His thick and sturdy black boots found easy footholds on the craggy boulders that made up the quarry sitting within the very heart of Dune Canyon. He moved up and up, going even higher, closely following the little girl that was doing everything in her power to lead him on a phony trail. Kaitlyn giggled, running ahead and Ravendor slowed his pace just enough for the girl to have a fighting chance at escape, keeping her amused. It was the only reason he had allowed himself to participate in this twisting version of tag in the first place, to occupy both of their time until the sun would go down and they could rest properly.

"You can't catch me, Uncle Ravendor!" She called in a sing song voice, ducking behind a unique rock formation and laughing all the while, "You can't!" Her little shoes scrabbled on the pebbles wedged between the larger stones, the child's only thought being how she could win the game they were playing. Not only Ravendor, she also had to watch out for Dario, who she had lost track of a few minutes ago. Kaitlyn hugged herself to the largest boulder she could find and tried to be invisible, hoping her plan would work.

"We shall see!" Came the faint reply from below, the bandit leader brushing aside his dark fringe for the umpteenth time that day and grabbing another rock for balance with his pale and immaculate hands. The center of the quarry went up like an unstable tower to the sky, filled with many holes that small children could easily hide in. Had Kaitlyn chosen to hide? No, he could still hear her giggling up ahead, behind those large boulders. Ravendor smiled. Children, he had always liked children, though he never got the chance to sire any of his own. Kaitlyn was very sweet, just like Catherine, if it were not for all the misfortune he had accumulated in his life, nostalgia would have taken him back to when he used to tag his own lost friends back in Little Twister, so long ago.

xxx

He ran, diving behind a great brown crate, his little chest heaving with the effort and strain his flight had taken from him. He looked to the left and right, the streets around him bare and empty. The child smiled through slight gasping, he had made it there undetected and they'd never find him now. Ravendor peeped over the top of the crate in anxiety, getting it in his head to pull off the top and hide within the wooden boards, waiting until they gave up the search for him. He was good at this, he could not lose.

A smaller box was next to the large crate and he set his foot upon the obstacle like a step, using both of his small hands to pry open the lid of the crate and slip himself inside. Luckily, the top was not nailed down and it only took a bare amount of exertion to jimmy it open, the distinct scent of apples rising from the box. It must have been used to store fresh produce or cider in the past, but all Ravendor needed it for now was some good cover. He set one leg in the crate, still holding up the lid and looking down into the dark confines, hoping it was not infested with bugs and slimy things.

Then, from out of nowhere, somebody jumped on him, grabbing the boy around the shoulders and hurling him to the ground. They both stumbled and fell into the crate together, sending several rotten apple cores flying into the air. The lid came down with an ambient slam, locking them into the darkness and poignant smell of rotting fruit, producing groans of revulsion from both of the children.

In the darkness, Ravendor was poked sharply with a tiny finger, feeling somebody smaller than him sitting discourteously on his stomach. "I got you! You're 'it'!" Said a voice, poking him over and over again, appearing to be unconcerned about the garbage that they sat in. "You're gonna have to do better than that, Swanky!"

Ravendor groaned, wiping away applesauce from off his face, eyes squeezed closed at the horrid smell. Apples were nice, but this was just overpowering. "Not fair!" He argued, pushing the other child off his body and into a corner of the crate. "You cheated! Jumping off the roof is not allowed!" He was going to win too, he hated it when other people decided play unfairly.

"Nuh-uh! I didn't jump, I fell! Just ask Cathy, she saw it all!" Came the vehement protest, upset at being labeled a cheater. Another person from the outside pulled the lid off the crate and let sunshine into the chamber, illuminating the two boys sitting squarely in a pile of rotten apples. The duo looked sharply away at the sudden light, temporarily blinding them. A feminine face popped up at the rim of the box, light chestnut hair framing her soft grey eyes. She blinked at the two children lying in the trash and laughed happily, pointing at them and their misfortune.

Grumbling, Ravendor stood up and picked an apple peel out of his hair, glaring down at his younger accomplice. "Go ahead, laugh. I will get you all, someday. Just you wait!" The other boy sunk lower into the rotten fruit, not caring how stinky he got and grinning like an idiot, grass-green hair blotched with brownish apple sauce.

"I still won." He said simply.

"Not quite." Catherine interrupted, offering her hand to Ravendor so he could climb out. She grimaced when their hands connected, his was slimy from all the compost inside. No wonder he looked so upset, the boy had a weird thing about keeping himself clean. Well, he was the son of an aristocrat, it probably could not be helped, she thought. "I saw you, you know. You were gonna jump off the roof and squish him, but you tripped and fell. So…" She looked thoughtfully adorable for a few seconds, "It's a draw."

"Judas!" The other boy cried, pointing to Catherine. "You're 'sposed to be on my side!" He stood up straight, but his short height only made it possible for his clear blue eyes to be seen over the edge of the crate. "You're all against me. I just know it! Agghhh…" He fell back into the crate melodramatically, a squidging sound occurring as he hit the floor.

Ravendor clambered back down to the streets of Little Twister, removing pieces of garbage from his shirt. He had an apple core in one hand and he threw it back into the crate, hitting something delicate enough to hear an 'Ow!' emanate from the box. "I am always part of the winning side, you know. Do not take it personally, my friend."

Quicker than lightning, the boy hopped up and took the edge of the lid, dragging it halfway over the crate. "Fine, fine! I give up, you win. But!" He added loudly, sticking a hand high in the air and ducking into the shadows of the crate, "I'm just gonna sit here, with the apples, my only friends, and plan your death, Swanky! You too, Catherine! Be afraid!" He laughed and re-sealed himself in his temporary tomb, giving the others something to think about.

Catherine sighed. For a nine year old boy, Clive was certainly acting hyper today. He must have been studying too hard and needed a break, or something. Shrugging, she explained this to Ravendor and found the older child totally agreeing with her. The girl rapped on the side of the box with her knuckles, like she was knocking on a door. "Don't you have a class this afternoon?" She asked with false innocence in her voice, wanting to see his reaction.

His reply was muffled. "Screw it. I'll go tomorrow. Good night!" They could get no reply from him no matter how hard they tried, and when Ravendor attempted to open the lid for himself, Clive threw apple cores at him until he went away, sniggering evilly.

xxx

Ah, memories. Memories were all the dark-haired drifter had left, the only pleasant things left in his life. But, it was stupid to think of such things right now, not when he had a job to do, aspirations and plans to take care of. Keeping Kaitlyn happy was one of them, and so Ravendor levered himself up the boulder with notable strength and wondered how Kaitlyn had managed to climb up here with just those short little legs to help her. Children these days sure had a lot of energy.

Kaitlyn heard Ravendor scaling up to her platform and knew she had to move again, or she would be caught. Trying to be both quiet and swift at the same time, she crouched to reduce her height and used a long rock for cover as she ducked behind it, making her way to another rock formation, lower than the first but harder for an adult-sized human to get to. The pain in her knee vanished almost instantly as soon as she had decided that a game would be the best way to pass the time until nightfall, and she became beyond happy that her Uncle Ravendor and the nice Mister Dario agreed to play with her. Tag was her favorite game, and it caused to fully grown men to run around like loonies trying to catch her. True to her competitive nature, Kaitlyn aspired to make this as difficult for them as possible.

Because she was not looking behind her, too busy observing the bandit leader slowly catching up, Kaitlyn was beyond shocked when she bumped straight into somebody wearing a dirty white shirt and suspenders, scratching his beard thoughtfully and grinning. "Got you!" Dario cried, reaching out with his large hands to grab the girl in victory. "Hey Boss, I got her!"

Dario was a little confused when his hands only made contact with air, and he waved them around a bit, trying to find the girl that had gone missing. Ravendor appeared from behind the rock, his breath a little heavy from all the chasing. He really needed to cut down on his smoking habit, it was affecting his stamina. "Did you find her?" He asked, kicking a rounded pebble away with his foot.

"Well, uh, I did for a second, but then she got away." He admitted, tilting his cowboy hat back a little bit and wiping away the sweat that ran down his face with a hairy arm. "You see where she went?"

"She could not have gotten far." Ravendor assured his minion, looking down the jagged quarry face and onto the more level lands surrounding it. Romero and Antonio were waiting down there together for the others to return, keeping themselves out of the game and being quite content to chat with each other. They had ten years worth of history to catch up on. Blankets were spread out, flint and tinder were readied, and all they needed now was the fall of darkness to envelop the world. Knowing that Kaitlyn was close, but not wanting to show it, Ravendor cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled loudly so that his words echoed off the stones encircling them, trying not to smile. He was quite aware that Kaitlyn was less than a few feet away. "You cannot escape, little one!" He called, "Surrender now, and I shall be lenient!"

"What's 'lenient' mean?" Dario asked himself, a confused look passing across his face. He shrugged, big words were beyond him. The bandit rubbed his arm and looked around, where had Kaitlyn gotten to so quickly, without him even seeing her departure? Little kids, they could hide themselves so easily, just like… Dario coughed, interrupting his own chain of thought. He had already gotten over that, no need to walk down that path any more than he needed to, it had no bearing on his life, not within the here and now.

"No!" Came the rebellious reply from very close to where they stood, "You're 'it', and you're gonna stay 'it'!" Kaitlyn flattened herself out in the long and small hole she had found, a wide smile on her face. The adults were much too big to follow her into her perfect hiding space, and it's entrance was very well concealed in the first place. Kaitlyn knew she was going to win. Lifting her head up a bit, she could see Ravendor's boot and the folds of his jacket from the hole's opening, trying hard not to giggle and give her location away. It was thanks to Romero that she had thought of this strategy, he did have a good idea and it transferred perfectly into her game of tag. She was going to win.

Fanning some air into his face with his cowboy hat, Dario looked futilely around for the source of Kaitlyn's voice, missing her position entirely. He was looking up and around, not down and below. Perhaps if he thought laterally, he may have had a better chance at finding her. "Maybe we should just let her win, Boss." He suggested helpfully, rubbing the back of his neck.

Ravendor shook his head silently and pressed a finger to his lips, smirking. He then pointed quickly to a little niche about a yard away, on a level a few inches lower than their own. He mouthed out a sentence, but made no noise, thinking that Dario should at least get the gist of what he was saying. "She is down there." Concentrating for a second and trying his best to lip-read him, Dario eventually understood and nodded, tip-toeing over to where Kaitlyn hid, Ravendor closely following him.

"Heeey!" Romero hollered from the campsite, yelling at the two men far away and on the quarry mountain, "You done playing brat control yet?!" Somebody aimed right and threw a small rock at him, scoring a perfect hit on the blonde bandit's head. He fell over soundly and Antonio snickered, poking Romero's body with a stick. The newest bandit did not see who had thrown the missile, but he could see Dario chuckling evilly up atop the rocks.

Kaitlyn went rigidly still, hearing Dario's chuckles just outside her hiding place. They were going to find her! She had to escape! Her grey eyes blinked in the shadow of her mini cave, she looked around for another way out, behind, to the side, nothing. All there was to be used was the way she had climbed in, and if she utilized that, they would see her in a matter of seconds. Kaitlyn was trapped.

She crept back a bit, startled when Ravendor got to his knees and peeked into her small confine, regarding her with an unruffled countenance. "I win," He said simply, brushing some hair behind his ear, "Now come out of there, it is no place for a little girl."

The girl shook her head, by the rules, they were still playing the game. "You haven't tagged me yet, Uncle Ravendor." She informed him candidly, pushing herself back deeper into the cave, far enough so she could not be reached. "You have to tag me first." Her foot brushed against a cobweb and it got stuck to her stocking, but she didn't care. She would rather win.

The dark-haired man disappeared momentarily from her sight and Kaitlyn became worried for a bit, wondering where he went. Outside, he rolled up the sleeve of his jacket so it would not be dirtied before pushing his arm into the hole and gently tapping Kaitlyn, beating the child at her own game. "There. You are 'it', and I win." The child huffed, finally conceding defeat. She took a hold of his hand and let Ravendor pull her out of the hiding place, slightly grubby from the unclean condition of the tunnel. She dusted off her dress again and fixed up the only blue ribbon she had left, trying to keep herself tidy.

Half of her Band-Aid had peeled off, and Kaitlyn smoothed it back onto her leg, the sticky part still working pretty well. Her eyes went up to Ravendor, and they paused when they passed over his bare arm, making the little girl confused. "Uncle Ravendor," She asked curiously, rubbing away the dirt on her face, "Why did you write on your arm?" Ravendor looked completely blank for a moment, and had to beg her pardon, for he had no idea what she was talking about. She pointed to his left arm, the sleeve pulled up and showing an odd series of markings. They were too small to be read from her vantage point, but it looked to be a simple line of writing branded into his arm. Nothing more.

The bandit leader went slightly red, immediately tugging down the rolled up sleeve of his jacket over the branding. He laughed self-consciously and shook his head, feeling a little cold on the inside. Nobody was meant to see that, he had done something stupid. "It is nothing, Kaitlyn." He assured her, "Just a tattoo, pay it no heed."

"Really? What's it say? Can I see?" She asked again, moving over and trying to look up his jacket sleeve. Ravendor retaliated by picking up the girl and carrying her down the quarry face, back to the campsite. He looked unconcerned, but his green eyes showed the slightest amount of apprehension in his soul. Kaitlyn squirmed a bit, but let Ravendor carry her without interference, despite knowing that she was much to old to be carried like this anyway. She tolerated it, only because she had no other choice.

"Hmm, perhaps later." He replied blandly, having no intention to let anybody but himself look at that part of his body ever again. It was a stigma, a fraction of his past that could never be erased. One of the many elements of himself that he would always hate. Dario had already gone back to the encampment, using a pair of rocks to try and light a decent fire. He was getting sparks everywhere except for in the tinder, mostly spraying them all over Romero and Antonio.

Kestorael cawed out a welcome to him when he returned to the flat dusty soil again, a good few feet away from the other bandits. The bird was smart enough to know exactly when to keep his distance. He cocked his feathered head to one side and asked Ravendor a question, ruffling his feathers. The man nodded. "Yes, a good idea. Kestorael, go and scout."

"You can talk to birds?" Kaitlyn said in deep awe, watching the raven ascend into the sky.

"Hardly," Ravendor answered, his arm around her shoulders and the other supporting her legs, "I have lived with Kestorael long enough to know what he wants, it is as simple as that." The bird flew off into the west until he was only a little black dot in the increasingly cloudy sky, grey overlapping blue. It was a white lie, a half-truth, Ravendor didn't think it would be a good idea to complicate matters any further by telling her the full truth.

The full truth could sting a man sharper than any poison, and Kaitlyn did not deserve to understand that wound, not somebody as innocent as her. Ravendor analyzed the lumpy clouds overhead, they didn't seem to be going away, and they would block out the sky and the stars tonight. Such a pity, at a time when the moon was supposed to be at it's fullest, it's most beautiful phase.

He had been looking forward to seeing it in all it's splendour.