Fen was encouraged to go and explore to his heart’s content. For as young as he was, it was endearing how much concern he held for the angel. With as much that was going on, Raziel truly wanted to be alone for awhile. Well, as truly alone as she could be, as Zander was always at her heels. The rabbit was somewhere on the island, and Fen wanted to try and find it. She had chuckled softly and told him to give her a detailed account when they meet back up.

Her new ability of vision through the vibrations through the earth gave her confidence as she navigated her way out of the city. Of course, she had left her pack in a room at the inn, not expecting to be gone long. Since traveling with the young vampire, she has shifted to moving at night. The cool air caressed her cheek and played with her hair. ”At least it’s a lot cooler than if we were traveling under the sun.” Zander yipped in what she could only assume was approval.

She didn’t know what possessed her to climb the volcano. Perhaps she heard something about caves, or hot springs with magical abilities? Whatever the reason, Raziel climbed. Her footsteps were placed with care, her staff creating strong enough vibrations for which to see by jabbing it against the ground. It was tiring, to constantly strike the ground. The path was beginning to narrow dangerously, the wolf began to whimper slightly.

Sitting down upon a large rock for a moment, the angel contemplated what to do. Continue her path upwards, or turn around and head back to town? Gabe and Rammie, the names bounced around her skull. Can she find them? Being out and about, exploring the world and making new friends were almost enough to forget about her objective. Yet, they were important to her mother, and thus to her as well. No one she inquired to even knew of them. It didn’t help she had no descriptions with which to go by.

As the angel stood, Zander started barking like mad, trying to push at her. All at once, her new ability lit up her mind clear as day her surroundings. From above, a rockslide, from below, her ledge was falling. There was no time to move, and the pair fell, tumbling, bouncing, and landing hard against rocks. Somewhere in all of this, Zander yelped and went silent, and a new found fear took seed in her heart.

When Raziel came to, she winced in pain. How long had she been out? She couldn’t move her shoulder, and with gentle prodding, she learned it was dislocated. Bruises and scrapes littered her body, her clothing now dusty and tattered in places. Something was crusted on her face, and her head pounded terribly at the crown just above her eye. Reaching up, she winced as she felt the source of the crust. She had been struck and bled. It wasn’t surprising, considering she was just in a rockslide.

In fact, she was lucky to have come out as unarmed as she was. But where was Zander? Unable to find even her walking stick, Raziel picked herself up and began to stumble forward. ”Zander? Come here, boy.” Memory of his yelp and silence came back to her and tears welled up. Lost and disoriented, the angel rushed forward, swerving around the trees with relative ease. ”Somebody! Help!” She collapsed to her hand and knees, sobbing. ”Zander…”

To say he was interested in the lapin would be a gross understatement. Whatever had made it, it had to be either someone important, powerful, or a combination of the two. Everyone was focused on fighting it, while he on the other hand just wanted to get a good look. Who knew the next time he’d have a chance to witness something so odd and breathtaking?

But watching a fray and being a part of one were two vastly different things, and so far no one had attempted anything worth mentioning. From his vantage point he was more than safe, though he knew he’d be safe even if he was up close, but seeing it from so far took away some of the excitement.

A second deity joined in from what he could see, and the ripple of light signified The Northern Light. He’d been wondering if he would show up, and thought to all of the pages upon pages he had on the man. Each deity practically had their own dedicated book for how much he’d documented. And when you’ve lived in a world for multiple millenia…well, you tended to fill up a library.

Something was happening to Shiloh, and he arched a curious eyebrow. With magick on the fritz, deities were almost on the same level as mortals. Almost. His fingers ruffled quickly through his hair, enjoying having his hood down since he was nowhere near another person. Being this far was making everything seem more trivial than he would have liked, so he stood up and tucked his journal away.

A few rocks underfoot tumbled away and he barely caught himself to keep from falling in a roll down the volcano side. Mm, too close, he thought to himself. Maybe it was time to do a quick run back down. With how fast he was he pretty much never fell, and had grown more than accustomed to the varying terrain of Revaliir from how he’d scoured nearly every inch of it by this point.

However, off to the side he heard…bigger rocks. They cascaded down like a jagged waterfall and he slowly exhaled, thanking whoever cared to listen that he hadn’t been on that side of the mountain. And then he heard it: the distinct scream of a female and the yelp of a canine. Someone else was on the volcano and they weren’t as lucky as he. What’s worse, he could swear he recognized their voices…

Well, if they weren’t dead they’d be good practice for deducing things post mortem. When the last of the rocks had fallen he carefully, but with great speed, moved through until he could see the peek of lavender hair. His lips parted and his heart lurched: he had recognized that voice! With more haste and trepidation, he made it the rest of the way down until he was knelt down as close to her as he could get.

Raziel was blind of course, there was no reason to pull up his hood, but he did quickly slide on his gloves, “Raziel! I told you one day you’d fall off a mountain.” But now he remembered the yelp, and took notice of the lack of Zander. Uh oh… “Where is Zander?” he asked, without the usual sensitivity that most would have upon bringing to attention that someone’s companion was gone. She had been calling for him after all.

He moved careful hands to help shift her to a more safe sitting position, though his eyes stayed on her head, watching as the blood continued to dry in her hair. “Stay positioned like that and you’ll get even dizzier. Let me lift you,” he offered.

There were slight shifts as small rocks tumbled down, dislodged by hastened feet. Someone, or something, approached. While she could not tell whether or not the intentions were malicious or benevolent, she could see that it was a man as the ripples of his footsteps danced up his legs to the tips of his hair. As he stood over her, everything went dark again, leaving her waiting with mounting anxiety. A familiar voice washed over her, heart skipping a beat in relief.

If it wasn't for the pain in her shoulder, she might have smiled, or giggled. "Naji? How'd you find me?" Yet, he confirmed her fears, Zander was not in sight. Had he fallen further than she had? Was he… gone? "I… don't know." Raziel's voice cracked with worry as he helped her sit up, shrieking at the movement. "My shoulder!" There was so much overwhelming her at the moment. The pain in her shoulder was beginning to make her nauseous as it intensified by the minute. Her relief at Najima's presence instilled an odd desire to throw her arms around his neck, though she would never dream of doing such a thing! It's a scandal just to think of it! Not to mention she couldn't move her right arm.

The angel shook her head, before reluctantly nodding. "Okay… Do… Do you think we… can find him?" Zander was a beloved companion, her best friend. If anything were to happen to him…. At that moment, a large snowy owl swooped down, screeching at Najima, claws at the ready. Raziel reacted out of sheer terror catching the bird's wing with her uninjured hand, but ended up collapsing into her friend's lap in a feathered mess. The owl pecked her hand angrily, instantly drawing blood with its sharp beak, and she let go. "Leave him alone, Azura!" She was crying, holding onto that dislocated shoulder, refusing to move from where she was of her own accord.

A smile slowly spread, almost too wide, across his face, “Someone as clumsy as you is always easy to find.” That, and she happened to be right in the path of the rock slide. Her bright hair didn’t hurt either, not that she knew how multicolored she was. The sudden realization of that fact was startling and he shook his head so as not to dwell on it for too long. He’d never treated her too differently due to her disability and he wasn’t going to start now.

His hands instantly moved to support her better: one at her side, the other gently gripping her shoulder that was fortunate enough not to have been damaged. It’d do no good for her arm to stay like that for too long, “Your shoulder needs realigned, I’d be happy to pop it back for you,” he said with a little too much enthusiasm. “As for Zander, we can find him for sure, don’t fuss too much about that.” He didn’t bother adding that there was a chance her companion hadn’t been as lucky as she, and that they might find a very deceased Zander. He was blunt. Not cruel.

No sooner had he begun to lift her up did an owl swoop down and start to peck a furious beak at him. His eyes widened and he pulled his hands back from Raziel instantly, ready to stop whatever this was until he heard her frantically call the bird by a name. Oh, don’t kill it then, he thought to himself. However, he didn’t like that its beak had found her skin instead with a feverish peck, and he rose a hand up calmly but smoothly, synching in on the carbon and energy that kept the owl alive and…paralyzed it.

It fell with an unceremonious thump to the snow and he tilted his head, inspecting it. He nudged it once with his thumb and still felt warmth, saw alertness in its flashing eyes. Yes, still alive. She would have been very sore with him if he’d gone too far. “Well that’s that then,” he said, moving towards Raziel again. One hand moved to the back of her head, pulling her face down near his shoulder, “Alrighty, so I’m going to pop your shoulder back into place. It’s gonna smart like hell, but feel free to bite. It’ll be brief, but extremely painful,” And with that, he shifted his hands.

Many nights, an angel would go over procedures with her, allowed her to feel what certain problems would do to the body, for her to identify them with accuracy. Never had they allowed her to feel any of the pain. Raziel had been too sheltered for that. The worst she ever felt was a price of a thorn, or a paper cut. Other than running into buildings, that is. So this excruciating pain was new, yet she knew what had to be done.

Deep breath in, slow breath out, gritting her teeth, she tried to prepare herself. Nothing would have worked, however, as she screamed into his shoulder. While her nerves felt they were on fire, relief still began to spread. When the half angel could control herself once more, she sat up, feeling her sore shoulder. ”Um, we'll need to sling the arm. I might have a salve… in my bag at the inn.” She slumped, almost looking a bit deflated. ”Thanks Najima…”

Najima scooped the injured angel in his arms, and began to start the search for the missing Zander. What he didn’t know, was the new skill she recently acquired. Each and every step he took vibrated through his body, transfering to her by proxy. The vibrations gave small bursts of light in her otherwise darkened world, briefly showing outlines of everything surrounding her. As a result of this, she could “see” him for the first time. Raziel already knew the slight build of his body and height difference to a slight extent from the arm drapes and other innocent interactions between friends.

But his face had always been a mystery. Now, she could see everything. The cut of his jaw, the slope of the nose, the rise of his cheekbones. For a blind woman, she was doing an amazing job of staring straight at his face. Despite the pain in her shoulder, Raziel lifted a hand and brushed her fingertips from his lips down to his chin. ”You’re beautiful…” As per usual, a blush sprung to her cheeks as she shifted self consciously, turning her face away from him as her hand dropped. Just for a single moment, the shyness fell, revealing something much more in depth underneath. In an instant, her guard went back up as she became self-conscious about stepping outside of her comfort zone.

He gently shushed her as if soothing her from a banged elbow, letting her scream muffle into his shoulder. Despite that, her sound of pain reverberated against the trees, punctuating the darkness with its fading echo. But at least now her arm would be able to heal properly. The sling would be a bit of an obstacle since they didn’t have much between them, but as he carried her he made sure to hold her in a way that would keep her arm properly angled. It wasn’t the best, but it would have to do. After they covered some ground in finding Zander he’d be able to construct a makeshift one. Right now finding her companion was taking priority…hopefully the worst hadn’t happened to him.

“We’ll make it to the inn,” he assured her. “We’ll make it wherever you need to go,” he smiled down at her, but it began to fade when he realized she was staring at him. Looking at him. Really looking at him. She was good at looking in the general direction of people during conversation, polite as she was, but right now it felt like she could truly see him. Her slender hand rose up and touched delicately from his lips to his chin. No sooner had the words left her lips did a sudden rush of heat fill his cheeks; tinting them pink ever so briefly.

Normally he would have scrambled to pull up his hood, but he didn’t want to jostle her and risk causing her anymore harm. Besides, he still wasn’t sure how she was even able to see him. He looked forward quickly as her gaze moved away from him. A moment of silence spread between them, longer than normal for the pair, and he cleared his throat, “U-Um, thank you.” Really, how was that possible? He tried his best not to focus on it and let his curiosity take over instead, “How are you able to see me…?” That was definitely new.

The curve of his lips fell into a straight line, yet she was captivated as a moth to flame. Her words hung between them. Honest sincerity quickly souring into uncomfortable awkwardness. She could not see color rise in his cheeks, or the shift of the eyes beneath the lids. Every step refreshed the vibrations surging through them. Finally, Najima cleared his throat, breaking the silence.

”I am not entirely sure, but I have theories.” He knew her well, knew her tendencies of looking in general directions, but never directly at anyone. Raziel was blind, she couldn’t see, so this was only natural and expected. However, when something was new, the angel attempted to figure it out. Especially if it pertains to herself specifically. ”The magical rabbit has made magic become erratic, yes? When my new, young friend I entered the port city…”

How exactly to explain this? Even now, she did not completely understand what was happening. ”Suddenly, I could see everything, but nothing like you can. There is no color, I cannot see anything airborne, or if everything is still and silent.” She became almost self conscious as she continued speaking, her voice growing softer. ”Did you know, as you speak, there is a reverberation that starts right here?” Raziel lifted her hand and touched the “Adam’s Apple” of Najima’s throat. ”And your heart…” Her hand splayed across his chest now. ”Sends waves across your body as ripples in a pond, strong and confident, but flutters softly at uncertainty and nervousness. It’s all beautiful to witness.”

It was like the grand tapestry of life, rolled out and on display. The beauty of it all, the rhythm and harmony of the body working together, was a gift. She could see the action of the heart working to circulate blood through the body. Muscles rippled with each movement, cloth folded and straightened around them. For the first time, she could even see her wings instead of being merely aware of them. If it wasn’t for making herself a bit nervous, Raziel might have watched her wings move.

So, it was that lapin eh? How interesting…Well whatever had sparked it or helped her tap into the ability, he was glad for it, even if it did leave him feeling nervous in a way he hadn’t yet experienced with her. She could see him now; would that change anything between them? Already his heart was keeping at a faster pace that had nothing to do with movement. Raziel was his friend, just because she could see him now wouldn’t change that. And yet he bit down on his bottom lip, wanting to draw his hood up as far as possible even knowing that in the end it would do nothing since she’d still see him.

Her fingers graced his throat and he swallowed against the touch. His heart fluttered faster for a brief moment when her hand splayed against his chest. While her touches were innocent, her simply explaining something to him, it all felt more intimate now that he couldn’t hide himself. At least she wasn’t able to see the color on his cheeks. He felt selfish even thinking it but couldn’t help it.

He cleared his throat, straightening slightly as he leapt over a narrow chasm; knees bending expertly once he landed to be able to continue his stride as if no jump had happened. “Interesting,” he said, trying to keep his voice composed. “What’s it like, being able to see I mean…?” his voice softened. “Does all of this meet up to the standards of your imagination?” he asked with a playful smile. “What’s your favorite thing so far?” Talking was easier, talking kept things from keeping an intimate tone.

Why was his heart beating so fast? From personal experience, even her heart didn’t beat that fast unless there was a fear, or maybe even excitement. And what was that expression for; the biting of the lip? With this new perception, there was a whole new set of expressions to learn beyond tone and inflection of the voice. There was something in his voice, and Raziel could tell he was trying to cover something up, but she had no clue as to what.

For a long minute, she contemplated his question. ”It’s better than imagination. The world seems so much… smaller? Yet, I can see the vastness.” She struggled to find the words to describe it. It was a strange sensation to see at all, yet not require the use of her eyes at all. ”It’s as if there is a boundary set upon everything.. My limit is only the vibrations through the earth, the trees…” Her cheeks warmed as she tried to duck into his chest, hiding her face.

”Najima? What does biting your lip mean? I mean… It’s the first time… I ever heard of that.” Despite the new ability to see, her ears were still her dominant sense. Instantly she sat up straighter, a light frown on her face as she strained to listen. ”Hear that?” A moment of silence later, Raziel could hear it again. ”I think it’s Zander. Over there!” She pointed, practically jumping out of Najima’s arms in her excitement.