Saving Soul

Name: Adair Gale
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Occupation: Hero/Outlaw
Race: Human
Height:
Weight:
Hair color/style: Red, short, a bit messy
Eye color: Sapphire blue
Skills: Swordsmanship, good with animals, fire powers
Personality: Kind, laid-back, cheerful…when he’s feeling normal, that is.
Other: Forced to make a forbidden choice under cruel circumstances, Adair is considered a traitor and hunted by his own heroic family. With him are Voltaire Zephyr, his old friend, and Ava, the phoenix who made his betrayal possible.

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Their entry into the newest tournament would soon commence. When Voltaire stopped acting like he was five.

Voltaire did not like shots. That was no secret. He always liked to be difficult when he had to get one, squirming and spitting fire at them and calling whatever shot they had waiting for him "hag's spit" or "unicorn drool". The fact that they were demon doctors and that the shots were often unknown substances did not help matters. But usually he complied eventually (or Dr. Ignos the basilisk came in and paralyzed him), all for the sake of the tournament. They couldn't afford not being in a tournament.

But this time, Voltaire took one look at the red-and-yellow-filled syringe and bolted out, Ava chasing after him and pleading him to come back. It happened in front of the other demons and contestants too. Adair wanted to just fade out and...no, he didn't want that. That was the last thing he wanted. But hell, Voltaire wasn't usually that bad.

Adair was ambling around outside, partially to watch for Voltaire but mostly to settle his mood. For once the tournament was in a wood rather than a cave, which was nice but left him slightly insecure. Others were more apt to interfere if it was out in the open like this.

Name: Anja Wavella
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Occupation: Hired Summoner/Rogue
Race: halfling (half human half demon)
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 106#
Hair color/style: long ebony black hair, usually pulled back into a messy ponytail
Eye color: Violet, they lighten to blue when she summons.
Skills: Is able to summon a wide array of creatures. Can pick locks. Is a somewhat skilled hunter. Has zero stealth.
Personality: quiet. soft-spoken. doesn't go out of her way to be noticed.
Other: She was an orphan, apprenticed to a wizard when she was young. The wizard was cursed to the form of a bat and now stays with her wherever she goes.

(ooc: Oops! This was supposed to be with the other post)

Anja walked through the woods in frustration. She had little sense of direction, even less now that it was getting dark.

Everything looked the same. She was supposed to be looking for what her master told her was a changeling tournament, but the old bat had taken off on her, quite literally, saying he couldn't be seen there. So much for help.

She yelled out in frustration, kicking a tree.

Adair was debating burning something when he heard the cry. Another competitor? Possibly Voltaire annoying the crap out of somebody?

He went to investigate.

Anja fell over clutching her foot. "EROS BLESS IT!" She cursed as she held the injured appendix. She just sat on the moist earth, fuming.

The ground was still wet and springy from the rain a few days prior but now all it did was soak into her breeches. "Stupid old bat. Giving me bad directions then leaving me." She yanked her ankle-high boot off to look at her foot. Her toes were sore, but none of them were broken. She brushed her hair from her face. "Should summon something that deals with fire. That way I can at least see. what about an areo-ember..." She pondered to herself.

She slipped her boot back on and tried to stand.

She fell back over immediately. "Eros bless it. I sprained my ankle." She growled.

The wet ground steamed wherever Adair placed a step. He was glad it had rained before they had arrived and not after. A drop of water fell from a leaf and sizzled on his scalp. Yeah, definitely glad.

The redhead had narrowly avoiding tripping over part of a damp log when he noticed the girl sitting a few feet away. He didn't notice any other companions around, changeling or demon. This should have made him wary, but it only made him concerned.

"Hey!" he called, carefully coming down a somewhat washed-away slope. "Are you alright?"

Anja looked up and back-pedalled until her back was against a tree. "Stay back demon!" She snarled. "I'm not alone!" She bluffed.

Demon. Was she a Hunter? She had mentioned others. That was the last thing they needed right now. But he didn't want to show his alarm. That could be dangerous, even deadly.

"...Demon?" he asked naively, tilting his head slightly. "I'm not a demon." Not technically anyway.

Anja bit her lip. "Then prove it! Do something, uh, er, Humanish!" She yelled to him. She wanted to believe him, he didn't look dangerous, but then again neither had the last demon posing as a human she had run into.

"Um..." Adair began, not sure what would count as an entirely "human" thing to do. Wasn't he and Voltaire having this discussion on "humanity" the other day? They hadn't found much that was strictly human.

Fate helped out. He slipped on the mudhill and fell down, landing face-first.

"Ow..."

Anja couldn't help but laugh. "Alright mister. I believe you. No demon is that clumsy."

Adair would have laughed, but his mouth was busy spitting out mud. He need to use fire to -no wait don't use fire!.

He gave her an embarrassed smile. He would just have to deal with the taste of mud for now.

"So, um...what are you doing here? You said something about demons but...well, I don't think I would've lasted this long if they were here."

He hated lying. But he was good at it. Hero training at its best and worst.

"I-Well I don't really know." Anja replied sheepishly. "I'm a summoner, and my master is a bat. Sounds crazy, I know. But my master led me out here and told me to look for something called a changeling tournament. He said it would help me get stronger. But I have no idea what I'm looking for." She looked at Adair curiously. "And what are you? Some sort of hero wannabe? You can't be the real deal, too clumsy. A real hero is graceful."

Ouch, that hurt. He came from the highest Hero bloodline....that he was currently running from, but she didn't need to know that. So clumsy he would be.

"Well...I'm kinda new to the whole Hero thing," Adair explained, rubbing the back of his head. Relatively speaking, considering being a Hero is a lifetime choice.

More importantly, she was here looking for the changeling tournament, and not as a contestant. He, well no one really, could afford to have her or anyone else disrupt it. Luckily she didn't seem to really understand what it was, so it would be easier to lead her away from it.

"But, uh, changeling..." he went on, acting as though thinking hard about something. "...What is a changeling, exactly? I mean, I've heard of them, but...I don't really understand what they are. Do you?"

"I'd never even heard of it till a few days ago." Anja admitted. "I haven't the vaguest idea. I honestly thought it was a summoner thing. I tried to ask my master but he just flew off and left me. Oh, but he did tell me to become a changeling... Whatever it is."

So she didn't know much about it. That was good. But her master's vague orders...and an order to become a changeling herself? Was it to infiltrate or was it to get her battle experience through the tournament? It was an odd way ot train but that was part of the reason he was here so...

"Um, why are you working for a bat?" he asked. He considered asking how she knew he wasn't a demon, but thought that might offend her and decided to keep quiet.

"Oh, Master Richeau was a wizard. But a demon cursed him. So now he's a bat." Anja shrugged. "Can't be bothered."

"Why are you out here?" Anja asked finally.

"Ah, Hero training of course!" Adair announced a little too quickly. "Only...not much to train on...So, uh..."

Where could he take her? The woods was surrounded by desert, which was strange in itself, and he couldn't just leave her there. And he certainly wasn't about to take her to a tournament that she hardly knew anything about. It wasn't a lethal tournament, but it was dangerous in other ways. So that left...

"To the caves!" he declared, feeling more silly by the minute. "I've heard there's demons who pass through there, so maybe we could find some there. Or even changelings."

If he didn't watch it, he would get stuck this way.

"You go. I'll stay here for a while." Anja stated, suddenly shy. She didn't want to admit that she couldn't walk because she sprained her ankle kicking a tree. Real mature.

"What? But I thought you wanted to hunt demons too?" he asked, wondering why she wouldn't follow. Did she still not trust him? "Besides, Heroes aren't supposed to leave ladies alone in dangerous areas. Well, it doesn't seem dangerous here...but it could be!"

Voltaire would be laughing his ass off right now, he thought. Actually, it was kind of nice being out on his own. Voltaire and Ava fussed over him so much these days. Not for good reason, but it was getting annoying. So yeah, it was nice being alone.

Anja shrugged. "Maybe I don't want to outshine you. Take your first kill as a hero. That sort of thing." She winced as she moved her leg.

He was just about to say that he wasn't that inexperienced when her noticed the brief pain flash across her face. Now that he thought about it, she had been sitting on the wet ground the whole time.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked.

"Hm? Yeah. Peachy." Anja replied, moving and inhaling sharply when she moved her leg wrong. "Never felt better." She continued through gritted teeth.

Adair sighed and set his mouth in a straight line, his expression of embarrassment and misery. This girl-

"You're not fine," he said, walking over and bending down to look at her leg. "It looks sprained, miss -" A blank look came across his face. "Um, what's your name, miss? My name's Adair, by the way."

He wanted to mentally kick himself. Never give your real name if you're a royal wanted fugitive. Ever.

Anja turned her face away with a small blush. "My name's Anja. And I don't need a hero's help." She grumbled.