[Celeste]

Celeste had been watching this creature for quite some time now from afar. Disguised with bushes and other vegetation, he’d followed it whilst it had been minding its own business, plucking all sorts of vegetables, mushrooms, and herbs from the ground. Ever since his meeting with the Lakeswimmer, he’d been seeing more and more creatures like this, in the forest, gathering plants, killing animals, and other various tasks. He’d become more accustomed to them being around, although he never really got close to them and just observed them from a distance.

He followed it, just to see where they came from and where they went when they left again. He’d followed it for quite a while before he started hearing faint static. He found it very interesting and quickly became curious as to what could make such an amount of noise. Celeste followed the creature through some tall yellow grass which was in neat rows. The further they went, the louder, and more resounding the noise became. It took a short while, but soon, a large shadow started rising on the horizon. A humongous beast started emerging. Or, that was how it seemed. When Celeste and the creature got close, Celeste’s entire worldview shambled. Large collections of boxes made of trees, dried grass, or even stone were erected everywhere. The place was bustling with a ludicrous amount of creatures, all walking on their hinds. Some of them looked a little like Celeste, whilst others had bizarre looks. Anything from horns to tails to wings. It was like an enormous herd of these… these… creatures. Celeste couldn’t find another word for it.

Celeste’s protective instinct overtook his curiosity and fear started surfacing. His fight or flight instincts were all urging him to leave, so he started backing off. That was, until he bumped into something, making him jolt and fall butt-first. Something that wasn’t there before when he’d arrived. Something he hadn’t noticed in his moments of dumbfoundedness. He looked up, terrified. However, he saw a familiar face, smiling intensely.
‘Well hello there, what happened here? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,’ a pair of torn trousers, jet black hair, and a pair of taunting eyes faced Celeste, as Ink chuckled teasingly. Celeste sighed quickly when he saw it was just his brother, however, it only slightly relaxed his intensely alert body. He quickly got up and started walking away as he grabbed the Incubus around the wrist.
‘Brother, we need to get out of here. I don’t know these creatures, they could attack us! Maybe dangerous! Not my territory! There’re so many, we need to go,’ he said. However, as he tugged Ink’s wrist, it didn’t seem to follow. He looked back at the Incubus and said.
‘Come on!’ However, the Incubus didn’t move.
‘Why not give it a shot? I don’t think they’ll hurt you.’ the Incubus tucked back, grabbing Celeste by his shoulders, and nudged him toward the large collection of boxes.
‘Come on, I’ll go with you. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.’ the Incubus ensured. Actually, Ink was rather curious himself. He’d been there before, albeit with Celeste’s mother. Then, although there were humanoids, they’d been more scarce in quantity, and those that were, much better hidden. They usually didn’t flash their race, if it wasn’t a regular human. Now, however, the various humanoids were walking around as if they had no care in the world.

Though he wasn’t much for it, Celeste caved in under Ink’s nagging. Reluctantly, he followed, the Incubus’ tail in hand. This was a terrifying experience for Celeste. All of his instinct told him to get out of there, however, every time he tried to turn around, Ink coiled his tail up his arm and kept dragging him a bit farther into the city. The Incubus kept a relatively large distance from too crowded areas, as he knew Celeste wouldn’t be able to handle it. He was already quivering slightly, from just the sheer amount of people in the vicinity. The Incubus brought him around the various stalls to the sides. This calmed Celeste slightly as it gave him something else to focus on.

While Celeste was occupied, Ink started looking around, at the various humanoids waltzing around. He’d been here numerous times, and with each time, the infrastructure changed. Even though demi-humans were in the streets, and every time he came back, it was like they were more present, none of the times to the extent he currently witnessed. What intrigued him the most, was the fact that Enochs didn’t look as if they were looking down on all the other races. Actually, they acted like everyone else. Like they were all on equal standing.

‘Uh, I’m.. going to check something, spunk. Stay right here, and I’ll be back in a second!’ he said to Celeste, who was currently too busy salivating over the smell coming from one of the food stands nearby, to notice, let alone reply. Seeing him immensely occupied with something else, Ink toured towards the more crowded places in the city. He started scouting out the plaza, specifically looking at the Enochs, studying them. Odd, why aren’t they looking down upon me? Ink was thoroughly confused. Why? It didn’t make sense. Usually, they wouldn’t even look at him, those arrogant high-nosed buffoons. Intriguing.

He had to investigate this further. Whilst he was looking through the crowd, he found one with a peculiar color of wings, they were fire-orange. Whilst it wasn’t rare for the wings to differ slightly in color, wings in such vivid color weren't exactly everyday sights. He licked his lips as he sized up the Enoch. He’d always liked the things he couldn’t have and as an Incubus, Enochs were one of the things he desired most. Using Blink, he placed himself just in front of the left wing. Looking at the Enoch, desire burned bright in his eyes. Ink’s mouth was but centimeters from the boy’s ear. Being so close, he could hear every breath the Enoch took. Mmm yes he thought to himself.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here? A stray Enoch, all by their lonesome?

---

Tag: N/A
Words: 1027.
Total word count: 1027.
Notes: ###

[Liliana]

A bright light shone into Liliana’s face. It was the pendant, which she carried around her wrist, which reflected the sharp morning light right into her bright eyes. As she rose, her chestnut-brown hair fell naturally to its intended place right past her shoulders, with gentle waves naturally forming as it did. None of the other 5 were here, meaning she’d slept in. - Madam is gonna kill me if she finds me here again! -, she thought. Heavy footsteps grew increasingly louder as they approached, stopping right outside the door.- Speaking of the devil. - Slightly panicked, she rushed into her clothes as she hastily moved towards the window and jumped out. Right below the window was the pented overhang over the front door, and just slightly further ahead was a wooden pole used for lighting at night. She rolled her eyes and leaped off the overhang onto the pole, and then further onto the street, before turning around, waved to Madam, who looked out the window and dashed into the city.

Using the alleyways and numerous shortcuts, Liliana reached the marketplace. This was the gathering point of large sums of coin and valuables. Every day, the market would flood with people of all wealths, seeking to buy jewelry, food, clothing, work services, and so on. At the same time, it was the prime target for thieves. Reports of theft of possession were filed daily, and of course, some thieves were caught, but not nearly all. Liliana and the others from the orphanage were part of these thieves groups. This was something they’d done ever since they could run. Madam had them help with keeping them fed, by bringing her “gifts” as she called it. Liliana was the eldest at the orphanage, and the youngest was just about. Normally, they’d team up in pairs of two or small groups of three and hunted together. They’d “accidentally” bump into people, and suddenly someone would be missing a purse or an accessory or something entirely third, as the one who bumped into the person “apologized”. However, because Liliana slept in they’d all gone ahead. Even though soloing was risky, as this had been a recurring scenario, Liliana had become more or less familiar with the situation.

Well, Liliana didn’t ever really go solo.
“Alone again? One should think you almost sleep as much as me...“ Yawned a drowsy, and lazy voice. Liliana jerked slightly, before chuckling and answering
“Altare! 'You up already? What a surprise! Normally I wouldn’t hear from you until the sun sets. What brings you forth?” Altare voiced his presence in the back of Liliana’s head. He’d done that, ever since Liliana was around 12, popping up from time to time, only to talk for an amount of time before drifting back into sleep.
“Not sure, something flashed before your eyes and woke me up.” He was referring to the pendant from earlier.

Liliana started scouting for possible treasure-carriers, as the two of them conversed within her head. Suddenly Altare stopped Liliana, and quickly described,
“10 o’clock. Top-tier catch. Right under the right side of the jacket. S-grade ruby, navette cut, I’d say about 6 carats encapsulated in a diamond embedded white gold frame. 'You see it?” Liliana looked to her 10 but caught only a glimpse of the encasing before it hid behind the coat of an older woman. “Nice catch,” she said. However, as she approached this woman, she noticed a couple of bulky, brawny men walking closely behind her. - Why do the good ones always bring trouble, - she thought and rolled her eyes. She walked past the three of them, before turning around to follow them. Liliana studied this group thoroughly, trying to think of ways to get ahold of that gemstone. However, regardless of what she thought of, every choice she could make would end up with one of the bodyguards catching her in her tracks. However, before she managed to whip up a headache thinking about what to do, a kid came running through the street, seemingly distressed. This boy ran through the herd of people walking around the street, weaving between men and women. Smooth as it was, at some point, one would have to make a small slipup. This slipup would be enough to topple all momentum one had caught. The boy’s slipup, however, benefitted Liliana greatly. The kid seemed to look for something, or someone, however, when he turned around to orient himself, he came storming in the direction of the woman in front of Liliana. He accidentally rammed into the woman, full throttle, knocking her on her behind. The collision knocked the air out of her causing her to gasp for air as she frantically waved her hand around in the air. The boy looked awkwardly at the woman, whilst clumsily getting up on his feet. One of the men accompanying her stepped forward to grab the boy’s arm. However, as the man’s bear-claw-like palm approached the boy, the kid nimbly dodged out of the way and darted off.
“Hey! Come back here!” the man yelled at the departing boy, as he raised his fist in the air. At the same time, the other bodyguard helped the woman to her feet again.

Moreover, whilst all of this happened, Liliana hadn't stayed idle. She wouldn’t let this heaven-sent opportunity go to waste. As they all had had their attention locked on the boy, Liliana had walked up behind the woman with her dagger out. As the lady was still tumbling around on the ground, she discreetly slipped it under her coat, cutting the leather strapping which held her purse before silently moving back. Liliana couldn’t help herself but take a quick look, just to see how much this woman pocketed. And, considering the gemstone she was flaunting around, Liliana hoped to maybe acquire a pretty penny. Hopeful, she opened the purse, to discover but a small mountain of gold contained in the leather bag. ₲75! Normally, when she pickpocketed people in the marketplace, she’d find maybe ₲3-5 if she was lucky! Excited, she quickly pocketed ₲65, leaving 10 to give the purse a little bit of weight and would help hold the shape somewhat. While it would not be exactly the same, it would give her a couple of seconds before the woman adjusted and reacted to what had happened.

She then closed up the purse again.
“Excuse me! Ma’am? You’ve lost this,” she said, waving her hand containing the purse. She stopped in front of the lady.
“Thank you, dear,” she said, as she received the purse. However, when she felt the weight of the purse, she looked up at Liliana, whose mouth had turned in an upwards arc. The lady moped at Liliana, who was holding a thin throwing knife in her hand. She threw the knife at the ground, which then exploded in a cloud of smoke, and drew her dagger once again. When the lady had turned around to receive the purse, her coat had opened slightly because of the momentum it caught, allowing Liliana to see where the gemstone was, how it looked, and how it was attached to the inside of the coat. It was simply attached in a short silver chain, into an opening in the jacket, making it easily removable. Quickly, she took a step forward and cut open the flap holding the chain, letting it fall into her hand. Holding the gemstone in her hand, she dashed out of the smoke, looking for the quickest escape-route she could find.
“Thief!” the woman screamed, pointing at Liliana when she got out of the smokescreen. The two men who’d been accompanying her gunned toward Liliana, arms wide to capture her in their grasp.
“Stop right there! Return what you have stolen!” The same bodyguard that had tried to grab the boy, yeĺled. Seeing the two of them approach, Liliana quickly started fleeing. She ran toward an alley, one she well knew was a dead end. However, she grabbed another thin knife from the bandolier hanging off her waist.

When she reached the end of the alley, she turned around to face the incoming trailers she’d acquired herself.
“Well boys, it’s been fun, but I’m afraid I have to take my leave. ‘Hope to do business with you all again,” she said as she gave a curtsy, smiling playfully, before throwing the small knife into a small crack between the cobbles. A strong gust threw Liliana upward, allowing her to scale the wall that previously blocked her escape. She then gave a casual two-finger salute as she turned around and jumped onto the rooftops behind her. All while hearing the two bodyguards cursing at her from behind the wall.

---

Tag: N/A
Words: 1467.
Total word count: 1467.
Notes: The dustcloud, as well as the "strong gust" are Sigils, applied to the daggers earlier in the day.