Tragedy Meets Darkness [P]

The gloriuos night, the time of sleep for humans and most other animals. But for the mistress and her pack, it was time to hunt and enjoy life as a demon of the night. Cursed by the humans to roam the night to hunt and socialize, the pack must warn their mistress of the approaching humans. The black and orange female demon lay out on the wall surrounding the Sand village. Her form only an outline in the darkness of the desert. Many humans would wonder how this pack of demons survived the harsh conditions of the sands, others fear and shun them. While the other humans slept, the demons wandered the village, hunting and salvaging all of the food that they could. If any humans were to see them, they would scare them away, and force them back into their homes.

As she lay on the wall, she looked out over the village and the surrounding sand, listening to her pack holw in the distance as they hunted in small groups for small game such as rabbits, foxes, and sleeping birds. The wonderful sounds filled the air, the howls sounding forboding to humans. Her deep blue eyes glowed in the pale moonlight as she listened to the wind carrying her packs howls. Her ears flicked gently, and she rose to her feet. "This should definately be an interesting night," she said softly, and jumped down from the wall, her paws landing silently in the cool sand. Her blue eyes flashed through the darkness as she moved quickly through the deserts outside of the village. Soon the soft padding of feet could be heard as she padded through the sand, her fur coat getting sand in it as she ran.

Night meant sleep for most non-nocturnal creatures, such as humans and other types of animals that lived in the world. But for someone such as Eve, sleep came when one of two scenarios had been achieved. 1. She had gained enough food to satisfy her, she had no need to go anywhere, and she wasnt currently being hunted down. 2. She was just plain exhausted from running around aimlessly, and just couldnt move on for the time being. Usually the second meant she hadnt had any food in a long time. The time of day or night didnt matter, as long as one of these two things had been in place, she would lay her head down to sleep. At the moment, she was just about ready to meet the second scenario's requirements, as she had seen to it that at that particular moment she was starved and exhausted. But she couldnt sleep as much as her body wanted to just collapse on the sand in the middle of the desert. Why? Because the churning sands were tearing at her flesh, inflicting just enough physical pain to stop her from going to sleep. Her body may have almost stopped to rest, her conscience would not be so easily put to rest.

So she was found in the usual pathetic state she was always found in since the day her father left her life for good. Only now it was just in some different way. She wasnt afraid to die though, nor was she worried that she would actually die in the situation she was in now. She had been in a situation probably worse than the one she was in now, and had gotten out of it and lived. As she sat in the sand with her legs pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, nothing but more sand in either direction around her, her mind wandered back to those days so long ago. When she was hardly even a teenager, she had been left in the allys of the village she grew up in, which village she now could not even remember. Only her situation wasnt the cliched situation of a homeless person forced to scavange and live in the dark passageways, no. Due to the overwhelming greed and lust of men and her step father, she had been left naked in those allys, her arms and legs both broken, and tossed into the darkest corner of the ally where only those who knew where she was could find her. And what of the people that knew of her location? They were all men for one, and for another, they only visited her to take advantage of her in her near death state.

She snorted at the thought, mindlessly of course, the thought of her dear step father. She had stopped wondering why her mother had kicked out her real father for that slob, for now she didnt even care. Her mother had hired shinobi to kill her anyway, and they were still on the chase for her even now. The thought of her parents had melted away into the same thing she thought of all humans: Horrible greedy creatures that always found a reason to either take advantage of her one way or another, or just hate her in general. Humans meant nothing to her now, and she had effectively created a hatred for all things human that could match up for the hatred her mother had created towards her. But all of that was in the past now, and it didnt matter. The only comfort that the thoughts brought Eve, if they were even comforts at all, was that the current situation she was in now; lost and half dead in the middle of the desert, wasnt enough to actually take her into the sweet embrace of death.

She heard howls in the distance as she sat there, her head resting on her knees, the howls of wolves in the distance. She had had a few encounters with wolves in the past, not many and not for very long, but she knew enough to suggest she had the knowledge to realize that the wolves howled for a reason, not just to be an annoyance to things or to entertain themselves. She raised her head up from its downed position at the sound, and looked towards their direction. Squinting her eyes to see further into the distance, she thought she could see a small dot of a building far off in that direction, meaning that the hidden sand village was in that direction. The idea of wolves in the village was one that puzzled her, but she did no more than sigh and just dismiss the thought altogether as her head rested back down, only this time her chin laid on her knees rather than her forehead, now looking out instead of looking down as she had been doing previously. She heard the sound of wolf feet patting on the sand coming in her direction, but she was so physically and mentally exhausted the sound never actually registered. Her eyes were half closed too, so her vision was blurred, meaning she could barely see the site of the strange colored wolf and her pack approaching. She thought she saw the image of something coming in her direction, but as her eyes finally closed all the way, she figured the strange site was probably just a mirage.

She halted her pack as she caught the scent of a female, a female human in the area. The girl obviously wasn't too far away, otherwise, she wouldn't have caught the scent and it smell so strong and vibrant. Who ever it was, seemed to be very exhausted and hungry. 'Hmmm...if she's ut here in the desert, and so exhausted...that must mean that she's been running from something or someone' she thought to herself as she slowly made her way up to the body of the girl that lay in the sand. The pack cautiously followed behind her. As they came up to the girl's body, they sniffed her trying to see if she was alive or dead. If she was dead, they would feast on her lifeless corpse, if not, they would help her and tend to her in anyway possible. As much as it was possible for a wolf pack to help a human anyway.

She stood over the head of the girl and spoke emotionlessy so that the girl could hear, "You know Girl it really isn't a smart thing to be doing, sleeping in the desert like this...someone could eat you." The rude way that she said it meant that she wasn't favoring the girl very much, she was obviously a missing ninja, it was easy to tell from the way she looked, and the way her headband was scratched across the center. Her pack quickly fell behind her, sitting on their haunches, waiting in anticipation. They were waiting for the order to eat, but most likely, that order would never come. When the girl didn't respond the first time, she kicked her in the head with her right front paw and yelled, "Hey, Girl, I know you're alive, so get up before I make you get up myself!" The pack behind her quivered with fear in silence. They hated when their alpha was so demanding, it always meant that she was in a bad mood. And a bad mood usually meant darkness and hate...

Eve didnt respond at all when the strange voice fell down on her ears from above her head. She heard the voice, but just like all of her other sensory inputs, she failed to really register the sound of the voice. When she didnt even move, she felt a small smack of something furry on her head, her eyes slowly opened as she lifted her head off of the ground and looked around, finally seeing the wolf. Even though she had already spoken, the words that had previously fell on deaf ears came back to her, and she realized what had been said to her. When the wolf spoke again, she merely let her head fall back into the sand with a thump and a sigh, and waited a small moment before saying something from her downed position. "If something wants to eat me it can go ahead and do it. I dont care if I die anymore." she said with a voice that sounded blank, but to a trained ear, suffering could be heard in it. Her regular response to any human given the situation would have been 'Screw off and go away, I dont want your advice or your help.' Just more proof to the fact that she really did hate humans. But why didnt she say that? Well it was quite obvious really, she had been able to realize that the thing that had spoken to her was not a human, but a wolf. She didnt question the sense in the fact that a wolf had actually spoken to her, for she partially thought she was just having a hallucination. The other part was simply the fact that she didnt care whether or not it made sense for a wolf to speak at this point.

She growled darkly as the pack started to move in to eat the girl. "I can already hear it in both your voice and your mind, you really do care if you die...you're so full of suffering that it's making me choke," she said spitefully, lifting the girl's head up by her hair. "Don't tell me something that isn't true, my pack here is very tired of having to eat small game, so they will listen to anything that you say to do to you if I don't stop them...if they were to eat you, they wouldn't waste their time in killing you, they'd simply eat you alive...all while you screamed in pain," the darkness in her tone of voice seemed to grow with each word that she spoke. She let go of the girl's hair and let her head fall back on the sand, face first. "I hate it when people waste my time with lies," she said kicking the girl with her hind feet as she walked back over to the front of her pack. She spoke emotionlessly as she glared down upon the girl that lay face first in the sand,"If you wanted to die so badly, you wouldn't waste your time fleeing from the people who are after you, missing ninja."

Despite the abuse she was taking from the wolf standing above her, from the verbal degradings to the smacks, kicks, and drops of and on her body, she made little to no reaction. Her face retained the same look through it all, only wincing slightly as she braced her body before each point of contact, as she had trained herself to do so since she had been beaten so many times in the past anyway. She was barely even listening to the words either. The wold spoke of understanding something in her voice and mind, but she just couldnt accept that. This animal didnt know anything about her, didnt know what she had been through or what she had to look forward to. She didnt bother to object, but she didnt bother to really take in what she was saying either. She did, however, bother to roll her body so that her face wasnt in the sand once it had been dropped in it and speak in return to the last thing the wolf said. "I said I didnt care, not that I wanted to. If life wants me to live, then so be it. If life wants me to die, then so be it. I dont care one way or another, but I still wont go looking for death." she said, then fell silent. But then she actually rolled a little more so she could look at the wolf head on, a look of interest on her face, but one of questioning as well. "Just what do you know of suffering anyway? You have no reason to suggest I'm lying to you, though I suppose you dont have reason that I'm telling the truth either. I've always taken whats come my way, whatever pain your wolves would inflict by eating me alive would be accepted just as everything else is." she said, then just looked back at the sand she was laying on by moving her eyes by not her head. "I'm not a ninja either." she said simply. "I've never been to a ninja academy, and I've never been called upon or recognized as anything more than a citizen." There wasnt really a reason she bothered to tell the wolf that, other than the fact that she didnt really like people thinking her of something she wasnt, at least in this case. Well, people she didnt instantly want to kill that is.

She snorted and lay down in the sand, facing the girl directly. "I know alot about suffering...I myself was forced to become a scarifice for my own clan. My father locked me away in a tiny, dark cage until I was needed. Then he forcefully tattooed me with my clan tattoo, and then took me to have a beat sealed away in my body...I eventually became that beast," she began, her tone of voice becoming emotionless as she began to tell her story. "After a day of having the beast sealed away in my body, I lost control of its power, and went on a killing spree...I awoke to the sight of my village burning to the ground, and my mother's lifeless body lying in front of me, her eyes frozen in terror," she continued, her body quivering slightly at the part about her mother. "I've also been forced to live with my pack as if I was some sort of monster until I was found by the Sand village, and given a home...to this day, the villagers stare at me and shun me because they're afraid of me...I know I might not have it as bad as you, but I certainly have it bad...I have little emotion left to feel so I can't really feel as much suffering as you can now, but my mind slips on occasion, allowing me to feel the pain of what I've done," she finished and stood back up, walking back over to the girl.
"As long as you can run from the people that are chasing you, and you have the power to kill by other means than weapons, I consider you to be a ninja...it doesn't matter if you've had any formal training or not," she said sitting in front of the girl, her lagre paws at eye level with the girl.

Eve listened to the wolf's story with more attention than she had previously given, however she still looked at the sand while listening. Despite this, she was still able to see the movements the wolf made out of the corner of her eye, such as laying down in the sand, then standing back up, and coming closer to her. When her story was finished, her eyes came off the sandy ground and looked back up at the wolf who was standing over her once again, a look on it's face neither comforting or hating, one of almost pure neutrality. She smiled slightly, and lifted her right hand off of the ground and brought it up to the wolf's head, gently and tenderly resting it on the side of her face, past the muzzle and beneath the eye. She knew very well from the initial hostility she had displayed that this action was probably very stupid considering she could snap at her at any second if she was touched. But in truth, she really didnt care. Once her hand had been placed, she spoke with a soft voice. "Thats amazing...Even after all you've been through...you still look beautiful." she said, referring to the majestic colors that created the fur on her back, and the strength she still held after everything that had happened to her.

Then she let her hand drop, and looked back down at the sand. "I cant really say the same about myself though. Here I am, wasting away in the middle of the desert, probably looking like crap." She paused a moment before going on, basically telling her own story. "I've never been in a cage, but I've always felt caged in and helpless. My father left my life when I was young...my mother had kicked him out of my life and replaced him with a slob of a man. He seemed nice enough at first...but...after about a week of him in the household, he started...taking advantage of me weekly. Before I was even ten years old. It felt like there was nothing I could do about it, so all I could do was deal with it for I dont know how many years now. When I finally had enough of it, I ran away, and went to my friends for help and compassion. They mugged me, and took all of the supplies I had been able to gather for myself. Next thing I know I'm homeless, fighting to survive every day. About a year later, dear old step dad finds me again, rapes me, and leaves me cold and shivering in the alleys. But that couldnt be enough, no, he goes and tells his millions of buddies about me, and they just come to do the same he did. I would have faught back, but they broke my arms and legs so I couldnt move.

She took a moment to catch her breath, stopping in the middle of her tragic tale, but then began again. But it was apparent in her tone that she was tired of talking about it, and had decided to summerize what was left. "I was saved by a man who I thought was god in a human body. He was kind, caring, and looked after me. He was a semi-old preacher in the village. I stayed with him for many years, but then I learned that all the time he had just been using me for his own personal gains. Not a day later he was hunting me down with a horde of shinobi my mother had hired to take me out." finally she breathed out in a sigh, partially wondering if the wolf had become bored with her tale or just didnt plain care. Therefore, she decided to move on a little bit, still not moving anything but her mouth. "I've pretty much learned to only hold emotions of hate and fear, theres not much use for anything else so they dont show up much. I cant say I'm emotionless, but I'm not exactly easy to move either..." she finally finished, falling into silence.

She allowed the girl to touch her face, not feeling the need to move away or snap at her. With a sigh, she began to speak directly after the girl had finished her story, "Though you couldn't do anything about it then, you can do something about it now...running away from your past is a hopeless game that can only result in sadness. You say that you're not beautiful, but in my eyes you are. You're every bit as beautiful as I, and even stronger than me...to be able to run for so long, and hold on as long as you have...I would have eventually went insane and pleaded for death to blanket me in the darkness of it's embrace." The wolf's form slowly shifted from black and organe to pure white, purple markings covering her face and purple wings folded gracefully behind her back. "See, I can make myself even more beautiful on the outside, but I can't on the inside, and that is all that matters in this world that we live in. Outter beauty is only skin deep, but inner beauty runs straight through the soul and shines like the sun," she said,standing back up over top of the girl."So, how shocked would you be if I ended up being half human?" she asked, looking down at the sand under her feet.

"I suppose so..." Eve said to what the wolf had first said to her. Was she really beautiful, on the inside as she had so stated? She couldnt really deny her when she said she had been able to live on in the world with all the crap that had happened to her without going insane. Sure, she wasnt exactly in a good position, but she still took life as it came, welcomed death...but didnt invite it. Was that really what had pushed her forward all these horrible years? Inner strength? She had never really thought about it, but when she did on those slim occasions, she always thought of herself as a coward that couldnt face her own problems and stand up for herself. Either putting up or running away, never fighting back. But perhaps by putting up with the cruelty of man...but never laying a finger on it, maybe that in itself was the strength she had carried. It was a statement that made her think deeply about everything that had happened to her, where she was, and what could possible become of the future.

Even though she showed little reaction to the new shape the wolf had taken, she was actually awe struck, but still smiled a strange, pained smile. She had made a good point. Following that smile, she gave a laugh that came dangerously close to sounding like a sob when the wolf asked her if she would be surprised if she was half human. "I wouldnt be shocked at all." she said, her voice sounding alot like the laugh: Tortured. "Nothing thats pure human could possibly do what you have. Only something inhuman could do anything other than make me suffer more. I'm not at all surprised your only half human..." she ended, looking like she was quite possible at the brink of tears, but still smiling nonetheless.

She sighed and placed a heavey paw on the girl's head, speaking slowly and softer,"I'm not here to cause you more pain...I'm obviously here for a reason, other wise I wouldn't have been drawn to the desert tonight." "If you would like formal training, you will have to quit running away from all of the humans...and half humans who try to talk to you and possibly help you. Then you'll have to find a way to make it out here in the desert and I'll do my best to train you with the same formal training, and some of my own techniques that I learned when I was training to become a higher ranked shinobi of the Sand," she said, messing the girl's hair up a bit as she moved her large paw away from her head.

"Oh, by the way" She began, her form shifting into her human form, though it still held the ears of her first, and original wolf form. "I'm Rin, it's nice to meet you Eve," she said, then quickly slapping a clawed hand over her mouth. "Well, there went that little secret already," Rin said, rubbing the back of her head in embarassment.

For the majority of the time Eve had been talking to the wolf, she had been laying in the sand and avoiding eye contact with her, or even looking at her in general, just keeping her sight towards the sand by her head. She would listen like this, she would respond like this, and she would feel everything of her past crash down onto her like this, staring at the sand as if it would somehow make everything better. Whether it was because she just couldnt look at the wolf because she felt ashamed for seeming so pathetic, or just because she was too exhausted to even lift her eyeballs up, nobody knew. She stayed that way as the wolf spoke of not wanting to harm her, and of being drawn towards her direction, as if the words were just more fists to hit her body, mocking her own foolishness for thinking that way in the first place. But when she spoke of having to see other humans on a regular basis if she wanted a teacher, her eyes snapped off of the sand as if it had bit her, and stared at the wolf, her eyes so wide it looked like they would pop out of the sockets, fear clearly evident in them, fear of the very idea of having to go around large numbers of other humans. She didnt respond though, just listened to everything she had to say after that. But as she went on, you could clearly see her body twitching as it began to close on itself, slowly curling her up into a ball, quietly and almost silently wimpering. She was half way to being a complete ball when the wolf finished.

"No..." she said with a sickening waver sound to her voice, sounding as if she was talking more to herself than the wolf who had now announced herself as Rin. "No...I cant do that, I cant live with other humans again. They hate me, they'll beat me to a pulp, they'll ravage my body, but they'll never kill me. They'll keep me just alive enough so that they can use me when they want, but never let me die..." she continued, now it was evident that she was speaking to herself, trying to convince herself that it was a horrible idea, remind herself why she stayed away from them for so long. That same sickening tone was claiming her voice through it though, getting worse as she went along, the wavering sound eventually turning into a wimper as she spoke. "I cant do that Rin, I cant let them near me!" she finally said, her volume increasing a little. She looked up at the wolf with a kind of desperation in her eyes, as if the wolf was going to throw her in the middle of the village surrounded by people and leave her to fend for herself, and she was begging with her eyes to please...please not do it. "I have training, I know how to take care of myself, I can live out here in the desert, I've done it for so long already." now she was bargaining, persisting that she didnt need to help, that she was already prepared enough. Finally she broke into a soft and almost silent sob, curling even further into herself. "Please dont..." she finally finished, her voice drowned in her tears, making it soft. Her actions made it perfectly clear how afraid she really was from humans, how badly she wanted to stay away from them, how much they had harmed her over the years.

Rin placed a warm hand on the rgirl's shoulder. "It's ok Eve...I promise you that I'll slowly introduce you to the world filled with humans...and if anyone touches you, or even thinks of it, I'll know and I'll personally chop of any body part that touches you male or female," she said, making her words become not only a promise to the broken and frial child, but a promise to herself. Rin took her hand away from Eve's shoulder and held it up to her heart. [color=red]["As long as my heart still beats, you will not suffer like I had to as a child...I vow to make every suffering person that I meet smile everyday until I'm no longer ailve in this world to do so,"/color] Rin said, her voice filled with power and spirit.

Usually, Rin wasn't the type to make a vow such as this, but since she had met Gesshin and saw how lonely he truely was, she had made her mind up to help those who are suffering in life, and make them smile every day that she lives. This was her way to make everything up to her mother. She could feel her mother's smile, the cold night air turned warm around her as if her mother were giving her one of her warm hugs. Rin could remember them from when she was a child, before she was locked away by her father. She could even smell the aroma of lilac. That scent was the scent of her mother. It was forever etched into Rin's memory, no matter how young she was, just like a wolf that is born blind and learns their mother's scent, she too had learned her mother's scent and feel before she was sealed away from her beautiful mother.

Eve continued to silently sob into herself, curled up in a ball like a little toddler who had their blanket tooken away from them, and they were crying because they couldnt deal with not having it. It made her look pathetic, to be honest. A grown woman of about 20 years now, taller than most, curling into a ball the way a cat would on the sand, looking broken and beaten in more ways that one physically and phsycologically, and crying like a baby. It really just didnt suit her, especially not if the wolf was going to say that she was 'stronger than her'. Right, like the woman crying on the ground in what was now wet sand was stronger than the amazing wolf standing over her, trying to convince her to calm down, that her process would be well thought out, and violent. Speaking of which, the first sentence she spoke in return, when she placed a paw on her shoulder, it had little effect. Speaking about slowly introducing her into humans, and killing anyone that tried to touch her. The last part did, truthfully, make a gag reflex that was supposed to be a laugh, choked down by her quiet tears, as she wondered if the wolf had thrown that part in because she thought she would love the site of someone being dismembered.

But, she did calm down eventually, but it wasnt this that did it so. She awknowledged the words, and if she hadnt been having such an episode, she actually would have felt comforted by them, becoming open to the possibility. But because of the state she was in now, the idea of her doing so was beyond hope for the time being. No, it was the second thing she said, the promise the wolf was making to both herself and Eve, that actually caused her sharp breaths, streaming eyes, shivering body, and wimpering voice to lessen and lessen, until she became still. It wasnt necessarily the words she said that did this either, it was the spirit and power in her voice that did it. It reminded her of her father; her real father. The man was a gentle man that always made her happy, but when he made a promise or set a goal, his voice had the same sound to it...the same atmosphere. The wolf made her smile when she spoke like that, but mostly she was smiling at the thought of her father, rather than what she had said.

After that though, she was able to realize what had been said, and now that she had calmed down, could look at them rationally. Another sub thought drifted into her mind as she thought about being able to think rationally. It made her mentally again, thinking of how the only time she thought rationally was when she was by herself, and was either thinking of where to go next, how to escape those that were chasing her, or where she should get food. Never once had she thought rationally when it came to another person, human or half human. That was because her thought process was biased by the desire to go away (spawned from fear) or the desire to mangle them to a bloody pulp (spawned from anger). This was the first other person she had met in a long time she was able to remove both of those emotions from, look at her head on, and think clearly as if she was actually being addressed by her father again. She picked herself off the ground, and sat on her butt, facing the wolf now that she was sitting. Her head was still bowed as she wiped the tears off of her face though, and she spoke in a soft voice that still showed a few remnats of her episode, but nothing that would instigate another. "I'm sorry, Rin..." she said, then looked up to meet her in the eyes, her face now looking soft, and an ironic smile on her face that was almost saying 'thank god, someone to talk to' on its own.

"Your right...I guess I should at least try again now...Again, I'm sorry you had to see that." for some reason...speaking with Rin gave Eve a new feeling she hadnt felt in a long time: Freedom. She felt like she could speak freely to the woman, without having to guard herself in any way. For once in her long, horrible life, she was able to open up to someone and let them see Eve for who she really was. It was nothing short of a miracle, and it could be assumed that the only reason Eve didnt just get up and run away from her as soon as she spoke about seeing other humans, was because she herself wasnt completely human at all, only half. The other half was a demon. More irony; no human could consol Eve and make her feel better, it took a demon, something most humans considered to be pure evil, to truly comfort her. "I guess...if your willing to help me...I should accept. But only on one condition, okay?" she said, holding a single finger in front of her face when she spoke of conditions. "If your going to help make me stronger, I want to help you too...so promise you'll let me help as well."

Rin sat there as Eve cried. As usual, Rin had no idea as to what to do with a crying person...since she hardly remembered crying herself. Her attempts to comfort Eve were useless, so she eventually gave up and waited until Eve had finally quit crying and sit up. When Eve apologized to her, Rin shook her head and replied, "You shouldn't be sorry for going into a state such as that one...I went into that state when I was younger and when I came out of it again...I was almost completely emotionless...never to feel those wonderful feelings again." What amazed Rin even more was the thoughts that ran through Eve's mind. Rin reminded Eve of her true father...Rin was seen as a parental figure by someone when she could hardly even stand children.

The thought of it made her smile and chuckle a little. Then something caught her by surprise. Eve agreed to let Rin help her, but only if she let Eve help her. "Well, I don't know what kind of help you plan on giving me, but I'm sure I can endure it to help who really matters here," Rin said as she laughed again at the thought of being a parental figure to someone.

Eve let out a smell chuckle that sounded more like a single 'heh' when Rin said something about wondering how she could even be of help. Truth be told, she didnt know either. She never really realized it because she had always been so focused on revenge or running away or just plain surviving, but she was useless. The only use she ever had was for that back stabbing priest back in her old village...whichever one it was, and even then she was just being used anyway. Maybe her request came from the subtle need to help someone, even if she didnt realize it herself. Perhaps she just couldnt accept help anymore from anyway at all, after every single hint of help ended in tragedy. So the only reason she would accept help was if she could help, truly, in return. Maybe that way she wouldnt be considered a burden and they wouldnt feel the need to toss her aside? Who knew. Not even Eve was aware of the reason she had made the condition herself, she just...did it.

Her smile was, for once in such a long time, automatic. Every other time she smiled it was forced, the very slim times she ever actually tried to smile that is. She only ever smiled when trying to buy something from a store when she needed supplies...and she was sure that even then she probably looked phsyco to them, as she would always stand there shaking as if she was trying to contain herself, with a weird, huge smile. She didnt really care anyway...she'd never see them again, and she was actually pretty happy about that. She was just relieved that she had never been inside an actual hidden village before (except her own) as she had always just stopped in small towns here and there whenever she needed something. She even stopped at an inn once, but was quickly driven away. That way, there would be no familiar faces if Rin tried to get her into that village to 'meet' people, or whatever it was she had in mind.

Once that thought crossed her thoughts, she suddenly got an idea...of sorts. She waited until the wolf stopped laughing before speaking, finishing her own smallish chuckle herself. "By the way, Rin...You say your half human and half demon, so I'm guessing this is your 'demon' form? What do you look like as a human...?" she asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible, the interest quite evident in her own eyes. For some reason she just really wanted to know what she looked like standing up on just two legs rather than four. But then she saw the weird look on the wolf's face, and then got the impulse to rub her eyes. She did so, and all of a sudden she wasnt looking at the wolf face anymore, but the human one with wolfish features. She frowned to herself at the weird look she was getting. "Oops...I guess this sand is messing with me more than I thought it was...I didnt notice you had already changed.." she said, looking at the ground again, actually feeling ashamed for making such a stupid question. Because of that, she mumbled towards the ground with her next words. "I guess it is time to head indoors huh?"

Rin let out a small chuckle. The poor girl was so tired that she was seeing things. "Yeah, the night is getting too cold for you to be out here any more, and the wind is picking up...I think it's about to be a sandstorm out here," she said, holding her hand out to help Eve up off the ground."Say Eve, would you by cheance be interested in going with me to do something very important?" Rin asked as they slowly started walking out of the desert to find shelter. This would all derive on Eve coming with her...if Eve said no, Rin would be on her own on this mission of life or death that she had so boldly decided to do. "Please Eve, say that you'll go with me" Rin pleaded in her mind as she waited for Eve's response. As the silence grew, Rin made her way to two large rocks sticking out of the desert sand. "This is it, this is where you can stay and be kept safe and out of sight from anyone who goes by here," Rin said, squeezing into the small opeing between the two rocks.

((OOC: short, but to the point ^^; ))

Eve looked up at Rin as she offered down a hand, and frowned for a moment. She probably just made herself look like an idiot in front of her, but nontheless she was offering aid so she'd just have to suck that up. She grabbed Rin's hand and was hoisted up on her feet, perhaps a bit too quickly. As soon as she was up, her head started spinning, and she started staggering, placing one hand on her head as it pounded in punches of pain. She really had been in worse condition than she thought, and suddenly standing up on such loose ground probably wasnt the best way to cure her of that. But she didnt fall again, she was able to steady herself in time to catch up to Rin after she began walking off. She could barely hear anything, as her own head was amplifying the sounds of the winds that whipped about them, which seemed to drown out Rin's words as she asked her a question. She closed her eyes tightly as she gripped her head with one hand again, bending over slightly at the pain. She would be close to tears if she hadnt already spent them. In her pained stupor though, she was able to make a short response. "Sure.." she said, although she had no idea what it was she was actually agreeing to. All she knew was that Rin basically asked for help, so she was pretty much obliged to say yes even if she didnt really want to.


She was very grateful once they reached the end of the desert, and she was shown a shelter nestled between two huge boulders. It brought a small smile to her face and the pain died down some, being near her own element. Though it wasnt that much of a good thing, at least not if Rin planned on talking to her some more that night. The sudden disappearance of the pain in her head was like a giant weight was suddenly lifted, to the point it made her feel like she could fly almost. That caused her to become even more dizzy, and she swooned on her spot for a few moments, before crashing down on the ground, face first, between the rocks, flat passed out. Whatever Rin had or wanted to say, it would have to wait until morning now.

Rin sighed and finished bringing Eve into the shelter. "Poor girl...she must have been worse off than what I originally thought," she thought to herself as she placed her on a cot that had already been set up there. Rin spent the entire night cleaning and bandaging Eve's wounds. She also cooked some food and kept an eye on the sand storm that had brewed. The storm didn't subside until late the next day, all the while Rin stayed awake and let Eve sleep. The sun was high in the sky and Rin had started cooking for Eve when she noticed that one of her wolves had wandered into the shelter and curled up beside Eve. Rin couldn't help but smile...it had been so long since the wolves took a liking to someone other than herself.

"Looks like I have a new friend...she really is good for them, after all, they need humans to be around them more...keeps them from eating them," Rin said to herself as she kept cooking a large buffet for the two of them to eat.

As the night passed on and slowly turned into day, Eve slept and slept without moving an inch, falling into a sleep so deep it seemed like she was dead. Were it not for her breathing accompanied by the rise and fall of her own chest, it probably would have looked that way too. Truth be told, it had been days, weeks even, since she last had a good rest. All the previous 'sleeps' were more like snoozes, as she always laid down and closed her eyes, but she also never fell completely asleep, subconsciously keeping an eye open at all times to protect herself. Needless to say, this was not a healthy thing, and this could be seen easily just by looking at the way she slept now, like a rock. Even though she stirred little, and made almost no sound as she breathed, she did indeed have a dream. It was a mix between a regular dream, and a nightmare it would seem. It started out with her sitting in the middle of a desert, only the sand itself was gray, and so was the sky. There was no sun, but there was enough light to see in any and all directions. There was no wind either, and she was completely alone. Not to unsimilar to her position in the world only a couple of hours before. Only difference was, she was not exhausted in any way, which pleased her, but also scared her. It gave her the idea that she wasnt actually dreaming, but that she had just woken UP from a dream, and that the whole run in with Rin was that dream.

She panicked a bit, looked around frantically in attempt to find any kind of signs of a person, or even a wolf for that matter. Her prayers were answered when the sounds of wolves howling fell upon her ears. She sighed thankfully, and started walking towards them. As she did so, it became harder and harder to trudge through the sand, feeling almost as though it was slowly but surely turning into quicksand, and getting deeper and deeper as well. After awhile, it got so bad that she could move, and was stuck about knee deep in the sand. Then, a wolf that looked very similar to Rin's original wolf form slowly approached her, walking on top of the sand as if it was completely sound. She called out Rin's name, not noticing the way her voice echoed in a dreamish sort of way. At the sound of the name, the wolf snarled, baring its fangs, and then pounced on Eve in a very hostile way. Unlike most dreams, it did not end here, when the conflict began, but it carried on for a few seconds, allowing her to struggle with the wolf for a few moments, feeling the sharp pain of its fangs on her...

But then she did wake up, with a gasp. It was so random it probably made everyone close by jump, the corpse suddenly shooting right up out of bed and gasping loudly. As she did so, she grabbed her throat, as if making sure it was still there and whole. Then she noticed the bandages all over her, and she looked at herself with worry, looking from left to right all over her, finally noticing the wolf laying right next to her. She let out a small yelp and tried to get away from it, but only moved a few inches before spotting Rin nearby, in her human form. Only then did she calm down, and finally settle, gripping her head and awknowledging the nightmare. Now, some people probably would have taken that little dream as an omen or something, but Eve was not superstitious that way, nor had she ever learned of dreams from anyone, she barely knew what it was. So she just tried to forget it, thinking not much of it. She looked at the wolf who was now looking at her, and reached out a shaky hand toward its head with the intentions of petting it slowly. It was something that wouldnt be too unheard of from her, considering the way she had come to love some animals, but she was still a little shaken from her dream. When her hand finally got there, and she stroked its fur, she mouthed the word "Sorry.." and then looked back up at Rin who was making...something judging by the smells all around her. She ventured a word out, feeling oblidged to say something. "Uhm...Morning..."