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Stage Five

She let out a low and thoughtful hum when he spoke, his words dry, raspy, barely discernible unless she cocked her head to the side to listen, which she did, feeling no immediate threat from this mere hunter who was laid out upon the ground. She remembered him as strong, however. Small, young looking, certainly (though he appeared older now. Such a very human trait, to age in appearance so quickly), but a worthy opponent. It had, after all, taken both her and Shik to subdue him once before.

But the land had taken it's toll. The heat, the exhaustion. He appeared so very near death, and any normal human surely would have expired by now.

"Ah, so he does remember." She spoke to herself now, not yet straightening as she turned to look down on him again.

But he didn't think that she was real and aw wasn't that just precious? She actually let out a bark of laughter. "You will wish I was only a hallucination, boy." She ignored his request for her to go away with a small smirk.

He was so near complete unconsciousness already that she actually debated whether her next move was entirely necessary.

And then her insanity tinged hand closed into a fist and it swung, aiming to take him hard in the temple in an attempt to knock him out.

Stage Five

The smirk became something much more satisfied looking when he said she was hard to forget, that simple statement quite pleasing to hear. Still, she dared not dally around playing with her new toy, lest she be caught by other hunters who were surely searching for this one (though there was a chance they were not). Her pride could wait, as could her fun.

Though knocking him out cold certainly gave a small thrill.

Without further ado, she gathered the man (who she still thought of as a boy) up into her arms, easily managing the weight, her own body strong with honed muscles. She wished, however, that she'd had a sack to put him in. Having him so close to her, his head sometimes lolling, his face brushing against bare skin, sent shivers of disgust down her spine at the contact.

Shoving the nauseating thoughts aside, she unfolded her wings, beating them heavily, whipping up sand and debris as she took off in the direction of the nearest portal that would transport her back to The Tower.

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Stage Six

The Tower may have been her first stop, but it wasn't her final destination. When Gale would awaken, it would be to the smell of dank moisture, damp dirt, a chilled humidity, and very dim lighting. He was chained to a chair, in the middle of what appeared to be a very empty room made up of wet, mossy stone and brick, the floor beneath him packed down dirt with crumbling rocky debris strewn here and there. One wall, however, was derived of steel bars, with what might have been either vines or roots twined around each.

There was a door set in those bars, padlocked and shut tight.

There was nobody in sight, though Gale might notice that his face and hair were wet, as well as the front of his clothes and perhaps his lap as well, though humidity was not entirely to blame. The horsewoman, in her impatience to have him awaken, may have dumped water on him once....or twice.

Now she'd gotten bored and wandered off, but would likely check on him again soon.

Maybe.

Stage Six

It was perhaps only a few minutes after Gale awoke that Shaheen found her way back down into her little miniature dungeon, silently moving down damp and crumbly stone steps that were being torn apart and nearly overgrown by roots. Her lair was new, to her, but actually quite old, decrepit, and in need of much care before it could really be considered adequate, but for her purposes, for what she had in mind just at this very moment, it would do.

She moved lightly on her feet for such a large woman, her wings tucked in behind her as she moved down the curving steps, before stone turned to dirt, and she crossed the floor to the cell that she had left her new toy stored away in.

"Ah, you're awake!" She sounded delighted, almost too happy, a smile curling up her lips that revealed teeth, though her gaze was narrowed and anything but warm. Fingers curled around the steel bars at the front of Gale's small prison, and she leaned forward to peer at him intently. "How are you feeling? Can I get you anything? Food? Water?" She continued to smile in that way that was not at all as non threatening as she attempted to make it look.

Stage Six

Shaheen barked a laugh.

"A dream? Hardly." She snickered some more. "Not even those closest to me would ever mistake me for a dream." No, she rather fancied herself as a nightmare incarnate, though she was not here to tell him as such.

No. She had brought him here so that she could first learn about him, whether he be willing or not, and also to use him to further her own cause fuelled by nothing more then a whim.

His answer made her smile more, and she let out a couple of tsks. "And where would be the fun in that?" She asked, "Besides. You are a guest in my home! How very rude of you it would be if you left before we could really get to know each other. Now, if you don't want anything, then perhaps we should just dive right in to polite conversation."

Her fingers tightened around the steel bars, wringing them against the palms of her hand.

"What is your name, boy?"

Stage Six

The fact that he didn't already know her name was unsettling, and something hard and cold flashed in her eyes, her smile fading away, her lips pursing for a moment. How many hunters did she have to maim? How many did she have to leave near death on the Haunted House floor? How many more would it take before they all knew her? Before they all feared her?

She could feel a growl building up in the back of her throat, her knuckles white against the bars of metal, but she choked it back, her fingers sliding away from the steel with the metallic sound of her nails scraping against their surface.

She walked towards the door, but she continued to face him, shadows sliding over her face before her hand went to the padlock, and a key was pulled out from a small bag that hung at her hip.

"It's Shaheen." She said, an eyebrow arching as the padlock clicked open and was removed, the door swinging inwards with a squeal of rusted hinges. She had managed to regain control of her temper, though it always simmered just below the surface, ready to boil over once more at the smallest slight. "Do try to remember it. The last hunter who forgot found himself pinned to the haunted house floor beneath my dagger.....I do wonder sometimes if he managed to survive."

She moved into the room, stepped closer to the hunter chained in his chair, and reached out to grab his chin tight between a thumb and forefinger, making sure he was looking up at her, eyes boring into his.

"Your turn."

Stage Six

Flattery. It brought a small smile to her lips though there was not a hint of warmth in her steady stare. For the moment, his comments received no response, because she was on a small mission to wrest his own name away from him.

When she grabbed a hold of his chin, her fingers added steadily more pressure, perhaps painfully so, but more likely just in an uncomfortable manner. She could have done worse, far worse, but seemed content with just this for now, though the texture of his skin felt almost slimy to her, disgusting, oily, dirty. It made her want to squeeze harder, to crush him, to not stop until she felt his jaw crack and give beneath her fingers.

But she let him go when he gave her his name, roughly, her smile, however cold, widening.

"Gale" She practically purred, tacking on mentally, like the wind, but not saying so out loud. "And what, pray tell, do you think you know about my clan?" He had said her name was strong, in tune with her clan. She could not argue but it was curious, as she wondered just how knowledgeable this one was on those of the four clans.

Her arms folded over her chest as she waited for an answer.

Stage Six

She listened, turning to lean back against a wall, nearly bare feet crossing at the ankles even as her arms remained crossed over her chest. The damp, mossy stone was cool against her back, and she tilted her head to rest against the wall as well as she waited for him to finish.

He was rather clever, she thought, for pinning her so easily. She could not have done the same in regards to each of the hunters little divisions, the symbols on their jackets meaning nothing to her.

Violence, intensity, a controlling nature. It was all true, but it was all a means to an end. As much as she enjoyed the kill, she enjoyed other things so much more.

"Mm." She nodded, pushing herself away from the wall. He seemed to have the general idea, and perhaps knew quite a bit more that he wasn't saying, and while there was much she could have added, she kept that information to herself.

"Do you know what this is?" She asked, changing the subject, while holding out her grey afflicted hand near his face, her wings shifting behind her.