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"Let's GO!" Yeande's voice was a growl, the feien getting more and more frustrated as the day went by. Normally, the trip from the house to the shop only took a matter of minutes. This time, however, she had a rambunctious and flighty little feien with her that was making the journey more of a chore than anything. Turning around, she caught the barest sight of dusty wings darting into a tree alongside the shop. "Damnit, Ankou, get over here!" She didn't WANT to do this, but Youko had insisted. It would have been much easier... and faster... if the kitsune had just picked up the little troublemaker and carted him along. As it was, he was stronger than she was, and trying to drag him had proved useless. She was one step away from using magic.

Ankou, meanwhile, was studiously ignoring her in favour of the window to the shop, pressing his face up against it to peer inside. "What's this place? Is this where we were going? How do we get inside?" Of COURSE this had to be the place! It looked interesting enough, and he caught sight of a door on the other side of the room. With a whoop of joy, he started to dart around the building, only to wind up crashing into Yeande as she flew in front to stop him. "AUGH!"

Both went down in a heap of limbs and wings, Yeande snarling softly. "No, this is not where we were going. Now come on, I don't want to be here all day!" She grabbed his hand, using the little feien's momentary dazedness to drag him towards the portal. If she could JUST get him through there, chances were good that he couldn't figure out how to get back through on his own. Halfway to the portal, however, he regained his senses and pulled back, nearly jerking Yeande back a foot when he yanked free from her grasp.

"Why are we going ot the bushes??" he started to ask, before Yeande finally had enough and cast a spell. Immediately, his whole world went black and the little feien was rubbing furiously at his eyes. "HEYYYYYYY!! That's not fair, where'd you go??"

"Right behind you." Yeande gave him a shove into the portal, following after him with a look of murder in her eyes. The blind spell would hold for a few minutes at most, and she intended to make full use of it. "Now come with me, I'll make sure you dont' crash into anything." Taking his hand again, she led him towards the porch, thankful that her plan seemed to be working. He was too busy trying to rub at his eyes with one hand to fight her. Once they landed, however, it was another story.

Ankou let out a faint wail, pulling back and winding up with his back against the wooden slats of the porch. "What'd you do THAT for? I was just trying to see the building!"

"Just stay put," she sighed, looking around and frowning. It wasn't like she was expecting the enigmatic feien to actually BE here, but she also remembered what he'd said before... that he would hear if he was called. "Julius?" she called out, standing near the middle of the under-porch area. "If you can hear me, I've brought someone to see you. He's a bit of a strange case, and neither Youko or I have seen another like him. We were hoping that you might be able to shed some light on our little anomaly."

"My name is ANKOU, not Anomaly!"

Rolling her eyes, Yeande just prayed the ancient would respond soon. Preferably before she tried to wrap her hands around this one's throat.

"Julius, it's a pleasure," she replied, then startled a bit at his reaction and looked towards the little feien who was now trying to roll in the dirt to get the 'gunk' off his eyes, as he called it. Heaving a faint sigh, she crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at the dust-coloured feien. "I was truly hoping perhaps you could tell me. Youko brought home his bloom about a week or two ago, and it seemed alright enough. Then he emerged and has been raising hell all over the place. I'm not sure WHAT he's been doing to my bonsai... ever since he's taken up residence among them, they've been drying up.

"GET IT OFF!" Ankou wailed, sitting up with his face smudged in dirt. That was apparently the moment the blindness spell decided to die off, because it was at that instant that he sat upright, blinking and looking around. "Whoa, that was... who's he?" His attention immediately shot to Julius, and the rather imposing figure the ancient feien presented. Well... it WOULD have been more imposing if he hadn't looked disheveled. Spying the pale robes, Ankou looked down at his own dirt-covered body and did what any mischievous young Feien would do... he made a beeline towards the man, arms outstretched as if to hug him.

He only made it perhaps two feet before he found himself on the ground again, Yeande's hand outstretched as she used her magic to pin him down. "Sit, boy," she growled, praying he wouldn't make too much of a spectacle of himself.

Julius was... frightened? Yeande's eyes widened as she took a step back from the boy and darted into the air. "What is it, what's wrong with him?" Besides the obvious, her mind cheerfully supplied.

The moment they took off, Ankou sat up and sputtered, shaking his head as his perspective was forcibly rearranged for the second time that day. One of these days he'd catch her before she could use those damned spells...

Looking up at the pair, however, he saw that something was definately NOT right. "What is it?!?" he screeched, getting ot his feet and looking around wildly. "What is it, what are you running from?" Whatever it was, it had to be BAD to scare two adults. Immediately, he took off towards the edge of the porch where the slats came down into the ground and tried to worm between them. "DON'T LET IT GET ME!"

Yeande was afraid to reach out and touch the ancient, but he seemed so troubled... BADLY troubled. "Julius," she whispered, moving beside him to try and get his attention. "What is wrong with him? What had you so frightened?"

Ankou, by this time, had gotten himself wedged between a plant and the porch slat and was valiantly trying to fight off the 'attacker' as he swiped at it and kicked.

Death...

Yeande's eyes widened slightly and she stared towards the juvenile feien in what seemed to be a mix of confusion and horror. "Him?" she whispered, not quite certain she wanted to believe that. "He's rambunctious, stubborn, willfull and a dustmop half the time... but Death?"

'Death', meanwhile, had fallen into a heap next to the plant, finally extricating himself from it and glaring at it. "Why you little..." he snarled, eyes narrowed dangerously.

Yeande backed up a pace, not quite sure WHAT he could do to it... but if she was expecting some grand show of death incarnate, she was dissappointed. The plant barely moved, and that was easily attributed to the breeze on the other side of the fence. The dandelion seemed to be showing its resilience in the face of adversity, and Ankou took this as a challenge, launching himself with a shriek at the yellow-topped plant.

It wasn't until he moved that Yeande saw the results of his anger, as faint as they may have been. Where he'd been standing, there were two footprints in the newly sprouting grass... left brown by the feien as he'd stood there. Swallowing a bit, she glanced to Julius then. "We're going to have issues when he gets older if he's just left to his own devices. Perhaps we could teach him or guide him and curb the destructive tendencies."

"Don't I have what?" she prodded gently, not wanting to give up just yet. Perhaps Corvus was right, and she really WAS just an idealistic fool. Apparently some parts of that habit died hard. "Julius, if I have no other choice, I'll go to my bonded and tell him of this and let him make the decision. But he's a child, and not a very competant one at that."

As if to prove her point, Ankou finally tired of beating a plant that didn't fight back and sat down in a huff with his arms crossed over his chest and legs crossed beneath him, just glaring at it as if it were going to take a swing.

Sighing faintly, Yeande turned to look at Ankou, frowning. "With all due respect Julius... I can't bring myself to kill another Feien. Even if it's indirectly by just shutting him outside. There has to be another way, our bonded would never allow one of us to be killed."