The cave resounded with the screech of a braking train. Oh, the magic of technology, yet they hadn't figured out how to oil machinery to soundlessness. Erika's face, at the moment rendered completely featureless by the darkness, was turned upwards in exasperation. Why, why, why again was she doing this? She had been around since the 12th century, curse it. But her mother, ever the hippie in their particular branch of the great demonic family tree, insisted that Erika should try to "get some experience among other entities" and, worst of all, "be social"! Yeah, right. Not even demons wanted to hang out with a freak of nature like her, why should anyone else want to? Despite her gloom, she forced herself to take the step into the car and into the revealing light.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">"Nice trick! where'd you learn to do that?"</span>Erika scowled at the unwelcome comment, coming from some sort of not-quite-looking-the-part elf. He was sitting with a couple of others, including - her grey eyes widened, softening her sour expression - a human? How could one of them be here?<span style="color: #000000">"I didn't learn,"</span>she snarled at him.<span style="color: #000000">"I am like this."</span>She strode towards the group, towering above them. She had no reason to approach them, really, other than the fact that the elf-thing had expressed some sort of interest in her, and that the rest of the car seemed to keep a kind of hostile distance to them, as if they were afflicted with a disgusting disease. It clicked then. She'd read about them, and while not common, she didn't find it unlikely that there would be some besides herself. She stared down her nose at the tan elf.<span style="color: #000000">"You're all halflings?"</span>