[SpringsSong]

Eyvindr looked down at the note in his hand nervously, biting his lip as he stared at it, trying his best not to pace around the base of the volcano as his tails swished around nervously.  In his anthro form, one could clearly see that he was a Lucain; his yellow eyes stood out against his long, black hair.  They were also tired eyes--he had not been sleeping well since the birth of Chanda's children from that... that demon.

Actually, he had not been sleeping well since Chanda had left him.

I understand that you have information about my sister, the note said.  I am most curious to learn about what you know about her that I might not know, since I never really got to know her.  I look forward to meeting you.  Signed, Inala

That was all the note said.  He had no idea who this Inala truly was; other than someone who apparently was Chanda's sister.  She had to be either an older or a younger one, for Kria knew her sister almost all too well, it seemed.  Nonetheless, he was out here in Nori to meet with the mysterious woman... and, hopefully, his only daughter.

Nanessa, he'd written, I hope that you are not too angry with me for leaving your mother.  It was something that neede to be done, however, if I was to have any hopes of possibly getting to see my darling granddaughters... without the fear that Chanda would turn them and tell them to feast upon me, of course.  I know that she turned you, but I have learnt a cure... please, meet me in Nori.  Love, your father...

[1.2]

---

Ovorion sat quietly in the shade of the volcano, noticing the anthro male that was there.  He himself was in his full Lucain form at the present moment, but that was definitely the man that he was supposed to meet.  He, however, had a pressing question on his mind about the whole deal: where was the girl?

Ovorion knew that Eyvindr had to have been desperate to come to him; his job was hunting down these Bleeders and doing away with them, not curing them.  However, the prospect of meeting a gorgeous young woman had heavily swayed his opinion on the matter.

A young woman, you say?  That changes things... is she single?  Is she decently attractive? he'd asked in his letter, only to get the common fatherly response:

Do anything bad to her and I'll have my former mate and her demon-spawn children bleed you dry.

Ovorion was not really deterred by that kind of a response.  There were many a man who had come to him to get their daughters cured, and most of the women had turned their sights viciously upon him and begged him to do away with the men that brought them in; often cowardly boyfriends who were scared of a little bloodlust.  Ovorion, despite being raised completely against the notion of the Bleeders, found a little bloodlust in a woman slightly attractive.  He took out the picture of the woman he would be curing and smiled.

Quite honestly, I wouldn't mind getting bit by her, he said.  She looks like she knows what it's like to feed and be fed on...

[1.2[

[SpringsSong]

I finally have a convincing lead on my sister's whereabouts...

That was all Inala could think as she walked out into the volcano's shade, her eyes gleaming dangerously with spade-shaped tattoos over them.  She also seemed to have a mask on, but that was also a tattoo--in her anthro form, at least; in her full Lucain form, they were her Spade and Shadebane markings.  Her eyes brightened slightly when she spotted Eyvindr.

"You got my note, I see," she said, smiling slightly.  "Had I known about her any sooner, I would have found you early and tried to sedate her before she turned your daughter and granddaughter.  It really is a pity that she spawned, though... with that Lord Baal character, I mean," she said, shaking her head slightly.  She was aware of the presence of another Lucain in the area, but she tried her best to ignore it for now.  He was doubtless just another passerby.

"Did she ever once try to turn you, or could she not find it in her heart to do what she did to her own daughter and granddaughter to you?  Was she afraid of that mission, just like when she was told to kill you and Lianæ?"

Normally, Inala kept her hands out of the assassin business, but bounties were high for assassins now.  If you brought one in alive, the bounty was even higher.  Something like that was a little too sweet for Inala not to pass up, even if it meant her sister would have to pay for her initial mission of killing Lianæ.

[1.2]

---

The note trembled in Nanessa's hands like a leaf in the wind as she ran into the volcano's shadow, her long, golden hair streaming out behind her.  There was only one thing on her mind right now, and that was seeing her father again; running into his arms, crying into his shoulder, telling him about how she'd missed him desperately--her mother, not so much--and how she was ready to start anew in the Fire-Forests.

That would require her first being cured of her condition.

The woman wore blue lipstick and had dark blue highlights running through her golden hair, but it was no surprise.  In her full Lucain form, the blue makeup and highlights were her DesertRunner markings.  She was more intent on seeing her father than she was caring about her appearance and how she translated her markings into her human form.

Then, she saw him.

"Father!" she cried, taking off into a full-fledged dash and running towards him and straight into his arms.  She did not see Inala there, and she did not sense the presence of the other Lucain there.  She could only feel the presence of her father; the warm, welcoming aura that he always had about him, the diplomatic aura that Chanda was always on him about.  She wrapped her arms around him and buried her head in his shoulder, tears spilling forth.

"Mother did such terrible things to Yvaine... and I do not know where Arisha could possibly be..."

[1.2]

[SpringsSong]

That voice.

He knew that voice!

Before Eyvindr could form any more thoughts beyond the fact that his daughter was sailing towards him and then practically tackling him, he could only stare at the other woman; Inala, she was called.  He could see a similarity in the mask that she wore over her eyes, but it was there that the similarities ended abruptly.  Chanda's hair was red with purple highlights; Inala's was as black as night.  He didn't care, though; he only cared about the fact that his daughter was safe.

"Nanessa..." he said, holding her close as he ran a hand through her hair, murmuring quietly as he did so.  "Yvaine is safe; I know that much... Aphrodite is taking care of her, and has taken quite a fancy to her.  Arisha, however, has not been seen since... well, since Yvaine disappeared.  I fear that she went after her, and will not take lightly to her sister being romantically involved with a woman..."

Here, however, he turned to Inala.

"Pardon," he said, "I had not seen my darling Nanessa in what seems like ages; I wanted to tend to her first, as... Chanda kept me from her." Eyvindr considered what it was she asked him about, and then, he shook his head.

"No.  Chanda never once tried to, nor did she come close enough to try.  After Nanessa left, I think she felt that I sent her away for her own safety, and would not speak a word to me.  After all, her only child that had stayed after that meeting of ours had left; what was she supposed to do?  ...well, obviously, she went to Lord Baal."

[1.4]

---

So, the woman he was to cure had a little family of her own, did she?  It sounded like she had two daughters, if the talk about these two--Yvanie and Arisha--was correct.  He frowned slightly; she did not seem like the kind that would be easily swayed from former relationships, but chances were that she had already lost that relationship, from the way she clung to her father as though he was the last male on the face of Evelon that she could trust.

We'll change that for her, he thought to himself as he slowly emerged from the shadows, listening to what Eyvindr said about the woman's daughters.  He felt himself gag a little when he said that one was romantically involved with a woman; he had never understood the mechanics of those darned potions, or why anyone would want to use that kind of a thing on another pet of the same gender.

Call me old-fashioned, but I've never been one for potions of that sort, he'd said to a rather feminine male once, glaring at the bottle all the while.  Never have been, and never will be; regardless of who plays female and who plays male.  I will never consume one of these potions. He coughed slightly, hoping to catch Eyvindr's--and maybe even the femme with the blue lipstick--attention.

"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt this whole reunion," he said, "but I have a task to fulfill, and that requires me to take Nanessa aside for a time.  I hope you do not mind, Eyvindr," he said, "but I must work quickly if I am to cure her without the chance of her bloodlust being awakened, and thus endangering myself in the process of saving her."

His look towards Eyvindr was stern; his prices were not cheap, and when he was to see a client, he was not one to wait for teary reunions to end, as teary reunions were generally where most of the accidental feedings occurred, and then, he was left with not only one target to eliminate, but several--depending on the nature of the Bleeder that was feeding on the others.

[1.4]

[SpringsSong]

Inala, of course, could understand why it was that Eyvindr was neglecting her for the time being; had she had any children whom she thought lost that had suddenly returned, she would also neglect everyone around her and just focus on that child.  She frowned, however, as she examined Nanessa; she was clearly Chanda's daughter.

"No, it is all right, Eyvindr; I understand completely.  I wish I could say that my dear sister, Chanda, had done the same thing when I went flying towards her the first time I saw her... but alas; it was as if I did not exist to her--like her mother had told her that our father left her for some old girlfriend he had back in the day," she said, knowing that this would stir a reaction from the other woman, without a doubt.  "Regardless, it is good to know that Chanda never tried to feed on you--I would have had to track her down myself and kill her with my own bare hands if she had."

As she said this, her hands tightened into fists as she drew in several sharp breaths.  Chanda was always using her talents to manipulate men--who was to say that she had ever truly loved Eyvindr?  Who was to say that she was not just lying to get children from him?

"...did she ever tell you that she loved you, truly?" she asked, disregarding the male that had just walked up to them.

[1.4]

---

Nanessa looked to the woman that was standing not all that far from her father, but as soon as she mentioned ties to Chanda, she hissed vehemently as she moved behind Eyvindr.  She glared at the other woman as she allowed her fangs to show, even after the male said that he needed to take her aside.

"How do I know that you are not one of our kind," Nanessa said, spitting towards the other woman, "and how do I know that my father truly sent you to cure me, as you said?" she asked Ovorion, hissing yet again as she moved away from her father suddenly, panting a little as she placed a hand to her head.  She was starting to feel dizzy now; a sure sign that a craving was about to hit her.

"...on second thought, I think I believe you..." she said, stumbling towards him as she bit on her lip.  "Make sure that it's someplace secluded and someplace dark; when I'm hit with cravings, I'm hit hard and cannot stand even the dimmest light."

She frowned as she placed an arm around his shoulder; what would happen to this guy if she was suddenly hit with a craving and she couldn't contain herself?

[1.4]

[SpringsSong]

"Nanessa..."

Eyvindr said this quietly as Nanessa spat at Inala, and then turned her sights on Ovorion.  He frowned; he had expected that he would show up shortly after Nanessa did, but that could simply not be avoided.  Ovorion was the best at what he did, so he had a feeling that he would want to work quickly and before Nanessa could be overcome with a craving...

...I think it is almost too late now, he thought as she stumbled dizzily to Ovorion, and he frowned as he placed a hand on her cheek.

"Inala is your aunt, like it or not, Nanessa.  However, she is only your half-aunt, so...do not fear.  I believe it was Chanda's mother who carried the bleeder gene, and Inala's only tie to your mother is through their father," he said, turning to Ovorion as he removed his hand from his daughter's cheek.

"Take care of her, Ovorion," he said, his yellow eyes glaring into his soul.

[1.6]

---

"You have my word that I will treat her as though she were my own, Eyvindr; I will do my best to cure her of this affliction."

Ovorion said this in a voice that was firm and unwavering; he meant what he said, and he would make sure that he did exactly what it was that he said he would do.  He would cure this woman, and he would do his best to aleviate any pain that had been inflicted on her, from wounds from other bleeders to what he could do to fix a broken heart.

Although... I might not be able to do much for her heart if another male had claimed it and then broke it for whatever reasons, he remembered telling Eyvindr when he mentioned Nanessa's former mate, but that was the least of his concerns now as he helped Nanessa away from the area where Inala and Eyvindr stood.

"Someplace secluded and dark, you say?  I think I can fit that order," he said, nodding thoughtfully as he led her into a tunnel; the area in which he did his work laid within it.  "Most of the Bleeders that come to me are females," he said, nodding.  "All of them ask to be taken someplace dark and secluded should a craving hit them.  I sedate them if I notice signs of craving hitting them, however; I cannot be lured in like that."

His voice was firm and almost stony when he said this; he was doing his best not to show any signs of liking her in any capacity while he could still get away with it.  If she found herself completely overtaken by his charms while curing her... then he would show signs of affection.

Only then.

[1.6]