We don't need no water let this mother***** BURN! (Sera)

[Deleted]

Ugo stumbled drunk through the streets of the old city. His muscular form was covered in dirt and not much more, slung low on his hips was a ratty torn pair of blue jeans. He was hungry from all of the liquor, he could walk back out to the place he and Barry were staying but why bother when these houses probably had food. The djinn climbed the stairs to one of the old townhouses which littered the quarter. A long time ago these homes housed the affluent and nobles of Orlands, now most were crack dens or houses of ill repute so vile the police just ignored them.

Ugo knocked loudly on the door making a scene, he was drunk enough that he did not care. He leaned heavily on the door taking a swig of whiskey from his bottle,wrapped in a paper bag as if that made it more acceptable. He growled low, nobody was home but he wanted in NOW.

"Saladin is hungry! Open this door or you will burn!"

Ugo continued to pound on the door angrily, he could smell something left to cook overnight and it smelled damned good.

[Seraphina]

There was nothing quite like taking a nice relaxing stroll through New Orlands worst district. The old city quarter was the kind of place that kids parents would warn them they would end up in if they made the wrong choices in life. It was the kind of shit hole filled with the poor, gangs, drugs, thieves, and alcoholics. No matter where you stepped there was always something bad going on, and fights around every corner. It was the kind of place that Seraphina liked to be in at night. With so much crime going on it was pretty easy to find someone to fight. And no, she wasn’t just after humans here. This place didn’t just attract no good humans, but it drew in the more ‘evil’ beings of the supernatural world as well. Places like this were so prone to bad occurrences that it was a lot easier for human disappearances to go unnoticed, or a body or two to be overlooked. The supernatural creatures that lurked here only did so to find themselves weak prey to get their kicks from. It really made it easy on people like her to find them just so she can kick their ass.

It was so much fun to rain on their parade when she did that, and hey, if she just happened to save some poor helpless human in the process that was just a bonus. Tonight she managed to do just that three times and it was barely past midnight! Tonight had been a good one. It was good enough that she could call it a night. She could just turn around and go home right now and call it a day. But she didn’t. Sera still had a lot of energy tonight to burn, and all the fights she had gotten into tonight only seemed to add more energy to the solaris instead of burning it. So she kept going, smoking a cig as she walked down the street looking for some kind of conflict she could jump into, or at least a bar to get hammered in. Sure enough she did find some kind of trouble, but not the kind she was looking for.

Sera stopped to stare at the dirty looking half naked man banging on some guy’s front door. At a glance one could easily mistake the guy as just some drunken homeless man raving over nothing. But Sera knew better…this guy wasn’t normal. Maybe it was the way he talked, or the not so subtle way that he threatened to burn the guy’s house down, but Sera was certain that this dude was not some ordinary drunk. Well, there was one way to find that out. “Having door trouble?” Seraphina asked as she strolled up to the porch next to the drunk. It wasn’t always the smartest idea to approach angry drunk men but Sera was no stranger to bad ideas. She was simply curious about this guy, if he tried anything she was more than capable of handling herself. Besides, it seemed like fun to approach him. “I can help you out if you want.”

[Deleted]

Ugo tuned to look at the young girl, his eyebrows raising in curiosity. Why was a girl her age out at this time of night? He took a step toward her touching her chest almost as if to make sure she was real and not a drunken illusion. He smirked and shrugged as his hand touched solid flesh.

"You wish to help Saladin? come we will break bread and feast!"

Ugo reared back on one leg almost falling down the stairs in his drunken stupor. He set himself firmly in place and then his bare foot exploaded out connecting with the latched door. The door could not bear the force of ugo's strike and snapped off of the iron hinges landing broken on the living room floor inside.

"It smells good does it not? Tell Saladin, how is it pretty young girl has not been raped wandering the streets at night?"

Ugo stepped over the door taking a swig from the bottle and wiping his lips. He then tuned to Seraphina waving her in to join him.

[Seraphina]

It took a bit of effort on her part not to laugh at the look on the stranger’s face when he saw her. Leave it to a drunken man to be amusing. Drunks in general were an amusing group of people. Each one was an unpredictable and even potentially dangerous person. It was things like this that made Seraphina like hanging around them, even if she didn’t know them. Or if they might do something stupid…kind of like what the stranger did next. Sera raised a brow when the drunk suddenly groped her. It wasn’t the first time that she had someone touch her like that, but those moments were not that common. Mainly because Sera wasn’t the type to let crap like that go too far. But hey, she would give the guy a pass for now. He was pretty wasted from the look of it and he didn’t try to shove his tongue down her throat. The solaris relaxed again when the stranger pulled away from her and laughed when he invited her to a feast. “Break bread and feast? Never heard that phrase before, how old are you buddy?” she joked. Yeah she was right, the guy wasn’t a human. The comment sounded something more from something straight out of Shakespeare than from the modern era. Hell, she never heard something like that growing up and she grew at a much slower pace than the rest of the world.

“Sure, let’s have a feast!” This had to be fun she thought. Sera started to walk towards the door, pulling out her trusty lockpick when the man named Saladin busted it open with a single kick. She couldn’t help but laugh, well, so much for picking the lock. This guy wasn’t just funny but he was powerful too. How lucky was she? Tonight would be a blast with this guy! “Easy there big fella.” Seraphina helped steady Saladin and led him inside the house. Now that they were in the house she could smell what he was talking about. It seemed like the owner of the house had only left a few hours ago after he or she cooked. Saladin was right, it did smell good. The smell reminded her that she hadn’t eaten dinner before she went out for a little fun around town. No need to worry about food now. As the duo stepped inside the house the man asked her a strange question. The girl laughed again, he really did have a way with words didn’t he?

“People aren’t too keen on raping someone that is capable of defending herself. And I am more than capable of protecting myself.” She replied. Rape was something Sera never had to worry about. Most of the fools she faced didn’t look at her like they wanted to screw her, and the few that did quickly lost interest once she shoved a flaming fist in their face. “You know how it is. I bet no one fucks with you either once you send a good swift kick at their gut like you did with that door. What are you anyway? You don’t strike me as a demon. You got the strength of one that’s for sure.”

[Deleted]

Ugo stumbled into the kitchen following the delicious scent. Upon the counter was a crock pot filled with a thick stew. He smirked and looked back at Seraphina, she had said she could defend herself, Ugo wondered what exactly she had meant. Ugo grabbed a serving spoon and began to eat straight from the crock pot, smearing stew on his face.

She asked what he was, this was not good. In his drunken stupor he had revealed that he was more than human. He was not about to tell her he was Djinn for fear of enslavement, but the cat was out of the bag and he could nolonger pass for human.

"Saladin is not human... that is all girl needs to know. This gruel is good taste, come you have some! If you know Saladin is no human does this mean girl is not as well?

Ugo brought a spoonfull of stew up to her lips to feed her. His manerisms were very out of place in this modern world. The Djinn licked his lips clean as he watched the girl, her body was young but to Ugo that was normal. In Persia women were married off at 11-12 years old, this girl appeared to be a bit older. The Djinn began to search through the fridge, only to return triumphant with a bottle of wine.

"We will drink and be merry this night!"

[Seraphina]

In a house as small as this it didn’t take long to find the kitchen. A few awkward steps (more so for the drunk than for her) and they reached their destination. It didn’t take long to find the source of the delicious smell too. Sitting there on the still warm stove was a large pot of stew. Judging from the heat radiating off of it Sera could tell that whoever made it left it there shortly after making it. They couldn’t have been gone for more than half an hour at best. But where did they go? And why did they leave so fast? Sera looked around the place. It was a little odd for the place to be abandoned like this. Who cooked dinner past 12 in the morning and then just left it? Was the owner still in the house? It didn’t seem like it. She didn’t see any car parked out front, all the lights had been off and the blinds drawn. It wouldn’t have been suspicious if the owner had just been asleep but why would they immediately go to sleep after cooking? Besides, no one could stay asleep after all the racket that they had made trying to get in. They had to be gone.

Well, she would make sure of that a little later. Now that she was here she wasn’t too worried about getting caught. With a little help of her strange new friend the solaris just gained free entrance into a new house. That meant that she had free reign to take whatever the fuck she wanted. The food was tempting of course but there had to be a few goods lying around that would be worth a few bucks even in a dump like this. Like that console just laying on the ground over by the TV in the living room. Sera turned her attention back to her drunken companion when he tried to answer her question. “I see, your one of those ‘don’t like to talk about my race’ types huh?” she chuckled. “That’s okay; I won’t pressure you into telling me.” It didn’t really matter that much anyway. Though Saladin had nothing to fear with her somehow using that information against him she wasn’t the type that would demand answers if he had reasons for keeping his mouth shut.

When Saladin offered her a taste Sera was more than happy to take him up on that offer. “Damn…that is some pretty good beef stew.” She took another spoonful while Saladin rummaged around in the fridge. “And yeah, I am not much of a human either.” She replied. Unlike most supernaturals Seraphina was not the kind of person that tried to hide what she was, but it was pretty easy for people to mistake her as human at first. After all she did look pretty human, even though she was unusually pale, had blood red eyes, and ghostly white hair most people she ran into just mistook her as an albino, even other supernaturals. Well, they did until she set them on fire. Saladin pulled out a wine bottle from the fridge and Sera smiled. “Getting all fancy up in this bitch huh?” she laughed, “Then let’s get drunk with style! There has got to be some wine glasses around somewhere.” Sera started rummaging around the cupboards and after a moment pulled out two wine glasses. She tossed one of them over to the man before holding out her glass. “So Sal, tell me. How does someone as fun as you wind up in a dump of a city like this?”

[Deleted]

Ugo smirked and placed his hand again on her chest, so she was not human as well? Ugo was curious but would not dare ask for fer of what she may be, Though the Djinn were masters of magic Ugo feared it.

"What Saladin is... it can be very dangerous to reveal, Saladin's people have been enslaved in the past and Saladin does not want this ever again."

Ugo shuddered as he remembered his prison, a cramped kalidiscopic room of saphire windows looking out on a world he could only watch. He would watch for hundred of years as his ring changed hands from princes to pawns never able to touch the world in his view, hoping for a just master. Slavery turned Ugo bitter, made him a killer, a man who would go any distance to acheive his freedom.

Ugo took a long swig of the wine before pouring her a glass. Wine stained the Djinn's lips as he leaned in against her, swaying drunkenly. Ugo held her hips to help steady himself as he stared at her.

"hehe... Pretty"

It appeared he was getting drunker, and drunk Djinn are never up to any good.

[Seraphina]

It was funny how life turned out sometimes. Seraphina had always lived life on the wild side once she was old enough to take care of herself. Most of it was lived in chaos of her own making; she got in trouble stealing, drinking, and always managed to get herself into a fight without even trying. Her life was a bit hectic but in some ways it was predictable. Then once in awhile things like this happened. She would spot someone interesting and hang around them, whether they wanted her to or not just to see what would happen. This was just one of those times. She wasn’t sure what it was that caught her attention with this man named Saladin but it had made her join him into busting into a stranger’s house to eat their food and steal their booze. It was one of the strangest reasons to break into a house that she ever did but damn it was hilarious, and she had fun doing it.

Sal seemed pretty fun too. He was a strange bloke, with his odd accent, peculiar way of speaking and boldness. Perhaps a little too bold though. Her brow rose when the man put his hand on her chest for the second time that night. She didn’t know whether it was the booze that made him so touchy feely, or if that was just his real self leaking through but it wasn’t the kind of behavior she was used to having directed to her. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing to deal with but the solaris handled the situation well the first time and she did so again. “That sucks.” She replied as she gently brushed his hand off her chest. “I guess that’s normal with humans sometimes. They either fear ya or want to use you huh?” That was one of the things that she didn’t like with humans. She couldn’t really blame mankind for being afraid of creatures like her. There were plenty of supernaturals that had no problems harming humans, and as the weaker race it made sense for humans to be wary of them. But sometimes what they did to get past that fear was just as bad as or even worse than what her kind ever did to them.

Out of respect Seraphina let the topic of race slide. While she had no intentions of harming the man if he did tell her what he was, she could understand his reasons for wanting to keep it a secret. It was no problem anyway, there was a lot of other things they could do or talk about that didn’t have to involve what the other person was. She tried to change the subject for his sake, but Sal found another way to do that, but it wasn’t in a way that she would’ve liked. Sera didn’t seem very prepared for the kind of physical contact that Sal was giving her tonight. Truth be told things like this didn’t happen much. Sera had never been interested in flirting, and because of the way she dressed and acted not many tried to flirt with her. Those that did she could brush off or laugh it off like it was nothing. It never made her feel too uncomfortable. This though seemed to make her feel awkward.

“Easy there big fella.” She said, pushing Sal away from her once more. “You can’t just go grabbing every pretty girl you meet. It’s not very polite…that and you don’t know what someone like me could do if they don’t want it.” She gave him a sly grin, still teasing the man but giving him a subtle warning to not push his luck. She took a quick swig of her wine before changing the subject. “You still didn’t answer my question. How did you end up in this town? Do you live here or just get lost?”

[Deleted]

Ugo released the girl from his hands, it seemed she did not enjoy being touched. He scratched his pondering what he should do instead. He smiled at her and with a wave of his hand sent a ribbon of fire to engulf the couch.

"We will have fun! Saladin did not mean to upset you by touching your body. Come we will warm ourselves by the fire..."

Ugo picked up the stew and the bottle of wine and carried it over to the blaze, sitting on the floor beside it. He gestured the girl to join him happily, wanting her to come closer. She was very interesting to the djinn and he wanted to learn more about her.

"Saladin is folowing something he lost, a ring... some man in this city has it and Saladin will find this man. How old are you? Saladin would guess fourteen years, just ripe."

he smiled and gulped down more stew hungrily, this food was much better than he was used to eating. He washed the food down with another large gulp of wine.

[Seraphina]

Sera had to be a bit more direct with the man, but once she was Saladin was nice enough to comply. The man released her, set a couch on fire, and then apologized for touching her so much. The girl couldn’t help but smile back at him once more. At least big old Sal here wasn’t a dick, and now she knew it. “It’s fine.” She replied. So long as he kept his word on that Sera was perfectly fine with letting it go. The solaris wasn’t one to hold grudges, if he meant no harm and kept his word then why couldn’t she let it go? “Cool little fire trick.” She commented as they moved over to sit by the fire. That was something else she learned about her new found friend, he had fire powers just like her. “You don’t happen to be a Solaris right?” she couldn’t help but ask. He didn’t look like a Solaris to her. While she had never known her birth parents to learn about her kind she did know a little bit about them. Seraphina had no idea if all of her kind looked albino like her, but
Solari typically had red, orange, or even yellow eyes. Sal did not.

The chances were that he was something else, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility that Saladin was the same species as her. Wouldn’t that be something if he was? It would be the first time in a long time since she ever met another one of her kind. It didn’t really bother her not being around her own people, but she couldn’t deny the small part of her that secretly wished that he was the same as her. After asking him what he was again, she also asked him what he was doing around this part of the city. That question at least she got an answer to. Someone stole from him and he was trying to find the guy that was responsible for it eh? Well that was an interesting development. “Well coming here isn’t a bad start I suppose.” She said as she took a spoonful of stew into her mouth. “There is no shortage of thieves in the city, and most of the lower key guys live here. Trust me, I know.” because I am one she didn’t say that last part, for all she knew she might’ve stolen the ring from him. Sera didn’t recognize Sal from anywhere but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“I doubt that you are gonna find him like this. The city is too big, and what kind of guy that stole your ring though. Did you happen to see the guy that took it? What did it look like?” Before she could get an answer out of him he asked her how old she was. Seraphina took another spoonful of stew as she mulled that question over. It wasn’t the easiest question to answer, not because of embarrassment but because of her sense of time. “I’m…not sure.” She replied finally. “Time has a habit of just blurring for me…I guess I am around fifty or so.” Sera shrugged. “I am one of those supernatural kids that age at a slower rate than humans. My age makes me sound like an old geezer but amongst my own kind I am still just a kid. You know what I am saying?”

[Deleted]

"Solaris?" Ugo rolled the word around as if trying to fully understand it's meaning. He looked down for a moment, lost in thought before looking back up at her.
He sat on the floor cross legged and smiled at her warmly.

"That is no name by which I have ever been called. As you are obviously not human perhaps Saladin can trust you..."

Ugo slurped down more stew as he sat, warming himself by the fire. Ugo smiled at his new companion as she told him the inner workings of this den of thieves. Perhaps she would help him find his beloved ring before it was too late and someone figured out how to use it to again enslave him.

"Saladin is Djinn, in fact Saladin is not my name. Ugo is name and Ugo is many thousand human years old. Ugo's ring was stolen from him... It is Ugo's home, very important Ugo get it back."

He looked angry as he spoke of his lost ring, a bit scared as well. Ugo dreaded the thought of another couple hundred years imprisoned in that ring. He would do whatever needed to be done to make sure no human hand touched it ever again.

"Ring is crafted from pure gold in the mines of Solomon. Set in ring is large Sapphire called the eye of Arabia. Is actually very hard to miss..."

Ugo smiled and looked at her again glancing up and down her form. If this one was not human it meant she had power, power which might be useful in his hunt for the eye of Arabia. Mischief flicked across his face as he schemed in his head imagining the ring on his own finger for once.

"Will you help Ugo find what is his? Will you find the Eye of Arabia?"