Mortimer sat on the island. Enraptured by his sleep. All was quite, calm and endearing... and then of course there was the assassin who was coming to kill him any second now! ...but that could wait until after he finished his nap. No sense worrying in something you can't stop... well it's not that he couldn't stop it he just didn't feel like stopping it. Today he just wanted to sleep. Deep peaceful, soon to be awakened by an assassin sleep.

Najiko grinned as she snuck up on the man, bone knife in hand... This was too easy. She didn't care why her employer wanted this guy dead, he probably deserved it and she needed the money. And so she put the bone knife up to his neck, wanting to make it more painful than a death in his sleep. She'd gotten in here through the window, and after slitting his neck she planned to make it back out the same way.

"It's not nice to hold knives to other peoples throats you know" The man said eyes still closed as if he were asleep.

Keeping the illusion of closed eyes by looking through his closed eyelashes he was able to see that the person about to slit his throat appeared to be a little girl. It was probably an age misrepresentation spell or something. He couldn't quite make out what she was holding but he knew it was sharp and that it could kill him. However what SHE didn't know that so long as she held her blade across his throat like she was doing it was casting a shadow. A shadow which he solidified into a protective coating on his neck.

Had she made a move with her bone-dagger it would have seemed that it had hit metal instead of overshadowed flesh.

Najiko did not take the warning seriously. "Yeah right. Whatcha gonna do to stop me?" She said before trying to slit his throat... Surprised by the feeling but not discouraged. Najiko shouted "Oh yeah, I like that! It's been a while since I've had a good challenge, and as far as I'm concerned easy is boring!" Before she tried again. In her frustration she wound up breaking the bone knife. "Damn it, looks like you've beaten me for now." She stated, quite a bit of venom in her voice. "Well whatever my employer wants you dead for I'm sure you deserve it... I'll be back, I promise!"

Apparently she was VERY inexperienced when it came to facing a mage. Mostly, because when you face one, you can expect for small objects you left in certain places in certain ways, to be different when you get back.

It is no mystery that all mages, to some extent possess skills like levitation and telekinesis. Thus when the little assassin tried to leave she would find the window (previously her escape route) had been closed and locked.

"Actually I don't think you'll be back at all, you see you are never going to be leaving this place" With a wicked grin the room became slightly darker, colder even. Like a cold winters mroning before the sun has shown... only to realize it will never shine again.

Mortimer felt like being a little wicked at the moment and decided he would "scare" the would be assassin straight.

Mortimers face seemed to twit and distort until left in its place was a black mask of a grinning demon. Mists of shadow coalesced behind the figure and three clawed minions rose from it slowly, arms held in an X shape in front of their chests, displaying the wicked claws.

And just to through a little english into it all when Mortimer spoke again he had sparks of electricity lick out from his mouth as he spoke. "How does it feel little girl? To know that you're about to die? How many have died just like this, just like you! How may have died feeling just this, Because of you. Are you ready to DIE yet little girl?" He asked her this in as booming and evil a voice he could manage all the while invading her comfort zone as much as possible.

Now he just had to see her reaction.

Najiko wasn't afraid... This wasn't the first time it had seemed hopeless for her. But she decided she'd bluff about that, pretending to scream in fright... Her acting was not very good however. "No! No! Najiko will be good if you just let her go! Please!" She shouted, the fact that her fear was fake being obvious.

"It's too late for that NOW!" Wrapping his hands around her neck Mortimer began squeezing, and squeezing, tighter and tighter. He was certain to apply the most preassure to her arteries, which would make her black out. Squeezing her neck windpipe would be a little too dangerous. Still the effect would be the same. Not being able to breath, numbness, darkness creeping in at the edges of vision until everything turned black. And finally the world would disapear into oblivion, and the last thing which could be heard would be the maniacal voice of whomever was killing them.

"Know this little girl! You Will DIE"

Now Najiko really was afraid... She could see things darkeneing... But then suddenly she got an idea. A marvelous idea. She shundo'd behind the man last second, producing a bunch of bone needles from her palm quickly enough they were sent flying at the man. That meant making them weaker than normal needles, but because of the speed they would still do similar damage.

Mortimer wasn't expecting her to break out of his grip but it seemed that she managed to escape his grasp. Unfortunately she had forgotten about the three shadow warriors which were already there, as all three of them made to grab the small assassin. Mortimer was hit by the needles. They hurt but then again he had undergone much worse. They didn' seem to be poisoned either and that at the very least was a good sign.

Honestly it would take a lot more than numerous bone needles to kill him. He briefly thought of all the things which COULD have killed him but hadn't. Burns, severed arteries, being crashed under several tons of rock. Stuff like that. The very fact that the individual who had hired this immature assassin hadn't sprung for something a tad better was almost insulting.

Still needles sticking out of his back he turned around, his demon mask making him look more angry than in pain. As he turned, solidified the areas of darkness made by the numerous puncture wounds thus forcing the needles out of his back, causing them to drop to the floor with light wooden sounds, almost like toothpicks.

"Did I say you were going to die... no I must have been mistaken. You are going to SUFFER!" The shadows sought a rip on her limbs, to bite into her arms causing numerous slight cuts from each of their razor sharp fingers. He thought he would let her squirm for a bit more before delivering the "killing" blow.

Finally Najiko couldn't take it anymore... "I surrender... I surrender!" She shouted. She simply did not know what to do. She'd exhausted her repertoire of mobes and barely even scratched the guy... "Please, don't kill me..." She sobbed. "I will do anything I can for you that will make you let me live."

"Ok" He said incredibly nonchalantely. The shadows dissapeared, the room returned to normal and the mask evaporated. Now he looked everything like a perfectly normal if sleep deprived teenager.

"Then I will have you do three things and only these okay?"

"First tell me, what your name is how old you are, where you come and why you were trying to kill me?"

Najiko walked a bit closer to him, looking up into his eyes with her own bone white ones. "My Name is Najiko Kaguya..." The Kaguyas were rather famous loacally for their ability to manipulate their own skeletal structure, though Mortimer had likely heard most of them had been killed off a few weeks ago. "I am 5 this Tuesday, me and my Family always lived in Argyre and My employer requested I kill you." Najiko sighed. "I don't know what you did to incur his wrath, all I know is I need the money. Much as I hate it... If I didn't need money to survive I wouldn't want it so bad."

"Alright then, I will now ask you to respond truthfully to these next questions. Do you miss your parents and do you want to continue living your life as you are?"

"I miss them more than you would ever know, heck I made a sacred vow to avenge the death of the rest of my clan..." Najiko confessed... She would not yet tell the consequences of failing to live up to that vow however. So she switched to the subject of what she wanted to do with her life. "Being able to fight for the glory of it instead of for money is what I want. Being for-hire just isn't what suits me."

It was clear from the way she responded becoming so powerful for her age had made her go crazy... Perhaps some rehabilitation was in order.

"Alright then." Placing his hand on her shoulder he said "Then from now on I'm your family. Call me uncle Morty!"

The shadow mage tapped his earpiece. "Jess, you there, I've got something that might interest you here and before you ask NO it is not a rabbit."

Jess heard Mortimer's voice and quickly tapped her earpeice. "Ok, heaed there ASAP. ETA about 3 minutes if nothing gets in the way."

Najiko sighed... "I can't exactly take back the blood vow, but other than that I'd be happy to..." She just then thought of something. "Why were you talking to the side like that, and who's Jess?"

"Oh that. Let me see now....you know how people say everything is going to be alright and then it's not? Well this isn't one of those times. As a matter of fact things are going to be SO alright that I have timed everything down to the second. As such for these next 165 seconds or so you will find me prateling off inanely as though I am either some cartoon character, or as if I were completely mad. Much like the mad-hatter in the popular childrensbookaliceinwonderlandinnwhichalittleeightyearoldgirlistransportedtoamagicalifnotdangerousplaceknownaswonderland"

His speech went on like this for some time as he progresively edged closer to the front door saying "-and trielectrode anti-gravity chopsticks. Now that that's out of your way meet your knew mother!"

Swinging open the door as he said this he had managed to capture Jess just before she entered of her own volition. Now he just needed to see the twos reaction to this rather strange proclomation.

The two stared at each other for a second or two, clearly studying each other.

"Mortimer, what's with the ninja ghost?"

"I'm not a ghost! Want proof of course... come over here."

Jess did so... And Najiko produced a bone needle from the palm of her hand which she pricked Jess's arm with... and then the little ninja proceeded to lick away the blood. Jess sweatdropped, her eyes widening as the little Ninja girl smiled.

"You got some tasty blood there... An Earth Mage I'm guessing?"

"How..."

"The dirt on your clothes, the 'grounded' movements... It's all so obvious."

"Glad to see you two so good together. Jess this is Najiko. Recently she's just tried to kill me and you were the first person I could think of to reform her. Najiko, this is Jess, she's an earth mage and self defense instructor with a high maternal instinct. Now if you two need time to get aquainted feel free to do it somewhere else as I need sleep." This last part was said with the same happy tone but it was fairly obvious that it was a threat to get the two out of his house so he could get back to sleep.

Jess smiled as the little ninja jumped up onto her shoulders. "Being lazy are we?" Jess commented as she got back to standing and left...

Najiko remarked "Actually no, you have no idea what kind of a fight your friend put me through..."

Jess laughed. "Actually I do... Me and him have known each other for 10 years."

Najiko was silent at that, they'd known each other for twice as long as she had been alive.

Jess decided to break the awkward silence. "What kind of cookies you like? I know a local place that makes very good cookies."

"Double chocolate with marshmallows!"

OOC:

Rewards

Mortimer: 2 SP, 2 MP and 150,000 Drachma
Jess: 2 SP, 2 MP and 150,000 Drachma