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A humid, balmy breeze blew through Mirewell. Isabella, better known as Izzy by anyone that ever got close to her, set in the branches of possibly the tallest tree over looking Mirewells townsquare. The breeze caused the branch she was setting in to sway, at the same time tugging at her shoulder length black hair. Isabella didn't seem to notice, her eyes were unfocused, a sign she was in deep thought. She stood out among the people of Mirewell, even among the people of the island in general. Of course the way she dress only served to highlight this fact. In the warm climate of the island she choose to wear black and shades of red while all the others choose to wear shades of tan, white and other pale colors to try to reflect the heat. Not only were her clothes of dark color but she wore them in layers too. The outfit she almost always wore consisted of a red off the shoulder long sleeve shirt with a sleeveless black shirt over it. Her pants were long baggy and black with silver chains crossing from hip to hip reaching as far down as her knees. She wore dark red boots a red headband and a red ribbon around her neck.
Isabella was snapped out of her deep thoughts by a noise coming from under her branch. She peered down to see what could have caused the noise. There was a young man staring at her. He stood entranced for a moment by her eyes, then he ran. Isabella knew her eyes made her stand out more then anything besides her hair. Depending on her mood they could range from a silvery white, like white marble, to a steely gray, akin to granite. They ,along with her hair, marked her as at least partial Kindred. Besides the color of them her eyelashes were very full almost conceiling the dark colored skin around her eyes, another mark of Kindred blood in her veins. She sported simple lines tattooed starting just under her eyebrows to right above her cheeks, they had a shorter line crossing at the bottom. All in all Isabella just didn't blend well with the Lowmen, even though she lived among them. Her mother had always warned her about sticking out. Maybe if she had listened to her mother she wouldn't be living like she was now..... then again maybe not. She noticed a familiar weight land on her head, she grabbed it off and hugged it tight. "Demetri! You're back." She exclaimed happily.
*Of course I came back Izzy. Since when have I ever abandoned you?* He thought to her indignantly.
Demetri was an imp, he was also an imp of mixed heritage. It was one of the shared bonds between him and Isabella. His body was round and had scars scattered around it, it kind of resembled a gumdrop, he had no paws. All he had were two wings and a long barbed tail. One wing was white and feathered the other was black and webbed, like a bats. There were six types of imps. The water imps who had a more aquatic form lacking wings. The earth imps whose wing were feathered in shades of brown and green. The air imps who also had feathered wings in shades of blue. The fire imps whose wings were like bats and were in shades ranging from orange to red. The light imps which were white with white feathered wing and the dark imps that had bat like black wings. All imps have the ability to speak, but most like to hold conversation through thought.
Isabella acted like she was trying to think of some time he had left her, but of course there were none. Demetri wriggled out of her arms and bounced back to his usual perch atop her head, his tail draped over her shoulder. Isabella lifted her hand up and scratched behind one of Demetri's wings. Once she was done she began moving, Demetri flew off her head as she slid gracefully to the ground. Demetri landed on her head and she began walking through the town square. It was empty for the most part the people of the town never really use it until tourist season picks up. It was much bigger then a town this size actually needed. In the center was a large fountain. *The people of this town are so focused on impressing everyone. They even take population counts in the warm months when all the tourists come from the colder climates. That way it's almost triple what it should be. It's so annoying how fake they are.* Isabella thought mostly to herself.
As she passed the fountain she noticed two men begin to follow her. Isabella rolled her eyes. She knew it would happen sooner or later, it always did. She didn't change her pace, she continued walking, but now she was heading to an alley. *Might as well get any illusions out of their heads about control over this situation right now.* She thought.
The alley was a dead end. Of course Isabella knew this. She leaned against the wall casually and Demetri left his perch on her head for a safer spot on a potted plant in a window. The two men rounded the corner not even a minute later. The look on their faces suggested that they still thought they had the upper hand. Once the taller man saw that she looked almost bored he became nervous. This caused Isabella to smile revealing two small fangs. The man on the right was taller of the two by almost a foot. He had long dark blonde hair that was pulled back in a ponytail at his neck. The other was mostly covered by a cloak the only thing she could make out was that he was far more muscular then his partner.
"You didn't say she was Kindred." The taller one said sounding nervous.
"She's only half. You would know if you would have looked at the wanted poster, Robert. Besides she is unarmed all she has with her is her pet imp. What's it going to do? Bite us?" The shorter one asked sarcastically.
"I thought half breeds only had purple hair, besides she has no weapon that we can see." Robert pointed out.
"Actually to clear your confusion about my heritage, if it worries you so, I am closer to three fourths then one half. Yes my hair is technically purple, just a very dark shade which I dyed over." Isabella explained sweetly.
"See she is just a mutt trying to hide her true heritage."
"Hey I have no need to try to hide my heritage. I could care less if I was full Kindred, full Lowmen or a mutt as you so eloquently named me. I just don't like having purple hair since black is such a lovely shade." Isabella interrupted with venom laced in her voice.
The short man ignored her and continued as if she had not even spoke. "If you want to turn tail and run Robert that's fine, just remember you will get none of the reward."
"You know I need that money for my family Kuroi. Still she has been here for fifteen years according to your source. Don't you think there is a reason no one has tried to claim the reward for turning her in?" Robert asked still clearly nervous.
Finally Robert approached her slowly, as if he was trying not to startle a wild animal. " You know we don't have to take you alive.... just come along with out a fuss and we won't have to hurt you." He said trying to sound calm and in control. His voice still shook.
"You think I don't know what the poster says? That bounty has been hanging over my head for longer then you could imagine. More people then you could imagine have tried to catch or kill me for that bounty. Don't think you are the first and don't make me laugh by thinking you will be the ones to catch me." Her bored expression changed in to one of stubborn annoyance. She had exaggerated a bit, but they didn't need to know. "I love my freedom to much to give it up now." She finished.
At that moment Kuroi pulled the hood of his cloak down. It revealed a face with bright sky blue eyes which had dark skin lining them. His hair was a vivid blue black. He grinned reveling prominent fangs. "I would like to get a few ideas out of your head right now mutt. You are not against to Lowmen . You are against a Lowmen and a Kindred."
Isabella immediately became focused. Two Lowmen would be child's play, but a Kindred would definitely tip the scales. She knew she couldn't delay much more and chance that he might be one of few that could use magic. "You seemed so concerned about me being Kindred. What about your partner? He is the worst kind, an air Kindred. He will stab you in the back by the time all is said and done, just so he will have all the money."
As soon as the word were out of her mouth, before Robert could even respond, Kuroi was moving. Isabella saw him coming at her with dagger in hand. She moved to dodge but he stopped short, just behind Robert. Robert's face was frozen in shock, then he slid to the ground. Kuroi's dagger was covered in blood. He smiled at Isabella, not even bothering to clean the blade.
"You know you doomed him to this fate. If you would have kept your little mouth shut he might have lived through this."
Isabella laughed. "The only one that fated him to this was himself. If he knew he as working with an air Kindred and thought you wouldn't stab him in the back he was an idiot."
"You know I like how you think. You're almost attractive for a mutt." He said his smile still in place.
"Just to bad I have this annoying bounty over my head tempting you to kill me." She said with unfriendly sarcasm.
As soon as the words left her mouth she kicked the dagger out of Kuroi's hand. It flew through the air, then landed skidding across the paved alley. Isabella had no idea what to expect from this man. True it was hard for Kindred to find others to teach them how to use their magic. Even harder still for air Kindred since they were all scattered to the winds. Still Isabella had not kept her deeply loved freedom this long by taking unnecessary risks. Isabella continued moving even as the dagger sailed through the air. She spun around ducking low with her leg out stretched to knock his feet out from under him. Kuroi saw it coming and jumped over her leg. She figured with all his bragging he would at least be able to back it up a bit. As she had crouched down she had grabbed a handful of sand. Once she came up her hand flew towards his face letting the sand fly. Kuroi couldn't react. He had expected her, like so many others, to have a deep sense of honor when fighting. One thing included in that sense of honor was not throwing sand in your opponents eyes. When Isabella was fighting to stay free little things such as honor and fair fighting became trivial. He rubbed his eyes trying to get the sand out. Unable to he became enraged and charged at Isabella blindly. She neatly side stepped the charge. He tried again, this time Isabella was much closer to the wall, not that he could tell that. As he passed her she grabbed a handful of his hair and continued him on the path he was running. She slammed his head into the brick wall of the building.
He slumped to the ground as soon as Isabella let go of his hair. A large lump was already forming where his head had met the wall and blood was running down his face. Isabella checked his pulse, he was still alive. He was probably suffering from a concussion, she didn't really care. Isabella figured if he did live through it he would probably be blamed for the murder of his partner. Then again they might just blame her. Either way it wouldn't matter since she wouldn't be in town to find out.



Isabella set in a tree a few hours outside of the town. She wasn't really concerned that anyone would have a search party after her even if they blamed the murder on her. Especially since her pack was still in her room. They would probably assume she was hiding out somewhere in town. Demetri was still in the town gathering information. Just because she didn't care if they blamed the murder on her didn't mean she didn't want to know if they did. She wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled them close resting her head on her arms. She eventually fell asleep.

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A much younger Isabella set crouching in the branches of a tree waiting for her prey to pass by. She appeared to be about thirteen but she had been born about twenty years ago. It was one of the many gifts or curses of her heritage she gained from not only her father but from a distant grandmother too. She
was wearing a sleeveless black top, black pants and a short red skirt. There was a purple tint to her otherwise black hair, part of it was pulled in to a pony tail on the right side of her head the rest fell past her shoulders. Her stormy grey eyes glittered with mischief. Just then a young man walked by the tree branch. He had brown hair that had a few dim red highlights. His clothes, a sturdy brown short sleeved shirt and black pants, were covered with various scorch marks. Isabella launched off the branch at him and landed against his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hung there smiling. " Are you done with your work today Mila?" She asked curiously.
Milanor hooked his arms under her legs so she wasn't dead weight hanging from his neck, not that she weighed very much. "Yes actually I am all done."
Isabella let go of his neck and bent over backwards, her hands touching the ground. He let go of her legs and she walked around on her hands for a moment until she bumped into him and lost her balance. Milanor offered his hand to help her up, she took it and stood laughing.
"Will you buy me something sweet to eat? Please Mila?" She asked sweetly using her most pathetic look.
Milanor laughed. "You are sweet enough as you are if you become anymore sweeter I might not be able to stand it."
Isabella pouted. "You're teasing me again."
"No you are very sweet."Milanor said reassuringly.
"Nuh uh or at least that's not what most of the people that live here say. Don't think I don't hear them. They all think I am some sort of monster. Specially since I show so much of my Kindred blood. Some of them even say that I was switched at birth with my mothers actual child." By the time she had
finished speaking her eyes had become a silvery grey and tears had began forming in them.
Startled by Isabella's tone and her tears Milanor quickly dropped to one knee. He put one hand on her shoulder then took out a kerchief and began wiping her eyes. "Do not listen to them Izzy. They do not know you and have not taken the time to. Who said such awful things anyways I will go teach them not
to make assumptions about people!"
Isabella sniffled then giggled. "You can't teach a lesson to over half the village Mila. Besides I just won't pay any attention to what they say anymore." She finished smiling her eyes back to their usual stormy grey.
"I could too." Milanor said pretending to be offended by her comment.
He handed her the kerchief so she could blow her nose. She did so very noisily then grabbed his hand. "I'm sure you could if you really wanted to. Now lets go get something sweet to eat afterwards you can help me continue my training."
He just smiled and followed her to the bakery.

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Later on right around sunset Isabella returned home. She was sweating, tired and sore but she was happy. At least she had one person in this place that seemed to like her. She went up to her room so she could wash herself and change into clean clothes. Since her mother worked well until sundown at a near by tavern it was Isabella's job to dinner ready by the time she came home. She quickly threw together stuff for stew and set it to cook. While the stew started cooking she cut to large pieces of bread off the loaf she had brought home from the bakery. She set them on the table along with the bowls. Once everything was
ready and all was left was for the stew to finish cooking Isabella curled up in one of the chairs for a nap.
The next thing Isabella knew she was waking up to the smell of a finished stew and the sounds of her mother ladling it in to the bowls. Isabella got up, stretched and yawned.
"Well hello there sleepyhead. You didn't even stir when I came in." Her mother, Estella, said smiling.
"Sorry I wore myself out today." Isabella explained avoiding mentioning that she was learning martial arts. She wasn't sure her mother would like it, not that her mother had ever really disapproved of anything she had done before.
"Well no need to apologize. At least you are keeping yourself busy, but I thought you were going to come work with me so we could have a little more money in the house." Estella said as they both set down to eat.
Isabella looked uncomfortable. "I would but you know most of the people there refuse to give me their orders. They act like I'm not even there. Then the owner accuses me of loafing about when there is work to do. I can't work if no one will give me orders!"
Estella finished the bite of stew before talking. "You know it might help if you dressed a little more normal, and tried not to stand out so much."
"I don't think changing the way I dress is going to change anything. Specially the fact that I was born a half breed. Not just a half breed. No if that was the case I would still be considered normal. No I just had to take after my father and whatever distant great grandmother that was an air Kindred!"
"Izzy! Don't speak about your heritage like that. It makes you special and unique. Because of it you will out live almost anyone in this back water port town. Isn't that good enough?"
"No because as long as they are alive they will continue to talk..... they will continue to say those awful hateful things. They don't even have the nerve to say them to my face. They whisper them when my back is turned thinking I can't hear them." By now Isabella's eyes had become silvery white and she had
pushed her food away from her far to upset to eat.
"Then find a way to make money and leave. See the world. Who knows maybe you might even run into your father..... sooner or later."
"It's not like people out there would be any different, and I doubt the Kindred would accept me. I'm neither one or the other and would probably not be accepted by either. Besides I have to stay here with you. It's not like you will be able to work forever, you will need some way to get money when you can't work."
With that said Isabella got up and walked back to her room. She was far to upset to eat, she just wanted to go to bed.
"I won't be alive forever either so eventually you won't have me for an excuse not to leave Izzy." Estella said, mostly to herself since Isabella was already in her room.