is a monstrous creature, dangerous and destructive....  May that quell your curiosity for the time being."

With that he turned his attention back to Releah and asked the question he intended to ask before Sarivi spoke.  But before his opened his mouth, he moved stopped her incessant bouncing by clasping hardened hands on her shoulders. "Stop bouncing...  Now, Ms. er-Releah, what, exactly, were you before you 'turned human'?"  Deimos let go off her accordingly and furrowed his brows curiously, no longer smiling, but looking to her expectantly.

[Ahh, short and sucky post!  Sorry for taking so long guys, writer's block and laziness, a bad combination for any weekend.]

"You're not a monster!" Releah told him cheerfully, "You're really nice!" Ah, Releah. Ever and always completely oblivious. It was likely that she didn't even really grasp the meaning of 'nice'. Not that that was really important. Releah didn't grasp a lot of things, but really 'mean' is something that would be more important for her to understand, because at the moment she was assuming that everyone was nice, and was therefore reacting like everyone was being nice to her--which, in fact, they weren't, always.

This hadn't yet gotten her in any trouble, but doubtless trouble was eminent. She was assuming Deimos was nice, after all.

When Deimos' hands rested on her shoulders, Releah attempted continue bouncing, until he asked her to stop. Which she did, and immediately cataloged that someone placing their hands on her shoulders meant that they wanted her to stop bouncing in excitement. Honestly, though, quelling her bouncing didn't do any good, because she was still bouncing on the inside and so the result of this was that it still seemed as if she was bouncing when she spoke. And besides that, she now had more energy, which she used to talk faster, words occasionally blurring together.

And then came the question. That was a mistake, because when you asked Releah a question, she found it hard to simply give straightforward, concise answers. When she did give a concise answer, she felt the need to elaborate on it. And she did. It was unclear why she did this; it's possible that she thought that other people were as curious as her, and so would want to know everything even vaguely related to what they asked about. It's also possible that she enjoyed being able to talk.

Never the less, Releah launched into the story of what she had been and how, exactly, she had come to be standing on that particular piece of beach with Sarivi. Of course, she gave entirely too much detail, and started with the most oblivious statement, which didn't really explain anything.

"I was the wind!" she crowed, in the sort of joyful tone that made you imagine her waving her hands above her head while she said this, and also bouncing. She continued, words coming out faster then they had to in some places, "I-was-the wind for a really-really-really longtime, see, and-I-just blew and blew things-all-around and I explored-mountains and forests and everything but-then-I-was up in that big-flat-cold-place and there was this whistle-and-then-I wasn't the wind anymore, I was human!" There was a pause for breath, and then Releah started back up, "See, what-happened-was-that there was this mage child up there in-this-big-drafty-house and she-was-alone and she-accidentally-made-me-human and then she didn't know how-to-make-me wind again, so she said 'Go-south-and-find-a-mage-who-knows-stuff'! So I-have-to-go-south-and-find someone who knows how to fix me because I miss being-the-wind!"

Sarivi watched the demon with wide eyes while the man gave his explanation, feeling more and more like he should have kept his distance with each additional word. He might not have known what some of what the demon mentioned actually -meant-... But one thing was obvious, and that was that whatever the man -looked- like, he was definitely dangerous. Very dangerous... Granted, on land Sarivi was horribly weak compared to just a human, so if this person was so dangerous to -them- then he would probably be able to take Sarivi apart like wet paper. Which wasn't exactly a wonderful thought.

His curiosity was far from quelled... But his sense of self preservation had kicked in enough to keep him quiet. The demon-man-god-person really didn't seem to like him anyways, so until Sarivi could figure out if Deimos was actually likely to live up to the explanation he had just given should the sprite annoy him... Well, it was probably just better to keep his mouth shut and let Releah ask questions for the both of them.

She certainly wasn't scared of the demon, -that- was for sure! Sarivi grinned faintly at her outburst, glancing between her and the demon to see how he would react. Maybe Deimos -wasn't- as dangerous as he said he was... After all, he hadn't actually done anything, just said things that were vaguely frightening. And Releah didn't seem to find him threatening at all!

The demon almost couldn't believe his ears.  Was she so naïve and oblivious to the fact that he was a dangerous being and wouldn't wince at the thought of tearing through her like parchment?!  Deimos' face had not changed and would likely not reveal the amount of offense she set upon him.  Though he was not beyond mindless violence, which he considered never hurt every now and again, he was also intelligent enough to recognize an advantage when he saw one.  While he wanted to wipe the achingly cheery smile from Releah's face with a quick strike, he did not quite yet understand what she meant by being the wind and therefore did not yet understand that being human was something foreign to her, he also considered what advantages could be gained from her presence.  He was never one to discard a situation quickly unless he saw immediately that the prospect had nothing to offer him.

He thought about what she said for a moment.  She was in search of a mage, or at least someone powerful enough in magic to turn her back into "the wind" as she so carelessly referred to herself.  He could not yet understand how one could be the wind because as far as he knew, the wind was nothing but itself and comprised of tiny particles that floated through it.  He was as of yet oblivious to anything he couldn't perceive with his senses or at least understand conceptually in his mind.  Though Deimos' primary power was shadow manipulation, able to transform darkness into corporeal objects to defeat his enemies or creating realistic illusions of the fears, causing insanity, he had exception experience in magics unknown to this world.  He considered certain possibilities for a moment.

After a long time of not speaking, he gave her a look that was both condescending and confused, his eyes sparking at irregular intervals.  "So you were the wind....  Then suddenly you became human and now you need someone who can turn you back into the wind..." he clarified for himself.  It may have been ironic of him, an exiled demon, to think of this girl as strange but it was a concept that wasn't far from his mind.  Surely, he had come across people who were able to maintain a thirty minute conversation with a piece of bread, but never one who actually believed themselves to something as incorporeal as the wind.  But, he sighed to himself because there was no point in arguing the inarguable.  She seemed innocent enough to be completely honest, this was a concept he understood early on in his time on earth.

He considered a thought for quite a while before deciding to speak of it.  Deimos chose his words very carefully.  "Ms. Releah...I have only one thing to say and it is a binding offer which pretty much means that once you take it, there is no going back.  If you understand what I am saying, then listen to me very carefully—and stop bouncing, it is very difficult to talk to you when you're practically jumping right out of your skin—I will help you, but only if you agree to give me something of my choosing when I decide.  Deals with demon are things involving equivalent exchange.  But my offer stands, I'll help you return to your normal form if you agree to whatever it is that I decide to ask for.  What do you say?"

[Sorry for taking so long guys.  I was just being lazy and procrastinating a lot.  Again, I apologize.]

Yes.

Yes, she was so naïve and oblivious to the fact that he was a dangerous being and wouldn't wince at the thought of tearing through her like parchment. In fact, had the occasion been right, Releah wouldn't have hesitated to hug him. Luckily for her, however, the moment was not right. In the future, though, she would surely make a mistake of some sort like this--and hopefully by that time, Deimos would like her enough to only maim her. None of this passed through Releah's mind, of course. She didn't think like that.

His long silence might have unnerved someone else, but to Releah it was nothing odd and she just kept grinning inanely as if nothing was wrong. Because, to her, nothing was. She was talking to a nice man about what she used to be and how she'd like to go back. He was momentarily stunned into silence or he was thinking or he had nothing to say. For someone who had spent centuries without "talking" to others, without even really thinking, a moment or two of silence was almost pitifully short.

Almost everyone thought that Releah was strange, and that's because she was. She was out of place. her true place, she was sure, was in the sky and the air, making it go, go, go, and twirl and blow. Creeping into every cranny she could and speeding across plains and crashing into building and stealing people's head scarves. Tugging at flags and helping ships along and feeling the texture of the world. Not stuck in the mortal coil.

At his offer, though, Releah did stop the bouncing that she hadn't even noticed, and giggle, for two reasons. One, the comment about trying to jump out of her skin(that was exactly what she was trying to do, you see--not with the bouncing, specifically, but that was really her main goal. She wondered if the pun had been on purpose but didn't ask.), and two--"You can't make deals with the wind, silly! I dunno how binding it is, but i wouldn't remember once I'm the wind again!" Just the thought of being the wind again made Releah give one of those annoyingly bright smiles, the ones that make you want to hide behind something or at least put on sunscreen and tinted glasses. Releah thought for a moment, and then said, "Unless it was something you wanted me to do in this body, but it's so weak and so odd... What did you have in mind? Is it something fun? Releah glanced behind her, at Sarivi, "What do you think?"

((uck... mines a little short, too, but i have to go to bed. I won't be on for a week; vacation.))

((I'm so sorry that it took me so long to answer! The 'net at home seemed to have decided that anytime I tried to reply was a good time to go boom so I finally gave up on it. I actually don't have 'net here yet... But as long as my neighbors don't secure theirs then I can just steal that! >.> At least until I figure out whatever thing I'm supposed to do to get my own))

Sarivi frowned a little at the offer, shifting uneasily on his feet. Maybe it was that the demon was already intimidating him more than a bit but... It didn't seem especially safe to make an open ended deal like that. The sprite might have been rather clueless most of the time, especially about how things were up here on land, but he wasn't stupid.

Or maybe binding deals were normal up here. Releah didn't seem to be overly worried, but maybe that was because she was used to things how she used to be, and not because the deal couldn't harm her... For all he knew, Deimos meant it was magically binding, and he had absolutely no idea how that might affect the girl once she managed to change back.

His mind whirled as he tried to think of what it was Deimos might want her to do. From everything the man had said, Sarivi figured that he was definitely far more powerful than he was, and probably more so than Releah, so what was it that she could do that he would want help with?

When Releah asked him his eyes jerked back to her, though his expression stayed a little worried. "I... don't know." He answered, hazel eyes flickering back to the demon, "You wouldn't ask her to do anything... bad, would you?"

Better survival skills might have told him to just keep his head out of it, since the man already didn't seem to like him much... But he had gotten to really like Releah in the rather short time he'd been talking to her. She was nice, and fun! He didn't want anything bad to happen to her just because he'd been too wary to make himself bring up the possibility. It was rather obvious that the thought hadn't even crossed her mind!

Deimos, for starters, was not often wont to question the wherefore of a fortune that graced him, especially when said fortune took the form of something that would further his power.  Despite his ingenuity and self-imposed brilliance, he had not yet concocted a method of breaking through the hell gate and into Oblivion to investigate certain familial matters.  The reasons behind his desire to do so had nothing to do with his children, whom he missed dearly and, to the surprise of others, did in fact love.  No, the reasons concerned his father and the plotting against him.  It was true that the vying for power was existent in all the creatures of the Netherworld and such instinct was exacerbated further when offspring were favored as was the case with Deimos.  Albeit the youngest of Crydion's children, it was no secret that Deimos was the favorite of his father, evoking the animosity between his three older sisters, Hecate, Iris, and Ragna.

Deals with demons were sensitive things and he was yet to decide what he would want Releah to do.  But he would be sure to make it something evil and unscrupulous as was his nature.  He was well aware that he could ask for the typical soul, but knew that once she was allegedly the wind again such a promise would go unfulfilled.  He cast a glance at the water sprite and wrinkled his brow as he answered, "That remains to be seen, little fish boy.  I'll let you know when I make the decision."  He turned to Releah next.  "And don't worry Releah, you in human form is well enough for me..."  He smiled menacingly in response to her cheery grin, thinking in such a brief silence.

"I don't plan to make this deal beyond our time together.  So when you turn back, Releah, you don't have to worry about any debts; that I can assure you."   The terms were set as far as Deimos was concerned and were quite simple enough to be understood by even the most simple-minded of creatures.  He would help her attain her previous form of being 'the wind' (she was still a little nuts as far as he knew) as long as she agreed to carry out whatever it was that he wanted her to do.  Still, however, there had to be an agreement, a solid affirmation that would mark the beginning of his time with her.  "Both ends of the deal will be carried out; I give you my word so long as I have yours.  So do we have a deal?"

You know how sometimes, you bring out the Christmas lights, and you string them up, and one of the bulbs is out? Releah isn't that bulb, but she is the bulb that you replace the bulb that's out with. And it's just a little off color or a little too bright or dim, because the other bulbs have been there since at least the last ice age, and any new bulb is strange and out of place just because it's new. That's how Releah is. It's not that she's stupid; it's just that she doesn't have everything that she needs to be smart. She's new, fresh, very much a child in a world of adults, and she doesn't realize it. Everything, to her, is new and exciting. Even mundane things—the smallest corpse of trees might fascinate her for hours, though someone else of Releah's apparent age would no doubt pass it by without a thought.

Sarivi had offered his advice, and of course Releah took it into consideration, because he was her friend, wasn't he? She was fairly certain that she understood the concept of friends, if nothing else. It was when you liked someone and they liked you back, even if they wouldn't admit it. Or, that's what the mageling had told her. So she really did like Sarivi, and she was fairly certain that he liked her, too, so that made them friends, right? Still, there was something she didn't understand: "What's 'something bad', Sarivi?" But Deimos didn't seem upset by the possibility of "something bad", and he was really nice, so she wasn't too worried.

If Releah knew anything about anything, she would know that the smile on Deimos's face was not a nice, kind thing, but in fact would probably kill flowers if there were any about. But it was hard for her to connect the things that she had seen and heard and smelled as a wind spirit to situations. But this situation was one that she knew at least what to say, if not what to do. She spoke strangely confidently and seriously, as she had heard it spoken before by many voices, "In return for your help, I will give you something of equal value to you. So I speak, so I intend." Even her sweet alto voice, the intonement lost none of its gravity. It had that sort of sparkle to it, the one that might just be in your mind but still made you want to follow through—not that Releah, daft though she was, would consider breaking the agreement.

But after she had said this, she was back to her bubbly self, peering at him curiously as he smiled maliciously. Although she had swept across many faces and knew the feel of different expressions, she didn't know what they looked like. She couldn't see the little differences, only that the smile Deimos wore looked right on him, and so that was what prompted her to tell him with a sweet sort of cheery excitement, "I like your smile!" And she did.

Perhaps it was a good thing that Releah didn't know how or why to be or act scared. If she did, she would simply appear dim. Because she didn't know fear, because even if she felt it she would not be able to name nor act on it, she did not appear dim so much as absolutely off her rocker. Hitting stupid people is commonplace. Hitting crazy people is stupid, because crazy people are likely to go apeshit on you if you provoke them. And though Releah was neither stupid nor crazy (not permanently, at least) she did very, very much appear to be insane. This, perhaps, was the only thing that might keep her safe.

Sarivi had expected... He wasn't quite sure, but it wasn't for the demon to actually say it was a possibility. Granted, of course it would be, but he had... Didn't people usually at least try to lie about things like that?! Somewhere in the back of his mind he had been expecting an 'of course not' or -something-. Not 'that remains to be seen'.

And he wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that the demon said he would let Sarivi know about it. That could end up being bad for the little sprite, if what he had seen of Deimos was any indication thus far.

"I'm not a -fish-" He muttered under his breath, shifting nervously on his feet. This whole entire deal had his nerves on end... He wasn't sure that Releah knew enough to even recognize that it could be threatening! She seemed so... so... Well clueless was the less than nice way his mind was putting it, but it really was true. Way too true.

And with his mind on that track, it caught him totally off guard when Releah agreed to the deal how she did. He blinked at her, utterly surprised at the tone. If anything it was -comforting- how she suddenly switched back to the cheerful cluelessness he had come to expect in the very short time he'd been talking with her. And it was comforting how she'd phrased it... Though if the man managed to find a way to turn her back, he was pretty sure that would be a pretty big thing to repay.

"Something bad is... Like... Uh... I don't know. Like killing someone or... uh... stealing something or... something." He answered, rather belatedly, considering she had already agreed, "I guess it doesn't matter now though..."

As far as Deimos was concerned, a deal sealed was a done deal.  With a menacing grin on his wan face, he quickly clasped Releah's hand and shook at violently with his own pale one.  "Then let us begin, wind girl, and may our journey be fruitful."  He felt his red eyes burn as he moved past the water boy, whose own fading voice would have amused Deimos due to it being a sad attempt to save his friend from an agreement that could cost her her life; which she didn't seem too perturbed about.  Well, he would have if the comment about his smile hadn't made his face screw into a morose frown, the muscles of his jaw protruding from long use.  He didn't feel like beating the crap out of her just yet, but would store the offense for later; you know, when he could use a good punching bag.

He strode away from them for a few steps before swiveling about and suggesting in a voice that bequeathed no mercy, "I say we get a move on if we want to make it to the nearest town before sunset.  Most beings have a tendency to...become frail by the heralding of nightfall."  He shot the Sprite a dirty look, red eyes narrowed in an obvious show of distrust, before turning back around and persisting in his path down the beach.

The former bit of wind shrugged, and motioned to Sarivi to follow. As they walked, Releah continued to try to understand what something "bad" was. "I don't understand," She said frankly, frowning oddly. "This concept of... 'bad'. Killing... Stealing... What's... wrong?... with that? I took things all the time, when I was the wind. Scarves and papers and words and I take--took-ships off course all the time. Smashed them into rocks to feel the sound that they made. I joined my kin in great whirlwinds and killed millions."

She lapsed into silence, apparently remembering this. To humans, tornadoes were terrifying, strong, destructive. To Releah--to wind spirits--they were revels, a meeting and joining of wind spirits, sharing what they had seen, anything new, the only times when they really spoke. They had been the point of everything. That an hurricanes and storms, where they would sometimes converse with other elementals and elements. Wind spirits didn't die. You can't catch the wind and you can't control the wind, and so you certainly can't kill it.

She spoke again, hesitant, "And so I... Why is that bad? What does that mean? Undesirable? Is that right, Sarivi? But I've never minded if before." Killing or stealing in the horrid human form she was wearing would be harder, though, no doubt. But she could manage it.

[Hmm, is Whisper still here?]

((Yeah. Don't be impatient. :P ))

[You sure?  I haven't seen her around much lately.  Oh well, I'll be patient and wait.  *grumbles incoherently*]

((She's got good net now and will post soon. I waited like three months, you can wait two weeks, can't you? :P ))

[But of course...  It's just that when I wait, I suffer severe cases of writer's block for certain storylines if I haven't focused on them for a while.  I understand though and I shall put Deimos on hold until then.]

((I'm still here, just all of my threads the other people stopped responding and I haven't had time to start new ones >.>. You pretty much came back the -worst- time of the year for me to post XD The 'net at home doesn't work, and Tech's net always dislikes my computer for the first couple weeks back at school. Other than finals I'll at least have time and reliable 'net to post at least a few times a week from here on out though

Sorry if this post is totally off, have to get back in practice of writing him XP))


Sarivi shifted uneasily at the look the demon gave him. He wasn't sure by what the man meant exactly, but he was pretty positive that he didn't like that look. Wonderful, not only was he fairly sure that the demon was going to trick the only friend he'd made into doing something bad... But apparently didn't like him at all. Sarivi wasn't sure exactly why, since the sprite was fairly certain that there wasn't much he could actually do to Deimos. Even trying to tell Releah to be careful didn't seem to be actually doing much

Granted if dislike was all he had to deal with... Well, he'd be fine with that. Someone not liking him just meant that they didn't like him, even if that someone was apparently something really bad and strong.

Releah's questioning caught him completely off guard, and the little sprite paused in surprise a moment before stretching his legs to try to catch up. She had killed people? But... But she acted so nice! She -was- nice, nice and didn't know about much of anything and... "But... But... Why would you kill people just to have fun?! That's so mean!" He exclaimed, looking horrified. He'd -always- been taught killing was bad, that was one of the first things that they learned, how they were only allowed to kill the fish they had to, because killing for no reason was a bad thing to do.

Sarivi took a deep breath, chewing on his lip and wondering -how- you explained bad and murder and everything else to someone who didn't know anything about it? How did you explain something like the sorrow that resulted from the death or everything else to someone who didn't know? It wasn't like she -meant- to do bad things, right? "It's... Bad things mean that people don't like you. The more bad things you do, the more people hate you. The more good things you do, the more people like you. Every time you kill someone or steal something it's a bad thing."

He let his feet drag through the sand as they walked, wondering if he couldn't find some better way to show her how to do good things in this village. That was something to be happy about though! A human village meant more things to learn! Even if the scary demon might do something bad... Well he couldn't do that in an entire village full of people, right? And maybe he'd be able to find some water to sleep in there too.

Deimos listened to the water sprites attempt at an explanation of things that were 'bad', but the demon did nothing but scoff on the inside.  A sneer graced his deathly pale face as he thought, Anything that wasn't 'bad' wasn't worth doing.  But of course the sea rat wouldn't know about anything like that.  Squabble probably thinks watching sand is more fun that slicing a couple of throats...  But for all his brutality and penchant for all the bloodier things in life, Deimos was never one to cause trouble willy-nilly.  Such reckless behavior caused messes far more disastrous than the bloodbath it started with.

He said nothing in response and would persist to walk into the darkening sky.  Now this was his time, to be surrounded by a shadow in every corner of the environment.  Already he could feel his power increasing.  And in the distance could be seen the silhouette of a settlement breaching the horizon.  They were close now, so much so that Deimos could feel the very breath of humanity there.  It sickened him...

Still if there were any trouble, the worst thing that could be done was to underestimate Deimos.  While the Etherian demon liked subterfuge and deceit over a full out war, he was not above wiping out an entire village and emerge from the flames like a phoenix born anew.  Fear was not an option for a demon; it's not like they could kill him if they tried anyhow.

When the vision of the shore was far from his sight and the sounds of activity reached his ears, Deimos knew they had reached the settlement.  "Here we are," he said.  Then, turning to Releah and Sarivi he asked, "Now I suppose we look for a tavern or inn of some kind?"