Saving Soul

"She reverts to her previous form, we assume," answered Adair. "That's what happens to most demons when they lose hearts."

"So she's never lost a heart before?" Anja asked.

"Nope," chirped Ava.

"She's got mine, Taire's, and yours," Adair said. "That's not a lot for a demon really."

"But that makes it easier to love everybody," replied Ava, preening Adair's hair with her beak. The redhead found it somewhat awkward but didn't protest.

"Oh yeah, expect a lot of that," Voltaire mentioned, pointing to the grooming scene. "Ava loves hair."

"Glad I cut most of mine off then." Anja replied. "I hate people messing with my hair."

"Good thing Ava's a bird then, huh?" replied Voltaire. "But yeah, I hate that too."

The Hunter noticed Ava coming over to groom him, and quickly rushed off.

"Volty!" Ava cried, following.

"You know what I ment" Anja grimaced.

"Taire usually gets it more than I do," said Adair, trying to fix his mussed hair. "More hair for her to groom."

Ava had managed to catch up and was now giving a protesting Voltaire a good preening.

Anja snickered. "Good. That means I shouldn't get it too bad either."

"Probably not. But it doesn't mean it won't happen," Adair warned."I remember when she was a pet at 'Taire's old guild. She tried to groom almost everybody. I guess it's a bird thing."

Anja shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe your wings are a phoenix thing."

"Well I know they're not a human thing," remarked Adair. "Really, neither is this sleep-singing and sleep-talking me and Taire do sometimes. We never used to do that before we were changelings."

"Well there you go." Anja stated matter-of-fact.

"Oh, does being a changeling affect your summons any?" Adair asked. "Since they're closely linked to you and stuff?"

"Shouldn't. But I haven't tried yet." Anja stated

Voltaire sulked by, trying to fix his hair. Ava took note of Anja and gave a happy chortle as she came over.

"Sounds like you're next," said Adair.

Anja sighed. "Just this once." She told Ava, walking over to meet her halfway.

"Okay," Ava chirped, starting to preen Anja's hair. Adair had doubts about how well Ava would remember that promise.

Anja sighed impatiently. She disliked her hair being touched. The first hero she had had her negative encounter with had a hair fetish.

Ava quickly finished her grooming. "Okay, going to hunt now."

"I'll hunt," offered Voltaire. "You should sleep. I need to stretch my legs anyway."

"Why don't you both hunt?" Anja suggested. "Twice as much brought back."

"Well...guess we could do that," answered Voltaire. "Might need Ava's help in carrying big stuff over these jagged mountain areas anyway."

"Let's do that then," chirped Ava.

"Fine," Voltaire answered. "We'll see you guys later then."

"Don't step in another bear trap" Anja stated, taking a seat by the cave wall.

Voltaire snorted, blowing out some smoke. "Whatever. That was a fluke." He climbed up on Ava's back and the two of them left.

Adair sighed and shook his head.

"He'd deserve it anyway." Anja muttered under her breath.

"An injured Taire is a cranky Taire," said Adair. "It would just make it worse."

He noticed some of the supplies that had been left behind. Among them was Voltaire's bag of gadgets. He smirked.