For hundreds of days, Amber's routine had been the same; so many hundreds of days, in fact, that she had long ago lost count. During most of the daylight hours she hid and slept in the den she had created for herself. Close to dusk she would emerge and, careful to keep well out of sight of humans, would find herself prey. Sometimes she would be lucky and find a deer or a stray dog but more often she subsisted on squirrels, rabbits and other small forrest creatures. In every way that mattered, she was a creature of nature, apart and away from the rest of humanity.

She wished she could have been happy living among the trees forever. It was simple out there, her only obligations to care for herself and survive. Simple but lonely. So lonely and in the end that loneliness had one out. Her adopted father Abyss had abandoned her. Her adopted sister Aura had abandoned her. Why? She didn't know but it hurt. It hurt so much. It was time for her self-enforced exile to end.

Late the previous night Amber had made her way to the city. Stealing a tattered blanket from a homeless person on the way, she had dragged it with her to a small cove of trees near the Mansion. Finding a small out of the way corner for herself wedged between several bushes, she had spent the brightest part of the day sleeping. Dusk had now come and with dusk came the safety to resume her human form and take the short walk to her destination.

If the corpse girl covered only by a long blanket noticed the stares she got as she made her way, she made no indication of it. Human modesty was irrational and discarded long before she had made her return. The cold had ceased to bother her years ago, one of the advantages of being half dead. If not for human convention, she wouldn't have even bothered with the blanket. Still, she hadn't been gone so long as to forget some of the lines regarding the sorts of things she could actually get away from.

Arriving at the Mansion doors, it was with a surprising amount of nervousness that she knocked. While she had frequented The Mansion for school and learning, it had never been home. For now, however, there were too many painful memories back at Sanctuary and she couldn't bring herself to go back there yet. Thus, she found herself standing nervously outside, waiting to see what kind of reception she'd receive.

Rico hated how this weekend the other nameless wyvern like him had forced a ultimatum. Rico had chosen who was to be his family, his clan, and the ancient creature had left. Rico found he quiet lonely. So many times he had thought things and always the other wyvern was quick to answer his thoughts. But now? Rico felt lonely. No matter what he thought. The familiar wise voice of the other was not there to give advice or to console him. Rico was alone.

He walked through the mansion lost in his thoughts feeling empty and lost. At first he did not notice the knocking on the doors. But after awhile the wyvern shifter came out of his daze and opened the door. On the other side was a figure completely clothed wrapped up in a blanket. He was about to open the door and did as such only to close the door until a crack just enough to speak through.

His sudden reaction was triggered as the wind shifted. He picked up the scent of death. Not the kind he was use to. Recent decay. No, this was the scent of long decay. That of bodies rotting after a long time. The scent of a mass grave. A scent Rico was all to familiar with as he had visited the mass grave his adoptive mother and father were in long ago.

Rico was animalistic in nature and compulsive. But not so compulsive as to let a creature through the front door that smelled of a mass grave of corpses. "What do you want?" He asked lowly. "Why are you here?"

Despite feeling of trepidation, Amber stood stalk still in front of the door as she waited for an answer.  As a deinonychus, she hunted much like that of a cat, first lying in wait then slowly stalking her prey and finally making a mad dash towards it, grasping it in her claws and teeth and finishing it off.  Having spent far more time in that form than her human one in recent years, she walked and moved like the stalking predator she was.  Thus, when the door finally opened, she looked upon the newcomer, unblinking black eyes staring into his.


"What do you want? Why are you here?"

On the surface, he looked normal enough.  He was a newcomer at the Mansion, or at least she didn't think he'd been there when she had last been around.  That was a long time ago.   Maybe too long.  Maybe she shouldn't have come back.  There was something about the way he moved, however and the way he looked at her that indicated that there might be more to him than that.  A predator recognized its own and she was far more predator than human these days.  If she wasn't mistaken, she might even detect the faint scent of blood.

Amber's lips curled up in a smile, something probably disturbing in her corps-like form.  "This is still a place for mutants, isn't it?  To offer shelter?  I need shelter."  The tattered blanket probably should have given that away, in addition to the lack of shoes.  She looked like someone long homeless, lacking in even the most basic of necessities.  These things, however, bothered her not at all.

"This is still a place for mutants, isn't it? To offer shelter? I need shelter."

While Rico had no intention of letting this creature in smelling of death and all. Its words tugged on his heartstrings. With the blowing of the wind he picked up on other scents. More faint ones. No..... Her words. At this moment Rico really wished the person at the door was a man. It would have been a whole lot easier for him to do what he had to do.

"Yes this is still a place for mutants seeking sanctuary. But I have no authority to just let you in. I'm sorry." Those words tasted bitter on his tongue. She was wrapped in rags. This was a church of sorts, a beacon of hope for there kind to come to. And here she was claiming sanctuary and he was turning away. It could be compared to a priest turning away someone claiming sanctuary at a church.

Rico rested his forehead on his forearm and looked into the woman's eyes that were black, but not devoid of emotion. At least he thought he saw emotion in them. "I'm sorry ma'am. But I cant let you in here." Rico repeated with a softer tone. More for him then for her. It felt wrong but there were rules and he could not just let anyone in right? But he was here. How dangerous could this ragged figure be? Not wanting to compromise his place at the mansion for fear of being caste out he stuck to what he said.

The thought that she might not be let in the door was not one that had occurred to Amber when she had made the decision to come to the Mansion.  She remembered the students and teachers living there and she remembered having been offered a room there herself, back so many years ago.  Then, she hadn't taken them up on their offer because she preferred to live with her sister and father at Sanctuary.  If she had, would her greeting today be any different?  Impossible to know.

"There are people who know me here.  They...probably missed me."  Either that or they didn't even realize she was gone.  Her pack had left her, abandoned her all alone and they were supposed to be the ones who cared the most, so what of everyone else?  Maybe human friendship was a more myth than reality, something they told each other mattered simply to make themselves feel better.  Loneliness was a terrible thing.

Another reiteration that she wasn't going to be allowed in.  Her ability to read human emotion was rusty, but she was pretty sure she heard sympathy in his tone.  "If you won't let me in I'll sleep out here."  The statement was matter of fact and direct.  She'd been sleeping outside for many months, so what was one more night?