Joscelin's eyes rounded out as he got up and started to walk away. She jumped up and swiftly turned around.

"Hey!" She flung out her hand at his back, claws starting to show through. "You could at least give me something i could use to figure out my father! Not some riddled words that an outcast has no way to figure out."

Joscelin's face started to get longer, her muzzle starting to show. Her panic at losing his help overwhelmed her for a moment. She ran in front of him and hissed, "Good lord I'm practically a newborn compared to you! How am i to do this with nothing and no knowledge? You at least could point me towards a demon that could mentor me as how to be a demon. Please? I will pay a reasonable price for it."

She stared hopefully at him, hands hidden behind her back, lips pulled over her teeth. She wanted to appear a little submissive. Joscelin badly wanted, no she needed, to know what she was...

"Good Lord.." Jeremiah mutter. Everything was moving so damn fast. So, the demon was declining and Joscelin was busting her ass to get Horse's attention again. Golden eyebrows furrowed  pretty mouth pouted. 'Well, so much for an adventure,' he thought gloomily.

Though he was seated he saw everything and wished for a moment that Joscelin would shut up. Jere Bear had dealt with demons before... He knew when to shut up and stop pleading for favors. His thought seemed to have reached her, she seemed a little settled back. Curios to see what would happen next, he stood casually and walked to the bar, returning his glass and the other bottles and glasses that had been left there.

He had just caught the last part of Joscelin's snarling plea. Hmm.. 'I don't think that will go over well with Horse,' he was thinking to himself again. Again, as casual as could be, he walked up behind the little lost halfer and wrapped his arms around her tiny waist. He looked at Horse, his green eyes thoughtful. Turning his head to Joscelin's he whispered in her ear, "Calm down, if he's not up to the challenge, let him go. Their are other demons out there that may be more willing to help." He looked again to the demons face, wondering if he would take that bait.

He wasn't really taunting him, just trying to help. He saw a flash in his third eye, the eyes in face clouded over and he clung to the form in his arms. Horse was probably a hitter, seeing the rage in his mind's eye was terrifying. He would have his payment in flesh? This vision was clouded. "Aww.. Shit.." he whispered and lowered his forehead to Joscelin's shoulder.

Horse stopped at the door. Slowly, deliberately, he turned around. He listened as Joscelin compounded her problem by ignoring the information he had given her; simply because she did not have the capacity to fathom the world of demons. He listened as Jeremiah tried to placate his friend with words that only made things worse. He listened, but he felt no anger. He barely felt anything at all.

The changeling had become so upset that she’d forgotten where she was – in a human bar – and was allowing herself to change. Horse glanced left and right, scanning the room. A tall man stood glaring at him, disturbed by what seemed like a woman being mistreated by a rather large man. Horse glared at him for a moment until the tall man sat back down. He returned his full attention to Joscelin.

“You are not a good listener,” he said in a deep voice. “Perhaps we should step outside where you won’t be ... distracted. Bring your friend,” Horse said. Again, he turned back to the door and calmly exited the bar.

Joscelin felt very ashamed of herself. She was ashamed of not being able to hold herself better in front of an elder.

"I'm sorry. You are right." She took a deep breathe and slowly released it. She brought her hand up and rested it on Jeremiah's arm. "Yes i guess it would be best to go outside. Considering my outburst." Her face was blushed nicely.

She turned around slowly and headed out the door. Once out, she turned right and walked around the side of the building. Trailing with Jeremiah's hand in hers. Trying to calm herself down as she went.

She stopped half-way down the side alley, and turned around smiled sadly at Jeremiah, then looked over his shoulder towards Horse.

Not that he had a choice, Jeremiah followed. The six foot five inch, muscular man was scared shitless. He had long ago realized that sized doesn't mean a thing. Actually, it's never meant a thing, especially when it came to demons.

Joscelin's tiny hand in his didn't do much for his nerves. When she turned and the saw the sadness on his face, Jere backed away. 'God.. What is going on here..' He wondered and slowly backed against the opposite alley wall. His eyes, of their own accord, looked back at the demon. Jeremiah was poorly masking the inner panic he was feeling.

He wanted to help Joscelin, really, but would that cost him his own skin? Good Lord. He liked the girl, woman, changeling, halfer.. Whatever she was, he was extremely drawn to her. She was his constant damsel in distress.

He... The tragic hero.

Horse stood taking in the small amount of city light that glowed from above the alley and through the hanging wires and tenement clotheslines. Behind him were Joscelin and Jeremiah – a seemingly unlikely pair widely differing in size and countenances. From a distance came the sound of water dribbling down a storm drain. It was a scene that could have been visualized by Jack Vance, directed by Tim Burton with The Rock as Horse. He wouldn’t have liked that description.

He shuttered slightly. “Excuse me a moment.”

In a quick yet gradual transformation, Horse grew in height by over a foot, his face elongating into a somewhat horsey yet altogether demonic mask. He stretched his arms out at the sides as though in an awakening stretch terminating in hands with long and thick beryl talons. Thick, black wings punched through the fabric of his long coat and reached out 5 or 6 feet on either side of him. They quivered a bit and made the sound of a hang glider in the wind. A look of relief emerged on his face.

Suddenly, that look turned quizzical. He reached under his left armpit and pinched out a small white mouse between two talons. He held it to his face, glaring into its beady red eyes, and then held it out before him. Horse dropped it to the street and watched it scurry away.

“I am besotted by irritating inconveniences,” he said. It was all a part of his penance. Pulling his wings back toward his body, he turned and took a few steps toward the duo.

“If you want me to help you then you’ll have to trust me,” he said – his voice deep and unavoidably menacing.

Joscelin saw Jeremiah's eyes fill with fear and watched him back up to the side wall. She understood his fear. Understood it well. Horse was a full demon that she just kinda mouthed off to. She was half demon, but Jeremiah was full human. He stood no chance at all.

His transformation awed her. Her little mouth hung open, and her yellow eyes were wide... He looked amazing as a demon. She took a deep breathe and let it out slowly, eyes glued to Horse and the little mouse he just threw.

She took another deep breathe and fur sprouted from her skin, spots and stripes everwhere. A 5 foot tail grew out to wrap around her own waist. Lavender wings coming out to to wrap around herself as she was female and naked, granted covered in fur, but naked none-the-less.

She kept her eyes lowered to the floor, and her arms wrapped around herself, for fear that he would hate the way she was. A half-breed. After a few minutes she tentatively looked up at Horse, fear and defiance in her eyes.

"Trust you? As in complete and utter trust?" She thought hard for a few minutes. It would go against everything she had come to learn. Every other demon wanted to kill her. If not that, torture her some for sport. This was not easy, "I think i can do that... but only if you swear YOU wont plan to, or try to, kill me." She thrust out her hand for the universal "signing" of a verbal contract.

Horse watched her – how she transformed and how she protected herself. Nakedness meant nothing to him like she seemed to think it did. And yet there was something else. Something with fear of being rejected burned deep within her. Whatever it seemed, Horse was not without mercy.

“My daughter is a half breed,” he said as though to himself. What he meant by that was that Joscelin was wrong in her assumptions. He had no issue against her.

He eventually tapped a balled fist on hers. No handshake.

“I trust no one until they have proved themselves,” he said. “I expect nothing more from you. Except ... trust for 30 seconds. After that,” he shrugged. “That’s your problem – or probably mine.”

He turned to Jeremiah.

“Want to see something really amazing? If not, then leave now. Otherwise, prepare yourself for a freaky holiday.”

Still totally awed by the beautiful and dangerous creatures before him, Jeremiah nodded. "Of course I'm coming, I'm not leaving Joscelin," he said wrapping an arm around the top of her shoulders, carefully avoiding her wings. He looked down at her, trying so hard to mask the fear he was feeling.

He grinned slowly, never thinking in a million years that he would spending an evening with two demons. Well, one and a half demons? 'Good Lord, Jere!' he chided himself. He looked at Horse and nodded, as if to say, "Let's go."

Freaky holiday sounded like fun, well to him anyway. 'What am I getting myself into?' he thought, but he didn't care.

He wasn't leaving her.

At the declaration that his daughter is half-bred her yellow eyes grew big. 'Perhaps he is not like the others...' She thought about her newest friend. He then hit her with his fist instead of shaking her hand. Fine with her, everyone had their differences.

"You want to earn my trust? What a novelty to me. At least now I don't have to feel bad about wondering about your motives in everything. But now i must also watch out for myself now. We shall see." Joscelin felt better with what he said.

Jeremiah was a warm presence wrapped around her shoulders. His words were sweet and rang of loyalty. She turned her yellow eyes up to his lovely eyes. "You are quite sweet i hope you know. Hopefully one day it doesn't get you killed..."

She looked back at Horse, "I'm ready for this lovely holiday... Especially with you as our guide. Thank you again Horse." She said no more on the subject, for no more was needed.

Nodding his head once, Horse reached into a pouch under his right wing. From it he produced a small gem that emitted a pale blue glow at its center. He twisted it carefully between two fingers until the glow increased in brightness. Stepping to Jeremiah, he said “Your body is not compatible with where we are going. You need to swallow this.” Horse brought the gem to Jeremiah’s mouth.

“It will protect you. This is your first test of trust.” Horse then pressed it between Jeremiah’s lips. After that, it was up to Jeremiah to swallow. If he didn’t, well, it was going to be a short and painful trip for him.

“Flight 666, destination Scalcathia, leaving from Station Earth in 5 seconds,” Horse said with humorous drama, and then closely wrapped his mighty wings around Joscelin and Jeremiah. A whirlwind sprang up from his feet, began spinning wildly around them - filled with the most incongruous violet butterflies. Horse sighed heavily and shook his head in disgust.

Inexplicably (to anyone who did not know him well) he said, “One of these days I’m going to find that witch and ...”

Before his sentence was finished the world around them swirled and swayed and then – suddenly – disappeared. Instantly, they were standing on a deep ledge perched on the side of a mile-high mountain of yellow and burnt orange; marbled with ebony veins. The air was hot, sulfuric and very dry. Far below them were the tall spires of the City of Scalcathia rising above a blanket of steamy clouds; above them – only the ebony of emptiness.

“... and turn her insides out,” he finished.

He opened his wings from around the pair and presented the spires of Scalcathia to them with a dramatic swing of his arm. “Welcome to my exclusive little corner of Hell,” he said.

[OOC:  Think I could join in?]

Jeremiah swallowed the gem and a small smile appeared on his face. He was wondering if he was glowing through his muscles and whatnot, but now was hardly the time to think of such silliness. Flight attendant much, Jere had to laugh at that, too funny not to. Whoa... He thought. Butterflies. He frowned a little, thinking of Pyro, wondering how that crazy ass was doing.

The arm around Joscelin tighten, his body instantly tensing under the stress of his new environment.

"Holy shit," he whispered and let out a soft whistle. His green eyes were opened way too wide, his mouth slightly gaping. His body was trembling, even with Horse's magical gem, his body knew he wasn't supposed to here. Trying to keep his quaking under control, he turned to Horse and asked, "Where to now, sir?"

Joscelin stared with curiosity as Horse's hand disappeared under his right wing. When it returned, he held a slightly glowing stone, twisting his fingers it glowed even brighter. He then pressed it to Jeremiah's lips. She looked into Jeremiah's eyes before he swallowed it down. She could have swore she watched it glow all the way down. That's when his words hit her.

"Where we are going? Where are we going?" She said aloud. "Scalcathia?..." She didn't have time to finish the rest of her thought for she was swept up in a flurry of beautiful butterflies. "Wha...?"

A dizzy sensation took her over as her feet touched down on foreign ground. Spires stretched for the neverending ceiling, clouds wrapped around the spires seductively. Joscelin's wings itched to stretch out and soar.

"Wow..." She turned towards Horse, "This place is beautiful... look at it! Mmmm...." Joscelin inhaled deeply. "Smell it!"She turned towards the face of the ledge they were on and placed her hands on the rock face, and turned toward Horse and Jeremiah with a look of wonder on her furred face. "It even feels different! Horse? Where is this place?"

Her tail started to twitch excitedly. Her furred ears turning every which way trying to get every little sound they can. She then crept over to the edge of the ledge and got down on her knees to peer over the edge.

Horse pointed downward toward the peaks of the spires poking above the cloudy steam below. “Down there,” he said to Jeremiah. He then swung around and took a step toward Joscelin.

“One thing is for sure, Joss-lin, we ain’t in Kansas anymore. We’re not above it or below it, actually. We’re – somewhere else. Some call it Hell. I call it Home, just as some part of you does, too.”

He stood silent and thinking for a moment before returning to the very edge of the ledge. He set his fists on his hips, standing in a slight wind that teased his leathery wings like some twisted sort of caped Superman. They weren’t there to sightsee, and yet Horse couldn’t let pass the opportunity to take in the view. His thoughts were drifting back over past events, loves and losses, joys and disappointments. They were all a part of the grand and sweet bouquet that was the framework of his psyche. For a brief moment, Horse felt sorrow and regret. A brief moment. There was no advantage in lingering too long on things that could not be changed – or relived.

“Scalcathia,” Horse said, belatedly answering Joscelin’s question. “Think of it as the capital city of the highest region of Hell, or as the castle and battlements of some great kingdom in some wondrous and imaginary medieval land. An ugly fairytale world – or a stunningly beautiful nightmare.” Horse sighed. “Ruled by a mad King who cannot accept his responsibilities and would rather travel in a foreign land on quests for which he was not created – and yet cannot ignore.”

His philosophical moment quickly passed, and his countenance turned from thoughtful to humorous.

“Hall of Records!” he said pointing a finger upward, a grin brightening his face. “In search of Joss-lin’s father.” He took hold of Jeremiah’s waist and handled him like a log. “Into the wind, Joss-lin. Follow me!”

Horse leaned forward, spread his wings wide and then fell into the Scalcathian sky.