After she had that bath. It was beneath the dignity of a Lady to present herself to a fellow "Lord", even a maggot like Variev, in such a horrid condition.

Fortunately, what looked to be a mid-sized city sprawled below the bat's hillside perch. Surely she could find water and clean clothes, or at the very least a bit of blood, somewhere within the shining mass of streetlights. Blood... how she yearned for the salty sweet tang of blood..

She was already feeling the weariness creep into her bones, for without the power of her crimson ambrosia she'd been depleting almost nonexistent reserves of power. She could so easily forget everything, slip once more into the dreaming... No. There was much to be done, and the Dream somehow managed to strike a brand of fear in her heart that she hadn't felt for centuries.

The bat stretched her wings to catch the feather-light touch of an air current. In truth, it was an action meant more to occupy her fatigued mind than to allow for flight. Desperately trying to concentrate on the the cooling wind, Sierra was carried down into the city whose name she did not know. She eventually reach the dimly lit commercial district. Finding an adequate place to land just as she though her strength must give out, the vampire looked to the shop opposite the treetop upon which she rested.

The painted wooden sign hanging beside the shop's open upper level window read "Chalmers' Custom Clothing" in a bold green script. A two-story building of now shadowed stone, it was a place typical of the neighborhood and the home of the tailor as well as of his trade. As such, it was perfectly suited the needs of the vampire.

Emmett Chalmers opened the heavy oak door to his shop, armed with enough coffee to get him through a long night of sewing low quality school uniforms. What he found there brought three words to mind.

"What the hell?!?"

Perched on the chair by his worktable and wrapped in his favorite blue towel was a giant white bat with a Darkness Rune tattooed on it's right wing. Even more oddly, it seemed to be sorting through the rainbow of cloth samples he kept scattered on the desk with it's nose. The creature had presumably also lit the lonely green candle now burning by his pincushion. Looking him strait in the eye with an unnervingly steady gaze, it proceeded to point to a piece of rust colored silk with an ivory wingtip, in a gesture he could have sworn meant that it wanted him to do something with it. This was very, very weird. Maybe the stress of that Ohtori order was getting to him after all. He knew he should have taken that time off...

That was when he noticed the glassy stare of a orange tabby cat - his orange tabby cat - currently lying motionless in the corner.

"G-good bat. N-nice bat. You just stay here and I'll get you some nice yummy, ummm..., bat treats.." he nervously stuttered in an attempt to pacify the creature. There just had to be a way to get out of this.

The bat seemed to be getting agitated, and it's eyes were gaining an ominous looking scarlet light. Yeah, he was definitely going to have to go somewhere far, far away. Preferably right now.

What was that idiotic mortal staring at! Was he too stupid to realize that his job was to make clothes?!? She then remembered that she hadn't bothered to change back into a more human form. It would just take a second to call on some of her remaining power and...

Pain.

Sierra could feel her muscles twisting, her tendons stretching, and her bones breaking and snapping into place as the white-hot blaze of pain swept over her. When the agony she had become accustomed to since the loss of her lunar power faded, Sierra's body was once more that of an albino young woman. One presently dressed only in a cerulean bath towel.

"Listen," the vampire began in a businesslike tone, "It's obvious that I need some clothes and that you can sew them. Hopefully, for your sake, you have good taste and can be done by the end of the night. I was thinking that burgundy cloth there would make a good cloak... or maybe the dark grey..."

The young man's blue-green eyes widened, and he then proceeded to faint.

Well that was just great. Those mortals were so bloody fragile.

Squinting to block the blinding glow of the candelabra at his bedside, Emmett was nothing if not relieved. Now that had been one strange dream...

"Good. You're finally awake. Now you can get started," said the white-haired woman in the corner. Wow. She was pretty hot, and through that towel he could just about see...wait a second...

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

That was when the incoherent babbling began.

"Yourthebatohmigodyoukilledmycatthisjustisnthappeningohmygod -
whatshappeningtomeohcrapohcrapohcrapwhttimigunnado..."

Her arms crossed, the woman's voice became exasperated. "Are you going to be okay, or should I drain your blood and find another tailor?"

The vampire gave a mental sigh; that tailor looked like he was going to wet himself. Maybe she really should check out that place down the street. She'd probably be doing the mortals a favor by getting rid of this cowardly piece of waste...

"S-sorry Ms.Bat ma'am. There's no need to be drinking anybody's blood here ma'am, no need at all. Hahahahahahah..haha..hah....hah....," Emmett tittered, ending his somewhat more composed reply with an anxiety filled laugh as he rose from the hardwood floor.

She really should kill him and go, but it would be nice to just take a nap instead of having to transform again. So very, very tired....

"Good. You'll have to make something to suit a lady such as myself which will also be easy to fight in. I expect quality. Wake me when you're done," she said as she extinguished the flickering light of the nearby candles. She somehow sounded both tired and imperious at the same time.

"Ummm...yeah...sure..not a problem...nooooo problems here at all...."

At daybreak- about six hours and nine cups of caffinated salvation since Emmett had begun his project- Sierra finally had her new clothes. Although she of course couldn't see her reflection in the mirror, Sierra was nevertheless sure that the garments did indeed befit a lady of her caliber while retaining a certain amount of practicality. The white linen shirt went well with pants of the finest dark red silk, and her flowing new charcoal cloak fit perfectly. This was a profound relief to the one who stood beside her.

"Is that all ma'am?" he wearily asked, yawning as she proceeded to climb out of his window.

"Yes. One day I'll repay you... a Lady always honors her debts," Sierra promised. She had been taught her duty at an early age and the manners of royalty were deeply ingrained, even if she wasn't even really a Lady anymore.

"Oh. Ummm..you really don't have to bother coming back..y'know...ummm.. if you don't want to... That is, if you're going..."

" Don't worry mortal. It's your lucky day. I happen to find the animated corpses of your kind a more worthwhile target than you at the moment."

"Oh.. animated corpses... of course...nice, ummm, doing business with you...I think I'll get some sleep now..." Emmett replied in a curiously singsong voice, half convinced that he had just hallucinated the last seven hours.