Ok- Thank you to Fire Daughter and Pinky, my 1st reviewers!!!!!!!!!!!!! *hops up and down with excitement*

"Whoever killed Thonkulus will die!"

Suddenly, from up in the sky, a voice was heard.  "Gee, you seem a bit violent.  What happened to make you so emotionally distraught?"

Rolling her eyes at the sarcasm, Rhia also nervously scanned the sky to find the source of the voice.

"Well, what happened?"

Gulping, she decided to lie.  "My uncle died."

Not sounding very sorry, "Oh, I'm sorry."

"Actually, he didn't."

"So, is there a reason behind your depression on such a nice day, or is it just clinical?"

Since all people with clinical depression were killed so as not to spread it to others, clinical depression was a worldwide joke.  She smiled weakly.

"My rat died."

"Your what? Coulda sworn you said rat."

"I did."

"What is so great about a rat? They're vicious, I tell ya, vicious little blighters, nasty beasts!  I tell ya, they could kill you!  Why befriend something vicious?  Ah, tricky little demons.  They'll turn on you, I tell ya, them rats! Nast-"

"Show yourself!"

"Why?"

"You'll see why, and you'll sure as hell feel it too!  That rat was no demon, and he made a saint look like Satan!"

Suddenly, she heard a rustling in a tree nearby.  She saw the naked torso of a boy about her age, with arms grasping the trees' oily bark.  Although living in the country meant that she could not get out that much, she knew one adjective to describe that boy- hot!  How could she punch his flawless hair, his handsome muscled flesh?

"What's your name," the boy asked.

"Rhiamont."

"Isn't that some type of tree?"

"No, smart one, it is my name.  My friends call me Rhia, though."

"Rhia, that's a nice name.  So, Rhia, how did your rat die?"

Suddenly, he sounded more mature, more manly, but her deep bond with Thonkulus cut through simple attraction that was human instinct. 

"So, wait a second!  You denounce my rat, call him a traitor, then act like my friend?  What kind of idiot do you think you are?  Are you crazy?"

Genuinely, the boy apologized.  "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, really!  It's just that I never knew a nice rat!  So, how did he die?  I just want to know if I can heal him somehow.  I have a different sort of magic, and I might be able to fix him somehow."

She brightened up.  "Really?  You see, some monster swooped from the sky, having no quarrel with me, attempting to carry me up, and then my brave rat, valiant when death bares its' talons, went in my place, and greatly injured the fiend.  But, cowardly, the fiend could not handle the rat, and dropped him."

The boy winced.  "God, you have the Shedwrath all right."

"What's that?"

"It means the want, the need, to shed blood."

"Duh!  I will kill the monster, the fiend, the fiery demon, even if I have to chase it to its homeland, no matter where it be!  Even the Pit of Hell itself!"

Suddenly, she sniffed the air.  Rhia had been blessed, and cursed in some cases, with a keen sense of smell. Fear, source query=Hotboy ( in those things are the basic messages and emotions that she smelt and from where they came)

Rhia wondered why the boy felt fear when she ranted about killing the fiend.  Could he have done it?  Could he have killed Thonkulus?

Nah.  Why would such a cute guy murder her friend?

Monsterstench, source query=Hotboy

Rhia was surprised.  It seemed strange that the smell of Thonkulus's murderer came from the boy.

She fought a raging internal battle- her hormones versus her bond with her rat.

"Murderer!"

"What?"

"Murderer!" She begun to sob. 

"What are you talking about?"

"You killed him! My nose doesn't lie!"

Eyes down, he stared guiltily.  "I did."

Rhia was suddenly confused.  "Wait, how could you kill him if you don't have wings? You're a human!"

The boy smiled, showing silver pointed teeth.

Rhia realized that maybe the boy wasn't a boy.