Daei walked down the road with a false stagger. Her cloak hid her wings from view and she was hunched to give the appearance of a beggar or a cripple. Her mark, the one she was hired to kill, was down the street a ways and she was waiting for him to make the turn into his house. She had been watching him all that week, learning his habits and determining when best to strike. He lived alone and since she killed silently, this was the best way to hide the body for long enough to get paid and leave town. It would be short work to break in while he was asleep and slit his throat. The streets were pretty empty this time of night though so she didn't want to alert him that he was being followed. A drunken beggar was nothing new and probably wouldn't arouse suspicion. She heard a noise in an alley off to the side but she ignored it, attributing it to her unnaturally sensitive hearing.

The noise she heard in the alley was a young man by the name of Mat. He had been watching this girl for a while, noticing her odd demeanor and her uncanny ability to follow people. Finally it clicks, Ah...she's an Assasin..pretty dumb of me not to figure that one out earlier.. He thinks to himself and walks out of the alleyway casually towards the girl.

After a few steps he is right next to her and with a smile he says, "So milady...who are you hunting?"

Daei stopped moving and turned to face the stranger, keeping her back hunched and her cloak closed. Giving herself a haggard voice, she raised an eyebrow. "Hunting? What do you mean byt that? I see no prey around here and I'm certainly in no shape to be tracking anything. Perhaps you could elaborate?" She wondered how much he knew. She didn't enjoy killing when she wasn't getting paid for it, especially when she had a limited amount of time to hide the body and continue after her mark. Still, if this pest attempted to stop her, she would have to do away with him. It wasn't her prefered way of killing nor her preferred conditions for a fight but she worked with what she had. She wondered what would be the best way to remove the evidence and waited for his response. Who knew, maybe she'd get lucky and he'd mean something different by hunting or, even better, be drunk.

Mat smiles, Bam...frightened her... He looks around slowly and carefully, then turns his skin into his dragon scales and grins to show shard teeth like a dragons. To top it all off his eyes turn to slits and he snorts a little fire from his nose, "Milady..I would advise against attacking me, because you cannot cause me harm.." She's frightened...she's to shifty not to be, the thinks to himself, noticing her continuously keeping her cloak tighter and tighter.

Dragon scales? That's new. Daei drew herself up as much as she could while still maintaining the look of a cripple beggar and keeping her cloak shut. "First you make strange comments about hunting then you change form and attept to threaten me. Well I may be nothing but a poor battered beggar but I know my rights. You can take your scaly skin and your firey breath and shove them up yer arse. Go learn some manners and stop badgering women in the middle of the night." She snorted at him and started walking back towards her mark. She didn't think he would give up that easy but she sure as hell wasn't going to be intimidated by that little act. Everyone had a weak point and it only took a scratch to poison a man.

Mat, smiling, follows her, "I know you're not a beggar, I've been watching your actions for hours..and that little dagger, won't puncture my skin, dragon scales are hard as diamond. I didn't do that little stunt to threaten you milady, more of self defense incase you tried anything.."

He pauses, noticing the man she's following, "So...he your target, or do you have a crush on him?" he laughs, grinning like an idiot.

Daei sighed as he followed. Were her eyes able to move, she probably would have rolled then about then. "Ok, first off, what dagger, second off, ever heard of getting a blade underneath a scale, hitting a wing, or slicing the belly? Third, are you drunk or crazy cause eithe rway yer pissing me off. I come out for a nice, innocent, not stalking with the intention to kill, stroll and I get annoyed by people like you. Well, really, only you. What do you have against me anyway? Or do you always assume innocent young women are really assassins in desguise?" She stopped walking. If he was going to continue with this chatter, the mark was going to notice and get suspicious. Besides, there was a decent amount of time left to finish the job. She had till dawn, though of course she had to get paid and get far from the city before then but she could do it. And if she couldn't, being blind would probably add to the beggar disguise.

Mat's grin fades quickly, "Milady, it's obvious from the way you're acting. You're too defensive, and I know you have a dagger, because don't all you assasins? Secondly, I have no wings out, so good luck puncturing what you can't see, and finally, you would be unablt to touch me with that blade if I didn't want you too, it is impossible to sneak up on me, and I react better than a cat being chased by a dog..you won't win this fight if that's what you're thinking of doing.." He says to her wryly, "Now then..I'd rather not see an innocent man fall to you for money, let him die in his own time.."

Daei snorted. "What exactly is so obviously saying assassin to you? And what have I done that was too defensive, other then defend my name against your wild accusations? Do you have some crazy need to find an assassin and picked the person people were least likely to defend? And if all your going on is the belief that I'm an assassin then your crazy and I'm growing bored." Her face darkened for a second at his last comment. "I don't know who that man is but if there's anything you learn out here, it's that no one is innocent"

Mat smiles, taking that as a confession, then dropping his voice as well, he replies, "Ahh...yes..nobody these days is innocent, especially not the person who hired you...personally, I'd take him as the lesser of two evils, and if you want to kill him, we're going to have to fight first..I'm kinda interested in how strong you actually are.."

Mat then extends his hand towards her, "By the way, my name's Mat and I'll be your obstacle today.." He says, with a mischevious grin and an odd twinkle in his Lime Green eyes.

Daei didn't grab the hand. She didn't like to touch other people when she oculd help it and it was possible that the hand was a trick. She learned long ago not to trust people. This mat fellow had a sense of humor though. Shame she would have to kill him but it was his own damn fault for being so insistant. "I'd say it was nice to meet you but I've got a time limit here and I don't like being interupted. If you must call me something, I'm Erin." She tipped her head slightly. "As for a fight, these aren't exactly my odds." She took the cloak off and tossed it at him, spreading her winds and shooking into the air. With his skin protected, she had no way to harm him but if she took this battle to the air, she could at least aim for his wings. Of course, this was asuming he didn't have some sort of magic up his sleeve. She would have to play it by ear.

Mat smiles, seeing her fly into the air, "Thank you for making yourself the perfect target.." He says to her with a smile and grabs his bow and arrow. Aiming carefully he looses and arrow at the assassin, Fool...shouldn't have gone into the air, I don't even have to fly to hurt her..

Mat then sprouts wings and jumpsinto the air, knowing she would have to dodge the arrow to live, and as soon as she did she'd beunab;e to stop what came next. With sharp teeth Mat comes up behind her and snaps his jaws hard into her shoulder, crushing both bone and tendon, then releases. He then floats back swiftly and sighs, "I'm sorry milady..I told you I didn't want to hurt you, but you left me with no choice.."

Daei cursed and drew her dagger and sliced the arrow out of the way. She turned but was too late and winced as the teeth dug into her shoulder. That was going to be difficult to clean. She ground her teeth against the pain. There would be time to deal with it later. If she didn't finish this job before dawn, some very powerful people were going to be very angry. "That mullet about choice is nonsense. You could have easily stayed in your alley or played stupid and left me to my work. Who is this stranger to you that he deserves your mercy? And who are you to give out judgment? I will do my job regardles of your interference." She let out an owl hiss and plundged swiftly, aiming to at least nick him with her dagger.

(Um...I don't think you're allowed to attack me and then decide that you shattered my shoulderbone and ripped through the tendon.)

OOC: The attack was a distraction, that you can do. and I'm pretty sure that a dragon's bite would shatter a bone a rip tendons ^^;

BIC: Mat smirks and takes the blow from the dagger, "I made the choice to try and stop a man from dying unless I knew the reason to kill him. So unless you give me the reason your boss wants him dead, I have no reason to believe he did anything at all.."

He then grabs her wrist and jams the dagger into his shoulder, tearing through his own bone and tendons, "Ok..now we're even, go ahead and kill your target..I suppose I'll ignore this one, but afterwards I want to talk to you.." He drives the dagger hard into his shoulder for insurance, the pulls it out and gives it back to her, "Go kill him.."

Mat then lowers himself back to the ground, ignoring the pain in his shoulder, knowing that she would be feeling the same pain.

(Hmm, ok, makes sense ^^ and we'll assume the daggers not poison covered since I haven't bought poison yet and it just rammed into yer shoulder.)

Daei's eyes widend as his forced the dagger into his shoulder. What was with this guy? She took back the dagger and raised an eyebrow. "I didn't ask the reason. Didn't matter." She took a step backwards, giving him an odd look. What was with all that talk and fighting if he was just going to let her go? Still, she did need to go and kill this guy and she wanted to have her shoulder cleaned before she flew off. She wiped the dagger on her pant leg before walking off towards the mark. Daei paused and turned for a moment though. "For the record, they may be the ones to pay me but I am my own boss. I'll meet you in the inn when I'm done." And then she took off after the mark. If she were lucky she wouldn't have to wait for him to fall asleep and might be able to catch some dinner after she finished talking with Mat.

Mat nods as she leaves and turns to head for the Inn. This girl interests me..I grow tired of always fighting with people..I suppose I need to make friends with some people and not try to kill everyone.. As he reaches the front door of the Inn a voice sounds behind him, "Why didn't you kill the girl as you were hired to do, you're a mercenary after all.."

Mat turns to the man, "Hmm? I'm sorry, I decided not to kill her...there's something different about her that interests me, and I don't feel like killing someone for no reason.." He then turns to go back into the Inn when he feels a dart hit him in the back.

"Very well, then I will kill you and take the money back to my lord, then I'll be the rich one.." The man starts to draw a sword out and suddenly Mat lets out a loud whistle. Out of nowhere a panther runs up and pounces on the man, knocking him to the ground. It then bites him hard in the neck and gets up, prancing off gingerly.

Mat smiles as he sees the work his new pet had done, "Thank you, you may take him somewhere and eat whatever you want from his body.." he then turns and enters the Inn, choosing a seat in the shadows of the room to sit.

Daei's head snapped around towards the direction she had come at the sound of the whistle. She had turned a corner and was a bit far to see anything but she could hear fine. It was irritating trying to sort Mat's voice out of the multitude of other voices she could hear. She wished she had thought to listen for him as she walked away but she had been drowing him out along with the rest. Apparently he had killed someone though she didn't know who or why. She hooted, the sound coming out as a hiss due to her odd ancestry, and continued to the mark's house. Who he killed didn't matter, though she was amused by the hypocrisy of it.

The mark was in a chair by the fire, apparently lounging about before heading to bed. Daei didn't have the patience to wait so she slipped in quietly. Her kife was at his neck before he heard her. She left the body in the chair and snuffed out the fire; the light was hurting her eyes. While she walked to the inn, she bound her shoulder, wincing as she touched the wound. She collected her cloak as she passed it, putting it on and pulling the hood down, and the proceeded into the inn. She saw where Mat was and headed towards him. "So, you wanted to talk?"

Mat says nothing for a few minutes, then sighs, "I am a Mercenary, and I was highered to find someone and eliminate them.." He pauses for a second, "Now, normally, I would refuse because this is assassin work, not mercenary, but then they told me of the person's history, and said she was too good to let live." He then smirks, waiting for the story to sink in, then sighs, continuing on, "Well, I failed in my mission, because I refused to kill that person, realizing that I wasn't truly an assassin and they should have highered someone who actually was..now then, I'm sure you already know who this person that I was highered to kill is, so I'm not even going to bother saying." He looks out the window and sighs, continuing his story, "I just killed a man who worked for my former employer and he is currently food for my pet panther, so don't worry about it anymore.."

Daei noded. She was good at what she did and devoted all she was to it. It gave her no pride but it did give her purpose and the need to do her job well fueled almost everything she did. That someone wanted her dead wasn't unlikely. People pay well for a good assassin but they can pay even better when they're afraid they'll become the target. "I find it hard to believe that you would turn down good money and face the wrath of whomever employeed you just because you weren't an assassin. However your reasons are your own, even if I think them stupid." She looked off to the side, turning her head to take a quick inventory of the people around her and the possible entry or exit points. "So," She turned back to face Mat and smiled. "My histroy convinced you to come kill me? Or was the money too good to pass up?"

Mat laughs, grinning like a dog, "Now then, who says I never got the money? I had a dumb employer who thought and assassin would stop me if I didn't do the job. He also made me sign a contract saying I wouldn't kill the assassin following me. I didn't kill him, my panther did, so problem solved. He also gave me the money before I did the job." He says, bouncing a good sized bag of coins in his hands in front of her. Then he goes to answer her other question, "It was the history, I figured you would be a good kill, and difficult to kill, you assassins usually are, but then in the middle of the fight, I decided I'd rather not kill someone who could have potentially been helping me by ignorantly killing an enemy of mine some day. Though I hope that I could avoid the ignorance factor all together by asking you to join me in my adventures throught the land..these are dangerous times and everyone could use an ally.."

Daei laughed at his explanation of his employer's idiocy. When he wasn't attacking her, he was pretty entertaining company. Of course, that may simply be due to lack of anyone to compair him to but that didn't matter. She listened to his offer and shrugged. "Allies are nice but I'm afraid I'd be a horrible companion. I'd be asleep all day and you'd wake up with tiny animal organs littering the floor. Unless you've decided to become nocturnal and sleep in dead trees, you might prefer to spend your time with others. I can offer to be an ally though and should you ever need anyone discreetly whacked, you only have to ask. I may even do it for free so long as their death doesn't interfeer with my own intrests. I could even kill your employer should you not feel like wasting the time." She smiled again.

Mat laughs at the comment about animal organs and even harder at the comment of killing her employer, "No thanks, I'll let him discover you're still alive so he wants to kill himself. Also, I'm not worried about the whole nocturnal thing, I'm so used to traveling around at night, I sleep most of the day anyways as well, so that won't matter much..and I can also get rid of the organs if I wanted to.." he says with a laugh and breathes a little flame from his mouth, not enough to do anything, but enough to see it. "Besides," he says to her still smiling, "I'd rather have animal organs around me then enemies, so I'll be fine if you do travel with me." He says, figuring she'd refuse anyway and he'd be stuck traveling on his own, boredly.

Daei smiled. She was tempted to go with him but still wasn't sure. She wasn't use to being around other people, let alone traveling with them. Still, he was a nice person and she could use the company. She debated with herself, trying to weigh the pros and cons. She couldn't believe she was trusting him, let alone considering his offer. "I doubt you'll enjoy my company but I'll give it a try though, at least for a little while. If I feel we need to part ways though, I will leave." She took a glance out the window to check the time. "Care for a walk? I need to grab something to eat and then I ought to leave beore dawn. I'd like to put as much distance between me and this town as possibly before the sun comes up. I'm a bit....useless once that happens."

Mat nods, understanding what she means and stands up. He casually walks out the door of the Inn and looks around cautiously. After seeing just about nobody around he lets out a loud whistle and a Panther prances up to him slowly, "Ahhh...enjoy your meal?" he asks it smiling, then turns to the woman, "This is my pet panther, his name is Lynx and he's part of the reason I'm still aliive right now.." he tells her, still smiling.

Daei smiled. "Well then hello to you Lynx. Odd name for a panther but then again I shouldn't talk about odd names. Nice to meet you." He tipped her head to the panther. Taking a second to listen for anyone nearby, she removed her cloak again, rolling it up and storing it in a pouch at her side. She hid her wings from view when she could, learning early that it was better not to draw attention to herself. "Mind if we head on? I'm starved." She headed off towards the edge of town, listening for the sound of prey. Most people were sleeping now so she didn't have too many noises to weed out.

Mat walks behind her with Lynx, humming calmly, "Very well, away from the village we go." He looks out into the forest for some food and sees a small sickly deer. He then grins and and pulls out his bow and arrow. He knocks the arrow and closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. Then opening them he looses the arrows at the animal, striking it through the head, "Dinner for me.." he mutters, smiling. He walks over and begins preparing the deer to eat, making a fire, and cooking it while Daei is out hunting. He throws Lynx a raw piece and continues eating.

Daei laughed and took to the air. She would be able to find them again when she was done. Her ears twitched at the sound of a rabit below her and she let her gaze fall over the ground. Her wings were silent as she lowered, happy that she didn't cast much of a shadow to scare the rabit away. She grabbed it around the neck and landed. She looked about her as she broke it's neck, swallowing it whole and listening for another. It was of little use though, anything near the rabit had run while she ate it. She walked lightly, careful to make as little noise as possible. She heard thrashing behind a bush and carefully pushed it aside, revealing another small rabbit that had gotten caught in some hunter's trap. She did as she had with the previous rabbit and then headed back towards Mat. Not a bad night hunting wise

Mat whistles happily as he finishes the Venison, "Mmmm, I love deer.." he says with a laugh and turns to Lynx, "How 'bout you?" he asks the panther and laughs as it purrs and curls up next to him. He suddenly hear some rustling in the bushes next to him and grabs his bow quickly, then seeing it was Daei, he relaxes. Leaning back against a tree he smiles, "Welcome back milady, have a nice hunt?" he asks her smiling.

Daei smiled. "Rabbit. Good deer?" She settled down and started preening her wings. "So, where were you planning to go before you decided not to kill me? My only intrest is getting away before the local authorities notice the lovely dead body I left in their town so destination is entirly up to you. Someplace with an abundance of small animals preferably, I love to eat." She continued what she was doing, curious where he would choose to go. Daei usually went wherever there was work and didn't spend alot of time looking around so she wasn't entirley sure where there was to go.

Mat sighs and stares into the fire, "To be honest, I don't really know..I've always wanted to see the Fire Temple and meet the Guardian of Fire..but I don't think I'm worthy to meet him yet.." he shrugs, "I'm strong in the fire element, but only because I'm part Fire Dragon, so I don't think I would be of much interest to him.." He then sighs and tosses a stick into the flames, "I'll let you decide where to go I suppose.."

(*cough* her *cough* hehe, Adsero is a girl ^^)

Daei paused in her preening. "From what I've heard, the Fire Guardian is a drunk who does whatever pops into her mind. I highly doubt she would think less of you because of your hertiage. I believe she's of a fire race as well so perhaps you'd have common ground." She resumed her work, mulling over travel options. "If you think your not ready though, we could probably travel to the next town over and see what there is there. Far as I remember I haven't killed anyone there and I, too, have a stupid employer who paid me in advance so there's no need to go seek him out. If that place doesn't suit you, we can go to the town after that. The world is our clam, or however that saying goes."

(Oops...mah bad...^^;

Mat nods to her, "I feel ya..sounds like another town is a good plan I suppose.." he says to her with a yawn. He then closes his eyes and leans casually back against the tree, So this is what it's like to have a friend...rather odd really... he thinks to himself with a little laugh, Ah well, I suppose I won't be alone in battle anymore though..there's a plus.. He then opens his eyes and sees the sun begin to rise, "Well...I suppose we should catch some sleep milady...don't want to get exhausted for tomorrow nights journey, do we?"

Gah! ignore this post. I'm in the wrong place. Don't worry about the gender comment though, it happens alot. ^^

(heh, ads *shakes head*)

Daei nodded. "Sounds good." She yawned and curled up inside her cloak, pulling out a wing and resting it over her head. She didn't know how wise it was to sleep so close to the town she had just commited a crime in but there was nothing to connect her to the body and should it come to a fight, she had a companion. Sleep came quick, for once giving her a day without hauntin memories.


(Bit short but are we going to cntinue this topic here, start another topic in a different area, or some anonymous third answer?)