Discovering Ecstasy (Inara)

The sun was just starting to set over a Romanian sky as James stumbled down the road; his long duster draped over his right-side. He had come all this way chasing the rumors that someone had seen a monster they referred to as a dragon, his hopes of finding his family had been raised only to be dashed hard upon the ground. What had been reported as dragons were just a pack of vicious hollows. James had dispatched the nest of predator-like hollows with relative ease, but still some had managed to get a few lucky shots in. His right arm was pretty torn up from the bites of one of the monsters, the blood was staining his jacket but it didn't matter the less people knew though the better. In human eyes he was just as much a monster as the Hollows that had killed so many, and the last thing that he wanted to do was end up in human hospital.

Stopping James looked around, he was in an older part of the Romanian city rows of businesses already closed up for the night had their lofts lit above. I could just break in and take what I need from someone's home, they would never find me if I didn't want them too... He frowned, his need for secrecy was leading him down a dark path, he was actually willing to take from people to keep himself out of a hospital. What he saw next almost dropped him to his knees with laughter, the universe playing a cosmic joke on him.

“Herbal Ecstasy.” James read the name of the little shop with a grin. Wasting no time James walked towards the door and gave it a testing push, but it held fast. It was locked up for the evening, just like the shops all around it. With a small growl James extended one of his claws and forced it into the lock busting the tumblers as he turned the lock and let himself inside to start hunting for the herbs he needed. “It's not stealing if I leave the money for everything and the repairs on the counter.” James whispered to himself as he went to work.

Inara thrust her sword in the air with her pretend fencing partner with heaving breaths and sweat trickling down her face. She had been practicing with her rapier for an hour now and she was quite tired, but it wasn't time to quit for today yet. She walked through the door from the garden to the shop to get a glass of water, her rapier still extended, when she saw a strange man wandering around her shelves. The front door looked like it had been broken open, and her eyes immediately turned violet with rage. She had worked too hard and too long for her shop to be burgled. A strong gust of wind blew from her sword and knocked the man over, and she pressed the tip of her sword to his chin. "Who are you!" She demanded, "Tell me or I'll slice you to ribbons!" Inara then noticed the blood stain on his jacket. "Jeez, what happened to you?"

James searched the shelves of herbs for a bit over fifteen minutes and had barely been able to find anything he was looking for. Sure he had broken into the shop and it was against his moral being that he did so, but he would leave more than enough behind to make up for the herbs he was taking and to fix her door. When James felt a small pressure in the back of his mind he frowned, apparently the cosmos wasn't through with its joke, a strong spiritual presence had managed to sneak up on him.

Before he could react James was knocked from his feet a blast of wind had caught him in the back and flung him across the floor. James' reflexes sprang into action as he rolled backwards and up to his feet, with inhuman grace. When he turned to face the attacker he was face to point with a blade, the woman holding the rapier had almost glowing purple eyes. She demanded answers from him threatening to slice him to ribbons, James couldn't help but laugh a bit at the idea. When she realized he was wounded her entire demeanor had changed as she wondered about the blood soaking his jacket.

“Its nothing big I just need a few things and I will be out of your hair, I can pay for anything I take and the door.” James spoke keeping his voice level and his anger in check. “Now if would please move your blade away from my face I promise you I wont hurt you.” James spoke sincerely he wouldn't hurt the young woman, but he figured she would probably see him as nothing more than cocky.

He's fast Inara thought to herself as he sprang to his feet quickly after being knocked over by the wind, but she would not allow herself to be intimidated. He offered to pay for anything he took and for her broken door. The way he spoke sounded cocky, but she knew that he meant her no harm, and her eyes returned to their icy blue color. She retracted her sword back to a cross and put it back around her neck.

Inara looked at the blood stain and then looked at her shelves again, and chuckled to herself a little. He obviously didn't know much about medicine. It looked like he got himself a nasty gash, and the only treatment for that was the only treatment not on her shelf.

Shaking her head, she pointed to the stool behind her counter, "Sit down," she instructed. Then she went to her kitchen and began to boil some water as she gathered a few things. She came back with a pot of hot water, some bandages, a needle and thread, and a sword of fresh cut aloe vera from her garden. "You really should have gone to the hospital for this. They're never closed."

She instructed the man the take off his coat so she could clean the wound and sew the skin back together, but when she tried to push the needle into his skin, it broke in half; his skin seemed tougher than normal human skin, but she wasn't one to judge, so she wasn't going to mention it to him. She squeezed the aloe vera juice over the wound, "What's your name?" She asked as she bandaged his arm.

James grinned, as he watched her thin blade shrink and reform down into a small silver cross. She is a fullbringer, funny how one power seems to draw to another. When she pointed over towards the stool he frowned, James wasn't used to be ordered around by anyone let alone a child. Still he made his way to the stool behind the counter as the young woman disappeared into the back. James sat their and looking around as he took in the shop now that the lights were on, it almost reminds me of... James stopped himself from remembering then and their it would not do to go down the dark halls of his memory when he was wounded as he was.

Fifteen minutes later the woman came back from wherever she had disappeared carrying a bowl of hot water towels and some thread. A needle was probably close by, but James only chuckled; there was no needle made by human kind that could pierce his scales. This woman was going to have a hard time sowing up the wound on his arm. “I don't think the needle and thread will be necessary if you can just stop the bleeding my body will take care of the rest.” James spoke calmly as he let his jacket slide to the floor and revealing a massive tear down his right arm.

“It really looks worse than it is.” James smiled, he had been through worse but still it hurt him to even attempt to move anything on his right side. “My name is James, and yours?”

"My name is Inara Calhoun, but if you come across any Scandinavian authority, you didn't see me here," she answered as finished bandaging up his arm. Inara looked at James; she could see him much better in the light. He was quite handsome, but he had a strange accent. He had almost a gruff tone to his voice. His accent and his unnaturally tough skin suggested to her that he was a long way from home. And why was he so quick on his feet. And where did he get his gashes?

"So James," she said, "Tell me a little about yourself. For starters, what are you doing here? You don't sound Romanian."

James grinned as he watched Inara try to sow up his injured arm only to have the needle break against his scales. When she mentioned her problem with the Scandinavian; James raised his eyebrows in curiosity, but he didn't ask. God knew he had enough skeletons in his closet that he didn't need to go digging around in others problems. When Inara wrapped up his arm and sat back James flexed his arm wincing a little bit. Its probably gonna sting for a few days, but at least now I won't have to worry about infection while it seals up.

“Well I was chasing an interest of mine.” James answered her question being purposely vague. “I heard a few rumors that the people I was looking for were seen around here, but it turned out to be nothing but an imposter using their image.” James frowned and lifted his injured arm, “They wont be a problem anymore though only thing left of the imposters is the pain in my right arm.

James looked over at Inara and smiled a kind of sad smile, but instead of answering her final question he gave her one of his own, “So what about you? It isn’t everyone that can change a cross into a rapier at will. Or if I am not mistaken manipulate the wind to throw an intruder off their feet. Where do you come from? Where did you learn to use that sword of yours? Who taught you to bend the wind to your Will?”

Inara lowered her eyes sadly and touched the cross around her neck. "My father taught me everything I know. But he passed away when I was 11. This cross is all I have left of him. I loved my father very much." At that moment of mention, Inara remembered that scene that she had been trying to forget. The day her father died and gave her the cross, when she discovered the monkshood in her father's 'healing' potions, and what she had done to her mother afterwards. There was not enough eucalyptus in the world to wash THAT blood off of her hands.

Strange, I've never met a man that could surface such memories before, but how could she tell a complete stranger about such a dark part of her past? "I'm from Scandinavia," she said, "But I've done some...things...there that I prefer not to talk about. Anyway, I can't go back."

James watched as Inara's eyes quickly looked down towards the floor as she lightly touched her cross, it must mean a lot to her for it to have such an emotional reaction. But then again isn't that part of a fullbring that the item that manifests as a fullbring is something the wielder is close too and that means a lot to them? When she mentioned her father's death James reached out and put a kind hand on her shoulder; he had lost enough people in his long life to know the pain she felt all too well.

“Take it from an old man, it gets easier and easier to run from your problems, but they will eventually find you wherever you hide.” James looked the young woman straight in the eye. “I know your story all to well, doing something that forever scars your very soul, making you an outcast from your own family.” His voice kept getting softer and softer as his eyes started to tear up a bit as he remembered his own exile.

With a shake of his head James shook himself from his memories, “You're father was a good man, and from what I saw an excellent teacher to teach you not to run from danger, but I have another offer if you would hear me out.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a plain ticket; it was meant as his way home, but James had other means of travel. “I run a dojo in a small town in Japan; I would like to offer you an exclusive spot there as well as a place to stay as long as you wish.”

James placed a kind hand on her shoulder and gave her friendly advice as he offered her a plane ticket to his dojo. "Japan, you say," Inara inquired as she inspected the plane ticket. If at any rate, it would be much farther away from European police who are still, no doubt, looking for the killer of a brutally murdered woman with Aconite in her mouth in a little village house in Scandinavia. She's sure their leading suspect was the daughter who went missing. She scoffed a bit, Family? What family? I'm all that's left of my family. But then something else caught her attention. Old man? He doesn't look a day over 30...unless...well, it would explain the needle... "I'm not a fool, James. You're older than you look, aren't you?"

Well, however old he is, I can't stay here for much longer. She was sure that she had gotten enough attention that they were sure to catch on that she was the missing little girl. I have to go. At least I'll have some place to stay.

James gave Inara a warm smile as he watched her mull the idea over; up and moving to a new place was a big decision. It was made even more so when that new place required a few hours of air travel, but still he could see the idea forming in the young woman's eyes. “Its a bit crowded compared to here, but it makes it easier to lose yourself in the rush of things from time to time. It's healthy you know...to let go of all your problems and lose in the crowd.”

James rocked back and forth with a chuckle when Inara assumed he had to be older than he looked, if she only knew how true that statement was she would probably run screaming and check herself into a mental hospital. “Lets just say that I am old enough to know when I see a child in need of some help that I help them with a smile.” James grinned and continued, “I believe if I help you that Karma will reward me eventually.”

Karma. Inara gave out a loud guffaw, but then stopped herself when she realized how loud her laugh was. If I run away now, Karma will just be harder on me. But then...if I could run away from Karma just long enough, I might be able to clean it up before she finds me. Inara has never been one to just up and leave with strangers, but something in James' warm smile gave her comfort, as strange and mysterious as he was. She thought about it a little more. It's not like she had never gotten up and left everything behind before, she knew that all too well...

"When does the plane leave?" She asked.

James chuckled, this young woman was a lot like him in his younger years. She didn't seem to hesitate at all when a stranger offered her a way to escape from the problems so close at hand. She didn't even think about where she would stay she only thought of the run. I only hope that she realizes that she realizes that running to escape is only a temporary fix to a problem. She doesn't have six centuries to live as I have had. James' eyes seem to dim a bit as his thoughts started to drift around in his head.

“When does the plane leave?”

James shook his head, Inara's question had brought him back to the surface. “The plane should leave at 10:00 AM heading to Tokyo, from there you will find a private car waiting to take you to the outskirts of Karakura town and my private estate. I will be along shortly so just tell the driver that I will meet you at the estate; if he gives you any trouble tell him he will receive double his normal rate if he doesnt remember that afternoon.” James gave a sly grin, his driver was used to frequently forgetting things as far as James was concerned.

James cleared his throat, “I hope you don't mind, staying in my home for the time being. It is a rather large home and it is just me now. In fact, it is big enough if you wanted to you could go from one end of the house to the other and never see me if you wished.” James grinned, though this was technically true James didn't see any need to elaborate.

His house? She thought. She had a small fear that she might be putting herself in danger. But quickly shook it off. Nothing I can't handle if it is "That's fine. But I do have one question. Is this 'very large house' relatively secluded?" A strange question, it may have been, but the last thing she needed was to run away from authorities only to be caught by them there. But if anything, if James is sincere in his intent, maybe her father can still see her. She grinned a bit at the thought of how proud her father would be that she continue her training and never forget what he taught her.

James grinned as he looked over the young woman one last time, she showed no noticeable fear on her face, but the way the hesitated to talk after James offered to let her stay at his estate gave the old dragon the feeling that he had made her uncomfortable. She would be insane if she accepted the offer without a little bit of hesitation. James had to mentally remind himself as he thought of a way to answer the new question she put forth, it was a tricky one to answer. On one hand he didn't want to make it seem like he kept his home outside of town to lure young women into, but on the other hand he didn’t want her to think it was always flowing with traffic in and out at all times of the day and night.

“Well its close enough to the city that its not an big problem if you wish to go goof around for the evening. But its secluded enough that people like you and me can hone our abilities without people realizing how different we are.” James smiled, it was a white lie, but his answer was mostly true. “As for those that do know me they wont think too much of someone coming to live with me for a little while. As a teacher I have been known to take in some students who didn't have anywhere to go.”