A Crow's Nest (closed, Lazira)

[2014 July 23]

The rain was pelting hard against the roofs of buildings in an early morning shower, the bustling traffic in a major city was awakening once more. A tall man with an umbrella in hand, he wore a custom made butler outfit, but even here he stood out of the public even if most people could hardly tell the difference. He still had another task like so many times before he was to take a letter to its owner. In the letter was the instructions to his or her new life, where she would go, what she would need to bring with her, and so forth. For she had been accepted like so many before her into the academy of magic.

The man named Michael or Misha for short took a turn into the underground sub station, and took the train north, there he got off and picked a carriage ride way out from the city, the rain kept pelting on and on, it took nearly two hours before the carriage stopped in a small village. As he got off he pulled out his umbrella again, now he kept on walking for another ten minutes on his way from the village he saw a small house had burned down, but paid little to no attention to it. He asked for directions along the way and continued north the road that he took narrowed down into a path, along the path he saw fewer and fewer buildings, up at the very top of the hill stood a small house he saw the number and concluded that this was it. He stepped forward and soon reached the building, knocking on the door as lightning started to light up the sky, he knocked a second time just in case the first time was covered by the lightnings loud noises.

:

As the lightning continued to crash and make bright lights across the sky, Lasira sighed softly to herself and curled up on her bed, headphones in her ears as she purposefully tried drowning out the sounds. She had just finally picked up on her echolocation and was still having troubles blocking the images from her head. To her this was just a small setback in preparing for her normal magic training, but she wished she could have some peace and quiet and have the calming black she had slowly gotten used to when she lost her eyesight. Just as the second lightning and thunder crashed throughout the tiny house she holed up in, she thought she heard the faint knocking of something at the door.

She sat up in bed quickly, was it just something hitting against the door? Could it have been debris? Or was it someone looking for her. It had only been two month since the fire and no one knew where she went, no one really cared to in any case. She was a lost cause the moment her father took her eyesight as most everyone else was concerned. But what surprised her the most was when the knocking came again, after the thunder. There was someone at the door!

In her surprise she jumped out of bed and clumsily fell to the floor. With a tiny groan she stood up form her spot and brushed herself off to the best of her abilities and made her way towards the door. Once she was out of the bedroom clicking sounded from her mouth as she walked, helping her spot surroundings. When she reached the stairs of the house, her hand gently rested along the wall, sliding along beside her as she walked so she wouldn't run into it. Her other hand gripped onto the railing and allowed her to keep balanced while she made her descent down the stairs.

As soon as she set foot on the bottom level, she practically sprinted towards the front door, running face first into the wall beside it in her haste. She slowly opened the door while rubbing her face and hissed quietly to herself in pain. "Y-Yes? What can I do for you on this storming night?" She asked with a small voice, almost immediately knowing it was a man from his stature. She never had seen him before in the small village and immediately assessed he was from somewhere far away. She kept her posture as relaxed as possible while openening the door wider in case he wanted to step inside a moment.

Michael heard noises inside, the voice of someone falling and running into things among others, it did not concern him the slightest, what concerned him was the smell of blood, that hit him. The smell of blood that of a young girl no less. But even so Michael had learnt to control his urges, besides to him a container of blood was just another fine wine bottle that got better as it got older. (to a point anyway)

So how could he tell it was a girl, her steps for once, then there was the smell of her blood. Michael pulled out a napkin from his chest pocket, just as the petite girl opened the door. He handed her the napkin "Clean yourself up, my dear" He said as he witnessed blood running down from her nose. He would have paid attention to her eyes had he had the decency to look like an idiot.

He bowed to her like a knight, not forgetting all his manners even as her blood unnerved him, he knew she was blind why else would she be running into things like this. As he had given the girl the napkin, he stepped inside the house and handed her the letter. "I belive young miss that you are expecting this by now yes?" He said as he withdrew his umbrella tapping it on the floor, the letter had text which she could not read he realized this sooner rather than later. "do you want me to read it for you?" He asked politely, as his ruby eyes glanced her way. "Pardon my manners my lady, my name is Michael" His excuse was her blood but he spoke none of it. He noticed how dusty the roomed looked it was a complete chaos in here, she was lucky that she did not have to stay in this trash can of a house for much longer.

She felt the napkin be pushed into her hand and gently started cleaning at her now bleeding nose. She may or may not had noticed it until he mentioned it....it wasn't her fault a man standing before her made her mind blank of much else aside from him. As she cleaned herself of anymore blood she felt a letter be pressed into her hand. And at his smooth voice speaking to her she realized he must've come from this Mage Academy her mother was talking about before...before the fire. She looked blankly down towards the letter though she couldn't see it and bit at her lip in anxiety. This decision would change her life forever, and if she did go to this academy, it could help her strengthen her already growing magical ability.

She vaguely heard his voice asking if she wished him to read it and she blinked up in his direction a moment. Ah, um y-yes please. My name is Lasira. I don't think they made this suitable for my...um....problem. She said with a small grimace of a smile, handing the letter towards him, or what she hoped was toward him.

She could tell her nerves were going haywire, and even though he wasn't moving towards her in any way save for the normal way strangers do, this whole ordeal was making her a nervous wreck. She knew he was gone, her father couldn't do those horrible things to her anymore, yet the imprint of his tortures still lingered in the back of her mind when she rested for a moment. Probably one of the reasons she insisted upon herself to stay outside and train as much as possible the thing he hated most. She bit at her lip to stop the thoughts from trailing too far into that and gently sat herself in the chair she'd managed to slowly make her way towards. It would all be over soon, once she knew what was in that letter her life would be changed forever. Hopefully for the better.

Sly eyes glanced her way as he accepted the letter, the mage academy seal was visible on the cover, he broke the seal, as he did so a bright light shone from within the letter then the letter caught aflame or so it seemed. In a single motion Michael swatted his hand across the letter and the flames dispersed, the letter seemed unharmed by the flames and so did Michael, it was a magical seal to protect the contents within the letter from being seen by those who where not the recipients of said letter. The flames had exerted heat but only briefly.

As he pulled out the contents of the letter, magical words started to dance before him with an equally bright shine as before it did not blind Michael though.

"Very well... My dearest wizard, you who are magically inclined, i am happy to inform you that you have been accepted into our most prestigious school of magical learning, if you wish to join our school the moment you get this letter follow Mr Micheal and do everything as he tells you to do. However if you wish to wait, you can do so at your leisure but be informed that you have to make your own way to the docks of 56 3/4 within the timespan of a week from the moment you recieve this letter.

And finally if you have any questions direct them to Mr Micheal, as he knows almost as much about the academy as i do. My best wishes to you Lazira Angel, i hope to see you soon in Mage academy.

Headmaster: Alicia Von Astrea


P.S: If by any chance you don`t want to join our school, not to worry this letter will dispose itself within ten seconds of its contents being read.

P.S.S: Anything you need with you is written on the back side of the letter"

Micheal turned the letter and the magical contents of words scrambled to form new words, he read the contents which included clean clothes, some money, and anything small and important that one could wish to bring with, with that he tossed the letter into the empty fireplace not far from where he stood, and he turned around to face the girl the moment the letter caught aflame again.

"I do not wish to stress you any further my lady, but the ship will sail in about three hours, we don`t really have the luxury of waiting much longer" He said as he pulled out his notebook from within his inner chest pocket, he tapped on the notebook and opened it, marking with his pencil that the contents had been sent, recieved and marked.

A small smile graced the redhead's face as she listened to Mr. Michael read the letter. It was official for her, she was accepted into Mage Academy! She sat almost completely still, on the edge of her seat, and gently started picking at the ends of her dress. All she had was the small amount of money she'd earned from selling a bit of her her medications to sickly neighbors; nothing too big. She made mental notes to herself to ask if she could grow some herbs for earning herself some more money. Then she slowly stood up and bowed her head towards Mr. Michael. Thank you, Sir. But I already have everything I might need with me so we can leave now to save us time. She quietly told him while fiddling with the ends of her skirt some more.

She turned towards the table beside her and tilted the lamp to grab the money she'd hid underneath. Then deftly made her way toward the front door, picking up the overcoat she left hanging beside it for storming nights. As she put the coat on she looked over towards Mr. Michael and clicked her tongue with a tilt of her head, making sure she was 'looking' at him. I'm ready to go now She said gently with, hopefully, a small smile on her face

Michael noticed something he had yet to see, coming from the girl was a most honest smile he had ever seen. The letter hissed in the fireplace one final time as Michael closed the door behind him and followed the girl outside opening up the umbrella again. "You are a strange one my lady..... never mind, forget i said anything..."Most girls would have been intimidated by his appearence. I suppose being blind had its ups and downs. The rain poured down even harder than before making the descent down the hill all the more trecherous, he held the umbrella above the young girl rather than himself, as they descended down the narrow path. He would be intrested to know how much the girl actually could see.

She could hear the rain descending around them, but couldn't feel it hitting her. That was when she realized he must've been holding the umbrella above her. She took a small note for herself; not all guys are like her father, just like not everyone cares about her scar. She gave tiny refreshed sigh at her epiphany and stuffed her hands in her pockets, clicking her tongue to slowly make their way down the slippery hill. She heard his muttering but decided against saying anything about it, ignoring his musings.

As the hill became more and more slippery to the redhead she couldn't help but glance towards the sky with a wry look on her face. This rain is ridiculous. Why couldn't it have been sunny or something? That would've been a better sendoff. She grouched in her mind before focusing back on the task at hand; keeping herself from slipping and falling. She clicked her tongue at the perfect moment and sidestepped a rock protruding from the ground, nearly missing it with her boot. She gave a small sigh and shook her head. Focus Sira....can't get distracted now. She murmured to herself, hands once again being stuffed in her pockets

As they descended along the hill, he heard her clicking of the tongue. It was not really something he thought he would get used to but at least she was not completly helpless. He heard her words and it threw him off a bit, as he didn`t like the sun in his eyes, however aside from that it did not bother him. As they reached the very bottom of the hill suddenly he felt many eyes following them thus he stopped in his tracks. "Lazira..." He said raising his tone, a mob of people had gathered along the road, with pitchforks and torches in their hands.

".... seems like we attracted quite the crowd today." He said with an indifferent tone, not the least worried. Lightning shot blazes across the sky lighting up the village briefly. Michael stepped forward handing Lazira the umbrella. "Don`t look" He told her as he cracked his fists.

At the smell of fire burning in front of them, and the feeling of an umbrella being pushed into her hands, Lasira tilted her head in confusion. Was it another mob coming after her? Damn, maybe she should've moved further away from the village? Ah well, nothing to be done now. Smells like a lot of torches around...must be at least 20 people... She muttered to herself before biting down on her tongue and plugging her ears, one had still holding the umbrella.

If she was told not to look then, for sure, she would not 'look'. That just meant she'd have to cut off her hearing until she was certain everything was finished. She quietly hummed to herself and dropped her eyes to the ground so no one could see it was her. She still heard some of their mutterings though. 'Freak,' 'why's she still here?' 'I thought she died in the fire like her parents!' She sighed quietly and hummed a little louder so as to block out more of their talking. It wasn't her fault her father did this to her, even if others insisted it was. She sighed quietly and shook her head a moment before looking up again, ignoring the negative thought plaguing her.

"Your not going anywhere with her, she is going to an insane asylum where she belongs!!" One of them rushed forward with a pitchfork, everyone expected him to dodge but he did naught. The pitchfork hit his body and the pitchfork dug deep into his his flesh, the men seemed satisfied but then he picked the guys arm and tossed him across the village sending the guy flying trough one of the buildings. The pitchfork was still stuck in his body as he slowly pulled it loose.

He broke the metallic pitchfork in half like it was a stick. "Who`s next?" Pretty much everyone freaked out. "I guess its my turn then..." He rushed headlong into the group of people smiling devilishly, enjoying, brooding in the chaos. Punches where thrown, kicks where sent and people where tossed around in the rain. As the last torch fell to the ground it hissed quietly in a pool of water before it ran off creating a bit of smoke, one of the buildings had caught on fire, but Michael did naught to care for, he switched his old gloves bloody and tossed them in the fire then went to tap on Lazira`s shoulder. The carriage had arrived the horses where set. "Its over..." The blood marks where still visible on his chest, but the wound itself had closed up.

Lasira sighed quietly to herself and 'looked' at the man before her. Thank you. And I'm sorry you had to do that. She said softly, bowing her head in gratitude. She bit at her lip and sudden realized how quiet she was being around him. She still must not be completely trusting of others yet, will she ever be? She heard the horses snorting and shaking their manes and glanced over in their direction, noting it wasn't that far away from them.

She looked back at Michael and blew her bangs away from her eye slightly. She forgot that was the one with the scar. Is that for us? She changed the subject, slowly moving towards the horses and carriage in hopes of forgetting what just happened. She could smell the fires now surrounding them and didn't want to be around for it to burn down. They were right about one thing; it was all her fault.

He shook his head "No, its in my contract as long as im contracted to protect you, i will do so with my life on the line that is all" He allowed her to keep the umbrella and continued to walk besides her, he told her to watch out as the crossed over some people that had passed out. "Yes"

One man stepped out from one of the buildings that had not caught aflame, he had a rifle and he pointed it at them "DONT YOU DARE MOVE!!! FRIGGIN FREAKS ALL OF YOU" a shot was fired, smoke rose from the tip of the man`s gun as he stared at Michel not beliving his eyes. He had caught a bullet that was inches away from his head. He held onto the bullet with two fingers, he then proceeded to flinch the bullet back with his pointer. Killing the man on the spot. As if nothing had happened he moved towards the carriage and opened the door bowing to her. "Ladies first"

She heard the gunshot, and she should've been terrified that someone actually shot at them. But for once, she didn't feel fear. She didn't even feel remorse when she heard the body fall dead. Instead, Lasira turned away from the burning fires and bodies on the ground and stepped towards the carriage. Will people still treat a blind girl like that at Mage Academy? She wondered quietly to herself, bowing her head again towards Michael in a thank you as she stepped into the carriage with tiny clicks.

She seated herself quietly and rested her hands in her lap, picking at her nails. What would the academy be like? Were there any gardens? Maybe there was even a small forest or something she could disappear into for a while to relax. With those thoughts Lasira couldn't help but smile to herself and clasp her hands together in a short happy prayer.

Michael stepped inside the carriage and closed the door behind him, as he did the carriage started to move, he pulled the umbrella on the floor to dry. He measured her up and decided to ask. "How much can you actually see" He asked shortly after departing, sounding a bit curious, he leaned his elbow on the window rim, while holding up his face in the palm of his hand.

"If your feeling tired you can take a little nap, it will take at least two hours before we arrive at our destination"

Lasira rested her head on the window and looked at Michael with a small smile. Absolutely nothing. Unless I make some sort of sound like cliking my tongue or talking to someone, I cannot see a thing. And even if I do make sounds I can only make out the outline or silhouette in front of me. She replied lightly, face herself towards the window and closing her eyes.

At his urging she let herself drift off into slumber, her legs curling up against herself while her breathing started to even out. The last thing she realized was she had her first human interaction in over 2 months that day, and she hadn't once froze to the spot like she normally would. Even if she didn't know he wasn't human.

He listened intently until she finished speaking "I see" He looked out trough the window as he grasped her words, the rain still pouring outside and did not seem to let up anytime soon. The occasional lightnings did not seem to bother her much, he turned to open the seat next to him, underneath the seat he pulled out a blanket which he used to cover her body up, he picked up a pillow on from his seat and placed it under her head, she seemed at ease she would need all the strength she could muster in the coming months.

So resting now was the wisest thing to do "I need to calm down" He whispered to himself, as he turned to face the window again noticing a tornado wreaking havoc in the distance.

Roughly about an hour had passed before the carriage stopped, Michael went outside to look what was wrong closing the door behind him, turned out that there had been a rockslide that was now blocking the road, it would take too long to clear the debree, he informed the driver that they would take a another path, the driver agreed and Michael stepped again inside the carriage taking his usual seat. The carriage started to move again taking a longer route along the coast. He reminded himself of her scar that he had seen running along her face, was she covering that up on purpose with her hair?

She felt the blanket be put over her and the pillow under her, but hadn't bothered to truly 'wake up' from her slumber. She just sighed out a small mumble, too quiet to understand and nuzzled herself into the blanket. She hadn't felt this calm in months, maybe even years. That must be what happens when you finally escape the wretched grasp of your old home. She didn't even bother waking up when the carriage stopped, realizing just how tired she really was.

Unfortunately what did seem to wake her up was when she felt the carriage change course. She slowly sat up and yawned into her hand. "How long was I sleeping? Gosh it felt like hours."  She muttered softly before sitting back against the window. She rested the back of her head against the window and have a tiny smile to herself, happy she had some rest finally.

Michael has started to read the news paper that he had brought with him from the city earlier during the day. Not that long, only about an hour, we still got awhile to go. He was not sure if they where going to make it to the harbor in time, if that was the case he did not want to worry the girl they always had a plan B anyway.

As the day started to turn to evening they arrived in the harbor, and roughly about 10 minutes too late. Micheal sighed as he watched the great ship fly off into the distance. He turned around just as Lazira was leaving the carriage. This trip might be a bit longer than i anticipated, we should stock up on supplies and such before we continue He pointed towards a nearby grocery store. He started walking towards there expecting to girl to follow him. If you need to go to the bathroom you should do so now, we wont be having that luxury for about two days, less if we are lucky

After her small rest in the carriage Lasira hadn't been able to go back to sleep, so instead of forcing herself she decided to stay up and keep herself rested against the carriage window. She stretched her legs out across the bench she was on and started tapping her toes against the air gently, listening to the song which decided to get stuck in her head at the perfect time. She continued doing small movements like that to help her growing anxiety.

But once they finally stopped she went to stand up and make her way out of the carriage, almost forgetting the steps to reach the ground. She mistakenly overstepped said steps and 'jumped' straight to the ground. She hardly stumbled an extra step before she caught herself and coughed into her hand to hide her embarrassment. "Bathroom....right good idea. Uh, which direction would that be in now? Can't exactly read." She said with the tiniest hint of sarcasm in her voice, mostly teasing him about her predicament.

He sighed. Just follow my lead He had never had to work with blind people before it was different to say the least. The rain was letting up finally it seemed, his mood was getting better too, heavy clouds still hanged about but it was clearing up across the wide ocean before them.

He held the umbrella over her figure, as they walked into the grocery store he showed her the way to the bathrooms before he started shopping, he picked up only essentials after that he paid the money for the groceries.

As she went to go to the bathroom, breaking away from him, she gave him a small salute with a grin. "Why thank you Sir." She responded before heading into bathroom finally.

As soon as she got inside she blinked to herself and tilted her head. She surprised even herself as she realized she acted pretty normal towards him just then. She shrugged after the thought hit her and slowly moved towards the bathroom stall, tongue clicking quietly as she kept her gaze trained on the floor. Once she entered the stall she did her business as quickly as possible before stopping off at the sink to wash her hands. As she was though, she looked up towards the mirror, even if she couldn't see it. She frowned to herself and clicked her tongue, spotting the rectangular object. What made her frustrated with herself was the fact she couldn't see her reflection, even with her echolocation.

She sighed quietly to herself and slowly opened the door of the bathroom, letting it close on its own behind her as she walked away from it. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her jacket and clicked her tongue while walking, not wondering to herself whether she should try finding Michael or if she should wait by the front for him. She gave up the thought and shrugged to herself, turning on her heel towards the way she came, knowing that way was the front.

He noticed her leaving shortly after paying the groceries, he took a cup of coffey and drank that before he entered the bathroom himself, he pulled out a pair of plastic gloves which he put on after that he locked the bathroom door, un-buttoning his jacket he slipped out a syringe from one of the pockets, the syringe contents where red. He ejected the contents into his mouth, swallowing them with pleasure. He switched his jacket and shirt to clean ones, but dropped the empty syringe one floor causing it to break.

Soon after that he left the store walking outside to greet Lazira who was still waiting for him outside. So are you ready for your new life? The rain had stopped entirely so there was no need for him to open the umbrella anymore. He started walking back towards the harbor where the carriage was still standing, the driver had taken a load off and was feeding the horses before he would continue his way. Michael waved off the man as he continued to walk towards the piers.

He continued walking for about five minutes until he came to an old looking building, that sort of building where you kept a boat or somesuch mechanic dry from the weathers. He opened the massive door to reveal a nearly empty garage, the air was dry and smelled of metallic and oil, there where some tools, a tool bench, and something that was covered in a blanket. Here we are, this is your ticket to a new life. Off course they could have waited for the next ship, but that would take nearly a week so this was faster.

Michael moved to remove the blanket covering the motorcycle, off course this was no ordinary motorcycle, it was a two seat motorcycle, an really old looking two seat motorcycle, an additional seat that lingered right next to main one and it had all that you needed for a two day trip to a new home.

Tell me, if you don`t mine me asking where did you get that scar? He asked as he pulled out two helmets from the side seat.

As she heard the footsteps moving towards her, she looked over in their direction and lifted her head up slightly, tongue clicking rapidly as she 'looked' at who it was. Once she realized it was Michael she immediately relaxed and gave a small nod to him. I've been ready since my house burned." She replied easily, keeping her tone light as she kicked some rocks away from herself.

She quietly followed after him, head tilted towards the sky. He was right about her starting a new life. But in a way she felt bad that she basically helped destroy her past in that village by hurting those who lived there. She shrugged the guilt off soon after; remembering what they did to her long before she left. A tiny smirk on her face she walked a bit faster to be hardly two steps behind Michael, who seemed to have led them down to the piers. Hands stuffed in her pockets Lasira tilted her head and went back to kicking rocks and sand out from underneath her boots while waiting for him to get what they needed.

She looked up in surprise at hearing him moving things around with his statement, surprised it wasn't sounding from the water. She cocked her head to the side again in curiosity as she couldn't hear anything yet. In spite of herself she started moving closer to the sounds, clicking softly while doing so. Once she realized what was going on she snorted almost silently and smirked to herself. Of course it was a motorcycle. She shook her head in disbelief before taking hold of the helmet he had for her. M-my scar? Ahhh....let's just say the last, um, man I lived with didn't enjoy the word 'no.'" She responded with a nonchalant shrug.

Michael nodded nonchalantly to her answer to her scar and gave her the groceries, then his hand moved gently up to her head as he messed up her hair a bit, he moved closer and pressed his forehead against hers which felt suprisingly cool against her skin. His mouth had opened a little, his razor sharp teeth shone for a second Your putting that life behind you now, remember that you are never alone in mage academy, many of the students have suffered similiar fates as you have, however most often than not are their scars invisible to the naked eye He said this while keeping his eyes narrowed to slits, with a small soft smile the first one he showed her even though she could not see it.

Michael pulled away, placing the helmet atop of his head, he pulled the motorcycle out on the pier, from the locket of the motorcycle he pulled out some goggles, after that he closed the gate to the warehouse locking it. He took a seat on the drivers seat, he attached a plastic pipe to his wrist which instantly latched into it. This seemed to be a part of the motorcycle as the pipe was connected to the fuel storage, soon the motorcycle roared to life, the entire length of the pier stood in front of it like an runaway for a plane, the engine growled impatiently as Michael went trough the progress list for flight off.