Let the spirits play, Open

[Aiyana]

Within the deep of the woods something was different. The air seemed even colder than the usual chill but perhaps it wasn't just that. Perhaps it was the fear that was instilled when one got too close to the woman whom was in the woods. Tonight was a simple night, of no importance to anyone in this town except for Aiyana, tonight was one of the most sacred nights to her. Tonight was the night her daughter was born, too many years ago. She would do anything to get her back but for tonight she settled for a cheap imitation.

White swirls clumped and swirled around Aiyana's feet but she could not feel the chill they brought with them. Aiyana's hair gave her the appearance of being suspended in water despite the fact that her feet were planted on the ground. But it wasn't the world around her that Aiyana was paying attention to. There was one very prominent and pronounce figure which was zigzagging around the clearing in front of her. It was what appeared to be a little girl, whether it was or was not Aiyana's daughter was something which could not be discovered.

Every year Aiyana calls the same spirt and beckons her to come and play with her. The little girl resembled Cheona in almost every aspect, a girl inquisitive of everything and afraid of nothing. It made a small smile come across her face as she watched the girl dance to the Cherokee words spilling from her mouth as if she could have done it in the middle of the day. It had been entirely too long since Aiyana had felt that familiar curl of lips.

Outfit

[Ione]

Nothing could sneak up on a vampire, not even a distracted vampire. Their senses are too keen, and as a rule their paranoia too well-honed. This is why executioners and hunters work by day; a conscious vampire is a vampire who is exquisitely aware of the world around them.

And yet there she was. The skinny, awkward-looking girl in her teens, crouching on a tree branch twenty feet off the ground and wearing only a plain sleeveless shift of unbleached linen despite the chill in the air, her feet bare and her only adornments a cheap brass chit showing a relief carving of a rat strung on a thin leather thong around her neck and a braided leather headband holding back all that thick dark hair.

She peered down at Aiyana with wide, fearless eyes. "Les ombres sont tous ce soir éveillé. Vous épaissir l'air de fantômes." She smiled at the strange vampire, clearly having no doubts that the woman would understand her very well. "Why do you dance up the dead tonight?"

[Aiyana]

Aiyana didn't look up at the woman in the tree as she spoke but with a sigh the spirits fell away. The little girl was in the middle of a twirl as she turned into nothing but a swirl of mist. Aiyana's hair resumed it's position around her face and as it fell so did the corners of her lips. It wasn't like Aiyana to smile around people, she was generally that person no one understood. She was the one everyone stared at in wonder and prayed she wasn't the serial killer police were looking for.

“I don't understand French,” she said plainly. Why had the woman assumed that she would, did she look French? Why would there be a need for Aiyana to learn French, she could really think of one considering William knew English. “But they dance because I ask them to," She knew she was dodging but so what? "They seem to appreciate it more when you ask and don't tell.” She said still not looking up at the girl, it might be wrong not to look at someone while they talked but the woman was in a tree.

“It's much like asking a child to do the dishes and offering something in return. Rather than referring to it as a chore and giving them nothing but satisfaction.” Aiyana's eyes rotated around the clearing that was in front of her, tracing back the steps the child had taken. It was almost as if she had seen it one million times before but it was still different. The dance would twirl in Aiyana's mind for another year, until Aiyana called the girl again.

[Ione]

"All civilized people speak French," the girl said with a haughty little sniff, the more absurd because she was crouching barefoot in a tree in the middle of a night. "Or at least pretend they do. It is the tongue of graceful diplomacy, infinitely more nuanced than the thuggish eclecticism of English." It almost had to be a direct quote from somewhere, what fourteen year old talked like that? "Besides, I think in French." Now that sounded more genuine.

She hopped down to the next level of limbs, dropping eight feet and landing on her toe-tips with the arrogant grace of a squirrel or a monkey moving through its world. "And do you know that they dance because they choose it? Or are they compelled? Your power bleeds through this area of the woods like a cold front in summer. Are they willing slaves to you?" There was no judgment or condemnation in her accented voice, only curiosity. Ione didn't understand, and she wanted to know the truth of what she had witnessed.

[Aiyana]

Aiyana rolled her eyes at the insinuation that she was uncivilized because didn't speak French. She had spent her whole life being called a savage, she hadn't changed since her earlier life really and the men around her have only become more barbaric. Not only have their wars continued but since there are not many Native American's left they have resorted to killing each other. The girl seemed rather sure that just because she spoke French she was steps ahead of the rest. She would soon find the truth, it wasn't Aiyana's job to show it to her.

As the girl began to ask questions Aiyana wondered if she should answer them. True, there was nothing wrong with what she was just doing but did the girl want to know or was she just sure she already understood what it was Aiyana was doing? “They must come when I call, yes” Aiyana said, proving the girls's suspicions. “But they only dance because I ask, I could make them but I prefer not to make people do things they don't wish to.” To Aiyana theses spirits were still people, just ones stuck in a state of limbo most skipped. “Why do you ask?”

[Ione]

"It changes the woods," Ione explained simply. "I have never seen them quite this way before. The trees are pressing into their own roots, and the air tastes of memories. The little secrets have all run away to hide." She dropped down another level of branches, now crouching only five or six feet off the ground. "I have never seen this before. It does not seem to harm the forest, but it does...disturb it. Change it."

She cocked her head to the side in a remarkably birdlike gesture, studying the vampire without shyness or social discretion. "Why do you wish the dead to dance? You have told me how you do it, but not why."

[Aiyana]

Aiyana traced the dance of the little spirit once again as the girl talked about the forest. She had to admit that she felt it but it didn't worry her. She had done this for many years and the woods always recovered. Just like they did from a forest fire but Aiyana's act wasn't nearly as devastating. "Spirits are not normal to this world, they disturb it just as a demon would," she explained. She heard the girl drop down another level but she headed it now mind, the girl could do whatever she wanted.

The girl brought up the question once more of why she wanted to summon the spirit and Aiyana sighed. She really didn't want to get into it and if that was the case she wouldn't have to. Then again someone else should know of the joyous occasion and maybe it was rude to keep it to herself. "Today is my daughter's birthday," she said standing. She didn't turn to look at the girl or even to know if she understood. Aiyana began to walk into the clearing in front of her, remembering the dance clearly in her mind. If the girl followed her that was all well and good but if not that perhaps she could summon the spirit again.

[Ione]

"Many happy returns of the day," Ione said politely, if with an oddly lilted formality that sat better on her than it would on most teenagers. She was about to ask more questions, or perhaps offer something of her own in return. It was only fair, if someone gave you something personal of themselves--whether it be an object or a a truth of their lives--you should gift them in return.

But the vampire was already walking away, without so much as the courtesy of a farewell. Ione perched on her branch and watched the woman just wander away mid-conversation, her eyes widening with the surprise of it. "Well," she said aloud, speaking only to herself and sounding rather like Alice in Wonderland. "That was very rude. I had thought that vampires were more polite." She shrugged and dropped down to the forest floor, then ran off toward the north on noiseless bare feet. The little secrets would be agitated after being driven from this section of the forest, maybe she could get some of them to talk to her for a while.