[Lilith Michaelis]

Tarana clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes again as Dubhán continued to laugh at him. He looked distinctly unamused. He sniffed softly in indignance, fingers rapping gently against the handle of his kunai. "It really wasn't that funny. At all," he sneered, rather upset by the whole thing. Honestly, he had no way of knowing if Dubhán was the type of person or creature to use that sort of information against someone. And the longer they went on, the more Tarana doubted they were human.

And that's when something hit him. He had never said his last name. And yet.... "How did you know...How did you know my surname...?"

[Lilith Michaelis]

"I told you, little one," Dubhán started matter-of-factly, flourishing a hand out to the side, palm up. "I see things. I hear things. And I am only noticed when I wish to be."

Being a curious creature by nature, the raven spirit wondered how exactly this boy had been marked, or rather, what had led up to it. Some of it they could guess. They had been around much longer than the village had, possibly longer than the forest. And to that end, they had seen plenty about what mortals were capable of, even to their own. And they had seen the misfortunes that occasionally befell them for no reason at all.

[Lilith Michaelis]

"That doesn't really...," Tarana began before huffing, cutting himself off. It did make sense. It didn't answer much but it made sense. And it only solidified his theory that Dubhán was not any normal sort of mortal creature, if they were mortal at all. He was pretty convinced they weren't human. If they were human, they were a damn creepy one. And a powerful one, if they were able to hide themselves from the eyes of even the village's best ninjas.

[Lilith Michaelis]

Dubhán watched as the boy thought to himself, clearly caught up in whatever thought he held. Which Dubhán could easily guess was what their nature was. But they did not mind. This gave them time to further make their own observations.

They tilted their head once more, looking past Tarana's physical form and deeper into the young man. What they wished to study was his soul. They could tell the boy had made a deal of some sort, but not with a demon. Nothing like that, no. But something very much as dangerous.

[Lilith Michaelis]

Tarana's tongue darted out of his mouth, swiping over his bottom lip before returning to where it had come from. He sniffed again as he watched Dubhán tilt their head while observing him as well. It was a nervous tic, though he wasn't sure where he had picked it up.

If Dubhán was not human or a "mortal" of some sort, what could they be? He knew there were numerous spirits that lived within the confines of the Whisper Forest, both of the undead variety and of the... well... spiritual variety. It was very possible they could be of the spiritual variety. Something told Tarana that Dubhán was not undead, though he wasn't sure what made him so sure of that.

[Lilith Michaelis]

Mmm. Seems his questions have ended for now.

Dubhán's lips curled up into a small, soft smirk, as their expression had dropped to one of neutrality as they had been observing Tarana.

Though, I could be wrong of course.

So, the boy had been to see a witch sometime in the past. And a very ancient and powerful one at that. And whatever deal he had struck with the witch had left a stain on his soul. Nothing corruptive mind you, at least none that Dubhán could sense. But it was a stain nonetheless.

[Lilith Michaelis]

Tarana considered what other possibilities there might be considering Dubhán's particular nature. Spirits used true names against people sometimes, yes, but much more notorious for it were the fey. Perhaps that was what this being was. Whimsical as they seemed though, Dubhán didn't strike Tarana as something that might be of the Seelie variety. They weren't nearly visually bright and colorful enough, unless this was a disguise. Unseelie seemed more likely. Though, he thought, they could be a demon or something too. Hmmm. Too many options.

"...What are you?"

[Lilith Michaelis]

Aaaah. There it is.

"It is as I said, dear child," Dubhán chirped, striding closer to the tree in which Tarana was perched. "That is something you will have to find out on your own. I cannot give everything. What fun would that be?"

Dubhán glanced within Tarana again, taking a closer look at that little stain. No, it did not seem corruptive, not in the conventional sense at least. No, this was simply something that linked the boy and the witch together.

[Lilith Michaelis]

Tarana scoffed softly again as Dubhán maneuvered around his question yet again. Guess this wasn't something that he was going to find out simply by asking. Hmm. Shit. It had been worth a try or two. Whatever the entity was, Tarana was finally convinced that Dubhán did not mean him harm. Not yet. Not today. If they had meant him harm, they had had about five hundred chance to do something by now.

"...Well, if you don't know anything about this mist, but your as curious about it as I am, I guess we could try to team up for a bit and see if we can find anything out together..?

[Lilith Michaelis]

Dubhán reached out with an extension of themself, a tendril of their being, and gently prodded that thing thread of connection within Tarana. Whether Tarana or the witch felt the reverberations of such a touch was unknown but they would find out in time.

....Aah. A blood pact then. That was what stained Tarana's soul. Well, a blood pact of sorts. It didn't seem to be anything overtly binding, merely meant to feed...well...blood to wherever the witch had directed it. Which, of course, brought up all sorts of questions as to what this witch was. If Dubhán had to wager a guess, they'd put their money on a vampire, or what used to be one.

Now what was a young man like Tarana doing associating with vampires....?

[Lilith Michaelis]

Tarana blinked at Dubhán yet again as the being failed to acknowledge him and answer his question. They were staring straight at hi, but it was clear that they weren't paying him any attention, not to his words anyway. Tarana suddenly felt very exposed.

He felt a twinge of something for a moment but decided to ignore it. Instead, he opted to hop down from his branch and approached Dubhán before stopping in front of the smaller being. "Um....Dubhán..?"

[Lilith Michaelis]

What was a young man like Tarana doing associate with beings like vampires and ancient witches indeed... The question brought Dubhán back to their theory on why Tarana was involved with such a creature. As they had stated before, they saw things in this forest. They heard things. And on the very rare occasion, they had spotted Tarana's identical twin doing their business about the forest. It was not difficult for a being like them to discern what Tarana's brother was, or rather what lied within him.

And therefore it was not hard to discern what Tarana's motivation for such relations had been.

[Lilith Michaelis]

Annnnnnd they were still in LaLa Land. Alright. Hmm.

How does one get a potentially very dangerous being to stop ignoring you? And is it wise to even get their attention again. These were the very questions Tarana was asking himself right now. And looking back at the course of their conversation, he was also asking himself how he could be such an idiot. Whatever Dubhán was, it seemed they might be the sort to operate on manners, albeit the own strange definition of them. And Tarana had been scoffing and sassing them this entire time.

Maaaaaaybe it'd work to his favor?

"Excuse me?"

[Lilith Michaelis]

And just like that, Dubhán was pulled out of their reverie and back into the real world. Their eyes fluttered, long eyelashes kissing their cheeks as they blinked repeatedly at the boy now standing in front of them. Their blank, distant expression immediately burst into a Cheshire smile, their eyes crinkling in the corners as they grinned from ear to ear. "Mmm. My apologies, dear child. Merely got lost in my thoughts. Be careful not to do that too much. You never know if you'll come back out again."

They glanced around at the black mist around them, seeming think for a moment before nodding. This would be fun.

[Lilith Michaelis]

Oh. Alright. That was... Hmm. Tarana had not quite expected to actually get a yes out of that question. Honestly, he had expected Dubhán to play little runaround games again. But...huh.

Though they had snuck in that one last cryptic....whatever. They were just trying to spook him.

"Oh. Well, alright then. Um, you've been looking at this stuff longer than I have, got any ideas?" Tarana asked, tilting his head at Dubhán slightly. That was, right up until a though occurred to him. He glanced down at his watch and muttered a curse beneath his breath. "Shit! Sorry. I'm late. I have to go. I'm so sorry. Good luck!"

And with that, Tarana ran off back towards the village. Damn. He had really wanted to check this mist out. Maybe tomorrow then...