((OOC: I'm actually hoping for a multiple-chapter-like role-play. If ever this was a story, consider this a first chapter.))

The night itself was too deep and too dark to wander mindlessly into. Even the screaming waves tore at the black, ominously humongous clouds to gain a glimpse of the moon on its troubled surface.

Suddenly, a flame roared into existence from a lonesome torch, banishing the night fog away in a burst of color. A yell startled the moon into appearing from the clouds.

“Get him!”

A blur of white, gray and too messy hair, then a solid barrier of red – the figure had crashed into a wall. Not sparing a moment to even dust himself off, the child picked himself up suavely, slowly drawing himself up to his full height as if a mere five feet (or more, perhaps, noted one villager) would impose upon the people a grown man of stature. The child fixed himself with a blank, almost serious stare if not for the terribly misplaced lop-sided grin on his features. A slightly tattered cloak draped itself on his shoulders, maybe a bit big but definitely comfortable-looking on the child.

“Dear villagers,” – and by the gods, the child even had the guts to start to sweet talk his way out – some of the men grumbled at the start of what it looked to be a persuasion attempt, but the child pressed on. “Mayhaps you have been a little brash in bothering to chase a young one such as me who have done nothing major of the sort.” said the – boy, perhaps? No, those features are just a tad bit feminine – in such a formal manner that one would believe that the child was addressing a king or deity.

“Even I have difficulty in wondering this: why waste your time on a child who stole mere bread for life and pardon the monsters that have massacred your kin? It is just one fruit, I take it, and I would have paid if only another street rat like me haven’t stolen what meager allowance I was to spare. I had just come from a journey over the seas by myself, just to reach the mainland – truly, a single fruit wouldn’t be enough to satisfy the amount of days I haven’t had a meal on the ship.” The child paused, staring at a less hostile, yet tense-shouldered mob that the lone screaming merchant’s wife had attracted. Content with the amount of attention ‘he’ had, ‘he’ continued.

“But I do not have a thief’s spirit.” ‘He’ accentuated the meaning with a helpless shrug and a forlorn-sounding sigh. “This is my first meeting with the temptation of thievery. And mind you, I can safely swear to myself and the gods above that I now know of the consequences and will freely pay the debt that my little mischief has caused you.”

Alpha Rho, of course, had not meant a thing, but at the same time, she was preparing herself for the coming duties she might have to face because of her fake-promise.

The man in front, the merchant, had not been wavered. “What proof do you have of this tale, then?” he growled fiercely. M.M.C. replied with a ready smirk.

“Port Adune is quite a busy place, isn’t it? So, then, people living here would easily know about each other. If none of you recognize me, then I am definitely ready to state that I am a newcomer.”

The merchant immediately snapped a reply. “Have you anyone who would willingly testify that?”

Alpha Rho’s smirk fell. That was something she was at a lack of. She gulped slightly, praying to the deities above that a good soul would spare her the mercy and posing as someone she ‘knew’.

Sherozard's ear flicked slightly and he stirred a bit. He was asleep on top of one of the many inns that were scattered around the city, from here he had a perfect view of most of the street below, and in the distance he could see the library. He'd attempted to go in there just this morning, but he'd been driven out for being a beast, his paws clenched at the very thought of humans, a species far less intelligent that his own, calling him a dumb animal. All of a sudden his eyes snapped open and he sniffed the air, he was very near sighted, and the night didn't help matters, but he could smell it in the air; burning torches, sweat, he could hear the sounds of footsteps, and running as thought it were only a few meters away but were in fact several streets away, nearby the port.

Sherozard stretched, a pair of wings, matching the colour of the night sky, extended from his shoulders and spread wide, joining his stretching. He yawed at the same time, revealing woven canines. Despite his appearance however, Sherozard was every bit as intelligent as the smartest elf, if not smarter. He glided into the air, above the rooftops and listened out for the mob, the set of feet at the front seemed small and childlike but the rest behind them were heavy and also carried the smell of burning. Sherozard could barely see clearly from here, but he did noticed a few blurred sparks through the mist that clouded his far vision, having been raised in the misty forest he'd never had any major need for sight, he always relied on smell and sound.

He glided down and heard the child smack into a wall and settled in the shadows of an alley and waited, now he was able to see the mob properly advancing on the child, Sherozard couldn’t tell if it was male or female, and it didn't even smell human. He crouched quietly and listened as the child reasoned innocently with the mob, Sherozard could see flickers of doubt in their faces but he wasn't swayed so easily, he was cold hearted anyway. However, soon after the child finished, the one nearest to the child spoke and the child's smile wavered slightly.

Sherozard stared hard at the child, they were farther away from him that the rest and just outside his field of good vision but he could see the pleading look in the child's eyes.
Well, I owe humans a bit of pay pack anyway, he thought.
Sherozard poked his head round the corner, but made sure that his wings were out of sight, the humans would mistake him for a regular wolf. Slowly, Sherozard let out a low growl in the humans direction, daring them to try and drive him away, he could almost taste the satisfaction he was about to feel already. He growled again, just to make sure that they'd heard him.
Come and get me, he thought slyly.

A dark figure was moving through the streets to the harbor at an extreme rate. His name was Shady and he was a lich, which had long become a rare sight around Arda for there were few lichs that survived throughout the ages. The reason he was making his way over there was because saw the formings of a mob a few minutes ago and followed them there.

The lich than found himself looking down an alleyway that he had heard a growl come from. There, standing a good fifteen feet from him, was the mob he had been looking for, a girl that he suspected the mob had been chasing, and a wolf. Shady then noticed the wolf had a pair of jet black wings, which was very bizarre to him.

'What the... never mind that, thats not important as of this moment. I need these people to leave before that wolf kills all of them' Thought the lich before deciding something. Shady walked up to them and began to "speak" in his best demonic voice. "Stop! Leave this person alone or I'll have to rub out all your meaningless existence's". The voice could be heard inside the villagers heads, which scared them to no end, until they looked up to who they saw... a mere skeleton in a cloak. After seeing this they began to run away in desperation. A few ran into the wolf's direction. 'Oh... thats not good...' Shady thought in annoyance.

It was a relief to see the commoners run away in fright, but Alpha Rho had yet to discover exactly why. Dropping to hi—her knees, she thanked the gods in a quick mutter of ‘thanks, I owe you’. She was about to continue her unending vow of worship when a woman’s voice and a quick succession of footsteps swooped her away in a flurry of staccato heels and high pitched wailings.

“Come, child!” The woman screeched – M.M.C. barely registered it as the merchant’s wife, the one who started all the commotion in the first place – “A demon is on the prowl! We have to leave this place at once!”

M.M.C. feebly attempted to dislodge herself from the woman’s steel grip. “But madam, surely the men can handle it!" She whined, half-forcing herself to remain polite. But then, wouldn't a body at this age permit her to act just a little bit immature? "I’d say that they have enough torches and forks to drive it away.” From M.M.C.’s tone and Alpha Rho’s scowl, one can easily decipher the statement as an unbelieving one. Truly, demons prowling at a populated place at a time just after the sun had set would be unbelievable.

M.M.C. mentally chuckled at the fact that her Mother’s plans in forcing her to study books about races and such finally came to fruit. The only reason that people would be screaming about a demon is that it either is not really a demon, or is just a mere apparition of it.

“No, no! Forks cannot drive away a demon!” The woman twittered in protest until M.M.C. growled in annoyance and stomped heavily on a heeled boot. “Ah!”

M.M.C. stumbled away from her grasp and gave a quick bow. “Forgive me, madam!” she called while disappearing back to the hectic development of the crowd. The men were unbelievably panicking instead of bravely handling the beasts. Taking the chance of the confusion and fetching fallen bags of money from the ground, she sneered to herself and made for a retreat –

-- only to come face-first to a wolf.

Sherozard didn't have time to register if his bluff had worked, although he could go pretty beserk if he wanted to he wanted to avoid fighting as much as possible. But despite his growl another voice interjected, this one was more ghostly and sounded close by. Sherozard turned his head and saw a cloaked figure smelling of the dead and with no heartbeat at all, usually angenine paws could pick up the vibrations of a persons pulse and tell exactly who's it was but from this bieng there was none. Instantly distrust crept into Sherozard's eyes, also the undead bieng was at an angle that allowed him to see his wings so he had no bluff against this person.

The mob scattered, disregarding the girl and running about like idiots yelling about a demon.
Moron, Sherozard thought Demons smell different.
His sharp gaze switched back to the demon, there was no need in hiding anything from him. He merely glared up at the figure and ignored the baffoons running about like rats, the figure stood just outside of his rang of vision and was blurred by Sherozard's bad eyesight but he could still smell him and he would hear any movement he made. Sherozard considered speaking, but then the child from before ran past and into the alley which he'd backed into, instinctivly Sherozard turned to face them instead. It was just as hard to discern its gender, even close up, but it didn't smell human, it smelt different. Sherozard remained still and bowed his head slightly, trying to say he meant no harm.
"Don't try and be frightened," he said "I don't eat cubs."
He expected the usual gasp or jump that people always made as soon as he proved his ability to speak, and found it a bit annoying when they did.

A small squeak echoed in the alley, heard surprisingly clearly regardless of the number of people creating havoc just nearby as a round and dirty rat scurried across a solitary hole of a home to a nearby trash bin. A rustle of moving objects soon followed as the rat dug through a pile of what it considered to be potential food.

These sounds did nothing to the two creatures in the alley.

M.M.C. took a slight, sharp intake of breath through her nose. Slanted, brown eyes widened then returned to its original size in a matter of a few milliseconds. Knee muscles clenched and unclenched, letting their owner lean back slightly in surprise.

She didn’t dare move any more other than that.

Pupils, shrunken with fear, looked around rapidly for an escape route. The two walls surrounding them offered no sanctuary, and the other exit was blocked by this…being. The path from whence she came from had too much barricades; trash and other junk piled itself around, making it hard to navigate for a normal human body. M.M.C. had jumped in for hopes that this hard terrain would block the villagers. She, unfortunately, had not counted at the fact that there would be another being present in the vicinity – a rather vicious looking one too, at that.

Besides, the being could simply pounce on her before she’d even move a hair’s breadth away from her current spot then she would be over and done with. Between a smaller two-legged beast and a bigger four-legged beast, the four-legged one would surely reign supreme. Alpha Rho sunk deeper into her thoughts, barely paying much attention to the beast itself.

The being stood still, with its head slightly bowed. It spoke even before M.M.C. had gathered back her wits to be able to fully comprehend the situation. She was immediately shook out of her reverie as the being’s spoken words reached her fogged mind in a mumble of syllables.

It took a few, long seconds for her to fully process what the being – its race looked familiar, but the source of the sense of familiarity was not resurfacing at the moment – had said. The fact that she knew that the being had spoken had been surprising, but it was simply a self-inflicted blow to Alpha Rho’s intelligence for her to be surprised of the speech being spoken by a foreign being and not the content of the speech the foreign being had said.

“Don’t try and be frightened. I don’t eat cubs.”

M.M.C. opened her mouth, swallowed then tried again, speaking of the first thing that came to her mind, “Cubs?”

That was second self-inflicted blow to her own intelligence. Surely what the being meant about that term was the youngling equivalent of the being’s race. Doing a double-take, M.M.C. rushed in another question in order to cover up for the earlier blunder.

“For what purpose are you here, then, if not to eradicate us?”

Feeling the need to explain, M.M.C. shoved away her fear for a temporary length of time and stuttered out, “I-it is simply --" she stopped herself before saying 'sir', for what if she would mistake the creature's gender and throw it into a fit of frenzy? "-- that I have no solid reason to believe the fact that you are present tonight for an underhanded scheme. Neither have I tangible proof that you are here to do good, b-but I have one reason to suppose that you are not to mindlessly harm anyone – you have just, a-after all, stated the fact that you will not attack a youngling such as I.” finishing her explanation, which was longer than she first bargained for, M.M.C. immediately turned eyes up to the gods and promised an even longer eternal vow of worship if she would be granted safety and pardon for the current situation she had accidentally placed herself into.

The noisy humans continued their panicked screams, unknown of the events happening in an alley they have always taken for granted.

While watching the villagers run away in terror from the "demon", the lich thought,' honestly, can they not tell the difference between an undead and demon? I... What is this?', Shady then walked over to the young girl who was having a not so pleasant with the wolf that had gotten here before him.

He then examined the girl,' What is she? She is no human that is for sure, but if not human what else... you sneaky little shifter!' Shady thought before crouching before the girl. "He will not hurt you shape-shifter, or as of this moment he won't", he said before pointing to the docile wolf. "I suspect that he came to save you as I have, though I do not know his intentions", The lich said, perplexed.

M.M.C. dropped her gaze to the ground, hands involuntarily twitching. She can sense another being – non-human, to her chagrin – and she can hear it speak. This one was hidden in the dark of the shadows and its voice floated in a skeletal echo. M.M.C. dared not to look at it lest her mental intelligence rate drop down even lower.

"He will not hurt you shape-shifter, or as of this moment he won't. I suspect that he came to save you as I have, though I do not know his intentions.”

“Neither do I know of yours.” She muttered, quite cross herself but too frightened to admit anything openly. Alpha Rho briefly considered canceling her forever vow of worship; she was not one to believe in either good luck or bad luck but in fate – it had not been a mere coincidence that she would encounter two beasts in an innocent thieving escapade. Destiny must have been in it – oh, and the gods, too! They must have all been plotting a prank after Alpha Rho’s existence!

M.M.C. hung her head, saying, “I have no tangible reason to believe you as I have no reason to believe this being before me. But I am, though, thankful for the effect, at least – the villagers have left, but we are all here, questioning each other’s motives for we either have no knowledge of the other’s kind or for we know nothing of the other and are suspicious at the first impression we receive.” She sighed, sinking against a wall to her left.

“I do believe that I am the recipient of safety, here.” M.M.C. admitted. “But as I briefly stated, I have no knowledge of your kind and neither do I know anything about the other. So I jump to a natural being’s reaction to two unknown beings suddenly offering assistance: suspicion.” She shrugged, seeing a slight irony in the situation. “I still have to be thankful, though.

“I would say that asking for the motive of someone who had just assisted me would be impolite, and for that, I have erred. Ironic, how I was the one who started this in the first place.” She continued. “It was for a matter of seeing if we can trust the other creature to guard the other that this conversation started.

“This doesn’t mean, though, that the matter should be dropped. Curiosity and suspicion do go well together, you know.” M.M.C. puffed. “We’d have lots of time before that mob would disperse and come back with more reinforcements.” She looked expectantly at the wall before her as if asking it to be the first one to speak, the daring, confident feeling leaving her right after she spoke.

Shady came out of the shadows the alleyways created. He then lowered the hood of the cloak to show a skinless skull. "I am but a humble undead, or a lich if you wish to be more specific, and my motives were to keep stupid villagers like these from doing something as drastic as killing a thief. I overheard the mob before they gave chase. I followed them here and I gave them a bit of a scare!", he then looked at the wolf. "But I do not know the reasons for the winged wolf's sudden appearance. Tell me, what are you doing here?" the lich asked; half angered, half confused.

Sherozard's gaze snapped up to the lich and his eyes narrowed slightly, he never could stand anybody reffering to him as a creature or some form of animal, it was those sort of comments that really got up his back. He opened up his wings slightly and lowered his head again.
"I am not a winged wolf," he snapped at the lich "I am an angenine, something entirley different to a wolf, my name is Sherozard, and I am the last of my race."
He turned his attention towards the child with a softer expression on his face.
"Therefore, I see in gaining nothing in commiting the same crimes which humans made upon me."
He sighed and turned his head away, gazing up at the night sky.

The shape-shifter stood silent, quietly taking in the new information given to her. The living skeleton was a lich, an undead. The other was an argenine, a creature, from what the lich had said, that looked like a wolf with wings. For some reason trying to picture a canine with large, eagle-like wings looked odd in her own imagination, but this argenine had made the combination physically possible, all the way making it look as grand and as normal than any imagination could have conjured.

After the argenine had spoken, M.M.C. sensed the dawning sensation of an awkward silence. Quickly realizing that it had been her turn to speak before the silence would reign, Alpha Rho cleared her throat before speaking.

“The scene that has been portrayed earlier was as interpreted.” She stated clearly. “I hadn’t trusted it to grow into a mob, however.” The child pushed herself off the wall, a small smirk crawling on her features.

“The true story was that yes, I have most certainly come from a boat trip a few hours ago. The thing was, another runt made off with my money bag.” A hand went up to inspect small, scraped child-sized fingers. “Needless to say, the felon got what was due him.” M.M.C. shook her head without a hint of remorse for the subject of her thought, pushing herself off the wall.

The child slowly crept towards the exit and poked a head out, surveying the area of potential danger. “Additionally, I was hired.” Sensing that the coast was clear, she pressed herself against the nearest wall and carefully crept out. After waiting a few seconds without a single attack being fired to her, M.M.C. sighed in relief and dropped guard.

“You two must be my targets.” The child stated bluntly. “I was supposed to see you one way or another, anyway.” She shrugged and declined to explain any more than that.

“What I would really want to know is that why a small mob of normal villagers would move you into rescuing a petty thief.” She shook her head, continuing, “But I shouldn’t be as rude as to continually press the matter. Look,” Alpha Rho turned, facing the two beings. “Because of your service to me, I must repay -- ”

At that moment, an arrow decided to whiz past the shape shifter’s head and embed itself into a banana lying in a merchant’s abandoned crate.

A trifle surprised and quite alarmed, she turned sharply and ducked back into the alley. It was only a few seconds after that a sword-wielding warrior with a small party walked by. A man M.M.C. recognized from earlier was muttering to him, talking about payment once the beasts were eradicated, to which the warrior was nodding to.

Alpha Rho sighed, crouching, less than elated at the prospect of more trouble. Ah, what a simple apple had done to make this an eventful night…

“We have company, sir lich and argenine.” ‘And I would probably owe them more if they fight with me.’ M.M.C.’s head drooped lower at the prospect of an even bigger compensation debt. "And now, it is an even smaller mob with larger reinforcements." she paused.

"I'd say that this group should be amateurs, selling themselves off like petty mercenaries to a group of whiny villagers." Alpha Rho turned to look at her two 'saviors'.

"Would I have the honor of having you two assist in a small squabble? None of these humans would be harmed...but their archers are skilled, I can say that." she smirked slightly in amusement, holding up the impaled banana.

Sheozard had been paying too much attention towards the child and didn't notice the arrow thud into the bannana, for once he was taken by surprise. After listening to the child's proposal.
"I've yet to see an archer skilled enough to strike me," he assured her.
He padded out slowly in clear range of the mob's vision, although he could barely see them. He could however feel their heart rate increase as they got nearer, feeling it through the ground. He heard wood creaking, a string tensing and then a twang as loud as a drum beat. He didn't need to see, all he needed to do was hear, the arrow whistling through the wind, growing ever closer.

He merely raised one wing in front of his face, timing here was difficult without vision but not impossible. The instant the felt the arrow pass between his hardened feathers he flipped the wing to a new angle as fast as he could and the the arrow soared over his head and clattered to a halt on the rooftop. He heard a few feet shuffling and some hesitant muttering.
"Humans," he muttered although none of the mob could hear him "pathetic minds, not an ounce of intelect to match mine."
He waited for the sound of swords drawing and the rish of feet in his direction, his wings were more than for flight, they were his weapos of battle.

Shady watched as the arrows flew off of Sheozard's wings. He then noticed the mercenaries bringing out there swords. "let me handle them" rang threw the other two of the groups heads. The lich murmured an incantation and placed his hand on the ground. After the final words were spoken his boney hand disappeared into the ground only to come back out in a puff of smoke, holding a child sized shadow-like creature with claws about 14 inches long. "I would run if I were you", he said to the mercs. " Because if you don't my little friend here will rip out your intestines and strangle you with them", the lich said evilly. He then pulled out a dagger with a small bone for a hilt and pulled down the staff that was on his back.

Obviously the mercs were outmatched, and were scared s***less after listening to what the lich said, but they did not leave. "Have it your way then...". Shady then took one step forward. The mercs took one step back, and one tripped over himself. "A fatal mistake!", he screamed into there brains before his shadow jumped on top of the fallen merc, ripping his head off and tossing it into the harbor. "Any other takers? I could kill you all with the flick of my wrist, but I'll give you a chance to run", he said angrily.

A part of Alpha Rho narrowed its eyes, lips drawn in a thin line at the lich’s apparent bloodlust. M.M.C. banished this side of perception and reasoned that it was a necessary approach. The child would have wanted to experimentally poke curiously at the corpse, but was wary of the shadow-like object that clawed out with bloodied talons. She walked around the argenine with soft footsteps, scarcely making any other sound except for the rustling of clothes. The banana was still in her hand, arrow discarded on the ground before her.

“Sir lich is right, you know, fellows.” The banana was then promptly peeled, revealing the gaping hole in its midsection. The top part fell to the ground in a splatter of fruit, the hole’s weak foundation not supporting its weight. M.M.C. ‘tsk’ed at the waste of food. “I’d rather not fight, for you see, it just wastes time and energy.”

“By what order, then, are we to listen to you?” The warrior – the head mercenary, it seems – that had spoken to the man earlier responded with the sheathing of a two-handed sword and a feral growl. M.M.C. took a step back for safety, then her poise returned.

“The fact that you have not attacked yet.” The warrior snarled at the child’s reply, taking a step forward in advance. M.M.C. raised her hands – one still clutching the banana – as a gesture to calm down. “Why don’t we parley?”

“There is nothing to bargain about with a child.” The mercenary snarled. “You are too young for affairs like these. You have made a mistake in getting involved …nay, that lich must be controlling you! Fiends!” the mercenary tightened his hold on his sword. “That does not matter. The bargain in which that old man and I have signed is to kill those two beasts at any cost. A child would not be of any disturbance.” At that comment, some of the other mercenaries shifted slightly in uncertainty, but not once did they drop their positions or guard.

“I can assure you that I am not being controlled, and I may be older than you think.” M.M.C. bit back, drawing her long sword and dropping the still completely edible banana back into the alley for the earlier rat. She had no idea whether rodents eat fruit, but it was either to give it to the rodent or to simply waste it. “And I can assure you that you will not be harmed…” she looked back at the corpse, “…or at least, what is left of you will not be harmed if you leave now.”

“Eighty Lomedor coins await us with your heads, though.” The man said blandly. “Another being would increase it! But now, enough of this chatter. Open fire!” He roared out with a battle cry inappropriate for a less than historical battle in a ships' port.

The archers and warriors wasted no time in drawing their weapons at the mention of money. They were mercenaries; mercy for a mere child does not matter for money. The beasts looked intimidating and were, in fact, fearful-looking – they would be legends if they slay them, so huge of legends that nobody would pay attention to the fact that they have slain a small child in the process.

M.M.C. sighed and muttered to the two, “I tried my best, my good sirs. I’d rather not waste power doing anything like this. I would request, though, one thing: we must slay that man and that man alone. Since he seems to be the leader, once I take his form I can command the others to leave.” She paused, casting the spell of Fear to decrease the attackers’ bravery to fight. It may have little or no effect for these warriors might have faced other spells alike, but it was worth a chance. Alpha Rho dived in the din of the skirmish, knocking out what men she chould with the hilt of her sword while changing into a form more meant for combat – a child’s meek form would easily be defeated in fights.

He called back before sinking in deeper yet nearer to the leader.

“I’d hate to have to dirty my hands with something else other than dirt and grime tonight, sirs.”

Sherozard lowered his head and narrowed his eyes, the humans probably thought him some kind of demon.
How quickley we forget, he thought.
He padded forwards slowlys, one of the men raised his sword at him and swung downwards, it was a failed attempt from the start though, Sherozard heard it whistle through the air and could tell the exact distance and speed, so it was a simple matter to snap both his wings shut on the blade and stop it in its tracks. The man wielding it hesitated and stuttered in shock, Sherozard reared and knocked the sword out of the man's hand with his paw, he needed no weapons, these humans were as unskilled with these as they come and oh so predictable.