Dear Renegade, Dear Recluse

[Iris Ackerman]

@ShadowRoseWilliams

Niko sighed and hung her head in defeat at the sound of a solitary pair of footsteps trailing her own. She stopped in her tracks and glanced over her shoulder, wary of who it might be. "Nikodem, my darling," the voice said. She furrowed her brows a little and turned around, not surprised at the face she beheld. "What are you doing, way out here?" Niko did not reply, only eyed the man's crown warily. "Why am I not surprised you are still so pathetic?"

"Your majesty," the girl began, but decided it would be best not to finish her thought for fear of angering the prince.

"Must I send a hell hound after you?" His voice was sincere in the most dangerous of ways. Niko blinked a few times and felt a chill run down her spine. "Why have you not hunted them?"

"I cannot and I do not intend to, my lord," Niko stated firmly.

"Then I am not your lord," he hissed as he paced forward. "You are a demon! You are useless to Satan if you cannot take the lives of the innocent. Your very existence is a joke. Why must you struggle to understand this?"

Niko felt anger begin to stir inside her, not the anger that drove a man to murder, but the irate feeling that washed over an innocent creature when cornered. She growled lowly and lifted her chin in defiance as she felt her body's muscles and joints begin to creak and snap in protest to the other form consuming her body.

"Don't you dare taunt me, succubus. I take my leave, but do not forget, the fires of hell burn bright within those who are forged from them. You will die at the hands of our king--" A banshee-like scream suddenly burst forth from the toothed maw of the succubus demon. The prince of hell's image shivered and dissipated into blue smoke as Niko's claw collided with the ground where he once stood.

Human form:

Demon form:

 

[ShadowRoseWilliams]

Marianne N-R Grey, she was a very complicated young woman. Life was fairly simple for Marianne due to the fact she lived alone and in the middle of the woods where only travelers and dragons came through. Some came for her shop though.

Business was going very smooth, even though she didn't get a lot of in store customers she delivered a lot of goods. She mainly sold: Potions, poisons, spells, books, candles, trinkets, and clothes. But on very rare occasions she offered classes and tutoring for young wizards, witches, and warlocks. Her shop was about 10 yards away from her house and there was a mossy stone pathway that lead to it.

Her house was fairly large and built very securely, but it showed its age pretty vividly. The stones were mossy and a deep mucky brown. The floors and windows creaked. But it was her home. She had lived there ever since she was 6 years old. Her father took her there one last night and left when she fell asleep. The only thing he had given to her was a plain and simple journal. At the age of 13 she gave half of her soul to the journal so she could have a friend. And she named him Alexander.

"ALEXANDER!!!!!!" Marianne shrieked loudly and stormed down the creaking stairs, "Why is there a pigeon in the bathroom?!" She huffed.

The book opened and yawned. "Oooohhh you mean Pigena?" He chuckled nervously.

"...Pigena...you named it Pigena~" Marianne stared at the book with slight annoyance.

"SHE not IT." Alexander replied in an offended tone, "And she and I are in a serious relationship."

"...Alex...please don't ever refer to what ever is happening between you and a bird~ as a relationship." She rubbed the bridge of her nose, "I don't know what to even call that.."

"Don't judge my love life. I don't criticize you when you read those dirty warlock books!" The books pages rustled a bit.

"Alex!!" She blushed vibrantly. "Have you been looking through my office again!?"

"Hey you find some interesting things in those desk drawers." He chuckled and she closed the book hard and put him in a drawer closing it. She pressed a chair against the drawer, "HEY!"

"I have completely lost my mind. Boy dad would be proud of me wouldn't he. Running around a house screaming at a talking book..." She went into the kitchen.

"Hey you created me. It's not my fault!" He shouted through the drawer.

"Some times I ask my self why I did~" She pulled out a bottle of wine and opened it, sipping from the bottle, looking at her chart of things to do.

 

[Iris Ackerman]

Niko blinked in the setting sun's rays. The village at the end of the gravel road on which she stood was bustling with life and noise. She knew that in her demon form, she would soon be taken for a monster and hunted down. With a groan, she turned her attention to a smaller dirt path that instead led into the forest.

No matter how hard she tried to be stealthy, she was just too large of a creature, and the path too small of a passageway. A trail of destruction and carnage was left in her wake as she trudged through the woods, bumping into trees and trampling shrubs. The long, lizard-like tail that dragged behind her seemed to snag every blade of glass or leaf it came in contact with. There would be no trouble tracking her down, but when others saw the damage she had left behind, very few dared to follow.

Hours must have passed before darkness settled upon the lands and Niko glanced down at her claws in pity. A strange feeling of anger and malice coursed through her veins just as strongly as it had hours previous. Usually by now, she had calmed down enough to shift out of her demon form, but it seemed a meeting with a Prince of Hell shook her up more than she had intended. She spent another hour tromping around in the dark before she found a patch of deathbell thistles in a meadow where she believed there would be safety enough to fall asleep and awake in her human form. She was immune to its paralysis-inducing qualities.

As she collapsed onto the soft earth, she thought she saw the light of a home flickering off in the distance, but thought nothing of it. In all her years of running from the demons that haunted her, she learned they flocked towards the brilliant luminescence of mortals. Perhaps it was best to hide in the dark and see what came of the light.

She curled up and lay her head down in the thistles, feeling her body slowly begin to relax. No nightmares tonight, she prayed.