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Raziel had been in a rather distasteful mood lately. He had been getting these feelings of being lost, not knowing his place, or even what he was. He had gotten to thinking and realized that unlike a lot of the other students here at Amityville, he could not claim to be any particular species of monster. His parents had never divulged this information onto him, and now he wanted to know.

Stalking his way into the library, Raziel easily looked like a dark cloud hovered about his head. His scowling expression only match the darkness that seemed to cling to him today. He made his way over to a corner of the library that had the Halloweentown residents encyclopedias. These books contained all the information on every single race and type of creature crawling about in the dark world.

Raziel grabbed a random book, without really thinking about what was in it or not and loudly slumped into a chair at the table diagonally across from another student who appeared to be leaving. With his head propped up on one arm, Raziel watch the other student out of the corner of his eye while pretending to open the book and flip a page or two.

When the ghoul stopped near him, Raziel stopped watching her out of the corner of his eye and relied entirely on his hearing to wait for her to go away. No such luck, instead she came closer. She leaned into Raziel's personal bubble and tried to see what he was reading. She obviously didn't see the glare that he gave her, otherwise she probably would've run away, but the fact that she was knowledgable in which books to read for information on races made him pause and rethink scaring her away.

"Uhh.. thanks," he barely grumbled out, almost inaudibly. He made a move to take the heavy books from her arms, she looked so frail anyway. Plopping the books down on the desk, he let out a rather heavy sigh. This was going to be a long and difficult task to find out what he was. He wasn't looking forward to this, despite having a fondness for learning and academia, this somehow seemed a lot less "fun".

Raziel glanced back up at the other student, who was still standing there, unsure what to do next really. He didn't like the idea of asking for help, not at all, and she looked like she'd be the perfect one to ask too. In a low mumble, Raziel gave in to himself and barely got out, "I don't even know where to begin..." The forlorn expression on his face showed how sad he was about this whole ordeal.

At this point in time, Raziel wasn't entirely sure if he wanted the ghoul to go away or not. His typical response would be to try and scare her off and be alone, but for some reason he kept saying things just loud enough for her to hear, and by extension, stay. She had stooped down and looked into his face, but it lasted only a moment as Raziel turned his head just enough to not be seen as well. From the moment when he could see her, he could tell that she was visibly upset because he was unhappy.

To answer her question, he took a moment and a small sigh before replying, "I'm trying to figure out exactly what I am," he paused for a moment, wondering whether he should even go on, she was a complete stranger to him after all. He weighed the odds silently for only a moment before carrying on, "My parents never told me where we came from, or what race we were, and now I'm trying to figure it out for myself..."

Raziel looked up at the ghoul when she rather abruptly pulled out the chair next to him and plopped down, he hadn't been expecting that at all. She was offering to help him even though they didn't even know each other and it wasn't really her problem at all. "That would be great..." he managed to stammer out.

"Xiu..." he tried the name out in his mouth, trying to get a feel for how to say it, before coming back to the present and realizing he had yet to introduce himself, "I'm Raziel," he offered a hand to the ghoul to shake as well.

He was beginning to not mind the company of the ghoul and was actually even a little bit relieved that she wanted to help him.

Raziel really wasn't sure where to begin, but so far it seemed like Xiu knew a lot more than he did about how to go about finding what he was. After her question he sat there thinking for a good few minutes. What traits were important about him and his family? What are the kinds of things that would lead them to the right answer?

"Well, my entire family has a tail like mine, reptilian, but everyone's has slightly different colors and markings..." he trailed off, still trying to think of what would be important. "Uhhmm... we all have paw-like feet, much like a mammal, but the colors on our legs and hips match our tails. We eat a lot of meat and fish and other water creatures, not very many vegetables though..." he trailed off again.

He hoped that would be enough to really get started.

Raziel watched Xiu as she quickly wrote down the things he was saying. She seemed to be concentrating very hard just for him, and they had just met! Raziel was unused to this kind of kindness and generosity from anyone. His tail twitched in anticipation while he waited to see what she might ask next.

Pausing for just a moment, Raziel did his best to answers her questions as best and helpfully as he could, "Umm, yes, we would be carnivores that occasionally eat vegetables... though only to balance out our diet!" he added the last part as a sort of afterthought. Raziel leaned over a little bit as Xiu flipped through the book, he was both excited and nervous to find out what exactly he was.

So far they hadn't had much luck, but then Xiu had another brilliant idea. The trouble was whether he knew the information or not. "Well..." he trailed off, tapping his foot thoughtfully, "My parents used to tell us about a natural form, but we rarely ever use it, and some believe that if you go long enough without using it, you lose the ability to control it..." He trailed off again, lapsing almost entirely into his thoughts. He was mostly thinking of what that meant for him since he had never used his own natural form! What if he couldn't ever control it? The idea sickened him and he got dizzy for a moment, but shook his head and tried to pay attention again. He took the pad of paper from the ghoul and tapped the pen for a moment. "They would tell us stories about the natural forms, but it might take me a few minutes to figure out how all those parts go together... If you know what I mean."

He wasn't even sure if he knew what he meant. The stories his parents had told him as a child were fabulous tales, but did they have enough information to discover his true identity? This was quite the conundrum.

((I will draw a picture for the next post!! ♥ ♥))

Raziel finally put pen to paper and attempted to draw what came to his mind. As he sketched the creature he spoke aloud of the various bits and pieces.

"It's an odd combination of mammal and reptile... We have tails like lizards with scales. We also have scales on our feet and legs, but they fade as they reach the main part of our bodies." He paused for a moment to catch up to himself with the drawing before continuing his explanation. "Overall, our bodies have very short, fine fur, and our ears are very large. But the part that stands out the most is the sort of "mane". It's flowing and liquidy in appearance, but ethereal if you touch it, your hand will go through. It can be controlled by the more skilled, but usually just gets used in extreme circumstances as an extra limb that can take on whatever shape it needs."

He looked up from his drawing, it was as complete as he could make it for now. Especially since he had never actually seen one before.

In response to Xiu's question about losing his natural ability, he explained a little bit further, "You don't lose your natural form entirely, you just can't control when you use it or not. Most of the time it means that your natural form only comes out when things are extremely stressful and you can't handle it." He slid the pad of paper back to Xiu. Hopefully that would help to come extent. He should probably start looking through the books himself too.