Tarot still stood before her father's grave, black eyes fixed on the scruffy wooden cross. The burning airship had drowned beneath the waves only moments before, and as regret for Arkanus' death filled her, the hanyo closed her eyes for a moment. It had been foolish to kill him, without knowing what he was really like. Blind rage - something to be avoided at all costs in future, she decided. After a few long moments, she renewed her sight, and turned away from the grave, watching the unconscious blonde lying on the sand. I wonder what her quarrel with him was? she thought, then cut her thoughts away from this subject and started rubbing the sand and water off the Arashi Suto-mu. Stupid rust.

Close to half an hour passed, and the blonde was finally beginning to stir. Good, she wasn't dead. Stretching, the half-demon looked at her scythe, turning it over slightly to see if it was still wet or sandy. Neither was evident, which was good - a rusty blade meant she would have to fix it, and that would not be fun. Now she paid attention only to the woman lying on the beach, watching to see if she would get up on her own.

Alethia's crimson eyes slowly opened and she blinked slowly to clear her blurry vision. She stared across the sand, watching the waves wash up over the sand, then retreat. She had fallen in the water; that much she remembered. THE woman blinked, her mind clearing as she thought of the hands that had pulled her from the ocean. She pushed her self up and blinked, looking around until she spotted the figure staring at her intently. "Who... Who are you?" She asked, narrowing her eyes and standing somewhat shakily.

Tarot blinked, half-leaning against a nearby rock with a faintly raised brow. "Call me Tarot." She shrugged, letting herself ease onto the small boulder without the faintest hint of fear at the blonde's slightly accusing tone. "I think I'll ask the same thing of you. Who are you?" The hanyo remarked dryly, crossing her legs and fixing her onyx gaze on the other woman.

Alethia put a hand on her hip, staring at the other somewhat boldly. "Names Alethia." She looked over the beach and spotted the cross, then spotted a few pieces of charred wood which had washed up on the beach. "You were the one on the ship, before I fell?" She asked, staring at the cross.

Tarot nodded, leaning her scythe against her shoulder and crossing her legs. "Yeah, that was me. I killed Arkanus, if you hadn't figured that out already." Shrugging as if this was of no consequence, she raised a skeptical brow and looked at Alethia. "So why were YOU trying to kill him?"

Alethia looked back to the girl perched on the rock. "No reason. Why were you? And if you killed him, why did you honor his death?" She nodded toward the cross before whipping some of the sand off her slender legs.

Tarot rolled her eyes, her slightly cocky streak returning despite her lingering feelings over Arkanus' death. "Don't people from here honour the dead?" She inquired, raising a brow and deliberately neglecting Alethia's first question. She felt no obligation to tell the blonde woman her reasons, as neither of them knew the other beyond names.

Alethia narrowed her eyes. "Not if your the one that caused their death." She spoke levelly. "How did you get on the ship?" Alethia's hostility had been replaced with simply curiosity.

Tarot stared at her, obviously amazed that she hadn't figured out. Then the facts clicked together - Alethia was human, naturally she couldn't transform. "I flew." She grinned, propping her scythe against the rock and sliding off its surface onto her feet before walking towards the taller blonde and stopping, not saying anything more.

"..." Alethia stared at her for a couple seconds before laughing. "Nice joke." She said through her laughter before whipping a tear from her eye. "Were you stowed away or something?"

Tarot smirked, with the expression of one who knows something that the person they're talking to doesn't. "Nope. I flew and I can prove it. If you prove that you're worth showing, that is." She added as an afterthought, black eyes glittering mockingly.

"What?" Alethia said before rolling her eyes. "What makes you think i'd want to test my worth to you?"

Tarot shrugged, and smirked. "Honour? Proving yourself?" She grinned, eyes sparking as she gazed into the woman's crimson eyes. "I don't go around advertising what I can do and I'm sure you don't either."

Alethia blinked before eyeing the girl with some humor. "Yeah, maybe." She commented before stretching idly. "So what are you? A monster then?"

Tarot rolled her eyes with a smirk. "I guess some people would call me that."

Alethia blinked. "You look human to me." She leaned closer and eyed the girl oddly. "HOW The hell are you a monster?"

Tarot grinned at Alethia's clear lack of knowledge. "I LOOK human...but am I?" She raised a brow, then shrugged and grinned, deciding to answer her own question. "Part."

"Part human. ARRRGGG!!!" Alethia stood up and rubbed her fingers through her hair. "Sense when are there PART human people?!"

Tarot grinned, laughing as Alethia growled in frustration. "Since there are." She offered unhelpfully, locking her fingers behind her head and spinning once in a casual circle. "So far as I know, there aren't many, but part humans - like me - do exist."

Alethia stared. "Yeah ok. Whatever. So your part bird or Dragon or something?" She crossed her arms and gave her a look that said she wasn't convinced before looking to the cross again. "Why did you kill him?"

Tarot narrowed her eyes, giving Alethia a flat stare. "No reason." She growled, then shrugged and grinned again, an infuriatingly bright expression on her face. "Close. Part demon, actually."

"Heh..." Alethia put a hand on her hip before turning, her blond hair flowing behind her. She bowed her head at the cross slightly before looking over her shoulder. "If you wouldn't mind, I be taking my leave unless you have..." There was a low rumbling in the ground as suddenly a crack grew in the beach. Alethia dropped to her hands and knees to hold herself steady before looking down it into complete blackness. "What created THAT?"

Tarot raised a brow, swaying slightly but not scrabbling for balance as the earth tore itself apart. "Something that is either very large and very bored, or very large and very angry." She answered unhelpfully, walking over and gazing down into the abyss. Suddenly something moved slightly in the darkness, though it was impossible to tell just what, and a growl rose up from the depths of the pit. "But if I were you, I'd get moving."

Alethia got to her feet and backed away. She stared. The crack stretched a long way down the beach and Alethia was momentarily thankful that the creatures couldn't climb from the split. "Yeah... come on." She turned and ran into the forest.

Tarot raised a dark brow, turning and striding unhurriedly after Alethia after she vanished into the trees. She seemed completely unfazed, ignoring the menacing growls coming from the depths of the earth. Soon she reached the forest, and looked around to see Alethia disappearing around a corner. Rolling her eyes, she smirked to herself. "Keep runnin', they might not stay there long." She grinned, stretching and balancing her scythe across her shoulders behind her neck. She herself held no special fear of the unknown monsters, having dealt with the Bira not all that long ago, and the fact that she could fly just aided her confidence.

Alethia stopped when she came to a waterfall. Suddenly the ground began to rumble again. Alethia braced herself against a tree as she watched the crack appear from the center of thewaterfall, through the pond, and back through the land. The water spilled through the giant crack and there was a sudden hiss. Steal rose from the ground, along with screams. Suddenly, flames burst from the crack and Alethia stepped back while the water became more forecul from the falls, as if angry. "Whats HAPPENING?"

Tarot soon arrived next to Alethia, just in time to hear her confused, rhetorical question. "Something got mad and I'm willing to bet that more somethings got mad at it. Hence the water, abyssal gashes in the ground, and fire." She raised a brow, looking over at the unnerved blonde. "It's gonna get mean round here pretty quick, I'm guessing."

Alethia stared flatly at her. Well, gee, you THINK?" She shook her head, then felt a gentle wind start to blow. "Wind too..." She blinked, staring as the elements clashed.

Tarot raised a brow, grinning at Alethia with a slightly eerie crimson light glimmering behind her eyes. "Of course...that doesn't really bug me. I can get out of here quick. What about you? Got any tricks up your sleeve to get out if the elements decide they don't care who they hit?"

Alethia stared at her. "What? Oh, yeah. My feet." She rolled her eyes. "Of course not. And elements can't attack by themselves."

Tarot rolled her eyes, leaning against a nearby tree. "You must not've seen many weird things." She remarked dryly, watching as the water and fire attacked each other, twisted into beautiful but deadly spirals by the wind, and gouges continued appearing in the earth. "This is about where I think I'll start getting out of here soon." The elemental battle going on around them grew still more vicious, as though it was punctuation to her sentence, and the hanyou stretched leisurely, looking around for a larger space. Not finding one due to the fact that they were now surrounded by the fight, she stepped forward away from the tree, walking several steps to gain the maximum amount of space, and looked at Alethia. "So, you intending to die here or do you want to give up believing that people can't fly and escape?"

Alethia screwed her face up, staring at her. "For the last time, you an NOT fly!" She said with annoyance. "But ify ou can get us out of here... be my guest!"

Tarot snorted with laughter, grinning mockingly at Alethia. "As annoying as you're getting with all that 'you can't fly' business, since we'll both die if I don't I guess I just have to prove that I can. Prepare to get proven wrong, blondie." She smirked, throwing her scythe into the air in her typical ritual before exploding into the shape of a dragon and catching her scythe in her mouth, then giving Alethia a smug look. "Well, let's go." She gave her a fanged grin, then sprang into the air and grabbed the crimson-eyed girl with her claws, dragging them both into the sky and away from the chaos. "I TOLD you I can fly. Stupid."

Alethia stared, looking down at the ground as it got farther and farther away. "How can the elements fight?" She asked, looking up at the girl as they flew through the sky. "There objects are they not? Doesn't that mean someone needs to control them?"

Tarot rolled her eyes, drifting in lazy circles above the source of the chaos. "Oh yes, because all objects are inanimate and mindless. How stupid are you, honestly?" The hanyou snapped, being oddly venomous. It was impossible to tell just what had angered her, but she clearly wasn't happy. "Just because the elements don't fit into your narrow definition of 'alive' and 'not alive' doesn't mean that someone human or whatever needs to control them."

Alethia looked up at her. "Whats got you all cranky?" She asked, twitching before looking down as the ground came closer under them and the two landed on a cliff.

Tarot shrugged, balancing on her hind legs as she set Alethia on the ground, then transformed again, picking up her scythe. "Dunno."

Alethia twitched. "How can you not know whats made you mad?" She shrugged. "Nevermind... I don't care." He looked down over the cliff. "Wow... look at the show..."

Tarot rolled her eyes, leaning on her staff as she usually did and not bothering to look over the edge. "The show, eh? What interests me isn't the fact that the elements are mad, it's why."

Alethia rolled her eyes and was silent for a few minutes, mind lost in the battle below them. Finally, she spoke. "How do we find out?" She asked, glaring back at her partner. "Sense you seem to be oh so smart."