The sound of wind Shrieked though the empty air as the winter sun grew absent in the cool of the mourning. Dark grey clouds floated above the pale white snow in stillness. Many animals were in burrows or went deeper south to avoid the winter breath. An eerie sound of quietness filled the grasslands that made small sounds of snow hare footsteps sound like a mad mans shout. With such a plain view, anyone could easily become lost in what seemed like an endless walk. Yet someone knew where they were heading, and those following weren’t about to lose their direction of sight. Bright emerald orbs shined as they followed a man sized being running in the white field.

Striding though the fair soft ice moved a figure in drapes of black down to its ankles. Wisdom to wear heavy clothes in this type of weather went without saying. Hurriedly it moved its footsteps as the dark boots crunched upon the snow. Quickly the other figure ran as fast as his legs would carry, but the woman following him kept long smooth strides as she wasn’t afraid of losing him in the snow. The reason she took her time was to keep her breath, besides her was the only thing putting out much heat besides herself. No longer did the woman see a man in purple robes with golden hems, now she saw a red and orange glows coming from his body. The air itself put out a pale blue color as it was very cold, and the red glow stood out like a sore thumb. As the woman advanced upon her prey she reflected on why she chased him.

Three hours ago.

There was much warmth in that warm inn as the fireplace crackled while burning wood. Keeping the inn warm was a burden on those who had to provide constant firewood to the flame. Dry wood had to be store up since the snow soaked the outdoor wood, constantly being denied to be burnt by the fire. Yet this wasn’t the archer’s problem, this was the inn keeper’s problem to provide heat for his guest. Aaris had sipped a hot steaming tea from a mug that had become pleasing to her tongue. The smooth feeling warmed up her freezing insides back up to her heart. She only drunk one mug of tea that night and one mug was enough to warm her up, and quench her thirst. Still she wanted a second mug, and while the innkeeper began to fix it, something dreadful happened.

It had happen so fast as a hand reach up and sternly grabbed her by the shoulder. Instantly her eyes popped open, yet before she could turn around the breath of the stranger touched her ear as he talked. “Are you the archer of death?” He said in a quivering voice that filled in pure hate. Never had Aaris been called that title, yet it fit her personality rather well. Rolling her right shoulder, she bumped the hand off, “Who wants to know?” Was her reply as she whisked to the left, away from the man and planted both feet upon the hard wooden floor. Her emerald jewels turned into a look of wrath of annoyance. Upon her back was a grinning disfigured face, of the demon bow.

While staring at him, she noted he had brown eyes that seemed rather common these days. There wasn’t one shred of armor upon him, but instead a robe clung to him, just like the black cloak clung to the fallen angel. Gentle, her wings twitched inside her body as the man dared to bright his right hand to her body once again. This time his aim was upon her back, but soon very soon a gash of red splattered out as left hand of the woman held high above her head. In her hand bore the shadow dagger which she kept on her waist at all times. Newly found blood oozed from the dagger’s tip where poison could have entered his body, but the fallen angel denied it this time. Dying in two hours wouldn’t be near long enough of a death for this man. “It will be wise on your part to never touch me,” she sternly spoke as her green jewels bore a deeper loathing look to them.

“Wisdom would be to never strike at someone who hasn’t caused you harm,” the man replied while the woman watched his cut on his hand slowly heal. The innkeeper watched and prepared himself to throw them both out if they didn’t start to settle down. “Please settle down or I’ll have to ask you both to leave.” The old man said, his wrinkles along his eyes moved as her smiled at the two. Breaking up fights in an inn wouldn’t be the first time, so he knew how to handle it. Not to mention other guests who would gladly escort two rowdy people so they may enjoy a nice drink and a place to sleep.

No words left the fallen archer’s mouth, so she moved towards the entrance to the outside, and the robed man followed like a shadow. Once outside the cold air rushed inside the inn, and slammed itself against the faces of those outside. Black locks moved against her face as she turned to face the man once more. “You’ve done horrible things…Aaris,” the man muttered as her held up his staff, and blue fire swirled around the tip of his staff. How this stranger knew her name she didn’t know, but instantly she moved her pale hands in a sweeping motion against the pale snow. Soon dark hands emerged for the snow, grabbing at the man in robes.

Somehow as the fallen archer reached for her demon bow, she didn’t feel a thing on her back, nor could she find her quiver. Laughing in the dark was the man who was holding both her quiver, and her demon bow. “Now kill innocents without your toys!” He screamed out in laughter while kicked the hands that reached for him in the snow away. There was a white horse tide to the inn, his horse, running away he mounted the beast of burden and began to gallop away. Never had the archer felt so much anger in her heart as she turned to Shadow, her black beast of burden. This time the horse didn’t disobey his mistress as she strode upon him, pulling the reins for him to gallop toward the white horse.

The black beauty ran quickly in the wind, and easily caught up towards the white horse. Shadow was a violent horse that would quickly bare down on any horse that stood in its master’s way. This time it was a white horse he would bite at. As Shadow sunk his teeth in the fleash of the white horse, quickly the white horse bucked its back legs. If the black beauty had been at its back, then it would suffer a heavy blow, but Aaris knew to never come behind a horse. She rode to the horses left side, and the white belly began to bleed from the black horse hold unto it. Pointing her left finger to the man, she shot out a purple arrow light towards the man’s face. As he wasn’t looking, he fell over his horse, and Aaris stopped her horse, to quickly move towards the man.

Calling franticly, he summoned his white steed once more, but as the white horse began to come, the black beast tackled the other steed. The white horse didn’t want to fight, and the black horse didn’t want the white horse to get to his master. This left the man all by himself, while the woman coldly advanced her way towards him. Once more he broke out in a run that lasted well over an hour.

Currently

Closer she came to him, and every now and again he would call the winds to push her back. Yet she swayed against the winds as she broke out into a run of her own. Fast she was in the cold snow to where the red hue of his body came into her view much bigger. No longer did she need to rely on heat to find him, she was only two yards away from him now. Turning his neck, he faced her, cold ice painted from his eyes which were tears of mercy. But this chase was far from over as a tower in the distance grew with each step. Aaris finally stopped as the man stopped; slowly she pulled her lighting blade from its sheath. A sharp metal sounded in the silence as the blade reflected the man’s face as his brown eyes looked upon it. Part of the woman’s face was covered by the sight of his own figure.

Stillness swept on the grasslands, as the woman’s blade made crackling sounds of lighting, while a suspicious grin that the woman hadn’t notice, bore on his face.

It was the middle of morning, the middle of winter, and needless to say by the rage boiling openly in the blood-red eyes of the fox creature, he wasn't happy. Not that he was ever happy, per se. After all, he was a being of darkness, a being that probably shouldn't even exist in this body of his own, born of the hatred of another and spending quite some time in said other's body.

As to the reason he wasn't happy, he'd had taken from him something. Regardless of whether or not it was important to him, he didn't like people taking things from him. It just wasn't right, and besides, they were his things.

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It was a while before he was quickly trudging across the snowy plains toward the ancient tower, following the trail of the one that had wronged him, that he'd found himself back in that accursed small village of Estolad, about the time that people were retiring to their homes or the Inn for the night.

Snow slowly fell, semi-luminescent red glows against the light of torches from those in the streets, or lamps lit within nearby buildings. Grumbling at the guards he'd spotted at a few points across the street, his hands warmed by his pockets and upper body with a black jacket, something he didn't usually wear, he trudged off to a side path, where hopefully something interesting was going on. After all, it was now nighttime, the time when the darker part of society began to show itself.

All he found, however, was a single robed figure, staring at him.

"Darkfire, correct?" the man asked. Interesting...Darkfire smirked lightly as he approached the man, not bothering to notice that the robe was covering his hands. It was just a minor detail, nothing worth paying much attention to. At least that's what he thought at that moment.

"Well, someone that knows my name..." Darkfire said, his voice dark, filled with a growl, that and his appearance very clearly evil. "What do you want? Since you were staring at me, I figure you must want something."

"Just to give you this, as an offering of an alliance," the man said, revealing his right hand from beneath the baggy sleeve of the robe, in which he held a glowing red stone. "I believe it should make you more powerful."

"Hm...seems interesting..." Darkfire muttered, reaching out to touch the stone and instantly feeling his ability to summon and command over a fire elemental sucked out of him, not a good feeling at all. "Wha..."

Before he could more than start what he was about to say, he was knocked into a nearby wall with such force as to crack it, not even able to catch what the man said as he lost consciousness.

-----------

And thus, it led him to his current pursuit, immediately turning to his enhanced sense of smell as he came to a few minutes later, following the trail to the point where he saw a cloaked figure standing above a man in a robe, the man that had that stone that he knew he needed to retrieve, a sword of lightning held to his throat.

"Looks like I caught up at a good time," he spoke out, smirking lightly, a vicious glow clearly visible in his eyes, focused entirely on the robed figure. "Now, I believe it's time for you to die..." he muttered, taking one of his clawed hands out from its pocket, which burned faintly with a black flame, the very thing which gave him his current body, and his spell to animate the dead, usually those he himself killed. Otherwise, it was simply there, unfeelable by any but him.

The dark tower hung in the distance like a huge giant against the dark colors of dawn. Claps of thunder echoed against the dark clouds as wind pushed and pulled throughout the grasslands. Steadily in the air held an arm holding a sword. The pale digits wrapped around the hilt, leading the blade to the throat of a fallen man in robes. Laughter became buried in the sound of thunder, the man’s laugher as Aaris held her sword to his neck. Why is he laughing? She thought to herself not feeling he was being chased, but she was being lead. Certainly she didn’t know why she was being lead to this tower, but it was something that she would soon find out. In the distance she could slightly hear footsteps coming her way.

Those powerful emerald jewels glares at the man who loosely wore HER demon bow against his back. Words that Aaris couldn’t make out muttered from his breath as the ground under her feet began to rock. Knees bucking she began to loose her balance as the snowy earth shook. Her once steady hand now shook with the vibrations she felt, slowly the man began to rise with a grin on is tear covered face. Surely the fear of being chased had made tears form, and the cold winds only helped dry the tears to his face. It was a pathic look to be seen in.

“Look here you witch!” He screamed in laughter as lighting stuck somewhere close by. The ground continued to shake, either something was coming from the ground, or it was so big that it made the ground shake. His pale hand came out of his robe, using a pointing finger at the sight she now saw coming from the mound of snow. Just about everything in the grasslands were flat, but the mound seemed to stand out from everything. Soon she saw with her emerald orbs the mound moving, reveling a head upon a massive mound of white snow. The snow shook off of the dog like beast head’s body, showing two more heads atop of a massive body. No longer a snow mound, but now a beast, a Cerberus. “Either fight my beast, or come into the tower. If I remember correctly last time you came into contact with an ancient Cerberus, you almost died!” His laughter was frantic, and Aaris dropped her guard as the beast rushed towards her, shaking the ground harder.

The man took this chance to rush off towards the tower, a somewhat safe haven on account surely the beast would destroy a tower its master was in. Without thinking a second thought, the fallen angel rushed towards the man with her sword in hand. As the two beings in the snow ran, one towards the tower, and the other towards the man, snow kicked up and flew in the air. Just what traps laid before her the fallen lady didn’t know.

It seemed he was being ignored, but it also quickly became apparent that there was a good reason for this. Despite the pathetic state that wizard or whatever he was appeared to be in, he was doing something, and there was no way it was good.

Feeling the ground begin to shake beneath him, he narrowed his eyes, looking and sniffing around for whatever might be the source, and what he found wasn't something that he'd ever look forward to.

From the snow-covered ground appeared a large canine head from a large mound of white, shaking the snow off itself as two similar heads proceeded to do the same. A cerberus, the proverbial guardian of the gates of Hades, and an old, and thus powerful, one at that. And here he was stripped of his flame elemental, and thus any true means of combating the creature.

"Tch..." he muttered darkly, looking over to see the wizard rush into the tower, that lady that had just earlier had him at her mercy in quick pursuit, snow flying from their feet as the two ran. Apparently noticing this as well, the cerberus turned its triple attentions to the red-furred vulpine standing alone. Letting out a low growl, it began to slowly advance on him, in a way that seemed to drive him toward the tower. That wizard...he wanted the two of them in there, that much was clear. And as much as he hated it, right now he had no choice but to do what the man wanted.

Smirking lightly and tossing a ball of snow at the center head of the cerberus tauntingly, Darkfire muttered a few words under his breath, suddenly moving at a speed that seemed to create a blurred image behind him, heading off to the nearby tower.

Inside, he found that the wizard had disappeared, and the woman was quickly to be found by him.

"Well, it looks like it's down to the two of us at that guy's mercy for the moment. I suppose he must have stolen something valuable from you as well?" he asked, turning his attention to the area around him but talking to the girl nonetheless. He, or at least Kai, had been here before, but things seemed to have changed a bit, and anyway hardly any exploring of the place had been done; its rooms, any traps or places for traps, he didn't have any of this potentially useful information.

"I don't know about you, but I don't care what may wait here, I'm getting what he took back, as soon as I possibly can, forget whatever he may try to throw at me," he said, wandering over to the nearest door and reaching out to open it, turning back to add a little afterthought. "Oh, and name's Darkfire, by the way."