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A walk in the Rain
Fallen messenger



Suboshi was very comfortable. In fact, one could say that she was extremely comfortable. She was curled up under a blanket on her favorite chair with a rather large mug of steaming tea and was watching the world pass by the window.
One could say that she was right as rain.
....The person who said that should probably run away from all of the people that were caught in the sudden downpour.
Lulled by the sound of rain on the roof and the steady clink of the dishes being washed in the kitchen (she managed to get someone else to do them tonight) she began to nod off.

A flash of brilliant blue eyes.

..Well, there went the nice nap she had planned. Quickly standing up and shedding the blanket, she marched towards the front door, sipping her tea as she grabbed a coat.

"Where're you goiiiing Subo?" a voice asked from the kitchen.
"...I'm taking a walk?" she replied.
"But Suuuuboo!" the voice whined. "It's POURING~!"
"I knooooow!"she replied as she walked over to a closet and began rummaging through it.
A green head with three eyes popped around the corner. "You'll get wet." the green being said.
"Yes, one usually gets wet in the rain." she said absently as she pulled a heavy blanket out of the closet and draped it on her arm. "I'll be back in awhile."
"But--" was all the green being got out before she walked out the door.

~~~
"Mumblemumbledon'tknowwhyI'mdoingthismumblemumble" Subo muttered to herself as she stalked through the forest, still sipping on her now-cool and greatly watered-down tea. Her eyes scanned the forest, looking for the clearing she visited barely a few days ago. As she continued mumbling to herself, she caught sight of a white feather floating around on the breeze. Pushing back the layer of sodden hair, she squinted her eyes to see better through the rain. There it was! She hurried over towards the clearing and looked around it for any sign of the white person. The rain, however, didn't help much as it coming down harder now, and was without the barrier of trees to make it lighter.

Figuring that it'd probably smarter to find a dryer place than looking for a person, she mumbled her way towards the rock, hoping to find some sort of overhang.
SUCCESS! She was about to crawl under it when she noticed that it was already being occupied.
By the white being.
A thin white hand slowly emerged from under the overhang and loosely wrapped itself around Subo's ankle and tugged on it gently. Wordlessly, Subo crawled under the overhang. The being scooted over and curled up to make more room as she wiggled around to get comfortable. Managing to untangle the blanket, wrapped it around the being's shaking shoulders. It blinked in surprise and then smiled and laid it's head on her shoulder, apparently going to sleep.

Subo gently stroked its matted white hair and stared out into the rain, waiting for the storm to stop.

Who's That?
Messenger Reborn

Suboshi jerked out of bed and stumbled towards the kitchen. She'd been having tons of bad dreams lately, and had been getting very little sleep since that night. Grabbing a glass out of the cupboard, she poured herself a glass of water and leaned against the counter, staring out of the window.

She blinked, thinking that she was seeing things. A small tuft of white fur (Hair? was bobbing in and out of the tall grasses in the back yard, making small waves of movement. The fur ( Hair?) was making it's way towards the house. Subo poked her head out the back door just as the thing was at the edge of the grass.

Red eyes stared into endless blue ones. Subo blinked. What the hell was a boy doing in her backyard? Weell, odder things HAVE happened, but this boy looked familiar. Racking her memory, she finally came upon the day when she went to get donuts. Noow, what was that boy's namme? Alex? Yeeah, that sounded familiar. Aleeeexx...i!
"...Alexi?" she asked the small boy. He shook his head.

"Uh..well...HEY!" she excalimed as the boy darted around her into the house. After several moments of attempting to catch the small child (and failing), Subo flopped down in a chair and peered at the boy. "Weelll then, what IS your name?"
He stared at her expectantly. "You don't have one." A nod.
"Finefinee.....How aboouuut....Bob?" She received a horrified stare as a result of that.

"No? Hm..." Looking around, she spotted the top of a purple head. "Heeeey, 'Teya, gimme a name."

The young harpey stared at her blankly, and thought for a moment. "Aethelind? I dunno.." she said as she slinked back off to her room.

The small boy's eyes light up as he heard the name.

"Well then, Aethelind it is. Welcome to the family."

ITCHYYYYYY~~!
Messenger Reborn

Aethelind burrowed under the pile of blankets on his bed, matress taken off of the frame so he wouldn't roll off the side of the bed by accident. Although, something didn't feel right...He wiggled his toes. Oh. Possibly it was the fact that a gryphon was sprawled over the greater portion of the lower half of his body. Squirming around to a more comfortable position, he closed his eyes...

.....And didn't fall asleep. Frowning, he wiggled his shoulders. Ohkay, sleepnow.
His shoulderblades, obviously, had other plans. Twisting around in ways that looked painful, he managd to get both hands behind his back and scratched at the offending spot.
....Ow. Rolling off the matress with a thump, he stumbled his way down the hall and into Subo's room. Climbing up on the bed, he flopped dramatically across her legs.

"IIIIIITCHHH!!!" With a start, Subo jerked up, a stray blanket sliding off of her head. "'Scuz me, Immmnotbit---Oh. Whatisit?" she asked, blinking away a bit of the sleep.

"IIiiitch." Right. Itch....right... Lind, wanting the problem taken care of now, displayed his back. "Itch."

"Your back?" rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand and yawning slightly, she pulled up the back of his shirt and peered at his back. "Yeerk, looks like you have sommat of a sommat stuck in there..." Reaching out, she pulled lightly at one of the 'sommats'. Yelping, Lind jumped back to the foot of the bed, eyes wide.

"Oooh, I'm sorry..come one, lets put something over that so it doesn't get infected." Subo flopped out the bed and carried Lind down the hall to the bathroom. Opening the medicine cabinet, she got out a tube of antibacterial creme and several large bandaids. Smearing a good sized glob over each of the things poking out of his back, she carefully put a bandaid over it, making sure that it wasn't pressed up against his back. "There. Noow if it continues to itch, just come and..uhm..sit on me again. Kay?"

Nodding, he padded back down to his room and buried under the covers.

Aaah, sleep.

New friends and Pancakes.
Messenger Reborn

'Lind padded around the house, seeking the yummy yummy scent in the air. Poking his head into the kitchen, his eyes widened as he saw a stranger making pancakes. She was rather small and delicate loooking, with long curls of dark pink hair, with a rather elaborate-loking red dress. But...she was making pancakes.

And pacakes were good, right? So she must be good....right?

Head tilting to the side slightly, he walked slowly up to her and tugged on her dress. " P'ncakes?"

The woman twitched violently, sending the pancake she was flipping flying into the air. She spun around to see who was tugging on her dress (and to watch the arc of the Flying Pancake), upsetting the small top hat on her head, eyes widening with horror as she watched the pancake......

....fall on Lind's upturned face.

Kneeling down so she was on his eye-level, she removed the pancake and placed it on the counter. Sighing, she gently brushed the remaining crubs off of his face and his bangs out of his eyes (which were squeezed shut). "You alright...?" she asked hesitantly, setting aside her hat which was slowly succumbing to gravity.

Eyes slowly opening in case there were any more breakfast foods that wanted to experiment with aerial stunts, he nodded and looked at the woman. "Who...?"

Smiling slightly, she stood up, ruffled his hair slightly, and returned to the counter and began to fix up a plate of pancakes. "I'm Rose, your mother hired me to help around the house." Balancing the plate and a container of syrup, she nudged Lind towards the table with the other. "Now, how about some pancakes?"

Yes, Rose was good. She made good pancakes. And..and...bad people don't make good pancakes!

It was just common sense, after all. Climbing up onto a chair, Lind began to gobble up the pancakes just as the other inhabitants of the house woke up.

After he finished his pancakes, he hopped out of his chair and raced out of the back door.

Melchior needed some exercise, after all. Didn't want the silly bird-cat getting fat, now do we?

Meetings and Greetings
Messenger Reborn

Aethelind skipped happily down the road, chattering animatedly at Subo, who was trailing behind him. He flitted from storefron to storefront, never stopping more than a few seconds to stare at the objecst behind the windows.

"Oohooohoooooh! S'boo!!" He called, hands pressed agiants the window of one shop with a large display of jewelry and such.

Subo, being quite used to being dragged to any shop with shinies in it, only sighed and trudged through the crowd to the store.

It was a rare moment Owle had. The events of the broken Carter City had just resolved...she had rediscovered Rand and Verde, but not yet learned of the threat of the Forgotten's shades. To make up for leaving Rand alone for so long, she was taking him and Verde for a walk through town.

Rand was in sensory overload mode, looking at everyone that passed them on the street, pointing at each and asking "Who? Who? Who?" Only to be distracted by a shop window, and run over, forgetting completely that his mother wasn't as small or good at pushing through crowds as he was. Before Owle could even catch up to him, something else had caught his eye and he was off again.

Understandably, the woman was panting when she ran into Subo, Rand having spied the child who looked so much like him.

Owle knew that she had met this woman before, and that she liked donuts. But no name came to her mind.

Rand, on the other hand, was practically twitching with excitement. "Who?" he demanded of Aethilind. "You're like me!"

Shayna shivered as a slightly cold gust of wind blew past her. Her hair flew around quietly in the wind, swirling and dodging as far as it could manage to reach. She fiddled in her pocket and soon pulled out a small white iPod and shoved an earphone into her left ear.

Humming quietly to herself Shayna pulled the hood of her jacket over her head and stopped to glance at the displays in the front window of a nifty little trinket shop. A funny looking wind chime had caught her eye.

Aethelind looked up from his scrutinizing of the items in the window when a someone ran up next to him. "Who...?" Tilting his head to the side, he blinked his large blue eyes and thought for a moment. "Lind!" he responded. "You...?"

His eyes flicked to the girl with bright red hair who was walking towards the shop, waving slightly.

Subo blinked and snapped out of the trance she has slipped in while watching Lind stare at the shiny stuff. She rubbed her eyes, thinking she was seeing double. But no, two nearly identical children were standing in front of the store. She looked around slowly, and saw Owle, someone she recognized slightly. "'Lo."

"Rand!" the child declared. "Why do you look so much like me? Are you a mirror person?" Obviously Owle had been telling him stories.

Owle blinked at the other child. Whoa...was she seeing double? Then the donut woman addressed her, taking her mind away from the kids. "Hello. Is that..." And it took her a moment to point out the one that wasn't Rand. "Your son?"


Shayna instantly recognized the boy as being a Herald. She had never met the boy before, but she knew. There was another one almost identical to him in the shop talking with him. She smiled and waved back to the boy and she remembered when she first met Taka. She had been so exited that the two of them had looked almost exactly alike. But with memories of metting Taka came memories of the storm. That one storm that The two girls were trapped in once by themselves.

A strong shiver sent shooting down her spine and she remembered how much it hurt back then. Now, pain wasn't all so new. She could handle getting paper cuts, and bruises. She could take slamming her finger in the door by accident. Back then she would screem like all hell broke loose for even the slightest things.

Deciding quickly to get her mind off the subject she ventured into the shop and streatched her wings from where they had previously layed scrunched against her back to keep her warm. She browsed through the things scattered about and eventually stopped to admire a ring that lay behind a glass display at the back of the room.

Lind shook his head, eyes wide with interest. "Mirror people...?"

"Er...well, kinda. He sorta just...showed up." Subo said, shrugging slightly. She followed a shock of brilliant red hair weave through the crowd. "Oh, I'm Subo, by the way. "She said, extending her hand.

"Yeah yeah," Rand said, nodding knowingly. "Mommy told me. There's a person who looks just like you, hiding behind all the mirrors and stuff. And when you aren't in front of a mirror, they go off and do secret things, like stick their tongues out at you when your back is turned. And sometimes, if you're in front of a magic mirror, they can switch places with you!"

"I'm Owle," Owle said, taking the hand and shaking it. "I don't remember where I found Rand...how he came to me. I don't think...I don't think he's related by blood, though. He's an angel, and I, well...I'm not."

"Sounds scary..." he said, mouth forming an 'o'. "But...how woul people know if you were you or if you weren't you...ororororor..." He paused, a frown line appearing between his eyebrows. "That wouldn't be good..."

"Well," Subo said, shoving her hands into the pockes of her jacket, "if everyone was an angel, things'd be kinda boring, right?"

"Uh-uhn," Rand agreed, shaking his head. "There was this one kid, and his mirror boy switched places with him. He got in lots of trouble for it, even after he managed to get out of the mirror world. Cause mirror boys like playing all sorts of pranks, cause they know they won't be the ones in trouble."

"Yeah..." Owle replied. "And a lot less safe." She glanced inside the shop, at the red haired woman with fiery wings, but couldn't think why she seemed so familiar.

Lind's eyes widened at that. "What 'dyou think the mirror world is like?" he asked, glancing dubiously at a silver gilded hand-mirror that was on display in the window.

Subo raised an eyebrow at Owle's last comment, but said nothing of it. "But even though they aren't blood, doesn't mean they're not family." Grinning a bit impishly, she shrugged agian. "Sadly, however, that phlosophy has gained me several troublesome ones."

"Mmm..." Rand thought long and hard, peering into the mirror. "Well, it's got to be just like our world, only backwards." The little kid nodded wisely. "Like, people walk backwards, and they think backwards, so they say goodbye instead of hello and things."

"Yeah," Owle replied, grinning back. "Though oftentimes the same philosophy has made more people look after me..."

Aethelind blinked, and tried out this whole 'walking backwards' thing. Sadly, it didn't work, but the person who he ran into seemed to think it was amusing. "Do they have eyes in the back of their heads?"

Subo snickered slightly and stamped one of her feet to warm it up slightly. "Having someone look after you is nice, though."

"Maybe," Rand said thoughtfully. "I've never seen the back of my head in a mirror."

"Yeah..." Owle answered. "Makes me feel guilty though, you know? Everyone's out to protect me...I can do stuff, too!"

'Lind was determined. he stood in front of the mirror with the back of his head facing it, then slowly turned around. Nope. He tried it again, but turning around faster this time. No luck. Awr, this might take some work.

Subo 'mmph'ed quietly as she watched the antics of the two young heralds. "Well, you could always repay them in some other way...Or tell them how you feel about it...although people find that rather shocking for some reason..."

"Hmm..." Rand tried himself, but it obviously wasn't working. "I know! I'll turn around, and you can tell me! And then I'll tell you."

Owle giggled a little at the two of them. "Eh, they know...they just wave it off, tell me its alright, its what they want to do...better I just accept it." She leaned in closer to Subo, dropping her voice. "You know, I should never have told him that story. He spent half the day in front of the Firebrand's mirror, trying to get through it."

Aethelind grinned and nodded enthusiastically. He scrutinized the back of Rand's head, looking for any sight of eyes on the back of his head. "Nope..." he said rather dejectedly.

Subo snorted and inclined her head. "Yes, it's a good thing that the vast majority of mirrors are waaaay above where he can reach. Though...he's a smart little bugger, so he'll probably find a way t get to them anyways..."

"Aww..." Rand said. "Maybe this mirror's broken, or the mirror me's hiding them..."

Owle laughed, "Yeah...I have to follow Rand around constantly to make sure he's not taking anything important apart..."

"Hrmph. Well, the mirror people are sleeping? Cause it's opposite there, right? So it'd be night now, wouldn't it?" Lind pondered, frowning slightly and staring at the mirror.

"I think the vast majority of breakable objects have already been broken..." Subo said, absently watching the two small boys. "They kinda look like the same person, don't they?"

Rand's eyes went wide "You're right!" he exclaimed, as if this was the biggest discovery since steak. "Hey!" he said, rapping on the glass of the window. "Wake up in there!"

"Yeah, they do..." Owle replied. "It's strange, isn't it? Do you think, maybe they're brothers?"

Then Rand started pounding on the display window, and Owle reached out to grab his wrist, stopping him from knocking again. "Calm down, Rand; don't make a scene."

Rand pouted at her. "I'm trying to wake up the mirror people," he protested, as though this were a perfectly normal thing to do.

"You shouldn't do that..." Owle said, dropping her voice as though she was about to talk about something particularly mysterious. "They're reeeally cranky when they just wake up. They might grab you in and eat you!" And she grabbed at his sides, tickling him for effect.

Rand squirmed and giggled, but soon broke away. "Really?" he asked Owle, then turned back to the display window. "Hey! Wake up!"

Lind's eyes widened as he listened to Owle. "Eaten...?" he said in a frightened tone of voice, before he scooted over to Subo and clung to her leg. "Don't wanna be eaten."

Subo ruffled his hair before picking him up and transferring him to her him. "I dont think anyone does." she walked over to the window and peered at the mirror.

"Aw, don't be such a scaredy," Rand said. "I'll keep them from eating anyone, I just want to see them." He turned back to the window to shout at it again.

"Rand," Owle said sternly. "No. If you wake up the mirror people, you won't be getting any dessert tonight."

"Aww..." Rand sighed, disappointed. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want them even trying to eat you. Okay?"

"O-kay..." Rand muttered, still pouting.

Lind placed his palm against the glass, staring at the mirror one last time before turning his attention to the other things on display. "Oooh, axe!"

"No axe untill you don't need a chair to open the cupboards."

"Aaar."

"Can I have an axe?" Rand asked Owle, looking at the strange object curiously. It looked cool.

"No," Owle answered. "Axes hurt people."

Lind huffed once before craning around to look at Rand. "No axe for you, too?"

Subo examined it for a moment, before mumbling to herself. "It IS a nice axe though..."

"Nah...." Rand says, looking dejected. "Mom always thinks I'll break things. I know how to be careful..."

"But you choose not to," Owle muttered, under her breath.

"Yeah." Lind nodded enthusiasticly to Rand's comment. "I don't break stuff!....Kinda..."

Subo snorted and continued her observation of the shop. "Yeah, tell that to the table."

"Well, I used to break stuff...cause sometimes things come apart, and I have to see how they fit together, but the only way to tell if they come apart or not is to try..." Rand explained.

Lind nodded enthusiastically, a lock or two of white hair falling in front of his eyes with that action. "They yell when you do, though.." he said, a rather sheepish look on his face as if he had been chastised for the act before.

"Mmhm," Rand agreed solemnly. "Mom always yells if I can't put it back together once I've broke it..."

"More insteresting in peices, though.." He bent over the sidewalk, placing pebbles into a seemingly random pattern of piles and spirals, along with the occasional leaf and twig.

"Sometimes," Rand commented. He scooched down to look at the pattern Lind was making.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Mmm.." he thought for a moment, poking a pebble into place, "I dunno. Whatcha think it looks like?"

"Hmm..." Rand examined it for a while, tilting his head this way and that.

"Like the water, and the beach. Kinda, if you look at it funny."

"Yeah, it does!" he contemplated the design, pushing around a pebble with his finger. "Thinks it needs a shark?"

"Ooooh....yeah!" Rand exclaimed. "A really big one, right...."

His hand moved over the design, milling about as he came to his decision. "There!" he decided, jabbing his finger down at an empty spot.

Lind dropped a few pebbles and leaf where Rand indicated, and leaned back. "D'you think it needs anything else?"

"Mmm..." Rand considered. "Nope!" he decided, getting up so he could look at the whole thing from a distance.


"So," Owle said, glancing at Subo. "You live around here?"

"Mm, kinda. 'Bout twenty minutes from the edge of town if you're going really fast" she said, waving her hand vaguely.

"Ah..." Owle said, not sure what to say next.

Subo blinked and tilted her hed to the side, gnawing on her bottom lip thoughtfully. "You can come visit sometime, if you'd like. There's usually someone around all the time and I'm sure 'Lind'd like a new playmate...."

"That would be great!" Owle replied, taken by surprise by the invite. "You're welcome to bring Lind over to the Firebrand Tavern anytime you like...it's a small place, over on the shore of Gambino."

Subo grinned, "I most certainly will!" And then she looked down due to the ligt tugging at the hem of her pants. Lind looked up at her, blue eyes clouded over by tiredness. "Hmph, finally run out of energy? Well, Owle, it was nice seeing you again, and I hope to see you again soon," she said, scooping up Line, "but I'm afraid some of us are about to fall asleep." WIth another smile and a wave (and a rather slepy one from Lind) she headed off down the street, soon to be swallowed by the crowd.

"See you later!" Owle waved after them. "Take care of yourselves!"

"Buh-bye!" Rand waved. "Is it time to go home?"

Owle chuckled. "I guess so, if you're tired, too. Come on..."

Deep Forest Wanderings
Messenger Reborn

Lind ran through the trees, leaping over fallen branches and rocks. Mel raced along beside him, occasionally leaping into trees and skimming through the air over the end. Lind giggled as they raced past the pond, balancing on the sun-warmed rocks that lined it. Lind's small wings fluttered with excitement as he plunged deeper into the forest, farther than he had ever gone before.

Mel landed beside him, slowing his pace down so the young Herald wouldn't fall behind. "Hey, Mel, this is kinda neat, huh?" Lind asked, staring at an oddly shaped and colored fungus growing from the trunk of a fallen tree.

Mel snorted and shook his head, gingerly stepping over any plantlife that was in his way. "It is ssscertainly strrrangerrr than any foressst I have been in..." He glanced warily at the flora that seemed to be getting more and more defored and twisted as they went along. "Didn't yourrr Sssubo say something about not coming in here along?"

Lind shrugged and continued to wind his way through the trees. The feathers of Mel's crest rose slowly up, his stance becoming more and more defensive as they went deeper into the forest. "Maybe we ssshould get back home..." he rumbled, looking nervously around.

:The gryphon is right, little child.:

He squeaked and glanced around, backing into Mel and attempting to burrow in his fluffed up feathers and fur. Mel growled, wings mantling over Lind as he glared into the shadows that lurked beneath the trees.

::Fear not, Melchior. We will not harm you.:: The voice said, chuckling slightly. ::No, we will not harm one so small, or one with your relatives.:: Another chuckle. This time, a pair of brilliant emerald green eyes shone from the shadows. ::Your mother's temper is not something one would face on purpose.:: The speaker stepped out of the shadows, walking forwards enough to be clear of the clinging shadows. The androgynous form seemed to look like a plant that had been turned into a basically humanoid form. It's limbs were long and thin, but were enveloped by the large voluminous sleeves of it's robe. It crounched down in front of Lin, it's root-lie toes burrowing in the soil.

::Well, then, what is your name?::

"L-Lind.." he sail quitetly, voice muffled by Mel's feathers.

::Lind, hmm?:: Green eyes twinkled happily. ::Well, you should be more careful in the future and heed your mother's advice.:: A green hand cupped his face, gently lifting it so his eyes met the plant persons. ::Knowing young boys, however, the advice will go straight over your head. So.:: it rummaged in one of it's large sleeves, pulling something small out after a moment of searching, ::take this, it will hopefully keep you safer.:: It then pressed the object in his hand and wandered back off to the trees, giving one last glance of green eyes before dissapearing.

Wordlessly, Mel and Lind hiked back out of the forest, but it was only then that he looked at the pobject in his hands. A silver ring laid there, too big for him now, but it would fit his as he grew. On the band of the ring there were several small pale blueish stones with the image of eyes flashing out of them at certain angles. He started as a hand was placed on his head, and he realized that he wandered home, too absorbed in his thoughts to notice.

"Weeell, whatcha got there?" Subo asked, kneeling down so she was eye-level with him. Lind silently held up the ring, offering no explination. Subo only raised an eyebrow and ruffled his hair. "Well, looks like we need something to put that on for now, dont we?" She fumbled around her neck, pulling several necklaces out of her collar, before taking off a thin silver chain, sliding off the pendant that was hanging on it and putting it in her pocket. She threaded the ring onto it and slipped it over Lind's head, smiling slightly.

"Less chance of loosing it." She patted him on the head again before heading inside. He looked down at the ring dangling on his chest, and looked at Mel. With a squeal, he launched himself at the gryphon and they once again started their endless routine of play.

~reserved for RP with Rand and Taka~