Raven watched carefully as the child went up to the vendor and purchased the hot dog she was planning to offer her companion. Her keen hearing and sight would alert her to anything that the child did that might be funny but, so far at least, the child had proven to be a girl of her word. With offering purchased, she returned and offered Blackwing what she promised.

The great raven made a show of considering the offering. Her cawed once and cocked his head to the side making a point of looking both the hot dog and the quarter up and down. Raven sent a tendril of scolding at Blackwing, knowing that the child probably didn't appreciate the bird's sense of humour.

While Blackwing was not exactly remorseful, he let out one last caw and allowed the phone to drop into Raven's out turned hand. Raven held out the phone at the same time as her familiar hopped down to the girl, intending to take both offerings from her hands. Never let it be said that either of them were anything less than honest when it came to a bargain. "You've kept your word so I believe this is yours."

The bird dropped the cellphone in its master's hand, then snatched the girl's offerings right out of her hands. Almost as if it was aware of the deal, and had taken an active part in the bartering. What.

Kaitlyn stared at the bird as it returned to its perch, momentarily forgetting her cellphone as she tried to piece together what had just happened.

>"You've kept your word so I believe this is yours."

A glance was thrown at the lady's face, then at the phone, before Kaitlyn swiftly snatched the device from its captor's hand and pocketed it. A few seconds went by while the child decided that a 'thank you' definitely wasn't in order. Though, she eventually decided, there was something worth asking: "Was the bird actually telling you stuff, or were you just pretending that?"

Outstretching his great wings, Blackwing, upon seeing his offered prizes, flew down to the girl grabbing the hot dog in one claw and the shining coin in the other. Another flap of his wings brought him back into the sky where he landed back on a nearby building. He looked down at the girl with a look that could only be described as entirely self-satisfied. He sure showed her, all she got was a sparkly little thingy, he got a shiny coin as well as a full meal. Humans were so funny and Raven agreed with her familiar entirely.

"That bird is Blackwing and he's my familiar," Raven answered. As if hearing his name, which in fact he did hear and recognize his name, Blackwing puffed up his feathers, preening and showing the little girl just how majestic and impressive he truly was.

"Yes I can hear Blackwing's thoughts and he can hear mine. You might call us a mutant." Raven didn't think there was any harm in telling the girl that. After all, she had proven herself to have great powers also, unless all humans could now blow up bicycles at the touch of a finger.

Blackwing wasn't just a bird, he was a "familiar." A familiar who could go all puffy, and was demonstrating this silly-looking ability presently.

Also, the lady was a mutant, who could hear thoughts. The bird could hear thoughts, too. This made the kid start to worry: "Wait, do you read minds, like psychics? Can you read my mind?"

It would be terrible if the bird could read her mind; he would have heard himself being called 'dumb' repeatedly. But, as he had shown, he was a smart bird. He could even talk. Sorta. Giving the bird an apologetic look, Kaitlyn thought as hard as she could, 'Sorry I called you dumb. And that I called you jerks. Even though stealing my phone was mean.'

"It just so happens that I am a psychic. A professional psychic." Raven went rifling through her backpack, quite certain that she had put one of her cards in there somewhere. Although now that she thought about it, they were rather old cards anyway dating from her previous city. As such, they really wouldn't do much good since they had both an old address and old phone number. What ever happened to that cell phone anyway? Maybe she had given it to some crow in exchange for a meal or something.

Giving up on finding a card, Raven instead scribbled her name, Mistress Raven, and the Mansion address on a piece of paper, tore it out and handed it to the child. It wasn't quite as professional looking as a formal business card, but it would just have to do. Besides, did a child, even a very smart child like this one clearly was, really care if it was professional or not?

"I don't read minds though," Raven assured the kid. "Just his." She gestured up towards Blackwing who let out a caw. "I'm a fortune teller. Come by The Mansion sometime and the Enigmatic Mistress Raven would be more than pleased to tell your future. For a price of course." She was confident the girl would know exactly what to pay in exchange for having her fortune told. Because the kid had the mind of a merchant which was almost as good as having the mind of a raven.

A professional psychic?

Suddenly, Kaitlyn found herself trying very hard to censor her own thoughts while she stared at the gypsy. No thinking about this, that, these, or those. Except, she had to start thinking about something to decide not to think about it in the first place. Thus, all of those secrets that she would rather keep to herself were parading through her mind, in plain sight of the mind reader before her. Especially recollections of the time when her father -

Oh. The lady couldn't read other people's minds.

She could, however, tell the future. Taking the hastily scrawled business card in hand, Kaitlyn regarded Mistress Raven with wonder for a while.

Here, the girl had an opportunity that didn't exactly pop up every day. Right now, she had a means to ask the very cosmos themselves for advice, through this gypsy lady. She could ask about her future at the Sanctuary, the new home which she always worried about losing. She could find out what happened to her father, and whether he was still looking for her. There were so many things that she wanted to know, and only so much cash that Worms used to keep in his wallet. Something as useful as fortune telling, after all, must surely be expensive, and in high demand.

Finally, the child put the card in her pocket. "Uhh... thanks." Some other day, Kaitlyn would visit Mistress Raven at the Mansion, even if Ms. Lori thought that the people at the Mansion were losers.

Humans were fascinating creatures to watch, or so Raven had always thought. Sure, quite often they didn't make the least bit of sense, but they were always interesting no matter how little sense they made. Children were usually the most fascinating of all, having not yet gained all of the incomprehensible human habits and still having the most expressive of faces. She had always liked children and this curious little one was no exception.

"Might I get a name from you, so I know who to await?" Raven asked. It was important to keep up appearances as the enigmatic fortune teller. As soon as she had her name she intended to make her way back to her new home at the Mansion. It might be a little difficult since she no longer had her bike, but one would be surprised how often people just left bicycles just lying about. She was pretty confident that she'd find one sometime, if not today then in the next week. Because that's how it always seemed to go.

"Kaitlyn Faust." The kid had been calling herself this for a while now.

And with that, Mistress Raven was gone. Kaitlyn watched her as she walked off, pondering about which questions would be good to ask a fortune teller.

Such thoughts entertained the child only briefly. She would later enjoy telling other Sanctuary residents about this strange encounter, unpleasant as it might have been, and perhaps even brainstorming with them about things to ask of the future. For now, however there was a park to explore.

Luckily, none of the birds in the area had decided that it wanted her map, for whatever stupid-bird-reason a bird might have to take somebody's map. The paper was right where she had left it. What did I say I was going to see first?