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"Nina, try to keep up," a frustrated and slightly tired voice came from the heavily-garbed man. The mismatched pair made their way up a slightly unfamiliar street to forgo crossing an unusually busy time of day. Maybe the town was getting ready for a festival or something, Ephron was unsure about the city's special holidays, but he didn't want to have to deal with that kind of traffic with an agitated child on his heels and a heavy grocery bag in his arms. Should have brought the car... he scoffed to himself silently, The sky turned dark so fast...

The street was grimy, casting strangely elongated shadows all over the already dark passages. Even though they had been past this place before, it almost looked entirely alien to them in the creeping dark. In fact, Nina even caught sight of an elaborately-decorated, very old building that they hadn't given much heed to the last time they were down here. Most likely because they had been preoccupied with something else, like deciding where they were going. It seemed almost unbelievably tall to the short girl, with such strange arches. There was something over the edges of them, too... and decorating either side of the front steps.

"Ephy, what's that?" Nina asked, tugging on his cloak and pointing to the building. One didn't really see structures like this around these parts, and she was as curious as she could get. Unfortunately, she didn't really stick around for Ephron to stumble out an answer, running off to examine the place herself. Seemed that she was exhibiting less and less patience in her guardian as of late.

Ephron's teeth clenched slightly, out of a sharp sudden fear as well as mild annoyance. "N-Nina! Get back here!" he jumped, but she rarely ever listened to him when he tried to call her back anyway. He huffed slightly, but tried to regain his composure; there was no benefit to panicking. Taking a closer look at the building -- he was still unsure as to what it was originally used for, but it was used well -- he tried to straighten out a few examinations and thoughts before following after Nina. She needed to settle down, anyway.

The child, meanwhile, aimed straight for the statues on either side of the stairs. She would have gone for the larger, more detailed statues at the rooftop's edges, but she still couldn't fly. In fact, her wings... She glanced back at the violet mist at her back, waving her hand in an effort to disperse them. They were too colorful, and would give away her position to Ephron right away. Once they were gone, she climbed up onto the concrete and hid alongside the chipped statue. With her hand pressed against the statue's back, she took note of what she had originally come down the alleyway for, "Oh... a gargoyle!" How cool!

Nina fidgeted slightly in place as she hid behind the old statue. In a place like this, with or without her wings visible, it was only a matter of time before she was caught by her guardian. She didn't really want that to happen, at least for now. She was still a bit irritated with the way he had been handling things lately, how he seemed to be keeping things from her, or how he just seemed to be flat out lying. Maybe he wasn't, but she wasn't really feeling very patient for the full truth. Why did people enjoy beating around the bush so much? It didn't make sense...

She found herself jump slightly when she heard the door creak open. She turned around, but her tension didn't stay with her -- the door opened much too slowly for someone to be behind it, and the wind had suddenly picked up. That must've been what opened it in the first place, she thought to herself. Well, she was half-right, at least.

Either way, taking notice to the turning weather or not, Nina was much too curious to find out more about this building to pass on such an opportunity. There was no way she would have been able to open the door on her own, for she was much too short to reach the handle on the door. With a swift glance back in the direction she had last seen Ephron, she darted inside once she was sure she wouldn't be seen. She couldn't help the grin plastered on her face.

Kicking at the crisp, dried leaves that had blown into the building with her, Nina began to take a look around. It was so big! She was tempted to see if her voice would echo off of the stone walls, but thought better of it. Perhaps when she was ready to leave would be better.

She heard some nearly-silent shuffling in Cody's direction, but brushed it off as debris. There was so much around here anyway, what else could it be? It's not like there were many other people that came by these parts, right? With that resolve, she squished a leaf fully under a stocky foot.

Although it was rather difficult to scare a child of Nina's heritage, that didn't mean that she was numb to the loud noises. If anything, they irritated her, put her on edge. Her muscles tensed tightly as she grabbed for her ears, twisting around to face the now blocked entrance. Well, she muttered to herself silently, at least I know that the walls do echo in here...

Despite her best interests, once the disembodied voice of Cody's came bounding through the room as well, her heart decided it would beat some feet out of there with or without her. Her cheeks tinted slightly with the excess pumping of blood as she tried to search the room for the source of the voice, but her mind was too scattered with thoughts to notice the strange hue his eyes gave off from the darkness of the shadows. Frowning, she kept a remarkable hold on her voice -- there was no strain in the tone, nor was there any fear. "The wind dared," she stated matter-of-factly, jabbing a taloned thumb toward the door, "I just came for the ride." Wasn't her fault the door just happened to open.

Scrunching her nose, she began to settle down. If she couldn't see whoever was talking to her, he must not be that close to her. She was standing in the middle of the nearly-empty room, and the only places to hide were along the walls. She'd be safe if she could keep the distance, in the event that this person was dangerous. Under such circumstances, she figured she'd venture to be a little bold, "Can I ask who exactly I'm talking to?"

Jeez, I've read way too many suspense novels...

Nina had to breathe slowly in order to keep herself from getting too angry at the situation. She was getting a little frustrated about feeling so vulnerable, in the little spider's web, but she was struggling to keep herself from getting stuck between the threads, keep control. Maybe she couldn't control what happened, but she could take hold of some aspects, including herself. She was stubborn enough that she could, in theory, do just that, as long as she didn't lose sight of that goal.

There's no way this wind is natural, Nina thought to herself as she attempted to block another onslaught. If she were any other kid, she would have been knocked flat on her butt from the force of it all. However, with such thick legs and heavy weight, she was able to keep herself firmly set on the floor. How ironic to have such despised features save her from this "attack"...

Brushing herself off, as if to feign that it was no big deal, she took a moment to breathe once more. It was difficult to inhale any air as it whipped so quickly by one's lungs! She waved a hand, pretending to act much tougher than she felt right now, "Well, I gotta call you something, don't I? Or do you prefer that I call you 'Everywhere'?" So much confidence in those words; it was a wonder she didn't slip up and call him "Spider" instead. However, that would indicate her as being the helpless fly, and she wouldn't stand for that.

Lure him out, maybe. Come off showing him that you're not the enemy. He seems territorial enough as it is, she shouldn't goad him on unless she had a reason. Get a hold of your anger, Nina! Her thoughts got muddy again, and the only thing she could think of to say was, "Nice place you have here, by the way." Smooth, real smooth. She couldn't think of something more... intelligent to say?

Well, he didn't have to be so snide about his replies, but then again, who was she to question such tactics? Her face still set with a firm intensity, though she was sure to leave any annoyance or anger from her features. "Well, sure I could come up with something better, but you did say that 'you were Everywhere,' am I right?" she shrugged. Such blunt remarks, picking apart words like this, it never led to anything good. Why wasn't she listening to her own common sense? Amending her explanation, she added, "Though I suppose Ghost could work, if you were dead." Maybe if she could think of something that was more like an invisible predator, without herself having to pose as the victim. She couldn't come up with anything that relinquished some of the power he had over the area, however, so tried once more to think of something more like a poltergeist, a minor puppeteer...

"Coyote." The trickster, but one that could be outsmarted if one took their steps carefully. It gave them both power in titles alone, but only if they played their parts right.

"The only thing that would lurk in this place would be rats, and I don't think you'd want to be called that," she added. If he truly thought of this place as he described, no demon or angel would lower themselves to set foot in a place so shoddy. Not that she felt that way herself, but she didn't feel as though she needed to defend her position. The building caught her curiosity, and other than the fact that the place was empty and deteriorating, it was still rather pretty. How often could one set foot in a place like this, anyway? Let him think what he wanted about her, she was done caring about her appearances. Don't judge me, or you'll be caught off-guard. Well, she was thinking pretty highly of herself, wasn't she? Maybe it would be the best defense, she didn't know. Everything had been a carefully examined guess from her so far.

Nina caught the sight of the shadow on the floor as the scribble of light flashed across the skies. How could she not? There was nowhere else to look, and she didn't want to keep trying to see someone that couldn't currently be seen. She noted the large bat-like wings immediately, and darted her eyes to look in the direction where the shadow must have originated from, squinting despite the uselessness of the effort. Maybe he was a gargoyle; one couldn't be sure of everything there was to be had in the world. To counter, she asked, "So, are you made of stone?" It sounded almost... poetic for the moment.

She couldn't help but smile slightly as her invisible acquaintance mulled over the name she had offered, though it was hidden under a half-smirk behind her long bangs. Despite herself, she was pleased that he liked the name, even though she kept telling herself that she shouldn't care either way.

Her smile quickly evaporated without any hesitation, and she had to work to keep herself from staggering at the next comment that came to her ears. No, she didn't want to mention the spiders. She wasn't exactly afraid of the spindly little bugs, but she was not going to allow herself to become the small little fly trapped in the spider's web. Bugs like that didn't fight back, but Nina did. It also didn't help that the laughing that proceeded only proved to annoy her over the content of the words. "Well, sure they do, but spiders can also be easily squished. You didn't strike me as a person that was like that," she stated flatly, even though the thought of being the type of person to pick on someone much smaller than he was briefly flicked across her mind in a jolt of irritation.

She may have been a little peeved at her current situation, but she also realized that she was also having some fun. It wasn't every day that Nina was able to speak like this, almost on equal terms. She was struggling to use her thoughts to keep her head above the rapids, in a sense, and to be challenged like this was actually surprisingly entertaining. This didn't mean that she wouldn't get him back for making her feel so weak, not a chance. Vengeance was much too thick in her veins.

She tweaked her head back up to where the shadow indicated Cody must have been, but still she saw nothing but what appeared to be a faint greenish tinting in some areas. More similar than I think? she scoffed slightly in her mind, though taken aback by the statement, The only time I felt even remotely similar to someone else was when I was with another kid from the facility! But... no, he couldn't mean the statement so literally, could he? However, he couldn't have known much of how Nina usually was like either, unless he was able to pick something out of the conversation that she hadn't meant to insert in her words.

Sighing sharply, it became the better bet that this "Coyote" was another spawn, but not one she had run across before. There wasn't any real indication as to his genes, aside from the fact that he probably wasn't Wrath or Sloth; he would have been angered too quickly with the one and gotten bored of the analysis with the other. Almost as if she shrugged off his reply, she murmured loudly, "Well, you're definitely not a Humility kid." Too much pride in the way he referred to himself. "Though you don't know enough about me to be able to say we're anything alike," she snapped, though there was less malice behind the words than she meant.

Her pointed ears twitched slightly as the rain began to fall outside. Things would be getting desperate for Ephron soon; he'd be terrified, trying to find her before the weather turned much worse. This was bad...

Truth be told, Nina had only ever run across one kid with Humility genes, and that certainly wasn't enough for her to compare to the attribute itself. However, she'd read enough about the seven sins and virtues that were most common to know that... Cody wasn't it. And did he just call her ignorant? He was looking to tick her off, wasn't he? Well, she wasn't about to give him the pleasure, so only smiled at the retort.

She blinked when the Coyote had mentioned what he could feel off of her, but instead of getting further infuriated, she felt more... intrigued. She had forgotten about different spawn's unique abilities, as she had only a slight hold on her own. It was possible that he knew some things, true, but he was leaving out some important attributes of a person's being. No longer was tension on her voice when she spoke up, though she was having a difficult time articulating what exactly she wanted to say, "Surroundings don't make me who I am, and my parents, only a little bit. Even if you had the same parents and were with me through my whole life, you wouldn't be like me." Maybe slightly similar, but there wasn't any way that someone could be both telepathic and be able to unravel her thoughts -- she couldn't do it, and it was her own brain! How could he understand her when she couldn't understand herself half the time?

Still, she was curious as to exactly what he saw that was so similar. She frowned quizzically, about to ask, "Care to explain?" before she felt the breeze once again. It was unnatural in origin, but she didn't know from where it came from or where it dissipated. Her ability to sense magic was still much too unrefined, but at least she knew it when she felt it. She whipped her head around, knowing that he was on the move but unable to pinpoint where. Why else would he be using his abilities so mildly, and with the storm reaching a peak in intensity? She was so wrapped up in these thoughts that she didn't notice when the small weight of the geode in her pocket was lifted.

That is, until Cody had mentioned it. Turning slightly pale, she smacked at her pocket, only to find it empty. A flush of red anger overtook the light-headedness in a sudden wave of emotion. Anything he had stated that he had observed from the child fell on deaf ears, the pulsing, drumming of blood overtaking her hearing instead. "b*****d, give it back!" she yelled, trying to spot him in the shadows of the room.

It was only when she saw the play of light on the geode's rough surface to the stone floor did she know where to look for him. She spun around to face the darkened pedestal, hands clenched but not taking a step further. No, it would be foolish to charge at him; he could fly away so easily. She had to grab hold of her temper again, beat him with calculating efforts. Ohh, he's going to pay for that one, she fumed mentally. Wait for the opportunity only, or the chances of never seeing the stone again would only skyrocket. "Do you like bullying little girls?" she sneered. That... wasn't the opportunity she was looking for.

Hmm, seems he had a good point. Why filter out just the small girls when one could bully anybody that walked through these streets? There can't have been too many that would take these side roads, so out of the way compared to the main streets. After all, the only reason why Ephron and her had traveled down this road was the fact that the main streets were so busy, and neither one of them had wanted to deal with the traffic. Despite the knowledge, though, it didn't make Nina feel any more joyful -- it just meant that he was used to tormenting anybody, no matter what age or intelligence level they had.

She did manage to cool down a little bit once the Coyote had mentioned that he wasn't all that interested in the geode, but remained on-guard and slightly tense. Sure, he said he didn't want it, but that didn't mean that he would stay true to her words. She had noticed that people liked to lie more and more often as they aged, and she wasn't willing to give Coyote the benefit of the doubt.

In fact, he wasn't giving it back. Why didn't he just come down? Did it really matter if she saw him or not? Or was it all about the act? How annoying... she huffed to herself, but figured she'd play along. It couldn't hurt, at least.

Besides, this was beginning to feel a bit like a suspense movie, and that thought seemed to spark new interest. At the very least, it kept her mind off of the anger she felt being pick-pocketed a tiny bit. Cradling her chin between a thumb and forefinger in thought, she allowed the silence linger for a bit. Lowering the hand to bat at the air slightly, she replied, "I suppose. I can give you either my name or my parents, but then you need to give the rock back. Only after you do that will I give you the other half of the information you want." It wasn't a bad trade, but she had to be sure that this masked Coyote would truly give it back, and wasn't just acting like he would to get the information he seeked. For all she knew, he wanted both.