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“Smokey!” Anjalee was seriously angered, and she displayed it quite magnificently by crossing her arms in front of her chest and impatiently tapping her feet. “Give it back! Now!”

‘It’ being one of Anjalee’s much treasured dancing anklets, all shiny brass and vibrantly colorful glass beads and tiny little chiming bells. She had saved up quite a long time for these, never spending her allowance or tips on stuff like snacks or sweets like the other kids did. Because, one day, she'd made up her mind, would become a famous dancer. She only needed to work hard for it, and the equipment.

‘I think not,’ Smokey announced, ruby-red eyes twinkling with mischief as she twirled the anklet in question around her fingers, then tossed it up high into the air and caught it after a fancy backflip. Which was easy enough to pull off for her, as her body didn’t entirely have to obey the laws of gravity. The boys, at least, were cheering for her nonetheless, about as tired of constantly being dragged into practicing Anjalee’s dancing routines and her career plans as she was.

‘You want it?’ Smokey teased, floating to dangle the glittery anklet right in front of Anjalee’s nose, but swiftly pulling it back when the older girl tried to snatch it from her hand. She merged with the shadows, only re-appear in a nearby alleyway, the golden anklet dangling from her index finger. ‘Come and get it~!’ Had she been able to, the fiendish girl would have grinned widely at Anjalee's outraged outcry.

Smokey was quite tired of dancing – it required too much discipline for her taste – so a game of catch-me-if-you-can would serve just fine to raise her spirits. And she was wholly intending to keep it somewhat fair. It took little focus for her to manifest fully, turquoise colored feet touching down upon the ground. Smokey's ruby-red eyes glittered brightly, looking forward to the chase she was going to give. But, she’d keep to the ground, and there’d be no passing through walls. That had gotten her friends hurt in some occasions, to an extend that had seriously frightened her. Humans were just so terribly … vulnerable. It was scary, sometimes.

Her general weightlessness, however, nothing she could do anything much about.

She dashed ahead, and – looking over her shoulder – noted at least the boys didn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry chasing her down. The girls, however, seemed furious, so she sped up, jumping over crates and boxes with ease. Plus, she knew the quarters around the Mystics’ Square inside out, taking shortcuts through stores via their back entrances and the like, weaseling her way through until – finally – the inevitable happened: She bumped into someone.

Hard.

The anklet slipped from her fingers, jingling and chiming as it rolled across the floor, but she had no chance to try and get a hold of it as she found herself being buried underneath a heap of dusty old scrolls and books. Most of them looked ancient and – uh-oh – expensive. Had she gotten this far …? It only took a quick glance around to confirm her suspicion. Yup, this was the Philosophers’ Alley, little surprise here as it wasn’t too far from the Mystics’ Square. This was familiar ground. The antique stores and the used bookstores were just around the corner.

‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured mentally, doing her very best to appear rueful. She paid little heed to the anklet which had slipped her fingers, but instead hastily went to gather up lose papers and scrolls and dropped books. ‘I didn’t mean to- I mean, I was being chased, and I didn’t really pay attention to where I was going, and if anything’s been damaged I swear I’ll make up for it … somehow.’ Not like she had much money of her own at her hands. She was receiving no allowance, what little money she got from Mya was usually earned. Money paid for the errands she ran for her, and for watching her tent while she was away.

Having gathered a number of scrolls in her arms, Smokey eventually glanced up at the person she’d bumped into, her brilliant red eyes widening in surprise. He’s like me. That was all she could think, this very moment.

It was obvious, the way the boy hovered in the air, bearing a tail instead of a pair of legs and feet. The way the shadows seemed to gather around him and cling to him. And there was a stone, a gem, set into his chest, just like into hers.

He’s like me! Smokey rejoiced giddily, unable to focus on anything else much. Theirn had been right, there really were more of her kind out and about!

But why, why then, she wondered, was this one looking at her like that?!

‘He-hello,’ she stammered, still clutching the scrolls she’d gathered up to her chest as she slowly backed away. ‘You’re like me, right? Listen, I’m really sorry for having bumped into you.’

Eyes still wide, and more than a just a little shocked, Smokey backed away some more, until her back hit the brick wall behind. She was way too surprised by the other fiend’s unexpected reaction to her to even be thinking about phasing through it to get away from him and flee.

Yet.

The number of times people had acted hostile towards her, calling her ‘different’ had been countless – literally, she had quite given up on counting after a year or so since she’d left ‘Thos. It was only when she’d wandered into the Bazaar, lost and lonely and all on her own, that she’d finally met people who accepted her the way she was and found a new home.

But never, never ever, had she met hostility – no, sheer hatred – like that. She could feel it, sort of the way she’d been able to sense what Mythos felt, but without the intimacy of their soul-bond. More like little Coal trying to convey his feelings to her, but … stronger, more intense.

Smokey shook her head in confusion, clutching the scrolls she had gathered as if they were some sort of protective shield and paying no heed to the fact some of them were already crumbling in her tight grip. The other was only a little taller than her, and if compared by looks, people would probably have guessed her the stronger one – yet she was the one cowering down, eyes wide with fear, her initial glee she’d found another just like her all but gone. Just what had she done to anger him so? It couldn’t have been just the books and parchment scrolls, could it? Well, maybe it was. He did look kinda rich and wealthy, and like a snob, so maybe this was one of those social ladder things Mya had been trying to tell her about.

‘I-I-I really am sorry,’ Smokey stammered. ‘I may not look like much, but I swear, I can will refund you for everything that’s been damaged.’ More, like, Mya would pay up (hopefully so!!), and she’d have to slave her a** off to make back the money.

Eventually recalling at least some of what the voodoo witch had taught her about cranky customers and how to handle them (and remembering her manners), Smokey gathered the scrolls in one arm and offered one turquoise colored hand in greeting. ‘Hi,’ she said, ‘I’m Smokey.’ She couldn’t put on a smile for the other, but she was doing her best to beam at him all friendly and giving off positive vibes. Positivepositivepositive. Little did she know she’d just eradicated what little doubt there might still have been concerning her identity. ‘I didn’t exactly mean ‘like me’ like like me. More, like, we’re of the same kind? Race? I’ve never met anyone but Coal some weeks ago, and he was only an itty-bitty tiny cute floating piece of rock. He was with a werewolf person named Theirn, but that one never explained anything much to me.’

So, that hadn’t quite played out as hoped. But at least the other was at least talking to her now instead of hissing like Mr. Tiger when he was really pissed off. Plus, uh, he was actually right about the scrolls, she noticed, her gaze momentarily dropping to the ancient documents she was holding. She wondered what they were about, as they seemed pretty important to the other. And she’d just made matters worse by gripping them so tightly – she hadn’t been intending to! ‘Uh. Right,’ she mumbled, and – gaze still downcast – she laid down what Dio hadn’t been taking from her arms on a nearby sales table very, very carefully.

Remembering with how much disgust the other had looked at the hand offered, she now clasped them behind her back, unsure as to what to do next. The overall impression she gave, was very much that of a sad, beaten puppy. If the ‘Dio’ boy wanted a refund for the damage she’d done, he would have to come with her, as she obviously had no money on her. She was about as naked as it came, not having bothered to put clothing when she’d left Mya’s place today. But, would he even want to come? That seemed quite unlikely, with what how he was behaving.

But an idea came to her rescue in a flash, when her gaze fell upon Anjalee’s dancing anklet on the floor. For a moment she was hopping on one foot to remove one of her own anklets (in fact she had not even reverted to her more ‘fiendish’ appearance when she’d bumped into Dio), reluctantly offering it to the seething boy. It wasn’t as fancy looking as Anjalee’s, but …

‘It’s real. Real gold.’ Just like the necklace she was wearing it had been a gift from Maharshi’s mom. When the gentle-mannered woman had found out about how the strange, spirit-like girl hand neither parents nor any living relatives (and was, in fact, despite her neutral appearance, really a girl), she’d given them to her. ‘For dowry,’ she had said. Smokey had no clue what that meant, and she knew it wasn’t right to give away gifts, but … this was somewhat of an emergency. ‘Take it, please,’ she insisted. ‘To make up for it. I really want to make up for it.’ Certainly that had to be enough for those scrolls? Because, she didn’t really want to part with her pretty necklace, but she would, if she’d had to. She’d find a way to explain to Maharshi’s mom how she’d ‘lost’ her gift.

Smokey’s fingers were trembling slightly, but she stubbornly kept offering the golden round.

Smokey shook her head. ‘I didn’t know. I never met anyone until Theirn came to our tent a little while ago with little Coal.’ But she’d already said that. Had he even been listening? Reluctantly she withdrew her offering, watching how the other fiend went about to sort the scrolls into their compartments. ‘I thought these scrolls were yours …’ she mumbled, face flushing with embarrassment. Then the deeper meaning of what Dio had said eventually sunk in. ‘So, uh. Does that mean you’ve heard about me?’ She asked perplexed. Whaitwhat, how could that possibly be when she’d never met anyone ever?!

She flinched visibly when Dio slammed a book back into its place especially hard way above her head. Just what was his problem, especially if those books and scrolls weren’t even his?

Then he went back to about eye height with her, and pretty and sparkly rainbows, and at least trying to put up a polite front for her. Only, she didn’t buy it, not anymore. ‘I’m sorry,’ she repeated once again, slipping the anklet she’d been offering back on, and then sort of sidled sidewards – never quite letting her eyes off Dio because she felt like he might do something as soon as she let her guard down – to pick up Anjalee’s dancing anklet. It seemed she had successfully managed to lose her pursuers at some time during the mad chase, but Anjalee was a friend, so LIKE HELL she’d lose that anklet of hers.

‘How come you’ve heard of me?’ she asked, her curiosity winning over. The little brass bells chimed gently as she nervously turned Anjalee’s anklet over and over in her hands. ‘And you like books, really?’ She gazed at the dusty shelves for but a moment. She likely wouldn’t admit to it, if asked straight out, but she was pretty much illiterate. Books, so far, held little interest for her. She’d rather spend time playing with her friends or exploring the vast underground tunnels than reading.

There was no malice in those red eyes of hers, nor hatred – merely open curiosity. ‘Who told you about me?’ she asked, absently poking her own stone with a teal colored finger, her eyes crossing a little as she tried to get a good look at it. She and the other kids had actually tried to pry it lose at some point, wondering if they could sell it to buy some fun stuff instead. But as it turned out, it wasn’t glued on like Anjalee’s fancy bindis, but rather the crystal seemed to reach inside her body. At some point the kids’ attempts to pry it from her chest started to really scare her, and she had screamed, and after that they had never mentioned it again.

Later Mr. Tiger had told her that the crystal was a smokey quartz which actually was the reason he and Mya taken to call her by that nickname. And it wasn’t all that valuable either, despite its rather impressive size.

‘Mr. Tiger reads a lot,’ she declared seemingly at random, as it was the only thing which came to her mind when it came to books. ‘Poems and stuff. With really old weird words because that’s how people used to speak. He’s really smart too.’ A little late she realized what she said might make her look not-so-smart. ‘I like books too, the ones with pictures at least?’ she added hastily.

Fail.

‘Colored pictures.’

Double-fail.

So, okay, she couldn’t read. But she could do … other things. Better things! Books were dusty and terribly boring. She honestly couldn’t be interested less in what people way-back-when had thought or experienced when there were games to play.

‘I, uh …’ She frowned, wondering just which of her activities might qualify as a ‘hobby’. When she wasn’t helping out or running errands for Mya, she pretty much did whatever came to her mind. ‘I like to paint,’ she said eventually, trying to save face from her careless ‘colored pictures’ comment. ‘I have water colors and crayons and pencils and stuff, but I’m trying to save up for some of those big bottles with paint so I can paint walls. And I like to play games with my friends. I’m really good at soccer and tag. And hide-and-seek. Annnnd …’ she had stopped nervously turning over Anjalee’s anklet in her hands, and instead taken to twirling it on her fingers and playfully tossing it in the air and catching it as she spoke.

‘I like to explore.’ She lowered her mental voice to a conspiratorial whisper, her red eyes glinting with excitement. ‘There’s tunnels all over underneath this part of the town, and old storage rooms, and cisterns. It’s like a labyrinth.’

Smokey’s eyes widened slightly. Ohh, comics, right. Some of the boys had them, but whenever she met them there’d been things much more interesting to do than to look at them. But maybe she could ask them to borrow some so that she could have a look during her rather lonely nights, when just about everyone else was sleeping. And maybe … just maybe she could have Mr. Tiger explain to her what the words meant. He kept odd sleeping schedules, just like herself.

‘I will check them out, thank you!’ Her thanks were genuine and heartfelt, and she broadcasted her joy as openly as any wisp would.

‘But that place, I never heard of it. Or of the people you mentioned.’ She shook her head, dark brows creasing into a frown, her confusion obvious. Dio seemed to think she should, but it really meant nothing to her. Even when he spoke Athan’s name, the look of her eyes remained blank and confused, and there was not the barest hint of recognition in them.

The question about her guardian had been unexpected, and it almost made her miss catching the anklet she had tossed up once more. She just barely managed to catch it. ‘I don’t have a guardian …’ she confessed, lowering her gaze to look at the golden shimmering piece of brass jewelry in her hands, and shivered. ‘Not anymore.’

‘Something horrible …?’ Smokey blinked, a little confused at first before it ‘clicked’ and she understood what Dio was getting at. ‘Oh! Oh no, you’re getting it wrong. Mythos is fine. At least I hope he is, with that meanie he has for a brother.’ She scowled. If she ever met Crow again, she’d give him a good spanking for giving his brother such a hard time.

‘See, I have those really bad nightmares. I’ve always had them, ever since I can remember.’ She shivered, a haunted look upon her ‘face’. There was little doubt these dreams left her terrified, as some of her terror could be felt even now, in broad daylight. ‘And poor little Mythos started to have them too, because we were connected. I tried to make it stop, but it wouldn’t work, and he was only a little kid.’ She cast down her glance, her fingers tightly woven around the anklet now. ‘He was so scared, all the time, and afraid to go to sleep, and it was starting to make him sick, so I … so I …’ She blinked away a tear, hoping her bangs had been hiding it. How embarrassing, she was a big girl now, she shouldn’t be crying!

‘So I went away,’ she finished her sentence, quite unaware she had just stated the impossible – for a Shadow Fiend at least. ‘It was the only thing I could do to help Thos.’

‘I don’t know.’ Smokey shook her head, sending her unruly curls flying. ‘At first I thought I wouldn’t even be able to leave the house or get any further than the garden gate. But then …’ She rocked back onto her heels. For being what she was, and only a child, she was amazingly good at steadily keeping up her fully physical form. ‘I don’t know. It was like trying to undo a really complicated and tangled up mess of knots. An invisible one,’ she added for good measure, to give an idea just how hard it had been. Truth be told, she had no idea whatsoever what she had done, or how she had managed to pull it off. But it had been the only way to set her frail little guardian free before her powerful nightmares could consume him.

‘And then I could no longer feel what he felt, or what he was thinking. It was like having a scary big hole inside of me.’ Smokey’s eyes were wide, and she hugged her chest, shivering again. ‘But I could leave.’ She had felt so terribly weak back then, and – much worse – lonely. There’d been moments she’d felt so miserable and alone she’d just wanted to lie down and fade away. But she’d not dared to go back, not for as long as she still kept having those nightmares, fearing the strange bond between her and Mythos would snap back on as soon as she got too close to him. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to leave a second time, and she was not going to take the risk. So she’d just kept going somehow, a lone shadow haunting the world of the ‘normal people’ like a ghost, but never truly a part of it until she’d met Mr. Tiger and Mya.

‘Mr. Tiger and Mya are taking care of me now, but they’re not like Mythos. I can’t sense what they feel, or what they’re thinking.’ The girl shifted her weight to her toes, and then back to her heels. ‘And my dreams, they don’t make no sense. That’s part of what makes them so scary. They’re full of places I’ve never been to, and people I’ve never met. And I’m … not me.’ Smokey’s hands moved up, burying deep into her tangled curls, the anklet dropping to the floor with a discordant chime. She was trembling like an aspen leaf. ‘Mya made me a charm to put under my pillow, but it didn’t work …’

She looked up at Dio, her ruby-red eyes wide with fear. ‘Do you know, can things from nightmares become real? Like, people?’ She knew she ought to be wary around the other Shadow, what with how he had first reacted towards her. But he was the only other of her kind she knew, and the only one she could possibly ask.

Because, there was that scary dark man who kept following her around and stalking her, all shadows except for the green-glowing eyes.