"Ridder, your cooking sucks." Mab grumbled, taking a bite of the actually delicious food. It was six in the morning, Mab was not a morning person by any means. "Gee, you are so generous with your compliments." Ridder said, he had learned not to be wounded by Mab's remarks. He figured it just meant that she really did care, but didn't want to admit it.
"What is the purpose of waking up so early?" She moaned, washing her bowl in the wash basin and putting it on the table.
"You said we had to meet somebody at eight."
"It was four in the morning when I told you that. You should know better than to listen to me at that hour. Especially when I have been drinking juice, you know how loopy I get on the juice." Mab complained, throwing herself into the couch.
"You are such a drama queen. Just go back to bed!" Ridder argued, kneeling at the coffee table in front of the couch Mab had flopped onto.
"I hate you, you know that." Mab said, covering her face with her hands.
"Nah, you like me. " Ridder said with a smirk, placing his hands on the table and closing his eyes. A black circle in the table opened up, revealing a hazel eye peering at them. Ridder waved his hand, and the image rippled. "Wrong number." He joked, looking at Mab, hoping for a reaction.
She smiled beneath her hands so he couldn't see, "just find the guy so I can get on with my day."
Ridder summoned the person in question again, but the hazel eye appeared again. "Who, are you?" A smokey female voice asked, the eye blinked and then a big hand with dark skin waved in front of it. "Jay! Don't be rude, you are too close to the audiculi. "
Ridder chuckled, watching the image come into focus.
Mab sat up, staring in curiosity. "What in the world?!"
"I apologize, Jay was being rude." A tall, dark skinned man said, giving the bird on his shoulder a critical glare.
"You must be Kenneth, I am Ridder, and Mab is here with me. Who was the woman speaking earlier?" Ridder said, standing up and pacing while he watched their image. "Me! Jayleen. " the bird hissed in the same voice, her feathers flattening in annoyance.
"Let me guess," Mab said, leaning over the table. "The bird is actually a human, but something happened and now her soul in housed in the bird."
Kenneth looked at Jayleen, and Jayleen looked at him. "Exactly that..."
"Before you go on telling your tragic story, show me that you can use the magic, or I will find you both. And then kill you. "
The giant bird walked down Kenneth's arm, while he stepped out of the picture. The bird closed her eyes and quickly spread her wings, blackness consuming the image and starting to penetrate into the room.
Ridder's heart thudded in his chest, pressing against his ribs painfully.
Sweat began to bead on his brow and he felt very dizzy.
Mab watched calmly from the understaffed couch, she couldn't help but be somewhat amused by his weakness to fear magic.
Ridder leaned against the wall, panting and shivering, Mab observed him. This bird was powerful, she liked that.
Ridder collapsed, unconscious. After a bit longer Mab cleared her throat and stood, coming into the picture again.
"You have convinced me. " she said, the bird lowered her wings, fluffing up. "We get to join you?"
"I said you have convinced me. Not your... Friend." Mab said firmly, watching the dark skinned man come into the picture. "I cannot do magic... I-I care for Jayleen, keep her safe and fed."
"Is it important that he is present?" Mab said incredulously, switching her attention to Jayleen. "Yes. I can't do much without him."
Mab rolled her eyes, "welcome, to my society." She cupped her hands around her mouth and took a deep breath, exhaling a cloud of cold purple dust, that glittered in the dull light.
