One book.

Most people here coulden't help but gather up piles of their fave. gerne of storys and just read untill they felt as if they would keel over and their head would explode.
But this boy had only one book.

He sat at a small table tuck neatly in a space there three poorly placed book cases made a square-like shape from areial view.
Speaking of areial, the book he was reading was about ainchent ways to harness the wind so you could control it.

So here this boy, named Damian, sat at his little table, in this little corner of the book store, killing time untill he could walk acrost the street back home and go to bed. Only to wake up and most likely repeat the same process the next day.

Who said all Innish had to live exciting lives?

.........Wisp did.

Rattle-Rattle-Rattle...
Damian blinked and raised an eyebrow, then looked up to see the result of the noise. He didnt see anything...
Untill a book case fell over revealing a slightly excausted wisp.

"Wisp!" He yelped, knowing he was so gonna get in trouble from the air sprite's playing.

It seemed wisp had mis-calculated how much trouble she was going to cause, because that one fallen book case, hit another, and that book case hit another.. and another... and another..... creating a lovely domino effect through out the room.
Wisp looked nervously to a rather unpleased Damian.

"Eheh? Timber?"

Shad was scanning through a book case for a new book. Any book, any genra with an interesting title. Something Innish, perhaps. He was also looking for the mundane created books about a place called Xanth, which was some made up fantasy place that some Unnish person wrote about to please other Unnish people into thinking there was Magic. In fact, his Uninitiate ideas of the Magic world had gotten people involved in thinking there might have been magic, finding some, and becoming Initiate themselves. Too bad he never became Innish.

Scan scan scan... Pause, read over back of book, put it back, scan... And OH GOD! The bookcase very well could have killed the boy. Very close to it. He just had one advantage over everyone else that saved him from being crushed: wings. Yes, two made to size Kestrel wings, which, if he felt the mood for it, could fly with. And since he could fly UP with them, he certainly could fly BACK with them, which is what saved him from being crushed. And thank god the owner was Innish, or he might have had a heart attack right there, being so old and all. It wasn't often that some one saw wings on a human. Well, technically that was close to never. Anyway, there lies Shad on the floor, wings exposed from their hiding place under his cloak, and a fearful look in his eyes. The boy over by the table... Hope he wasn't Unnish a second ago... Wait... It's Damian. And, if there is Damian, then Wisp is around here somewhere...

"Ouch... Gee, Damian, please tell me that Wisp did that and a 7.0 earthquake didn't just fly through here..."

He stood up, folded his wings behind him, and covered them again with his cloak. The owner was staring. Innish or Unnish, he had never guessed Shad had wings. And Shad was here a lot.

"She did..." Damian sighed, slightly ashamed at his unability to keep wisp from causing trouble.

Well, at least it wasnt REALLY his falt, but still, when wisp was around it was sometimes like having a un-killable paracet of some sort.

Damian looked around and spotted the alarmed owner.

"Maybe... We should get out of the way, Shad."

(( Blar. *flop* ))

Shad sighed, and looked blankly through the air. He could not see Wisp, or hear her, and was wanting to glare at her. She almost killed him... Or almost broke all his bones, whichever the bookcase decided. He sighed, and started to righten the old, heavy, and very empty bookcase. Lucky for everyone, the sides that had fallen facing up still had all their books intact. Better news: Some of the shelves were so jammed with books that they all held in when the bookcases fell. Then again, about a thousand books lay scattered on the floor. Shad pushed the book case back up, stabalizing it as it rocked some, and then started to cram books back onto shelves.

"We might as well help..."

The owner had put the closed sign up, and was now also cleaning the books off the floor near Shad. Shad took the opertunity to leave that area and go stand next to Damian, grinning madly.

"You should get her on a leash. Either that, or put her in a jar. Best yet, get someone to disipline her."

He was waiting for Wisp to come down and blow at him or something. Do your worst, Wisp!

Blow at him? Oh no, she was going to do much more than just blow at him.

"Why you little...!" She fumed before shooting straight down Shad's throat, and stayed there, blocking the wind pipe.

Damian saw this, of cource, and frouned and rubbed his forhead.

He was unable to control her, so he really wasnt must assitance. It's not like he knew CPR, or whatever, adn she wasnt going to stay in long enough to kill him, anyway...

(( *glares at how bad that turned out*))

Shad was smirking one minute, and silent and pale-stricken the next. The THING lodged itself into his throat and he could not breath. No. Air. No. Breath. And the whole scene was calm. Too calm. Like, as if Shad was unconscious while standing. But he wasn't. He blinked. And then all hell broke loose.

Shad knew a bit of CPR, and obviously that was going to be last resort. Sure, a nice and pretty girl his age, but not DAMIAN. Shad flung a fist into his chest, jolting his body into a sputtering cough. She was still there. He could almost FEEL he laughing at him. He'd try something else. He faced his back to the wall, and jumped into the air. Jumped, and with one powerful blast of his wings, flung himself painfully into the wall.

And he could breathe...

And his wings hurt. He crushed them with his blow. Wings are delicate things, and when 110 pounds of body colides with ten pounts of wing, five pounds each, the results are not painless. And a wince, letting himself fall to the floor and wince in pain. Pain over life... Think of it this way...

"Ahh... Ahhh.... That hurt... Bad..."

"...I could tell.." Damian uttered moving so he could kneel over the injured bird-boy. He wasn't excauly sure what to do, he'd never witnessed some one do that before. Or watch Wisp do that to someone else before...

Wisp was off somewhere near Damian's left sholder felling very cocky at the moment.
"Hah! He deserved every bit! That's what he gets for insulting me!" She bragged, only to be swatted at by Damian.

"Wisp!"

Shad looked up to where Damian swatted, and glared. He seemed to have a knack for picking out friends with problems, and then when he wants to be anti-socal, he pisses off the wrong people. There was Liz with Pazuzu. And Pazuzu wants to kill him. Then there is Damian with Wisp. And Wisp has two counts of attempted murder on her card right now. The bookcase was back enough. Then, as for him pissing off gods, there was Di and Grace. He didn't like Di, and Grace made him go smooch the guy. So now he had Di, who hated him because he got his arse kicked by Matti, and Grace, who hated him cause he hated her, and there was Tympan also, who he made cry. Yippee for him! Three of the four gods he knows hate him. The other one he met for all of five minutes. Great track record, Shad.

Shad looked at the owner, who had cleaned up the first shelf and started the next. Maybe he didn't need help.

"Er... Damian, you wanna go?"

"..Yeah." Was Damian responce as he stood and offered to help Shad up. It was that time Damian took real notice at how different in hight Shad was from him, it was kind of intresting, he might bring it up later...

Damian could fell wisp cling to the upper sholder area of his clothing, and could see her scouling from the corner of his eye. Oh well, that was wisp for you.

Shad took his hand and was pulled up easily, and then he looked up at Damian. He didn't notice the height thing, because he was used to being smaller than almost everyone. What he did notice was the fabric bunch up on Damians shoulder, where he had swatted to rid himself of Wisp. Though Shad couldn't see her, he took an educated guess and swatted at her as well. Then, while smiling, he quickly made his way out of the store.

"Ooooooh! OOOOHH!" wisp shouted angerly, but still clung to Damian's clothing, for lack of inspration on another way to punish the bird-boy.

Damian decided to icnore the tension that was ovously building between Shad and Wisp, so just hurried after Shad, pretending not to her the air sprites complains.

Shad stepped out onto the street, and looked down it. Kinda crouded, which could mean problems. Problems cause Wisp was a trouble maker and cause he had wings that could be felt through his cloak. A sigh. And where to go.

"Where should we go...? It's kinda crouded, and I am not to keen on having someone bump into me and scream something about wings to the world."

He left out the part about his feelings of Wisp creating problems. He rather liked Damian's company, and if having to put up with Wisp was part of the friend package, then he'd put up with her. Maybe even be nice to her... That was a thought. Two murder attempts in one day.

Damian gazed in the direction of his house for a second. He could just hang out with Shad at home but it was kind of a mess at the moment... Not to mention his grandmother wasnt excatuly what you would call normal...

"...I guess we can go to my house." He simply said, shoving his hands into his pockets and taking a glance to make sure that wisp was still clinging to his sholder, which she was.

Shad cringed. That would involve a lot of walking... The residential district was across the city. But he wouldn't be rude.

"Sounds good. Where is it?"

Shad had already started down the street he knew led back the the residential area, walking slowly, but walking away none the less.

Damian turned his head in the totally opposite direction of what shad was starting to walk in.

"Just down the street a little." He claimed and begain strolling in the direction he was looking in.

"Haha, what an idot..."

"Wisp!"

Shad looked onward, and heard Damians footsteps and voice grow muffled with distance. He spun around, and flushed red. Ooops. Maybe it be best if he didn't assume so much... He quickly jogged after Damian, catching up, and walking beside him. He wished he could hear Wisp... He felt awfully onesided. Mayeb he'd go back to the bookstore later and pick up a crazy persons account of Air Sprites. The crazier they are, the more likely it'll be true.

"You live over here...? The residential district is back that way... I figured..."

He didn't bother explaining the rest.

He didnt see offended.

"It's okay. ...I live with my grammal on the floor above her store, not the most normal housing, I know."

wisp snuffed "It's better than what he probbly lives in."

"Wisp, shush, that's not nice!" Damian snapped at the air sprite before stopping at the door of a small, but tall building. On the glass windows were some christmas painting-like things which have yet been removed, and was beginning to chip at certant places.

Damian opened the door and went inside, not at all fazed by the ever present blast of the smell of the insents which alined the room's walls on shelves.

His comment hadn't ment to be offending. It was just what he first thought. But what Wisp had said may have been rude, but it was truth. Shad didn't have a house. No bed, no blankets, no fridge, no toilet, no electric lighting and heating... None. The only reason he was still alive was because he could become a kestrel, sleep in the trees, eat small rodents, and use his feathers to keep him warm. Other than that, he had no chance in the city.

The insence hit him at what felt like gale sized winds. He didn't make a face, but he really wanted to. No unpleasant, just distastfully strong. The room had the fan on, which could have been to keep the insence diluted, but really was for Wisp. Shad didn't know this. He gazed about at the trinkets a bit, then let the door close behind him.

"Cool shop... What do you sell?"

"Mostly insences," Damian claimed, making a little wave to his grandmother who was staitioned at the desk as he started to go to the stairs. He was expecting Shad to fallow.
"...But other things find their way in here aswell. Just, whatever." He untied his scarf and let it drape over the end of the stair's railing before taking a glance back at Shad to make sure he was fallowing.

Shad did follow Damian, looking over his grandmother with a polite smile, disappearing up the stairwell. He was a bit warm, but he said nothing. The grandmother might be Unnish. Actually, Shad figured he should bring it up now, while she wasn't within earshot be anything human.

"Is she... Innish or Unnish...?"

He looked back behind him, figureing she might have come right up behind him as he whispered that to Damian. Thankfully, no one was there.

"Innish..." Acutly Damian wasnt excatuly sure, but his excotic-appearing grandmother never did ask any questions about the chrious behavor he gave put sometimes. She was a rather strange woman to say the least...

after a small amout of trugging about upstairs damian oepned the door which lead to his room.

It wasn't that exciting a room, a computer tucked into one corner, a bed acrost from it. Tehre was also a shelf and a dresser or two. pens and other writting tools littered acrost the room in a caotic fasion, aswell as a handfull of wadded up papers which has missed the overflowing trashcan.

".....I forgot my room was messy.." Damian mumbled shamefully to himself as he steped in and out of the way for Shad to enter aswell.

Shad smiled, and nodded. He still wouldn't take off his cloak here. The bell of the shop door jingled, and they didn't need to see a winged boy. He followed Damian, and scoffed.

"Dirty? This looks positivly spottless..."

He didn't continue. He realized a moment too late that he shouldn't really bring up other peoples lives when they weren't consenting to that. Especially Liz. He did enter, and shut the door gently behind him. Then he shed his cloak, and smiled. Damian had never seen him without the cloak off. Never seen his wings for what they really were. And so he showed them off in a not flaunting way, very subtly, by streatching. Streaching them out their whole eight foot span.

Damian would of dissagreed with shads opion on how clean his room is, but was quickly distracted by shad's showing of wings.

As pointed out eariler, damian hasnt seen shad wings untill now, and the expresion of awed-amasement proved so.

"Okay.. gotta admit.. that's pretty cool... "

((ARG. short...))

Shad smiled, revealing some teeth. He liked seeing peoples expression when he showed them his wings. No one responded badly, 'cept maybe a demon he knows. He folded his wings over his back so he looked slightly more human. From the front, only a small amount of wings could be seen, and at a quick glance you might be able to think he was just a normal kid. From every other angle, they were entirely visible, thus why he had the cloak.

"So... What do you wanna do?"

"Hm..." Damian muttered as he tried to think of something to do. He srugged and went over to his bed.
"...Not sure." He claimed sitting on in, only to result in a loud CRACK. "Oh.. hell!" He jumped up and pulled off one of the clumbsly spreaded covers to reviled a clipboard, now snapped in two.

"That's the third one this month..." He grumbled agatated to himself as the picked up the clipboard and carefuly removed the large clutter of paper from it.

Shad cringed at the crack of the clipboard. Loud noise. Loud break. Third one that month? That was a lot. Either Damian had lots of use for a clipboard or was careless with where he put it down. Maybe both.

"Ack... D'ya want me to go throw that out while you pick up the papers?"

Lots of papers. Shad eyed the door then turned back to Damian.

Actuly it was both.

"Yeah, thanks." Damian said to Shad as he set down the gathered papers on his bed, and handed shad the clipboard. The thick load of papers idmedaly fell out of it's stack into a slope.

"...If you don't mind, we can go shopping for a new clipboard."
Ah, at least it was a sugestion.

Shad nodded, and took the clipboard.

"Sure. Maybe the art supply store? I need to get a box of crayons or something like that anyway..."

He smiled, and opened the door. No one in his sight. He quickly darted out, and started seatching for the garbage bin, avoiding going near the stairs. Anyone walking by could see him from there.

If there was on thing other than insens that was plentyful in the building, it was trash cans. Most likely becuase of the same reason damian's own miniture can was overflowing with wads of paper.

There was a trash can beside the stairway.

Shad looked under the sink, in the cabinets... All over. He probally made a good amount of noise too. But no trashcan. He glanced over to the stairway to see if anyone was coming... No. But the trashcan. Shad sighed. Just his luck.

He snuck over to the stairway, and threw the pieces, one by one into the trash. The first piece, the one bottom, sailed in, and thuded to the bottom. The trashcan wobbled, but did not fall. Shad followed in suit with the second, which didn't go too smoothly. It his the side, and clanged against the floor. The trashcan tipped over, and fell down the stairs. Someone in the shop looked up. Must have been ghosts. Shad was already back in Damian's room looking throuoghly embarresed and putting the cloak on so he could go fix the trash situation... Later. He needed to get the red outta his cheeks first.

"Er... I threw it away!"

Guilty smile.

Damian Looked to Shad a raised an eyebrow at him.

He had gathered up all the papers that had fallen from the broken clipboard, put them in order, and was putting a paper clip through all the paper's upper left hole punch when he had heard the sound of crashign metal, and seen shad scram in.

Words were not needed, damian's expression at shad did quite well to express what he was thinking.

Shad giggled, and explained why there was a crash.

"You positioned the trash can RIGHT by the staircase... You KNOW I can't be seen without this, so I threw the pieces, and... Well, the second one knocked the trashcan down the stairs. Don't worry... I'll go clean it up."

He tugged the cloak over his head and disppeared out of the room, and down the stairs. He picked up the scattered paper balls and piece of clipboard that had fallen out, and put them back in the can, not making eye contact with the Grandmother or the shop checker-outter.

Grandmal wsnt at all fazed by the many noises, or shad coming back down to fix everything. The customer on the other had was more than alarmed, but was prideful enough to not freak out and try to icnroe shad.

((blar... ><;))

Shad picked everything up, and urned, carrying the bin, up the stairs with him. He threw away what pieces had spilled on and on top of the stairs, and set it down. Instead of venturing back into Damian's room, he decided to take a look around. Something to do.

It wasnt that exciting a house, though. beside the door to Damian's room was the door to the large storage closet, which consist of the same stuff that was being sold down stairs, only packed in large boxes.

Acrost from that on the other side of the little hall was the kitchen. Beside that was the grandmother's room, and at the end of the hall was the bathroom and laundry room connected into one.

There was no dinning room or receration room to be found.

Damian was started to get bored and a little bit agatated.
What was taking shad so long?
He picked himself up from where he had sat after shad had gone to clean up his mess and motioend to wisp, who was sitting on one of the bed post.

"About time! ..Are we leaving bird-boy behind?"

"No wisp, we're not..." Damian responded exciting his room. Seeing shad exploring the hall he motioned and shouted to him. "Hey, Shad! ..Lets go!" Then he went down the stairs, grabbed his scarf, and begain to exit the building wile tieing the black-grey scarf around his neck, expecting shad to fallow.

Shad did, indeed, follow Damian down the stairs. He did not need to grab anything from the coatrack, for his 'coat' was there as protection, not as comfort. He walked past the customer that was still mucking about in the shop, and smirked. They were looking over some odd contraption that obviously was not ment for what they were doing with it, because it was not working. An old fountain pen. And it shot ink all over on of her hands. Shad supressed his giggles till he was out of the store, and by then it was no longer funny.

"Ummm... Let's see... An art store'd have a clipboard. There's one that way."

Shad poined to their left, and started walking, slowly for he did not want to lose Damian. The crowds that had been here earlier were almost completely gone.

He noded and jojed a small bit to catch up to shad, now finished tieing his scarf.
"alright..." He muttered to himself, slipping his hands into his pockets, feeling to count the money he had on him.

Two bills and a hand full of coins... The bills possably being 5s.
Oh well, he he dosent have enough money he can look around and come back to the store later with money.

Shad looked back up to his silent friend. Maybe a talking subject was in order?

"So... When did you meet Wisp?"

He turned to watch ahead of him again, avoiding the few people and other random obsticles as he needed.

"And when did you learn about all magic on a wider scale?"

No one was near enough to hear that. Shad made sure of it.

"... When I first moved here. She was pretty much haunting my gramal's store." Damian replied, looking at shad." Wisp was the one that explaned most of what I know."

"I did not HAUNT the store!"

After a second more of walking, he recalled something. "well.. There's a woman I met that told me a bit aswell..."

((garf...))

Shad nodded, smiling amusedly. Haunting the store... That seemed Wisp like. Then again, what must it be like being a little air sprite that no one can hear or see? Easy... Lonely. Shad nodded, but looked puzzled back to Damian.

"Some girl just came and told you stuff?"

He looked a bit worried, too. Shad didn't like the idea of someone giving away the secret of magic to everyone.