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Rose, having done all she could for Flan, had sent ANTIE-D to carry her to Dragon's house with the explanation. Rose was exhausted. She needed real rest.

So she had gone back to her room, and laid back down. She slept through the afternoon, and into the evening. She woke briefly, had a snack, then went back to bed.

Sometime around midnight, the sensors picked up intruders in the house. ANTIE's monitors sent the silent alert to Rose's room, in order to wake Rose and not alert the intruders that they'd been found out.

Rose woke, with the blue lights flashing in her room, and silently crept over to her wall-panel. Tapping on the screen, she was able to locate the room that the intruders were in. It was her father's old bedroom, oddly enough. She quickly scanned the logs. It seemed that the two intruders had been in the house for about 15 minutes, and in her father's room the whole time. They had gotten in through the balcony to that room.

Rose summoned her wand, and left her room. She quietly walked down the hall, and through the open doorway to her father's room.

Fortunately, Rose's eyes had become acclimated to the dark, or she wouldn't have seen them. But the moment she walked into the room, the two intruders saw her, first. One pounced on her and knocked her flat on her back, and the other took her wand from her.

"That," Rose said, anger flaring up within her, turning her forehead gem red, "was a bad idea." Rose summoned wind and swept her attackers off of her and knocked them against the wall. Letting it go, they both fell to their knees. She took a look at them, and paused, watching them for a moment. One had short blond hair, the other had white hair, almost like dredlocks. There was something odd about them, like they seemed awkward in their movements. Like... like they weren't used to their bodies. she thought.

"Look." Rose said, her anger leaving her, and her forehead gem returning to blue, "I don't know what you're doing here, and I just had a long day. You have ten seconds to explain. Starting now." Without thinking, she put out her hand, and her wand- still in the hands of the white-dredlocks guy, flew back to her.

Looking at each other for two seconds, the white-dreds guy shrugged, and the blonde one spoke. "We're here in search of Arxus. We meant no harm- we had heard this was his home."

Rose's face paled, and she let her arm fall- no longer pointing the wand at them. But a mere second later, Rose's eyes narrowed.

"Who are you?" she asked. When the white-dredhead one opened his mouth, Rose cut him off. "And don't lie to me. I'll know. I already know you aren't human, so you might as well tell me. I know most of my father's enemies already, so if you're one of them, you're new. I'll give you a break."

Now it was the intruders' turn to be surprised.

"You're Arxus' daughter?" the one with white-dreds asked, in shock.

"That's not an answer to my question." Rose said sternly. She hadn't meant to give away any information, and that just made her more frustrated. She leveled her wand at them.

"My name is Kyrre, and this is Sahm." Responded the blonde. "We are kitsunes, members of the tribe that your father was born into." Kyrre answered, and glanced over at Sahm, before continuing. "Please, we need to find him. Do you know where he is?"

Rose almost believed them. But... "If you're kitsunes, where are your tails? How come you look human?" she asked.

Kyrre nodded, but Sahm shook his head. Kyrre raised an eyebrow at Sahm, who just frowned. Rose watched the exchange with interest.

Kyrre took a deep breath, and then let it out as he closed his eyes. His appearance seemed to melt into something more. His skin became a fine fur, and he grew a tail, whiskers and ears. He opened his eyes, and then, seeing Sahm still appeared human, thwapped him.

Sahm did the same, then, closing his eyes. He also melded into a fine fur skin, with a tail, ears and whiskers, but his hair also changed color, to an orange. He opened his eyes, and then shook his head.

"I still think this is a bad idea." Sahm muttered to Kyrre quietly.

"All right." Rose said, stifling a yawn. She believed them now. "So. Why did you want to find my father?" she asked, running a hand through her hair. "And why couldn't you just ring the doorbell?"

Kyrre and Sahm let go of the tension they'd been holding since the odd girl had fought them back. Kyrre sighed, and it was Sahm who responded this time.

"The tribe needs him back." Sahm explained. "But... but we weren't sure if we'd found him. He... he had become more of a myth among us than anything else, and part of his heritage..." Sahm trailed off, and looked at Kyrre for help. Getting none there, and receiving only a stern look, Sahm continued. "Part of his supposed heritage put him as being part... demon." he said, almost choking on the word. "We didn't want to get in... any... trouble." Sahm said, blushing as he said the last few words. Obviously, they were in trouble. Right now, even.

But Rose only shook her head wearily. She had felt the weight of her heritage on her for some time, but it was unusual for her to feel so old because of it. But then again, perhaps it would always be hard to explain to others that both her parents were dead.

Kyrre watched the girl, who suddenly seemed older than he had originally assumed her to be. He was intensely curious about her.

"I'm sorry." she said quietly. She didn't look up at them. "I'm... I'm sorry, but you're too late." Rose said, and sighed. "Arxus Blueaecid died." A tear fell straight from her face onto the floor, followed by another. "My demon uncle- his half brother- killed him about a year ago now." Not daring to look at them any longer, or even caring much for whatever they had to do here, Rose's voice simply shook as she told them, "If you want to look around, that's fine. Lock the front door when you leave." And with that, Rose turned, and walked out of her father's room.

Sahm and Kyrre looked at each other, and glanced after the girl. But it was Kyrre that called out- "Wait!" and ran to catch the arm of the girl before she'd gone too far down the hall.

((to be continued))