Search, Rescue, Destroy (MATURE)

[Soran Nightblade]

Sid squeezed Rai tighter, partly because she was squeezing him and partly because it seemed like the swirling fog might rip her out of his arms. He looked down at the faint shadow where he knew her face was. He could see her mouth moving, but he heard nothing. "Okay, that's creepy," he muttered and decided to do the one thing he could think of: Run.

He chose a random direction in the darkness and ran, doing all he could to keep his footing on the uneven ground below him. Rai's tiny nails digging into his shoulder were a bit of a relief, as they at least proved she was okay.

What about the others? He guessed he couldn't afford to worry about it for now; if these people were after Rai, he needed to escape with her no matter what. "Hang on!" he panted to her, not that she could probably hear him and not that she had much of a choice in the matter when he held her so tight. He stumbled over a root and suddenly found himself falling blind. His legs caught the ground a few feet down without much warning and he nearly folded over, but the ground was steep enough that he stumbled forward again. And then, he was completely shocked to feel cold water engulf them both. He opened his eyes and found that he was underwater. It was dark there too, thanks to the fog overhead, but he could see light shining into the water in the distance. Great...they just had to swim. He wondered in a frantic heartbeat if the child could swim.

"Rai!" he tried to shout to her. It made an unintelligible gurgle, but at least it was sound. He released his grip on her somewhat so that she could move more freely and pointed toward the light.

[Emora Deen]

Rai gasped in shock when the water hit her, sucking in a bit of whater as she did so. Her arms slapped about paniced and she squeezed her eyes shut. Her already quivering legs seemed to just flop around uselessly suddenly. The shock of the hit made her forget about the man who was helping her. Her bright blue eyes snapped open and she felt around for who it was helping her. She could barely see anything but blackness and she thought fearfully of what might be in the water with them.

Her lungs were already burning, longing for air. She hadn't taken a deep enough breath, for she hadn't been prepared to fall into the icy river. Her hands felt his face gently, felt down his neck to his arm. Then, his hand and she could feel the direction his finger was pointing. That gave her some knowledge of which way to kick. Though, kicking wasn't much use since she couldn't seem to get her legs to cooperate. Flailing uselessly, she tried to reach the surface.

[Soran Nightblade]

Sid could tell immediately from her movements that this wasn't going to be a smooth swim. Winding his hands awkwardly around her teenage hips, he positioned himself under her and pushed her to the surface to breathe in the black fog. When he'd held her there for a few seconds, he pushed up beside her and gasped for air. He was experiencing too much adrenaline for any amount of air to really be enough at the moment. From above the water, the light in the distance did not exist, but he knew what he'd seen. Dropping under the icy surface again and releasing Rai except for one hand, he struggled with the laces on his boots, which were dragging him down like anchors. He imagined Soran's coat couldn't be helping Rai either, but he wasn't ready to take that from her just yet. Not unless he had to... He finally got his boots off and abandoned them to the river, kicking his way back to the surface and panting as he tugged Rai up for another breath.

[Emora Deen]

She felt like a bit of luggage at the moment, being jerked up and down, carried almost. However, Rai wasn't about to deny any help at the moment. Her hands were getting caught in the sleeves, which seemed to have suddenly gained at least five pounds. The fabric around her legs were getting hard to move with the fabric clinging and tangling around them.

She was trying not to panic, even though her movements clearly explained that she was panicing. So she tried to be calmer, tried to move with more fluid and graceful attempts at swimming. Maybe it was the sudden flopping into the water, but for the life of her she couldn't remember how to swim. Kick, she remembered it involved kickinh. Swinging of the arms and holding your breath. She worried suddenly whether she was going to drawn Sid in her apparently ridiculous attempt at remembering to swim.

[Soran Nightblade]

"It's okay, it's okay," Sid panted to her comfortingly, though he knew she couldn't hear him. He drew her up against his side and began swimming in a lifeguard's stroke with her toward the light. He wanted to hug her or do anything to calm her, but one arm locked tight around her waist was all he could afford. He had to admit that her coat really was in the way. His own legs kept catching on it now as he swam with her, periodically ducking his head under to make sure he was headed the right way. Still, this would work, as long as he didn't get tired first.

[Emora Deen]

She spluttered out water whenever it would splash into her mouth as she took a deep breath. Trying to calm herself as best she could. She had to have faith that nothing monsterous was going to eat them, or there wasn't a waterfall of some sort coming up. Even if there was she'd never hear it. All there was was numbing silence, a frightening thing if you asked her. Her hand held tightly to Sid's shirt, ensuring that even if he had to let go of her she'd not lose him in the current. She also had to trust him, for he was the one leading there escape of the river... Of course, Rai had always been a trusting girl.

[Mizuki]

She could hear nothing. Not even Soran's breathing, though she knew he was panicking, she was too. This was magic, unfortunately one she could not break. It's a strange feeling, being unable to hear and only see dimly through thick fog. It made their flight hazardous. Mizuki clutched Soran tighter.

Blade had abandoned trying to find the others. It clearly wasn't happening, and since he couldn't even hear them, it was a hopeless venture. He just had to get out, somehow. Easier said than done. Without any other options opening up, Blade began to manipulate his metal and walk, carefully through the dense fog, with the metallic rope extended before him. Hoping, that it would help him find someone.

[Soran Nightblade]

Sid felt Rai grab hold of him, and it was useful that he now had his arm free, although for the life of him he couldn't find a good way to use it in this position. He reached up and stroked her wet forehead comfortingly, then wrapped his arm back around her slender waist and kept swimming. They were almost there. He touched his fingers to her mouth to signal her to take a deep breath, then dove with her under the water, swimming on his back with her safe against his chest. He spread his arms and legs in five or six long, powerful frogstrokes, and suddenly light glowed around them. They'd found the edge of the spell. He put his arms around her and kicked fiercely until they burst out at the surface in the bright midday sun. The spell hung like a black storm just beside them.

Soran clasped Mizuki a little tighter as he realized she wasn't hearing his yelling. She could be yelling to him too, for all he knew. He squeezed her hand chose the only option they really had. He picked a direction and ran. The ground under his feet became stony and uneven, which seemed odd, because Soran only remembered forest around them. He stumbled a bit as he searched for his footing with Mizuki's weight in his arms, but he didn't dare stop for anything.

Then, at once, light exploded in his green eyes. The elf stopped dead as they suddenly ran free of the spell. He squinted at the light until his eyes slowly registered, but what he wound up seeing was not pleasant. A man in a blue robe stood not four yards away from them, watching them with a smirk.

"Took you long enough," he said. "Where is the child?"

"Not...with us..." Soran panted.

[Mizuki]

Once they broke through, every sense exploded in Mizuki's mind. She could hear Rai, Sid, and Soran all at once, but not Blade. Once it calmed in her mind, she kept her face a mask from the man, revealing nothing. She knew Rai and Sid were safely out of the spell, she did not know of Blade yet. He must still be within. It made her fret, but she had to remember that her son was almost a man.

Though, within the spell, Blade had managed to get a reflection of light on his metallic rope. It surprised him, and he warily went towards it, unsure of what it meant.

[Emora Deen]

Rai took several deep breaths and stared at the thick dense mass of coal like fog. She reached out a finger tip and touched it. It moved like mist across her finger, almost as if it threatened to suck her back in. She withdrew her hand, fearful of how lifelike it seemed to her. She kept kicking her legs, now tangled beyond usefulness in wet leather that was sure to grow very uncomfortable, if not impossible to stay wrapped in.

"What do we do?" she asked, looking back at Sid. Her long curly blond hair was wet and stringy around her face. Her blue eyes a little red from peering underwater. "Do you think they're okay?" Her young teenage face cringed in worry.

[Soran Nightblade]

Sid looked around, thinking about Rai's question. There had to be a reason the spell was cast....were their enemies waiting for them to come out so they could pick them off one by one? "You're not going to like this, but I think we'd better swim a bit more," he panted. No one had spotted them, but if they climbed to shore and walked on land, he had a good feeling they would.

* * *

"If you don't have the girl, then we're done here," the man in the blue robe said, raising his hand up. A glowing red light began growing around his palm.

Soran's body tensed. He had a very bad feeling about this, and there was very little he could do to stop it.

The man's hand shot down, and the ball of red energy danced toward them and erupted at their feet. Soran took a dive to the side, rolling on his shoulder with Mizuki curled to his chest. It didn't burn like a normal explosion....it was more like a blast of force that went through them, making their bodies feel like one big aching bruise. Although they'd managed to get out of the direct fire of the spell, Soran's breath caught with the shock of it and he struggled to get back to his feet. However, the force went through the ground as well, and apparently the ground was not quite as solid as the magician thought. A deep cracking sound sounded from below them, and suddenly the rocky structure below them shattered. In a crash of stone and dirt, a hole opened below them, and they both found themselves falling helplessly toward....something.

[Emora Deen]

Rai nodded, trusting that he was probably right and they needed to swim. She reached down and fought the leather coat from around her legs to allow them a bit more freedom. However, just as soon as they shifted forward the coat acted like a magnet and hugged her skin. She brushed her hair from her face. She glanced back over her shoulder at the thick merciless fog and she felt a great wave of sadness suddenly come over her. Why did it seem like she was always getting people into trouble. Was she cursed like that? Not only cursed to carry the key to unlocking a demon within her veins, but cursed to endanger anyone that ever tried ot help her.

Her crystal gaze returned to Sid's face and she thought breifly about how long it would be before he too was constantly endanger because of her. Then, she smirked. Well, that wasn't to hard to figure out. It was happening right now.

"Thank you," she whispered to him, keeping her voice quiet just encase someone was around to listen.

[Mizuki]

The first thing Blade heard once finding his way out, was his mother's scream. Alerted and on edge, Blade's wings shot up and he carried himself far above the land. It seemed that the spell didn't go as high as he thought. He could've been out sooner had he known. Blade managed to spot the exact place where his mother and Soran had fallen, and the man standing over the hole, contemplating his next move. Without thinking, Blade's once metallic rope shaped itself into a spear, and was hurled towards the magician at breakneck speed.

Before the man even had time to look up, the silver spear drove itself pointblank, through his collarbone and out his back. He died before he hit the ground, and never saw the raging Prince of Dark Angels hurtling himself towards where Soran and Mizuki had fallen through. But he stopped. Gazing down into the depths of the hole, he sensed his mother and Soran were alive and okay, and he also sensed Rai and Sid. He didn't know where to go. Torn between wanting to save his mother and protect his sister.

Go to Rai. Yes, his mother would tell him that no matter what. Biting his lower lip and clenching his fists, Blade turned away from the corpse and the hole. Retracting his silver, Blade made off towards his sister and Sid. 'They're fine,' he kept repeating in his mind, but it was so hard to not still go to them.

Get Rai. Get to safety.

They wanted Rai, and so Blade had to see Mizuki and Soran's fall was actually keeping them safe. And it was true, they had fallen into an underground cavern. Mizuki lay sprawled on her back in the dirt that had come down with them. She was unconscious, but otherwise alright.

[Soran Nightblade]

Soran had no idea how far he fell. By the time he landed, he was more or less expecting to die. Instead, he crashed into a deep pool of water. It rushed into his nose and throat as he punched down into very still, cold water that tasted of minerals. Shocked by the sudden cold and the fact that he was alive, he swam wildly for the surface, forcing himself not to choke on the water in his lungs. He wasn't a strong swimmer, but his adrenaline somehow delivered him to the surface. He broke back into the air, coughing and splashing as he tried to get fresh breath into his lungs. He swung himself in a clumsy circle, searching wildly for signs of Mizuki. "Mi...Mizu" he shouted, but his throat kept convulsing on his voice. The cavern was almost too dark to see in, but its walls held a faint, phosphorescent blue glow that revealed the immense size of the cave. He glanced toward the closest wall, where he could hear the faint sound of small waves breaking on rock. Still coughing, he swam that way, hoping there was shore there. His heart pounded as his keen elven eyes strained for a sign of Mizuki anywhere.

[Mizuki]

Covered in dirt and bruises, Mizuki slowly came to consciousness. The earth beneath her felt wet. The earth that had crumbled beneath them had made a small island in the shallow parts of the under ground water. She lay atop that small, damp island, stunned and barely making out her surroundings. She knew she was on her back, somewhere dark, and there was water. A slight movement to her right wrist caused significant stabs of pain shoot up her arm.

"Ah!" she cried faintly, on impulse. She rolled onto her side, pulled herself gently into the fetal position and cradled her broken wrist.