The desert seemed endless and barren, nothing was there apart from the odd cactus or insect. Heat rippled the air infront of vision causing mirages, and tricks of the mind, and the heat was unbearable.

A dark mist appeared in midair, this was no mirage, it swirled around anf formed a hole in the sky from which a black statue fell, it was formed in the shape of a girl, then the statue cracked and the layer of stone fell away revealing the living thing underneath. Shelureith scanned the landcape, it was deserted, nobody had seen her.
"Good enough" she said "I would hate for my enterance to be ruined by witnesses, now, to find Shalura"
She began to walk along the desert oblivius to the heat watching all the time, her black staff was strung on her back and black battle robes covered her body. She walked on until the sky darkened and the air became cold.

(OOC: Nice enterance huh?)

What a boring time he'd had in this land so far, and already his dark side had come out...maybe it wasn't worth it leaving home again. Nonetheless, the blue fox-boy wandered the desert after a rather uneventful time that he helped a man escape a strangely scorpion-infested cactus, though nothing had really come of that except that he pulled the man away from it and killed a number of scorpions with his scimitar.

Wandering continually at the moment through the desert, he began to notice night quickly approaching, and looked around for an oasis or someplace that looked safe to stay. Sniffing around for some such place, he instead caught the scent of...well, someone else, he wasn't entirely sure who or what, but it was a start. Figuring that at the time he had nothing to lose, and his dark side probably wouldn't come out again very soon unless he was injured or ran into a dark energy or area that was significant enough, he spotted a girl with a black staff and black robes, seemingly made for battle. It didn't seem like such a good idea to approach her, especially in his case, but he did nonetheless. "Hey...don't suppose you know which way it is to a town or something?" he called out. "Could use some rest...been wandering around all day."

Shelurath craned her neck to look over at thye fox, then turned her body completely, smiling.
"How should I know?" she said "I've only just arrived here you see, from another dimension so I wouldn't really know anything about this place would I, otherwise I wouldn't have ended up here would I" she indicated the surrounding "mind you I didn't want to be seen so where better than a desert"
She craned her head upwards slightly but still kept her eye on the fox, examining him closely.
"What are you doing here?" She asked "surely this isn't the ideal enviroment for your species"

Kai shrugged at her response to his question, figuring that that was certainly true enough...the desert wasn't exactly an ideal place to be, even for him, though he could easily enough handle the heat. One wouldn't think so given his relatively thick fur, which for most would make this heat absolutely unbearable, but he'd been born with the power to create and control fire, and thus a decreased sensitivity to temperatures. Naturally, though, the girl pointed out the fact that it was strange to find someone like him here in this hot desert. "True enough, but I don't really mind it much. Heat and cold doesn't affect me as much as most people even considering my thick fur, considering I was born with the ability to create and control fire," he said, though that fact in itself had led to his not having had the best life growing up.

"In other words you're are, what they call in my world, a fire mage" She put her head back down and looked at him straight "good choice"
She looked over at the moon just above the horizen, the air grew colder by the minute. Shelurath walked over to a cactus and pulled out her staff, she span it in one hand and knocked the cactus out of its roots.
"Wonder if they burn easily" she said.
She breathed slightly on the plant and a small ball of black flame came from it, setting the cactus alight with normal flame.
"Now why did it do that?" she wondered to herself.

Kai shrugged slightly at this first statement, but nodded. Really, he personally often used the word 'sorcerer', one that could summon magic without books or anything like that, but there really wasn't that much of a difference, certainly none enough to note. "Well, wouldn't really call it a choice, and it wasn't exactly the best thing for my childhood, but it's been a useful ability to have, that's certain," he responded, then watched her in curiosity as she took her staff from across her back and twirled it around a bit, knocking a nearby cactus out by its roots, which this time fortunately didn't seem to have any scorpions in it...he'd already seen enough of that from one of them a ways back. Figuring they probably did burn easily enough given that they were plants, but remaining silent for the moment, he watched as she breathed on it, seeming to cause a black flame on it which spread normal-colored flames. "That was certainly unusual...does that normally happen?" he asked, not really feeling any dark energy around here even with the cactus that was filled with scorpions, and dark and fire energies were things he was relatively sensitive to in terms of finding them.

"Maybe it's something to do with this world" shrugged Shelurath "it's certainly different to mine already, the deserts there were bare and red, and there was no moon or sun in the sky, only the dead sphere of a sun faintly lighting the barren landscape. Our world, had millions of wars, there was never a time when Rhiaku was not fighting someone, or something"
She turned her head and looked at the fox.
"Does this world war often? If it does, then I'll fit right in" she had an eager glint in her eye "but first of course I must complete the task at hand, then I can be free from my enslavement"

Kai nodded in agreement, though of course not having a clue as to who Rhiaku was...this world was definitely strange, perhaps more so than each of the others that he'd been to thus far. Scorpions in a cactus, black fire igniting normal fire, and even before then all the strange residents, not that he couldn't likely be considered strange himself, were certainly new to him. "I'd rather not think too much of back at my home, but yeah, this world is certainly unusual, I must admit," he responded. He then shrugged at her question, not having been here nearly long enough to know, though he had heard something about a war or whatever...quite possibly only a rumor, though. "Can't say I know, though I heard some rumor about a war at the very least...and if you don't mind me asking, what enslavement?" he asked, looking over to her in curiosity, thus averting his eyes from the now-charred cactus.

Shelurath looked at Kai with a sorrowful expression.
"Enslavement, is a brutal form of labour, one who is enslaved must follow their masters orders with no question and get nothing out of it, occasionaly slaves are set free for pleasing their master but very rarly. I was born into enslavement, all my kind are, all, copies, are automatically enslaved to do a single task, then they are left alone, often they die. A rare occurounce is that they can overthrow their enslavers, drive them out, but they are soon tracked down and punished brutaly, that is the life I must live" she said "the life of a slave"
She sat down on the sand gazing into the flames, her own birth had not been pleasant, she had spent 3 days bieng yelled at and punished until she finally agreed to the task, she did not want to do it, but she had no other choice"

Kai scratched the back of his head a bit as she explained enslavement, not sure if she'd entirely heard his question the way he asked it. He'd said 'what enslavement?'...it seemed like she thought he'd in effect said 'what is enslavement?'. It was rather sad when she explained it, though, since apparently everyone of her kind was born into it. And even if they escaped, they were mercilessly hunted down by either their masters or, if their masters were already dead, probably someone with some connection to their masters. When she finished, though, he shrugged in response to her last statement. "I suppose that might be true enough, but that doesn't mean there's no successful way to fight back. I've lived with...well, something I'd rather not talk too much about, for years now, constantly searching different lands, different libraries, for some way to get rid of it. Can't say I've gotten any closer to doing so, but I've learned and done a lot over that time, and I've certainly seen enough things happen to say that anything's possible, just have to find the right place to look."

Shelurath pushed herself to her feet steadily.
"Well, there's only one way to get rid of it" she said "complete my task, but at the moment it doesn't look like I'll live more than a few days in a desert before I run out of food and water, know if there's an oasis nearby?"
She looked about the area, there were no signs of even a puddle in the bare lanscape.
"Talk about bad landings" she snarled "Rhiaku I am going to kill you if I don't get out of this"

Kai shrugged in response to her question, quite truthfully having been looking for one himself. The desert heat didn't really bother him, of course, but he still needed a break from all the walking around he'd been doing. "Not really sure...suppose I could probably try and sniff one out, I'm sure I'd smell the water if nothing else," he said, and closed his eyes in concentration, sniffing around the area while still standing. Mostly ignoring what she said next, especially since he hadn't a clue who Rhiaku was, he opened his eyes again, facing over to what was his left from the path he'd been walking. "There should be an oasis a little ways over that way, or something similar at least...quite truthfully, I could use a bit of a rest myself."

Shelurath looked in the direction Kai was pointing.
"Worth a try" she said.
She unfolded her black wings and took off heading in the direction Kai had indicated. Sh stopped in mid air and turned back at Kai.
"You coming or what?"
She turned back around and flew off. After a few minutes she landed next to a very small pool, hardly bigger than a table and bent down taking a drink from it. She stared at her reflection in the water, Shalura was looking back up at her rather than Shelurath. She stood up and stepped back. She knew what Shalura looked like, a bit like her only with longer black hair, rather than Shelurath's slightly short red hair.
"So, I am a magical clone then" she muttered "then I must complete my task"

"You coming or what?" Shelurath called back as she seemed to spread her wings and begin flying off toward the direction he'd pointed at, and he shrugged, jogging off after her, figuring he had plenty of energy to spare for it given that he was going to a place to restore his energy, not to mention get something to drink and maybe eat.

It didn't take him much longer than her to get to the relatively small pool. Sighing slightly to himself, he walked over and kneeled by it, cupping some water in his hands and taking a drink of it, unaware of what had happened to Shelurath a moment ago, or what she said, much less that she had said anything. Either way, though, she did look somewhat bothered. "Hey...something wrong? I hate to use the expression, especially since I've seen them before myself, but it looks like you've just seen a ghost," he said.

Shelurath gazed back into the small pool, the same dark haired girl looked back at her.
"No" she said "no I'm fine, I just....Never mind"
She cupped some more of the water in her hands and took a sip. She rifled through Shalura's memories trying to find out where she would be now, but the latest memory she had of Shalura's was of Rhiaku's guards taking some of her body and mind to create her, she knew nothing after that.
She looked back into the pool. The face didn't seem like it could do any harm to anybody, it was bright and kind and Shelurath knew that Shalura would only attack in self defence. But it was Shalura's destiny to destroy the shadow world, and for her home to survive Shelurath would have to kill her.
"It's nothing" she said bitterly hoping that Kai couldn't see her reflection.

Kai scratched the back of his head a bit, wondering about it. Something was obviously bothering her, and it seemed to have to do with either the water or her reflection. Looking over to the water in front of her in curiosity, he couldn't seem to see anything special, just her reflection, or at least that's what it looked like...he couldn't completely tell without getting closer, which he didn't feel like doing. Shrugging to himself, he looked around a bit across the desert, trying to think of where to go next.

Back to normal civilization might be nice at this point, given how long he'd been in this desolate area. The problem was, he seemed to be too far away to get any sight or scent of where the edges of this desert were. Shelurath had wings, so she could probably fly up and see farther than he currently could, but he didn't want to ask for something like that from someone, it wouldn't feel right. "Right...so, what now? As for me, I'm gonna look for a way out of this desert...too much of it will bother even me," he said, mainly for something to say, away from his current thoughts.