Alraia sat on her sturdy oak and brass trunk outside the iron gates and white stone walls that housed the abode of the infamous and eccentric wizard Kos. Leisurely, the young lady studied the structure of the locked gates, something in which she thought was uninviting especially with the gray-black gargoyles posed nearby and perched upon the walls. Their faces were twisted with sharp, cruel devilish features that would make the ordinary man cringe and flee with fear, and no doubt there was a fluttering within Alraia's chest to do exactly that. However, she was purposely planted there on the doorstep of the wizard Kos' home, or in her opinion, abandoned to the fate her father had cast upon her only a fortnight past.<br/><br/>She sighed, one that was long and full of dreariness, as she thought of her father. The man was stubborn at best, wanting to acquire wealth, power and prestige, all which she though he already had, but apparently it was not enough to satisfy him. Her learning the art of magic would acquire more for him, for the family, and little did the man care if she wanted to learn it or not; she was intelligent and wise, and not married, thus, she had nothing more to do with her life than to please her father. She pleaded and argued with him to no avail, once even cursing the man in so much that when it was brought forth that no other wizard was accepting an apprentice, Alraia thought her wicked curse worked and was silent pleased and amused with herself. Her father would not accept the news, however, and he scoured the city until he found a wizard with no apprentice: Kos. Little was there any wonder of why he did not have an apprentice, after all, his reputation was not well known for good deeds, or benevolent acts, and no loving parent would trust their cherished child to him, but Alraia was not cherished. She was merely at her father's disposal to use as a tool to gain what he wanted.<br/><br/>As the young woman pondered her new circumstances, her new situation, the brilliant sun that shone upon her feminine form weakened. Glancing at the afternoon sky, Alraia noticed billowing gray clouds, and it did not bode well with her for previously, the azure sky was cloudless. Her small nose wrinkled with disgust and she rose from her seat upon the trunk. Long had she waited, not wanting to begin the deed, the inane quest her father sent her on, yet with the clouds, the threat of a possible storm,  Alraia decided to call upon the wizard Kos.<br/><br/>With hesitant steps, Alraia padded to the locked gate and pulled a cord to chime a bell that resonated deeply in the silence of the late afternoon. Between the chimes of the bell, her voice called forth, one that was soothing and tenderly low although she paused at how to address the eccentric wizard.  “Oh great and marvelous Wizard Kos, please come forth, I beseech you, and answer your gate for a lonely and pathetic young woman in need of your services!” She leaned her pale cheek against the iron fence and wondered if it would draw the wizard's attention.