Coping. (Post Prophecy)

Wraith jumped as Bart hit the ground, but she looked at SHiraku, and then at Bart. The girl took the hint, picking up the Kraferr, showing a lot of strength for one that seemed to be very small. Wraith led Shiraku to Bart's room, and the girl placed him on the bottom bunk, pulling the blankets over him before silently walking out, closing the door.

Dominique followed Shiraku, and then went out the room, and closed the door, casting one last glance at him, smiling. She then turned to Wraith, crouching beside the canine, and ruffling its hair. She then went up to Shadow. "So, ya' feelin' good?" she asked, putting her hands against the table, leaning on it.

Shadow looked at Dominique.
"'Good' might be an overstatement right now, but certainly better," She said tiredly, giving a small smile. Wraith stuck to Dominique like glue, seemingly accepting her as the newest member of the pack.

Dominique sat next to Shadow, putting her hands on her legs. Dominique slowly transformed back into her human state. Her eyes went back to their brown colour, whilst her claws merged back into nails. Her smiled had regained her ordinary teeth, and her tail disappeared. The fur slicked back into her skin.

Shadow watched Dominique, smiling slightly.
"Be glad you can get rid of your tail," She said, trying to lighten the atmosphere. "This is the first time mine's stopped moving since I got it." The offending linb gave a feeble twitch, as if to prove Shadow's point.

"Mmh," Dominique answered quielty, gazing at Shadow's tail. Dominique's brown eyes then turned themselves to Shadow, and Dominique smiled. "Well, at least you're alive," Dominique said. She then thought. "Talking about retreival..." she mumbled to herself. Dominique walked towards the room where Bart was sleeping, but then turned away, and sat on the table. "I won't wake him up yet. He's really tired."

"Hm..." Shadow hummed thoughtfully, rubbing one of the many burn sores on her arms. She winced as she did so, and her hand dropped back onto the table as she gave a short sigh.

Dominique looked at Raven, then sighed on her own. She remembered the agreement she did with Bart. She wondered if she did the good choice. It's to save the Kraferrs, she thought. Of course it's a good choice. You're only doing what seems right to you. Trying to save your family is right, ain't it?

Shadow gazed at the ceiling, pondering for a few moments before speaking.
"How did Bart convince you to help him?"

Dominique looked away, her hands tensing. "Well," she began. She then took a slow, deep breath. "We made an agreement."
Dominique turned her head to Shadow. "At first, I didn't want to help you. I thought that if the militia came, and that you knew about it, it was that you must've decided to do so, and stay here. So I respected your choice. Bart got worried by the last letter you sent him, that he noticed just after your departure to the lab, and he tried going to the lab. I said that he wouldn't be able to accomplish this complex task by himself. He recognized that that was true, and tried to convince me to help him. At first, as I said earlier, I didn't accept. That's when the agreement took place."

Shadow's gaze didn't shift from the ceiling.
"I don't know if I want to ask what this agreement happened to be..." She said slowly, her tail twitching feebly.

"Well," Dominique replied, "If Bart agreed to it, it must mean that he's very protective of you, and cares alot about you. It's not something you accept easily," Dominique explained. Her brown hair dropped over her eyes, as she swiftly blew her hair out of the way again.

"I tried to send him away to protect him," Shadow said quietly, turning her head to look at Dominique. "They said that if I didn't surrender to them, they'd take him instead..."

"Humans are horrible," Dominique answered, her face darkening. They lead to the Kraferr's extinction in the first place. We were so few we couldn't do anything against it, except hide, to try to survive, living in the poor hygiene. It was horrible. Horrible. "Did you even ask being captured by the militia, Shadow?" Dominique asked, turning her face to Shadow's, hoping she wasn't indiscreet.

Shadow looked slightly confused.
"Sorry, what?" She asked, her brain still trying to drag itself out of the poison-followed-by-holy-water episode.

"In other words," Dominique repeated, "Did you really know that the miltia had been coming for you? Because, that would explain all of this. Or maybe something that happened between you and Bart triggered something in your mind, and made you do that, for yours or Bart's sake."

Shadow gave a short sigh, a twinge of pain in her ribs reminding her of the fractured ones.
"It's a long story. I... was an assassin, but I left the trade a couple of years back when I had my children to think of. I joined the Guild in the first place because they offered me protection from the milita. Now that my family has rejected me, I returned to the GUild as a way of earning, but on my own terms, one being staying here with Bart and trying to get a human education. The Assassin Lord threatened to turn me or Bart over to the milita if I didn't comply to his rules. I disobeyed him, and he alerted the milita. I knew that he would be targeting Bart, so I sent him away, letting them take me."

"So you also care 'bout Bart, mh?" Dominique asked, slightly knowing the answer. Before Shadow could answer, Dominique continued, "Then you wouldn't really like the agreement we accepted..." she muttured to ehrself, very quietly.

"Demons have sharp hearing, even when wounded, Dominique," Shadow warned, her face creasing slightly into a frown. Wraith growled quietly from her position lying under the table, mirroring Shadow's emotions.

Dominique looked back at Shadow, slightly scared. She then looked downwards, at the ground, her hair flowing over her face. "Sorry," she muttered, hopping off the table, then walking slowly to Bart's room.

Shadow sighed, looking around. Shiraku had fallen asleep in a corner of the room, curled into a tight ball. She looked down at the restraints still holding her down.
"Wraith? Little help?" She murmured. The wolf got to her paws, starting to pull at the knots.

Dominique darted back to Shadow, her face having an even more worried on her face, as she knelt down beside the table, and started taking the knots off. She threw them onto the ground, and pointed at Bart's door, looking up at Shadow. She was trembling. "It-It's. It's Bart! He's-He's!" she stuttered.

Shadow leapt to emergency.
"What's wrong?" She asked gently, trying to calm the terrified looking Kraferr with her voice as she pushed Bart's door open silently.

Dominique didn't need to answer. As Shadow opened the door, black sparks leaped out of the tight entrance. As Shadow finished opening the door, Bart could be seen, his back facing Shadow and Dominique, hiding his body. A black aura emanated from his body, black sparks jolting into the air, pushing various objects around as they met contact. Bart didn't seem to move, but twenty-four bone spikes were apparent on his backside. The sheets on the bed Bart was leaned onto moved by themselves, the black aura moving them. There seemed to be no light in the room, except the objects were all fully lit. The whole room was black. No windows. Bart laid there, on the bed. he didn't move, seemingly not knowing what was happening around him.

Shadow immediately ummoned a shield around herself and Dominique before slowly moving towards the Kraferr. She started to speak in low demonic tones, a language with anyone with demon blood was able to understand, trying to tell him to stop the magic. She feared that the demonic blood was starting to try and take over, but it didn't seem to be that. Bart wasn't demonic by birth...
"Dominique, you need to go into my room. There are a pair of silver bracelets hanging on the wall. I need them." She said to the female Kraferr.