• iPod in her ears, foot tapping in rhythem, head bobbing sweetly, the fair maiden sat in the couch in her receiving room, waiting for the always SO fationably-late Zephyr. If the man hadn't been her best friend, by the river Styx, Kahrrii would have murdered him. Well, at least she had the pleasant distraction of her music. Moving her elegant fingures as if she was playing the piano, Kahrrii failed to notice when Zephyr materialized into the floor-to-ceiling length window behind her. In a gust of wind, the beautiful youth stood behind the sofa, laying a slow smile to the maiden before him.

    "O, sweet young maiden," Zephyr exclaimed, wrapping his arms around Kahrrii's shoulders, "the valient youth hath come to rescue thee from the perpetual nothingness that threatens to engulf you whole!" Once Zephyr's lithe, strong arms had wrapped themselves around her slender shouloders, Kahrrii had screamed, punching him in the face and sending him into the wall besides the window.

    "Oh, Zephyr, you wretched thing you," she cried, " what in the name of Hades do you think you're doing?!" Kneeling on the couch and gripping her palms into the fabric, Kahrrii's face was flushed in embaressment and anger. "You show up, what, an hour late, ande then you attack me?! 'Valient youth.' Bah! I've seen more valient youths in a morgue!"

    Letting out a low whistle in mock-amazment, Zephyr stood back up to cup Kahrrii's left cheek in his all-too elegant hands. "I'm sorry," he whispered, "for startling you."

    Seeming to have blown off some steam, Kahrrii sat back down, plucking her headphones back into her ears. "It wasn't very nice of you," she muttered, opening up the MAC computer on the coffee table in front of her. "The Big Man gave us a mission," she addressed to him.

    Suddenly very interested and serious, Zephyr looked over the young maiden's shoulder and into the screen of the lap-top. Kahrrii typed with the fingures of Orpheus, her hands flying over the keys as iff on water. Her e-mail popped up on the screen, and she hit the already-opened messege from the Big Man.

    Kahrrii, Zephyr,
    It read,
    I'm giving you this mission in the up-most privacy. No one is to know about this. No one. You two are to bring me the Oracle's Script. Got that? You'll find it somewhere in... OK, it's either somewhere in or near Delphi or in Japan... somewhere. Look, just find it, alright? If you fail me, so help me, I swear by the river Styx that I'll punish you two so severly, Prometheus's fate will seem like a dream.

    -Big Man

    Kahrrii heaved a sigh. "Well, now, gov'na," she mocked, "that was mighty spesific of ya. Gowsh, you could'a just told us where the damned this was and had gotten it over and done with!"

    Zephyr actually laughed, patting Kahrrii on the shoulder. "You take the east, baby, and I'll take the west," he suggested.

    Kahrrii laughed at that, leaning her head back to kiss him on the cheek. "O, valient youth, though not the fairest maiden, I am, I wish to selfishly steal away your heart to make it mine. Chuckling, Zephyr stepped away from her, to the window, and dematerialized into his true form into the setting sun. With another great sigh, Kahrrii stood, collecting her MAC to charge it in her bedroom as she packed for Japan.
    *-*
    Shayne was pissed. No, he wasn't just pissed. He was royally pissed off. Gods, he was just itching to butcher the idiot who failed to tell him this. Oh, and when he meant butchered, he meant butchered. As he sat on his ivory and ebony gelded throne, his blunt fingurenails cut into the cusioning under his palms. Oooh, the etheral Prince of Shades was pissssssed!

    Shayne's Sorceress, Nineth, stood by him, giggling from behind her frail hand. Though dainty-looking, that girl could really pack a punch... A big, purple-hazed punch. She thought her employer foolish in his anger. For what was his anger triggered? The escape of the Control? And what? He had her, so the Control was always in their grasp. With a sigh, Nineth steppede away from the beautiful, terrible throne, putting herself before her lord with a sly smile.

    "Your Pissyness," she teased, garnering herself a right feral glare, "why are you so... well, pissed off? I will always see the Control, fret not. Now, why-"

    " 'Tis not the Control I fret about," he interupted, pushing himself up to his full 6"9' height. "Someone forgot to inform me that the Winds were back again."

    Nineth scowled at him. "The Winds? Nay, not the Winds. Zephyr had been a renagade from them for years. He works for the Big Man now."

    Throwing his Sorceress into the wall, Shayne growled at the little maiden low in his throat. His right hand was now a dragon's claw, and he held her jaw tightly in his grip. "You foolish little nymph," he murmured, his voice almost shaking in rage. "Had you not informed me earlier, I wouldn't be so pissed off." He stepped away from her then, his hand returning to normal. "Leave me to think, Nineth. Get out of my sight."

    And that she did. Fast.
    *-*
    School, as always, was a drag for Kurai. Sitting in the classroom, doodling, looking out the window, failing to pay attention to the teacher. In that order, for all her classes. In lunch, she sat with her friends, sleeping on Kaname's shoulder. Ugh, that last night, sleep had eluded her like a worm in a babe's hand. Thank the gods she had her iPod.

    "Ne, Kurai-chan, are you going to cram school yet," Natsumi asked, her almost-twin sister's eyes the foresty green that sparkled in questioning.

    "No, Nat-chan, I'm not," she answered, smiling. "We still can't afford it."

    "Well," ok then, be careful walking home. Jaa ne!"

    And with that, Kurai's friends left her to go to cram school. Gods, whomever had created such a damned thing must've been bent of child-torture. Leaving thast thought out of her already twisted mind, the young maiden turned for home, walking the abandoned streets she fancied to take. There were no people there. There were no nondistractions. It was peaceful. Eerie.

    "There, there darling it's just textbook stuff/ It's in the ABCs of growing up/ There, there baby, now don't kill yourself/ 'Cause none of us were angels and you know I love you, yeah!"

    A smile lit up her sun-kissed face as she sang and danced, her bag almost hitting a lamp post as she went. That's when she felt it... again. The Probing. They were watching her, looking for her again, whomever they were. Damnit, it was starting to piss her off that they were so bent on keeping her. Her mood completely dropping, she tried to expell them as she always did... And got the same resonse she always did. The person persisted, more forcefully this time.

    Sighing, Kurai gave up this time, stepping into her home where she usually didn't feel the eyes watching her as harshly. It was here that she could drown that feeling in music and chores. Ugh, speaking of chores...

    Then, suddenly, the back door to her house cracked off its hinges and into a wall! One solitary figure aproached. It was a beautifl, young maiden, not much older or taller than Kurai, with coal-black eyes and blond curly hair with two little twirls right at her ears. She wore just a black tank-top and workout shorts, but she was a deadly predator, there was no doubt.

    Until she gave Kurai a radiant smile that exposed a perfect set of teeth.

    "Um, sorry to intrude like this," the girl said shyly, "but I reeeaallly kind'a need you right now. Care to deal with me?"

    Dumbstruck, Kurai couldn't help but say yes and let the girl in.