Initially distrustful as Alissah approached, Liaena accepted the little dart from her cautiously to peer at the contents with curiosity. Her other claims about its potency notwithstanding, the soft golden glow it emanated clearly marked it as blessed and she looked up again to give the woman an odd look. “…Thanks.”

Alissah had already slipped away as she spoke, the woman making her way back to the room where Sharon and the Night Elves were. Liaena stared after her, before shaking her head to dispel lingering thoughts and turned to head towards the front door again, slipping the dart into a secure pocket inside her cloak as she did so. Bella followed, evidently bubbling over with questions as curiosity had momentarily dispelled apprehension. “Who was that? Can I see it? How are you ‘marked’, Li?”

“I don’t know”

“Yeah you [i]do[/i]. You just don’t wanna admit it” Bella scowled. “I [b]am[/b] helping you here, Rune. It would help you and stupid Lennox a lot more if you'd just tell me what’s going on, you know…”

Manfully ignoring Bella, Liaena stepped out of the front door onto the porch of the house. Shutting it behind her, the evening was dark and quiet save for her companions persistent whining. “Get over here, Hester. I’ve got chocolate”

Liaena waited a few moments as the night remained stubbornly silent, before biting back any number of unprintable things under her breath as she searched her pockets for a bribe. “Do you [b]want [/b]to save Kitty or not?”

“…..”

With a very ill-tempered clucking noise, Hester the owl fluttered down to perch on the wooden railing of the porch to give Liaena a baleful look. Bella gave the bird an odd look, before turning to Liaena. “….so how’re we getting in Li? You said you were flying, or something?”

“Yes” Liaena said flatly as she produced a vial out of her bag. This one was also milky coloured, although the keenly observant in a lit room might notice that this one had a distinct tinge of green. “Take this first though. You didn’t get any of the antidote earlier”

“…Ew”

Bella scrutinised the vial with deep suspicion as she uncorked it slowly. “This had better do what you say it does, Li. Or I’ll report you to Thea for poisoning a colleague. Again.”

“If we survive this, I’ll look out for that” Liaena remarked darkly as Bella passed it back quickly, having taken a cautious sip and balked in horror at the taste. 

“Ugh, Li, how do you even….”

Bella glanced around as suddenly the sides of the porch loomed as high as the heavens – before quailing as a gigantic, white predator landed on the floor right in front of her, talons as large as her head digging into the boards. Hester, now the size of a carriage compared to the tiny girl, gave her a predatory look as she cocked her head to one side. “YOU SUCK, RUNE!”

“Whoops. However could [i]that[/i] have happened….”  Liaena muttered dryly to herself as she took a sip of her own potion, stuffing it back into her satchel quickly as she suddenly shrank to the size of Bella. As far as the transformation went, it was far more pleasant than the impersonation one could ever be, she mused as she stepped towards Hester, who chose to look disdainfully the other way as Liaena struggled up to hide among her feathers. Looking back, she glanced down at Bella who was still hovering nervously a safe distance away. Apparently, if it wasn’t a cat, large predatory fluffy things were no longer objects of affection. “Well, come on then. Unless you [i]want[/i] to be standing here when those Night Elves come stomping out…”

“….”

Glancing back at the massive, currently shut door behind them, this logic clearly struck a chord with Bella as she dashed over to clamber onto the bird, locking her arms around Liaena in a pincer grip. With a ruffle of feathers, Hester spread her wings to flutter up onto the porch railing. “Okay, lets go then. Remember Hester, you need to watch out for spells…and we don’t want them to see us coming. No show-boating, you got that?”

With a contemptuous toss of her head that clearly said ‘you don’t need to tell [i]me[/i] that’, the bird spread her wings to glide away from the porch, to be immediately lost in the silence and darkness of the night.