Dancing Flames

[Mira Nightingale]

Not knowing how else she could answer Shadow’s question, Mira shrugged slowly, still eyeing the fire and her hand as if they had both suddenly grown three heads. “It was… strange. Different. Nothing that I expected.” Trying to calm her racing heart and flying thoughts she closed her eyes for a brief moment before shaking her head as if to clear some resounding noise. “Knowledge? I don’t understand what you mean.”

Before she had barely finished speaking, Chao stepped up to her and his eyes glowed. Taking a hesitant step backward as she looked at Shadow, she heard an unfamiliar voice resounding through her mind. Glancing once at Shadow and then at Chao, she thought she was going crazy for a moment. Dogs, even dragon dogs, couldn’t talk. Or could they?

“Yes, I can hear him.” she replied slowly, hesitantly, as she crouched over ever-so-slightly to be closer to Chao’s eye level. “Ele what? Mage?” she repeated, her brown furrowing in deep thought. Shadow was very right, Chao was moving way too fast. She was already confused and only one sentence had been spoken! “And don’t worry,” she added to Shadow as he thought he said something he shouldn’t have. “I already know about Aesir. It’s no big deal.”

[Shadow]

((sorry for the wait...))
Shadow looked at her. "really? How so?" Chao growled and became invisible, and shadow tossed a quizzical look his way before returning his gaze to the young woman in front of him. "no end to the surprises, Eh?" Shadow laughed. "Well, Basically, you show a promise in the path of an elementalist." Shadow looked around. "But we should not talk of it here. the workers of the forge will not be ignorant much longer." He nodded, in the direction of the workers, who were beginning to throw curious glances at Shadow and Mira. Shadow leaned in and brought his voice down to a bare whisper. "Do you know where a good place to discuss this in further detail would be?" Upon finishing, he cast a weary glance over at the forge workers, who were beginning to mutter, occasionally looking over at Mira and Shadow.
After a bit, One of them, the master of the area walked over, a hot poker iron in his hand. In a gruff voice, he addressed the two. "Hey. Are you gonna Buy somethin? if not, then Id prefer it if you and the misses would get out of my forge, she is distracting my workers." he smiled wickedly. "Or she could stay, on certain conditions..." the other workers in the forge laughed.

Shadow was appalled. he knew exactly what those conditions would be, and he was tempted to destroy the man in front of him, an energy bolt in the throat. Shuddering, he tried to stay composed. "I am sorry, my good man. I will try to keep from hindering you business." Shadow folded his hands behind him, and a soft white light was glowing in them, the light just barely escaping his hands. Once more, he turned his head to Mira. "I do believe we should bring this elsewhere." a mischievous smile crossed Shadow's face. wouldn't want any Accidents happening... He unclasped his hands, which were no longer glowing, and reached into one of his pouches. there was a soft growl from Chao, and The lead forge worker started. "what the hell was that!?!" the man brandished the poker like a sword, backing away as he did so. Shadow shook his head. "it was probably some poor spirit, angered by something." he glanced over at Mira. Chao, tell her that we should get going now. Why? oh yes, I know why. Chao addressed Mira telepathically. Shadow says that it is time to go. i agree with him fully, as this man is readyt to attack us out of fear.

[Mira Nightingale]

Mira opened her mouth to respond to Shadow’s question of clarification, cracking a small smile at his comment about her knowing about Aesir. Before she could say anything, however, one of the workers at the forge wandered over, brandishing a hot, glowing red, poker iron like a sword in front of himself. His sharp gaze trailed over Mira’s body and she unconsciously shifted her weight from one foot to the other, feeling suddenly very uncomfortable under the scrutiny of practically the whole forge now. The man’s words didn’t help much at all.

Raising her chin, she opened her mouth once again to retort angrily, demanding to know the name of the plebian that was so rude! Once again, though, she was unable to speak. Shadow spoke first, and his hands started to glow as he hid them behind his back. Nervously flickering her eyes from one man to the other, she startled as Chao’s voice resounded through her mind. Nodding hurriedly in his general direction, she took a step forward and nodded as politely as she could at the disgusting forge-man. “Yes, I do think we must be going. It was, erm, nice to make your acquaintance.”

[Shadow]

Shadow watched as the man looked put out. Obviously, he had expected resistance, but he wasn't going to get any. "oh... well, better get back to work... Be seein you folks around." Shadow nodded, and followed Mira out of the forge. "Where should we go? Somewhere that isn't swarming with warriors..." Shadow sighed, and Chao became visible again. I'm going to the forest Shadow, So when you get home ill be gone. my work here is done anyways. Shadow nodded, and Chao became a blur as he raced away. looking around, he pulled his cloak a little tighter around him. "gah... It got a lot colder out here... " the sun had gone down, and there was a layer of snow on the ground. Looking over at Mira, Who was only in a summer dress, he sighed. "you must be cold..."

[Mira Nightingale]

Expecting more trouble, Mira, like Shadow, was surprised when they were able to leave the forge without any further incident. The man certainly looked put out, like he was excited to start a brawl of some sort. All the better they got away in the end. As the door swung closed behind them, Mira sighed softly, not even realizing that it was lightly snowing and that the sun had fallen below the horizon. Time had certainly flown while she was hidden inside, basked in the warm glow of the fire. But she wasn’t complaining about her relaxation or what she supposed were some sort of new-found skills.

“I have no idea.” she replied, shrugging a bit half-heartedly. She really didn’t want to go home, even though that was where she should be heading at this time of early evening. “Someplace without warriors sounds delightful.” When Shadow mentioned her being cold, she looked up at him quizzically. “I’m not…” she started, but then stopped when she saw the snow. She didn’t feel cold, even though she should, if the temperature was low enough for snow.

((Gah… sorry for the wait. Life has been really crazy.))

[Shadow]

((it isn't a problem, as i have also been busy...))
Shadow chuckled. "You aren't?" He nodded. "very well, Let's go swimming!" He laughed, as he really had every intention to go and jump in the lake. But by the time we got there, we wouldn't be very disposed to go in... Hmmm... Shaking his head, he thought for a moment. "hmm... Do you want to go to the tavern? or wait... Hmmm... nah... never mind. It isn't my job to bring you there..." He shrugged. "well, I'm game for just about anything, but I have an intent to make a special snowball..." He laughed and created a snowball. "hmmm.... where to throw it..." he laughed, turned to Mira, and gestured to the relatively large ball of snow in his hand. "well? any suggestions for a target?"

((heh... shadow's not feeling a little evil right now or anything...))

[Mira Nightingale]

Mira listened to Shadow as they walked to whatever destination seemed right at the moment, and then he listed places they should go. “Swimming actually sounds fun.” she couldn’t help but say, a smile quickly materializing onto her face. It was rather fun thinking of what her parents would say if they found her swimming in snowy weather, and with Shadow nonetheless!

When he mentioned the tavern, however, she shook her head. “No, I don’t like it there either. I had a bit of a… bad experience, I guess you could say.” she added after a moment, shaking her head. Her bad experience was simple. She had ended up getting hopelessly drunk the day after her engagement, and then didn’t get home until extremely late. She probably would have been dead in an alley if it wasn’t for a friend who saw her safely home.

“Special snowball?” she repeated, and stopped walking to turn and see what Shadow was doing. When he hefted the snowball and looked around for a target, she laughed and shook her head in amusement. Whether or not she said anything, the snowball would be hitting her. Deciding, rather bravely, not to postpone the inevitable, her smile faded into a small, knowing smirk. “Right here.” she said, pointing to herself, eyes shining with a hidden fire. “If you can catch me.” And then she started running.

[Shadow]

"Ok, so no tavern. I dont drink anyways, excepting the occaisional fine wine." Shadow laughed when she began running, as he actually hadn't been intending to lob the snowball at Mira. "Allright... let me just take the flash-bang out of it so i don't do any damage..." Reaching into the large lump of snow he had been tossing lightly, he pulled a small brown package out and tucked it safely into his pouch. "right then... lets see here..." he watched Mira run, noting the directions she was going. Tossing the snowball into the air once more, he shot a small blast of magic at it, propelling it at an alarming rate to approximately where Mira would be soon. Letting the snowball freefall, he rushed forward, picking up another. This one, he decided, would thrown the normal way. he tossed it a few times rounding it off, but continued running, using his longer stride to gain an advantage. He soon was close enough to Mira that he could easily lob the snowball, but there was a slight problem... She was quite fast. Looking up, he saw that his first snowball was falling more or less accurately. now if only she would stop moving for a second... he sighed as he re-prepared the snowball in his hand. The first one was becoming less and lees accurate at the second, being blown around by the wind. But the second Mira stopped, the snowball in Shadow's hand would be headed her way, quite quickly too...

[Mira Nightingale]

Her feet crunching in the already light layer of snow on the ground, her dress swirling about her ankles, and her hair flying behind her and starting to escape the braid that had been carefully plaited this morning; she continued to run. Sparing a glance behind her she saw Shadow start running as well and, laughing, she picked up the pace a little. Another glance behind her and Shadow was closer, and so was a magically enchanted snowball.

Shaking her head softly as she whipped around a corner at the last second and ducked her head, the snowball flew over her and slammed into the wall of what she assumed was a house. Laughing once again she turned her head and didn’t see Shadow. Her pace slowed at that, and she nearly stopped. Once he was in sight again though, she realized that he had been much closer than she expected. So, since there was yet another snowball in his hand, she just shook her head and started to pick up the pace once again.