Melody of Ice

Tiny droplets of rain fall through the domain of all that flies; their expeditious journey from sky to eartch interrupted on collision with the grease-slick feathers of a bird. As he draws his wings back down to point groundward they roll with some dainty elegance down and once more drop into their rapid descent.

The raven caws, as if to announce his presence, as he extends his talons and spreads tailfeathers like a fan as he comes in to land amongst the branches of a particularly bare tree. He caws once more; though he need not have, for the flapping of wings draws his client's attention.

Kori walks up to the girl that's being chased to wake her "hey, we need to head out..."

Xen groans, attempting to gather her senses at this early hour.
"What time have you woken me?" she complains, squinting into the distance and trying to gauge the height of the sun.

Minori looks up to the sky..."Early morning?"

Xen rolls her eyes, a disgruntled growl under her breath; disgruntled at best, and quite fitting of her more beastlike features.

Getting out of bed...
What a chore.

----

Raising a fist towards the bird, the Hunter invites the Raven to perch on their arm. Familar with his client, the bird obliges. He waits with patience as the message is carefully detached from his leg, before returning to the tree, preening and occasionally tilting his head to observe with curiosity as the Hunter skims the message.

"Catch."
Taken offguard, the Hunter's companion snatches the now scrunched up ball of paper with a degree of finesse nonetheless. He glances to the Hunter, awaiting further instruction.
"And? What does it say ..?"

"They're heading for the city..."  he speaks cautiously after a moment of ever uncomfortable silence "I... I apologise..." he closes his eyes tight, and sinks into a swift bow "...I should have taken a more cautious approach back in the village..."

When he returns his gaze to the Hunter, the looming figure seems disinterested in the apology. Rather, they have turned to the crow once again "Return to your master. She will relay better information soon, I trust..." The bird caws loudly once more by way of a response, and is gone in a cluster of black wings and discarded feathers.

"Your apology is accepted, but moot. The demons flee... and what better prey than one filthy demon, but three together? Let them flee, Eightnine... the chase is on.'

Phencyr jumps down from the trees, awaiting her new companions to awake from their slumber, she has shades on her eyes that cover her entire eyes...

Kori stretches "so...shall we leave..?"

Xen yawns and stretches out, sprawling across the space she had claimed for the night. Sitting up, she runs her talons through her hair - full of dust and sand, of course - and breathes an unimpressed sigh.

Minori gets ready to pack up the stuff, and Kori goes over to help... Phencyr kinda just hanging around with her stuff

With nothing to pack, Xen's only task is to secure the leather belt to her waist. The belt is made of a stiff brown leather, with many satchels containing a menagerie of items nesscaery to the life of a theif such as her. She dusts herself down, and kicks the remians of the fire to eliminate any smouldering ashes.

Sleeping in thick leathef garments was less than preferable, and the sand had even gotten into her cothes during the night. Indeed, Xen owned only one set of clothes, but the lack of clean ones dissatisfied her intensely.

Kori turns to the companion groaning after getting up, and walks toward her, having Minori follow him with the new guest, in a gesture to leave toward the hot desert "You seem quite upset...miss..."

'Xen. My name is Xen. Didn't I already tell you that?" she scowls, before sighing and rolling her eyes.

"It's not as if I have any friends to call me by that, anyway. It hardly matters, really." the sulking outcast' introspection is interrupted as she realises she'd snapped, and looks a little ashamed at the fact.

"Sorry, my clothes are full of sand, haha! I'll never get used to sleeping in dirt."

Minori waves her fan at Xen, to blow off the dirt and sand "there~" she smiles happily and skips back to Kori

"Well Xen, I'm sure there'll be some stalls to buy 2 or 3 outfits from when we get to the city...granted its location. probably a place to stay for the night too...unless u want Minori to keep blasting u with air to get the dirt off u.."

Xen completely ignores the inflection of the word 'buy', and stares at him in a blank but somehow defiant manner.
"Clothes are hard to steal, excluding the right opportunity. A good theif knows their limits."

Eating some food, Phencyr chimes in really quick "its not hard when dumb venders leaves out their merch. at night..."

/dammit....im stuck with two thieves now?!/

Xen's stomaxh growls. She's hungry, but not about to trust anything this girl has handled.

"So.. are we leaving soon?"

Minori runs up to Xen and hands her some bread wrapped up to keep it preserved and she runs back over to Kori, as they begin walking toward the desert along with their new companion.

"Thank you!"
Xsn follows, a short way behind.

They get the the sand, Kori takes out a small cloak for himself and Minori giving it to her, and they both put it on, as well as putting on the hoods "well....i hope u have a cloak to wear, the desert is quite hot...and we have to keep moving until we get to the town.."

Without response, the theif pulls the large white cloak accross her shoulders, swinging it round as she does to discard a majority of the sand. It is made of a white, sack-like material - handmade with from some more wealthy being's surplus, presumably - but rather well sewn nonetheless. There are even slits to acommodate for the brassy horns which decorate the nomad female's head.

After some time of a long walk and dead heat, a what looks like Ridge appears in the distance, smoke constantly coming out of the this ridge. Kori puts his hand above his eyes like a visor. "ah there it is...im ready to get out of this heat" he growns

"I feel a obliged to ask why our destination is smoking?"

"its a factory city in a canyon...be careful where u step" she continues to munch on her snacks, sporting extremely dark shades where her eyes cant be seen

"Careful where I-?"
There is a soft crack, as the brittle, dusty ground gives way beneath Xen's feet... opening out into a massive cavern below.

Phencyr quickly acts with placing her bread roll in her mouth, and grabbing Xen's cloak, and pulls Xen toward herself "Jeez...Only way to actually get into this city, is over there" she points toward a ways away, at what looks like a small shack "there's a Elevator inside that's steam powered by the races of this city...otherwise you should be careful, there are lots of holes and stuff here. We're actually by something called the Sand Falls" she starts walking away "we should get in the city quickly"

Xen grabs the ground, clawing into it like a cat with only the ledge between it and a filled bathtub whilst Phencyr pulls her back up. As if to regain her air of equanimity, she makes a leap back onto solid footing with slightly more athletisicm than was really neccasary.

"Cheers." she states, the gesture somewhat detracted from by a mildly resentful scowl.

Xen isn't listening to the others. She is peering down the hole, into the great and dusty cavern of sandstone and dirt below... she could have sworn the shadows moved below there.