Noir muttered under his breath and ran his fingers through his hair. Feeling the horns on his head before he twitched his tail. "They feel bigger now..." Sighing softly, he looked up at the moonlit sky before he saw light in the distance. Perking up a bit, he rushed over before he tilted his head seeing a house. Maybe he could rest here for the night and then head back home in the morning? Might as well, but would they even let him in... With his appearance? Probably not. He sighed softly before he walked around the old mansion, looking it over before he found some vines crawling up the house.

He grinned and grabbed onto them before scurrying up to a window. Opening it, he slid inside before he blinked seeing some scratches on his bare chest. "Great..." He sighed a bit, wiping a small drip of blood off his chest before licking it away. Tilting his head at the taste, he looked around before he tilted his head hearing a low growl. He looked down and held his stomach before he pouted. "Great..." He groaned softly, looking around before he started to walk down the hall.

(Work came up And some other stuff RL, life is really interesting right now, sorry.)

Meth was, as usual, on patrol. He didn't get bored easily, being a Hound in actual fact. Right now though, he looked like a dark haired man with a lean form but well-defined muscles. His golden eyes searched the darkness, and upon hearing an intrusion, they stared at where the sound had come from.

Mirk wasn't in the house, this was probably a good thing for both intruder and Meth alike. The sorcerer really hated uninvited guests, especially with the recent influx of people dropping in on him. Literally.

His latest acquisition, one such drop-in who did not have a good excuse for doing so, was lying passed out in his office. Mirk only managed to get a name out of the stranger after much work, and had intended to pass him onto the next seller. A small tag adorned the collar the unconscious man wore, on it was Mirk's business name and 'Koru'.

(It's okay :3)

Noir sighed as he stopped in the hall, his tail swaying behind him as he tapped his foot. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this place...." He muttered, his body trembling a bit before he hurried on down the halls. Stopping in front of a door, his head perked up hearing a weakened breathing and a slow heart beat. Was someone knocked out? Possibly. Struggling with the door a bit, he managed to get it open before sneaking into the room.

Seeing the boy on the floor, he gasped before rushing over, crouching down before feeling the boy's neck for a pulse. "Thank goodness... Still has some life in him..." Noir checked the boy out slowly from head to toe and back again. He was actually kinda cute. His eyes rested on the collar before he tilted his head, his eyes narrowing a bit. "Koru...." He reached up and got the collar undone with his claws before tossing it to the side. He recalled seeing a few people before with these same collars out in the town and they all meant that they were owned by some creep.

Picking the boy up, he slipped the unconscious, white haired boy on his back and held him up. This boy was surprisingly light... Shaking off the thought, he clasped his hands under Koru so he wouldn't fall off before he got out of the room. Slipping one hand free to close the door quietly before he put his hand back in place only to hurry down the hall. He didn't want this boy to end up as a slave like those people he saw. It wouldn't be right. So he would try and get him out.

Meth followed the stranger curiously. Usually he would have been at throats by now, but this one made him interested. And that new acquisition was going to be a handful anyway, the Master knew. If someone else was going to come steal it... Well, technically he shouldn't let property be taken like that but well, it was a busy night.

The house remained silent, it was almost eerie. No Hounds crossed paths with the demon trying to take away the slave. It sometimes happened, some philanthropist would want to come and try out some charity. Usually they got hurt in the deal. Mirk's 'rejects' were usually top quality stock, but there was a reason they were rejected for sale.

Noir stopped and turned around, glaring into the darkness as his tail straightened out. "Okay.... How come I'm getting the feeling that someone's following me?" Glancing around the area, he saw nothing out of the ordinary, not even those creepy paintings that seem to follow you with their eyes. Shaking his head, he adjusted Koru on his back and soon found his way to a window. He grinned and hurried over before he opened it with one hand and looked down to the ground below. "Damn, hope I don't fall..."

The youth in the demon's hands suddenly snapped back into life. One moment the body was limp in his grasp, the next it was like a taut bow, ready to spring at any time. Despite the uniform the man now wore, it was obvious this one was once some kind of fighter. The lean form hid steely sinews and muscles. He did not speak at first, but once he discovered the collar was gone, he gave the demon a wide grin.

Then he turned and slid down the wall. What was odd about it though was how his hand traveled through solid rock, as if he could decide how much actual matter and atoms of rock meant to his body.

Noir blinked and glanced back at the boy behind him, smiling softly in relief. "Thank goodness your awake. I was worried when I saw you unconscious in that office." He said before watching him slide down the wall. Watching him curiously before he gasped seeing his hand travel through the wall. "H-hey!" He yelped, letting go of Koru and falling back as he lost his balance, only to knock into the wall with his head and groan as he was knocked out. He swayed a moment before he fell foreword on his stomach, murmuring as his tail twitched barely.

Meth padded over to the demon and squatted down next to him. The Hound picked at one claw thoughtfully. People had strange ways of leaving the Acanthe estate, but passing out on the floor has got to the best he'd seen for a while. His ears picked up the telltale sound of scrabbling on stone outside and he melted back into the shadows.

Koru slipped through the window again, without bothering to open them. There was a slight wince as he did so, whole-body thoroughfare through walls was still painful business. He bent down over his unlikely savior and patted the man's face a few times, until he caught his finger on a horn.

"Rukaire?" he inquired hopelessly. Then with what few words of the language he picked up... "Follow. Hold."

He held out his hand again, grinning reassuringly.

Noir groaned softly, his tail straightening before going limp again as he slowly woke up when Meth left. Glancing up, he saw Koru before he tilted his head at the strange language. "Huh?" Noir looked at the boy strangely before he stood up and dusted off. When the boy held out his hand, he nodded barely when he finally understood him. Noir reached out and held Koru's hand gently, looking at him curiously.

Koru nodded, held onto the hand in a vice grip, wrapped his other arm around the demon for security, then dived through the window again. There was the sensation that their entire body was put through a sieve, then they were out the other side. Before they could crash to their deaths however, Koru hooked one foot back through the wall and began walking down it. One foot sinking into the rock at a time.

"Name?" He asked. Language was not going to be a problem for long, the English one is similar to something from Koru's world, with a few phonetic changes.

Noir blinked when Koru pulled him close. A soft blush covering his cheeks before he yelped when he dived through the window. Shutting his eyes tightly, he prepared to hit the ground before cracking his eyes open. Seeing Koru walking down the wall, he glanced over at him. "I'm Noir. And what's your name?"

"Ikalis Koru Valeria." This answer was a lot more fluent than the rest of his speech has been. He obviously understood more than he spoke, which in some people's view was a good thing. Koru finally touched turf and put Noir down again beside him, patting dust from them both.

"... Where?" He looked at the demon quizzically.

"I guess i'll call you Koru.... Simple enough for me to remember." He said. Relaxing when they hit the ground, he blinked when Koru started to pat the dust off him. "Where what?" He asked, scratching his cheek. Noir looked at the boy oddly. "Your a strange boy.... But no time for that, let's just get out of here before anyone see's us." He said, heading back into the woods. "Stay or follow, your choice."

Koru tilted his head slightly, his blank expression said it all. He understood vaguely what Noir was offering though, so shrugged and followed him into the woodlands around the estate. He knew it was odd for there to be no pursuit, being a trained soldier himself, but he was also not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Where?" He ventured again. It would be good to know their destination, even if he wouldn't know where it was.

Noir looked back at Koru, raising an eyebrow before he looked ahead. "Where I live. Behind a church. You can live with me or you can live with the Father." He said, shrugging a bit before he clasped his hands behind his head. "So tell me, how did you end up unconscious?" He asked, pushing a few branches out of the way as they walked so they didn't get smacked.

Koru thought about it for a while, then raised another quizzical look to Noir. "Father? I live with ... your father?" He was a little confused now, and had the inkling father meant something else in this world. He didn't bother ducking or moving branches away, they merely went through him as if he was a ghost.

"Many slaves, stronger than one." He answered rather succinctly.

Noir laughed softly, smiling softly before he shook his head. "Technically I can think of him as my father. But thats his title. He's the priest of the town." He said, watching the boy with interest as he passed through the branches. Listening to his explanation, he continued to walk. "You don't have to worry about them now. Unless the person who put the collar on you decides to come looking for you." Shrugging a bit, he smiled before he yelped, falling back when a branch hit him in the face as a result of letting it go to early.

Rubbing his face and pulling out the stray leaves, he glared at the trembling branch as it came to a stop. "Stupid trees...." He murmured, standing up before he dusted off and continued to move. This time ducking under the branches to prevent getting hit again.

Koru nodded. "Priest, father is title for priest." He walked on after the demon, apparently not at all discomforted by the fact the other man was sporting horns.

"Slaver Mirk," Koru said in response to Noir's comment. He stared at the demon, then began to laugh, somewhat softly so as to prevent drawing attention. Then he reached out and took Noir's hand. "Hold, safe."

He kept walking, now letting branches fall 'through' them both.

"Exactly." He smiled softly when Koru said the title for the priest. "Mirk? I've heard of that name from a man in the church. He used to be a slave under him before his master bought and freed him..." He said softly, shuddering a bit. "I hate the thought of a person being owned. Seeing that collar on your neck... I just wanted to find the person and beat the shit out of him..." He growled before feeling Koru hold his hand. Hearing the laughter, he looked at him and tilted his head before nodding a bit. Noir shuddered as he passed through the branches. "This is kinda creepy.... It's like we're ghosts..."

"At home... slaves in contract," he tried to explain an alien concept here. In Valeria, slaves were bartered with a limited time contract, after which the slave may be sold into suitable government employment or freed. The system here was harsher, and he understood that from his brief stay in the Acanthe mansion.

"Not ghosts, 'pass through'." Again, Koru found it hard to explain with his still limited vocabulary. A few days with some books ought to solve this though. He looked at Noir.

"Home far?"