A Bad View

Leon had gotten up early today, something he didn't do often. He was testing himself. He wanted to see how long he could fly without stopping. He guessed it wouldn't be very long, but it was something he wanted to know for future reference nonetheless.

He started out low at first, since that was easier but eventually got bored and began to rise. Leon could fly high if he wanted to. Usually, though, he only stayed up high long enough to let himself drop back down to earth as though he were skydiving, then catch himself again at the last second. This time he remained high in the air, even higher then the tip of the clock tower.

At this point, his shoulders were beginning to get stiff and he decided he'd take a break, landing, not gently, on the roof of the clock tower. He stretched his wings out to their full 12 feet. He looked out over the island and could see everything from this position. If it weren't for the fact that he hated this place, he may even have called the view beautiful. But that stupid castle was there, reminding where he was. So instead he moved to the other side of the roof, the shingles chiming under his feet. From here he could look out over the ocean. This view was better; he was beginning to like the ocean.

Kale had been out, as she was out every morning before dawn. Now the sun was up and she was returning to her nest. Coming from the forest, she angled up, flying casually on the ocean wind to bring her up to the worker's door on the clock face. As she perched on the small platform's railing, her sensitive hearing picked up on someone up on the shingles. Hissing lowly, she dropped back down off the platform and circled, listening carefully. Finding a heart beat, Kale soared up over the edge of the roof on silent wings, spotting the back of a boy on her roof.

With the slightest disturbance of air as she beat her wings, cream owl feathers cutting through the wind, she landed neatly on the shingles. Her talons clicked lightly as she approached to stand almost directly behind, but a little to the left, of the boy.

"Well, well, I don't usually get visitors..." Her strong feminine voice trailed off, frowning passively with arms crossed and weight shifted to one leg.

Leon turned around to face Kale and found he couldn't stop his smirk. The sight of the harpy conjured up an odd mixture of emotions ranging from amusement to outright disgust. He could hear a light accent, though he couldn't place what kind, in her voice. Her voice in general annoyed him since it was strong in comparison to her size. The memory of Pingo's warning to him now seemed laughable. Then he saw a string of gold above her ugly foot and a feeling of anger rose in him. He had to fight to keep his facial expression from changing, though he succeeded.

Leon nodded his head slightly in her direction to serve as something of a greeting. "I didn't realize this was your place." His smile widened just a bit to include his teeth. If he were feeling particularly respectful, he would have addressed her with her title before speaking, but he'd already decided that neither "Professor Kale" or "Dean Kale" flowed well with his voice, so he dropped it. He'd rather refer to her as "that harpy lady", since it seemed to fit anyway.

The harpy narrowed her eyes as the boy smirked. Her appearance was hardly amusing as far as she knew. Still, she schooled her face into a relatively pleasant smile and inclined her head.

"Ah, I see... You know, you shouldn't make a habit of wandering into someone else's land. You never know who might turn out to be particularly territorial and hostile." The last of her sentence was definitely chilled despite her kind smile, hinting she was one of these territorial beings. She started forward, hips rolling casually as she approached. "You are on the roof of my bedroom." Kale pointed out flatly.

The woman stopped just a about two feet away from the boy, chin tilted strongly up, hooded eye flicking over Leon like she was looking down on him despite the fact she was shorter. Her hair hung over the right side of her face, and her wings flicked lightly, as if she were waiting for something.

"Well...? What can I do for you? Are you here for any particular reason...or what?"

Leon had difficulty taking the threat lightly, if only because of the gold anklet wrapped around Kale's leg. At first, he didn't show it on his face. As she moved closer to him, however, his wings instinctively rose into the air, prepared to lift him up off the roof at a moment's notice should should she make any sudden movements.

His eyes widened a bit, almost in a challenge, though he didn't want it to be perceived that way. In his head, he cursed his natural tendencies. His smirk extended, the other side of his lips lifting to return the science professors "pleasant" smile.

"I was just taking a break from some," he gave a light, one-shouldered shrug, "innocent exploration." Leon had always hated the way the word "innocent" sounded in his voice. In this instance, however, it was actually the truth. Silently, he wondered how long Kale could fly with out stopping. He couldn't think of an instance in which the information would help him, since he had the nagging feeling that it was probably longer than he could, but he was interested nonetheless.

As Leon's wings rose in to the air, Kale looked over them with a critical eye. She was not shy about the fact that she was grading his wings and she figured she came to a fair assessment. They were decent. Nice color, good feather structure, looked strong enough. However...they weren't the fairest and she remained unimpressed on all but the color. She did appreciate the rich black, even if it was a bit impractical for all times except the midst of night. She wondered if he was suited in other ways to the darkness as well.

She in no way returned a ready or threatening stance. After all, she hardly cared if he decided to run from her, and besides, she chalked him up to not worth fighting. Rather, as he pretended to smile, her smile only widened. Obviously, he was not as easy as he was trying to seem now, she had already seen it in his wings that he was at least somewhat unsettled. If he wasn't, he would not have readied to take off. The harpy nodded at his explanation and threaded her fingers together, stretching her arms over her head, wings spreading outwards and up to their full 15.75 ft wing span, each wing being a length of 7.8 ft, and arched her midsection before settling back, cream wings folding closed. Her hands fell to rest atop her head and she glanced at the boy again.

"Fine. I'll accept that this time." Her choice of words made it clear that she appointed herself as the boss of this area. "Now, just to satisfy a scientist's curiosity...what are you? Species-wise, I mean."

Leon moved his wings slowly so they came out directly behind him, and his body blocked Kale's view of most of the actual wings. Feeling the harpy's disgusting eye on them made him a bit conscientious. He hated being examined in this way by people with any actual intelligence. He straightened his stance, not having realized that it had changed slightly when Kale initially began moving towards him. In most cases, he didn't mind his instinctive precaution, but this time he was embarrassed by it, thinking she may take it as a sign of weakness.

Leon didn't look away from her face as she stretched her wings, but he didn't need to look at them to see how much larger they were than his own. He took the action as a way of showing off, and it angered him. He quickly shook it of though, deciding that all it really did, in this instance anyway, was make up for their difference in height.

Quickly realizing that he in now way had the upper hand and wasn't liable to gain it anytime soon, he put his hands in the pockets of his hoody, now grateful he'd opted not to wear his windbreaker. "Demon," he answered simply. His tone indicated that he was bored with the direction their conversation was going. Hopefully, her "scientist's curiosity" would be satisfied with fragments. If she intended to pursue the topic any further, then that's all he intended to give.

Another light smirk began to play on Leon's lips as he remembered Kale's reaction to his science assignment. He was suddenly glad that he hadn't actually done it.

Kale gave the boy a flat look for his response. She paid no attention to his wings, as she had already judged them. From her point of view, Leon was being idiotic. She was being relatively polite and he was giving her quips. If she were in his position, she would be manipulating for information from someone higher than herself, and gaining a possibly ally or learning about weaknesses. Always better to know before you need them.

"You know...you're a lot shier than I thought you were." She kept her flat, unimpressed gaze on him a moment longer and then deemed him completely and utterly uninteresting. "and a lot more boring..." She added with a roll of her eye. "It that a demon trait, or just you?"

Leon gave a slight smirk. It was so small, in fact, that it actually came off as the light smile that usually gave away a shy person. Rachael did it all the time. It was better if Kale found him to be uninteresting, especially if he was planning to go through with the deal he'd made with Pingo. That way she wouldn't go out of her way to learn more about him. Besides which, he wasn't here for the sake of her entertainment. He'd played shy before, though he didn't think he was very good at it. He could never his own arrogant air of confidence, something shy people never had. Oh well, he was certain Kale wasn't stupid enough to write him off as being actually shy.

"What kind of question is that? Are all harpies as," Leon found he hadn't learned enough about the professor to come up with an insult... other than the fact she was a harpy and looked utterly ridiculous. He didn't miss a beat finishing the sentence, though. "Domineering and suspicious as you?" He wasn't satisfied with the statement, but at the very least it managed to, in a small way, turn the topic of conversation to Kale's race.

Kale raised an eyebrow at the boy. Ah, joy, another snarky comment. His small smirk of a smile may appear shy, but the harpy knew that he was more than he appeared. At least at the moment. That did not, however, stop her from believing that the boy was still quite the amount, to her judgement and comparison, of virtually nothing. Really...human feet...useless for a bird.

The woman smiled and tilted her head, as if thinking 'Ha, how cute' in a rather patronizing manner.

"Oh, you flatter me. Maybe they are, or maybe you're just lucky to have me specially." Her smile turned in to a smirk and her eyes narrowed slightly. There was a pause before she started forward, strolling forwards to stand next to him nearer to the edge of the roof, her air cold. As she walked, she eyed him in a rather critical manner. "Suspicious? Now why would you think me suspicious? I can understand why you'd think me domineering...but I do not believe I have done anything to give you reason to suspect me of anything with such a negative connotation."

Leon wanted to scoff, but resisted the urge. "Lucky". That was one word for it, he guessed.

Leon's own eyes narrowed as the harpy continued to approach, his lips however depicted a frown. He didn't like how close she was getting now, and his wings rose once again, instinctively. He didn't back away, however. She'd understood him wrong. Paranoia? Though he guessed she wasn't paranoid, considering he may in fact end up stealing something from her. Still.

"That wasn't what I meant, actually." He said it matter-of-factly, then gave her a quick once-over, as though evaluating, once again, how much of a threat she posed. His eyes didn't linger on the gold anklet. "Should I be suspicious of you?"

The wind swirled around the clock tower, ruffling up feathers in the high altitude. The harpy gave a demure smirk, secretive in nature. Again, she paid no mind to Leon's ready stance with wings lifted. In fact, she acted if he were at just as much ease as her and nothing were amiss.

"Well, either way you meant it, what I said makes sense. I have neither given you reason to think me suspicious of others or of being suspicious. Ah, but you see, you should be more specific and say what you mean." Ebony gaze slid over to Leon, amused in an unimpressed air, tone seemingly exasperated with his seeming apparent lack of intelligence. "I am a science teacher Leon...perhaps you should talk to the Headmistress if you need to brush up on your language skills. I do not have the time to waste upon teaching you something you should already know." Kale hummed and crossed her arms over her chest, raising a challenging eyebrow.

"Of course you should be. About what, though, I don't know. Just pick something, I've probably done it at one point or another." She flipped a hand casually. "You should be suspicious of everyone to some degree." She chuckled lightly. "Though...I suspect you are...that, or very frightened." Her smirk was cold as she nodded jerkily to the boy's tense posture in the feathery black limbs.

A particularly bored expression crossed Leon's face as the harpy began lecturing him on speech. He was tempted to say something vulgar in response to demonstrate how little he cared about the English language to begin with, but voted against it.

"Maybe you should be more careful, and make sure you actually understand what someone is trying to say before reacting negatively to it. I didn't have a reason to suspect you of anything before that." He shrugged. "Just watch out for that in the future. You wouldn't want the wrong information to slip out to the wrong set of because of your assumptions." He mimicked her tone the whole way though, perhaps suggesting that he had some sort of idea what kind of "wrong information" she may be trying to hide.

Leon didn't relax his position at the professor's tease. Doing so would only acknowledge that she was right. Besides which, he felt it would be foolish to relax now. Though his current high alert - he wouldn't call it paranoia - reminded him a lot of his father. Better safe then dead or bleeding. He supposed it was true after all.

A cream eyebrow rose superiorly and a small smirk played at the corner of red lips.

"Leon...trust me. If I was reacting negativity at all, you'd know." She hummed and glanced over him, smirk falling in to a curt pout, showing just a touch of annoyance. "I've had years of experience. It's not about not letting out information. It's about letting out the right information. What do you want me to say, Leon? No, you shouldn't trust me. Yes, you should be suspicious of me. Yes, you should be scared of me, and yes, I am threatening you." She gave a cheery smile that was, in itself, too pleasant to actually be pleasant. "Telling you this in no way harms me. Though if one happens to hear any information they shouldn't, it would agree more with their self preservation instincts to simply unhear it." Her gaze lingered hard on him, suggesting that if what he hinted at where true, that would be exactly what he should be doing at that very moment.

Then, like it was never there, Kale's lingering cold and hostile air was gone and her smile was much more seemingly sincere.

"But, this is indeed a weighty topic and it is much too nice a day. Come, let me test those pretty little wings of yours, hatchling." She held out her hand for the Leon to take, her eye narrowed in such a way that dared whether he was too shy or scared or paranoid to take it and follow her.

Leon let out a light, but frustrated sigh. He hated it when people didn't listen to everything he said. He decided he'd pursue, if only to let her know that he had no intentions of "unhearing" anything. Funny thing was, his "self preservation instincts" told him to hear anything and everything. The more information he had about any given topic, the easier it would be to use that information to his advantage.

"Yes, you let out the right information. As opposed to the wrong information." He hated having to repeat himself, but he'd been misquoted. He had initially said "wrong information" which rendered her rant about the right information moot. As though he didn't know how these things worked. As for the string of information she'd just given him, it wasn't as if she was telling him anything he didn't already know.

Leon looked from Kale's face, to her hand, then back up to her face. She seemed to be contradicting herself. She'd just directly told him no to trust her, but now she expected him to take her hand? In fact, Leon didn't want to fly with the harpy. Not only had he been flying all morning, which had worn on the scar on his wing, but even without that, it was obvious that Kale was the better flier between the two of them. Her body was smaller, and her wings, larger. If nothing else, it was at least easier for her to fly than it was for him.

He wasn't about to refuse though. His eyes flicked back to her hand to gesture to them. "I don't know where that's been." He brought his wings down, filling them with air and pulling himself off the roof. "And don't mistake me for one of yours." He added in reference to the name "hatchling".

She scoffed lightly. The boy wasn't making any sense. In fact, from his air, she got the feeling he felt superior when in fact, it was mostly opinionated. Still, she also got the feeling she was annoying him, and as such, she was happy. Oh, Kale knew she was being contradictory and pestering, but she was fully intending to be as such. In fact, there was something about this boy, she wanted to rub his skin the wrong way.

Watching him lift in to the sky, she dropped her slighted hand and raised an eyebrow. Well...she supposed...her hand had recently been inside of a man's throat as she tore it out, but well, she had washed it...

"You really are no fun at all." She mused lightly, voice a little hard. "And hardly a gentleman. Wont even humor a beautiful woman and lead her in a flight. How could I ever mistake you for one of mine. If you were, it'd be a disgrace to us and well, if you were of my egg specifically, then you surely would have had stricter training. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if you're even worthy of those wings on your back...shall we have a lesson now?" The harpy took a few delicate steps backwards towards the edge of the roof. She smirked and tipped backwards off the side of the clock tower, vanishing over the edge.

She arched her back and angled straight down, wings close in. She was a teacher here, and it would be a shame if she didn't do her job, no? One wing angled out to slice silently through the air and drift her towards her left, hugging the rounded exterior wall of the tower. She twisted to turn up again, aiming to come around towards the back of Leon. He could fly, yes, but she could drill in a thing or two...

Leon gave a smirk. Nobody had ever accused him of being a gentleman. And she believed herself to be beautiful... At the statement about his wings, however, his eyebrows creased. It was probably the most effective insult anyone had ever given him. Maybe it was because he actually was at risk of losing his wings, but he refused to take the comment lightly.

Leon wanted to make some snarky comment in response, but then the harpy dropped over the back end of the back end of the clock tower. He rose steadily in the air trying to catch a glimpse of her again, but the clock tower blocked his view. He gave a quick, hard flap of his wings to pull himself up higher and away from the tower. He turned slightly, finally catching sight of her coming up behind him.

He kept an angry expression off his face and turned to face her more directly, backing up away from her. If she continued towards him, he'd dimply drop down and fly off into a different direction. Either way, he wasn't going to let that gold anklet get too close to him.

The harpy burst over the side of the clock tower behind Leon, as he spotted her, she lifted her chin in a superior manner and gave a challenging smirk. For all the great beats of her wings, there was no sound, even as she surged them downwards to launch herself higher in the air, for the moment disregarding the boy. She didn't stop until she was drifting at an altitude just higher than his. Turning, she placed her hands on her hips and looked down on him, giving a light laugh and drifting in circles.

"Are you paying attention, Leon?" She chirped out, only it dipped in to her Parisian accent, elongating sound to be more like 'attenteeon' and swallowing the end of Leon with the typical french nasal to make it more like "Leo" with just a hint of the n at the end. It rolled of her tongue smoothly, obviously being her more natural accent. "Come now."

She had yet to see the anklet having an effect on the boy. Although, she did figure that treating him like a kid would annoy him. She smirked, and, staying deep in her Parsian accent, started to sing, trying to goad him higher into the sky with her and prove himself better.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word. Mama's going to show you the big blue sky. And if you should yearn to reach the clouds, Mama's going to teach you how to fly, and when those little wings should fail, Mama's going to catch you safe and sound." She made her own lyrics to the tune of 'Hush, Little Baby.' Her voice was light and strong, betraying her small appearance. It was beautiful, though it was not sirenesque or perfect either. Her teasing smile destroyed the image somewhat.

Leon had to fight hard to keep the frustration off his face. Parisian. That's what the accent. It was an obnoxious sound, especially it was applied to song. He didn't think about it though, and decided to allow his methods to take over.

Leon decided he was flying with his sister. Cass didn't have an accent. She hadn't said Leon in a french accent. She'd simply called him Leo like she always did. And she was singing to tease him, like she also always did. He didn't need to get frustrated over it. He was used to it. She did it all the time.

He didn't immerse himself so deeply into the illusion that he forgot who he was actually dealing with though. Kale was a harpy, a born flier. He wasn't foolish enough to believe himself superior to her. He refused to believe, however, that she was a better flier than Cass. Cass had been flying over a hundred years, and she'd taught him well enough.

Leon gave a smirk as a means of saying he'd accept her challenge. He directed his wings to take himself up and over Kale, dropped slightly to pick up speed, then pulled back up again. He wasn't planning on making the first move though. Now a fair distance away from the harpy, he spoke loud enough for her to hear. "What do you have in mind?"

The harpy was pleased when the boy smirked and rose. She studied the way he moved critically with a scientist's eye, the way he used gravity to increase his speed and the way his wings rotated. She dipped one wing, turning over to fly on her back, watching the boy now above her a distance away. She laughed.

"Nothing too difficult, I assure you. Lets just have some fun, hm? It's not often one gets to fly with another. I'm a bit old to be playing such things as Tag, but, if you want, I might humor you to such a thing." Arching her back, she turned her head down and went headfirst in a flip towards the ground. As she didn't relax her arch, she moved in a full circle, pumping her wings to fly almost straight up. Putting her self parallel to Leon she hovered a moment. With one elegant finger, she pointed up. With a smirk, Kale then followed her own finger and ascended. She was natural born flyer, yes, and she was very good at it and well experienced, but that wasn't her greatest skill. As her control over energy and the placement of molecules allowed, she could air her own body in high or harsh altitudes with things like heat and oxygen levels.

As she climbed, she called out.

"You seem to be keeping your distance from me though. Any particular reason why? Or are you just incapable of having a little fun and letting loose? I promise, I wont hurt you." Her promises were worth absolutely nothing, and never had any trouble breaking her word if something better came along, but it was true that currently, she had no intention of maiming the boy.

Leon held eye contact with the harpy as she flew on her back. Recently, he'd been drilling himself on a daily basis with flying on his back. He'd always been able to do it, but since he'd gotten the scar on his wing it had become increasingly difficult. He in no way wanted to play tag with the harpy. That could only end badly while she was wearing that anklet. He could settle for H.O.R.S.E. though.

Leon pulled his wings in a bit closer to him, dropping some as he flipped over. He fully extended his wings again, holding them out perfectly still so he was gliding through the air. He flew like this just until his wings began to itch from lack of activity, then he turned tilted his and rotated his wings back a bit. He continued the arch until it began to turn back up again. Here, he brought his wings down hard once, putting his shoulders into the action. With some concentration, he sent some of his energy up his shoulder-blades and out to the wings, coating them in a fresh layer of energy that appeared violet under the light of the sun. The effort offered up another inch or two to his wingspan and helped to propel straight up through the air. As gravity began to slow his ascent, he gave two more quick flaps of his wings to hoist himself back up to Kale's altitude. Then, he leveled out again, and flew parallel to her.

Leon gave a one-shouldered shrug in response to her question. "Not particularly," he lied and the left side of his mouth lifted in a smirk. "I'm just taking your advice, Mama Bird." He took a moment to think and decided the name sounded strange in his voice. Or it may have just been that word "mother" in any form sounded strange to him. Either way he decided he didn't like it.

The wing blew back the woman's hair, whipping it from her vision as she watched the boy with a amused expression. She was curious about the new inch or two to his wingspan, but wouldn't question it outright for now farther an a short quip.

"Interesting trick there." She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow as he leveled out next to her. Promptly, she burst out laughing. It was light and uncontrolled, her arms moving to clutch her stomach as her wide wings stayed out to glide easily. Oh, it was hilarious! She was the farthest thing from a mother that there could be! To be referred as such! Oh, it killed her! Of only he knew! The eggs she has smashed, oh, the kids she had murdered. She might have cried with her mirth if only she had the ability to. Kale took a moment to collect herself, though she was still chuckling lightly as she smirked back at Leon.

"Right, then that makes you the baby bird. And no, no matter how much you come to admire me, I will not adopt you." With that, she tucked in her far wing, turning her shoulders and hips, hooking her other to swing almost like hinge on to her back before snapping it out again to fly stomach to stomach with Leon. She quickly aimed a hand out to push against his chest before copying the move to flip again to come up on the other side of the boy she had been on before.

Leon gave another shrug, as though adding energy to his wings were something that came easily, even though it wasn't. He raised an eyebrow at Kale as she burst out into laughter, waiting a bit impatiently for her to stop. It seemed the alternate Cass scenario seemed to be making him to comfortable. He had no intentions of becoming a form entertainment to this woman.

Leon watched her carefully, keeping the anklet in the corner of his eye, but giving no hint hat he was doing so. He gave her a flat look when she touched him, and followed her eyes.. or eye.. until she was leveled out again on his other side. He went through the actions once more in his once more, realizing this one may be more difficult since he had to get around her wings.

He pulled in his left wing, allowing himself to fall on the left side only, then pushed it back out to catch himself. In the brief moment, he extended a middle finger out in front of his face and turned it over, acting as though he were simply examining it curiously when he was really flipping her off. He then pulled in his wing again. However, he wasn't able to level out on the other side without extending it again and flapping once. He swore aloud at the failure.

Once Leon was flying level again he looked back at Kale. "It wasn't to be taken as a sign of admiration, I assure you."

Kale watched Leon and awaited his attempt. She smirked as he completed the first part and swung underneath her. As the middle finger was displayed in front of her, she gasped as if offended and tsked. As he rolled out, though and added an extra beat of the wing to steady himself she smirked and laughed. Really, Leon was immensely and increasingly amusing.

"See? That's what you get." Rolling her eye at his comment, she chose not to answer and repeated the movement again. Tucking in her left she swung under and spread her wings to stabilize. Sticking her tongue out childishly, she chuckled. "Try again, cutie." Kissing her pointer and middle finger tips, she darted the hand out to push them against Leon's forehead before turning out again to his other side, like some sort of strange leap frog game. She wavered lightly on an air current that drifted under her as she leveled, her tail feathers splaying and her wings tilting to compensate and stay alongside the black winged boy. She tsked herself in her mind for the near-miss. How embarrassing for her to have made a mistake just after he had. Though, she assumed this was okay, though she still wasn't happy, as she had been able to correct it.

Leon's eyebrows creased as she touched his forehead. He didn't miss the change she had to make at the last second. He decided he'd try it again, but that he'd do it his way.

He pulled in his left wing, turning his body with the action, then extended it back out as he came up beneath Kale. This time around, he wasted no time interacting with the harpy. He pulled his other wing in quickly, in hopes of salvaging some momentum to help level him out again. The action was more successful this time, but he still ended up just below Kale. He blamed this on the fact, had he come up on the same level as her, their wings would have touched. He doubted Kale would appreciate a burn to her wings.

Several moments later, Leon had pulled away from the harpy some so they could fly side by side without touching again. He let out a silent breath and looked back at her. "Satisfied?"