The Hunted

[Emora Deen]

Rai nodded, closing her eyes. She knew that they were tough… But, she also knew that there were some things in the world that not even tough people could handle.

She stretched out her legs in front of her, shifting the coat off them to look at them admirably. The dress she’d worn as a child had torn at the seams around her waist and shoulders and chest, her body having stretched as it grew until the fabric ripped. It was way too short for her, so her long legs weren’t nearly as covered as they should be without Soran’s coat to conceal her. She bent a knee up, and flexed it out. It didn’t look more muscled and slender… she couldn’t think of the right word to describe it.

She then looked down at her chest, tilting her head as she pulled back the ruin collar of her gown and peered inside. Then, with a soft giggle she let the fabric go and covered her mouth. She stifled it quickly, knowing that it wasn’t that funny. It was just new to have such older things.

However, with the harsh cutting wind she had to draw the coat around her, and once again was hugging her legs.

[Mizuki]

Blade raised a brow at his adopted sisters behaviour. He blushed then quickly looked away. He was still a bit too young to understand 'breasts', but he knew enough to know that they were private to women. ' "Until you find a special girl that will show you her special places!" ' Siren had told him. Siren wasn't very subtile. Blade then started to wonder what Siren had put Soran and Mizuki through... oh boy.

He snapped his attention back to keeping a surveillance on their makeshift campsite.

[Emora Deen]

Rai was sitting, listening and waiting and it was cold. She was very tired of the cold already. She felt something strange, like a tingle in the air and she wasn’t quite sure why she felt it at all. She heard something in the woods, a snap of a twig, and her heart leapt. At first she wondered if it was possibly just Sid picking up firewood… But, then again he had gone off in the other direction.

She frowned as she looked at the dark spot in the forest where the sound had come from and she narrowed her eyes on it. She thought she saw something moving in the distance, as she heard another sound. It sounded like galloping.

“Blade…” Rai whispered as she shifted to her knees, and then to her feet as the sound was getting closer.

“Blade!” She screamed as two horses burst into the clearing, one heading right for her. She turned to run away from it, stumbling over the long coat she wore. A burly stout man on a gray horse charged right up behind her, and then alongside her, and he reached down with his leather gloved hand, grabbing one of her flailing arms. He pulled hard, and his grip was tight and harsh as he dragged her up and threw her over his saddle, continuing on through the woods.

Rai held on for dear life, the galloping knocking the wind out of her lungs. She thought wildly for a way out of the current situation, and her eyes looked for anything she could use as a weapon. She saw the edge of his boot, where his pants leg was tucked loosely under the leather. There was the handle of a dagger. She reached out for it, a limb catching her hand and cutting across it. She snatched her arm back for a second, biting her bottom lip as she reached out again.

She took the dagger and rolled in the saddle stabbing him in the first thing her hand made contact with, which was his neck. In shock he tugged hard on the reigns, the horse reared at the harsh treatment, and both of them rolled off the back to land in the cold muddied earth.

Rai landed hard on her back, her rear a little sore from the impact. She scurried to her feet though, and kept running. Whether it was fear or adrenaline, she was suddenly very good at using her new legs. When she thought she was far enough away she fell down next to an old rotten tree and climbed inside the hollowed out hole in the center. She drew her legs up too her, breathing heavily as she tried to quite herself enough to listen. The breath fogged in front of her face as she concentrated on breathing slower, quieter, so no one would hear where she was hiding.

She hoped everyone in the clearing was alright. She hoped no one was hurt, because she wasn’t there to save them.

[Mizuki]

Blade had, after a skirmish of magic, decapitated the other rider. He was disorientated from the fast circling that had gone on, and he had lost Rai. Shi--. He called out for Sid, who was still getting firewood. A panic rose up in his throat when he called out. For a moment wondering if Sid was behinde this. But when Sid came jogging back, after having dropped everything he was carrying, Blade's heart skipped a beat in relief and despair. It didn't take long for the man to take in what just happened, and they both dashed off into two different directions to find Rai.

"Rai!" Blade called out, terror in his voice. His sister, he lost his sister AGAIN. He can't. He can't! What prince loses their sister!? Blade tried to use the seer magic he inherited from his mother. Concentrating as much as he could to find his sister. He used his wings to his advantage to cover ground much m ore than any normal human could. He glided over rocks and ditches, above fallen trees, and darting past wayward animals. Again he cried his sister's name, "Rai!"

[Emora Deen]

Rai listened as she heard the faint sound of someone calling her name. She shifted forward, putting her dirty mud covered hands outside of the trunk and peaking out. She looked through the dark forest on either side, not able to see anyone.

She slipped back inside the trunk, her heart thudding. She thought it sounded like Blade, but she was afraid it might be someone else…

She took a deep breath and crawled out of the trunk of the tree, standing up and looking around. “Bl–“ Someone wrapped there hand around her mouth and their arm around her body and started dragging her back. She kicked and jerked, but they were pretty strong. She kicked backwards with her leg, catching him between the legs. He let her go, and she stumbled to the ground. "Blade!!! Sid!" She scurried to her feet, running in the direction of their voices. The man clammoring the catch up.

[Soran Nightblade]

Sid finally broke stride long enough to catch his breath and try to regain his bearings. After splitting up with Blade, he'd been running for quite a while, until he'd finally lost all track of the hoofbeats he'd been chasing. He pressed his thumbs to his forehead in consternation and tried to think strait. Damn it, he'd promised Rhen he'd protect them. Now he had no clue where either of the rogue's children were. He changed his direction slightly and began running in a different direction. He stopped shouting for Rai, feeling like he'd only announce their presence to more enemies, and he wasn't ready to do that without even the vaguest idea of where the others were.

[Mizuki]

Blade felt something strange to his left, he didn't know what it was but he was going to check it out in case his sister was involved. So he made a hard left into the trees. Having no idea of his actual direction or who he was comming up on, Blade was focused on his sister only. He saw a blur of legs ahead of him, and long brown hair. Rai! But he was distrubed by the other, large form that he saw. Someone was with her, and by just the looks at of it, it was an unfriendly 'someone'.

Blade plucked off a sphere of silver from his bracelet, and formed it into a spinning disk. He sent it flying towards the man where it then sliced his hamstrings.

[Emora Deen]

Rai kept running until her side was hurting, and even then she told herself she had to keep running because someone was following her. She didn't want to be caught again. However, she didn't know how long she would be able to keep running. Her legs were starting to burn, and the person behind her didn't seem intent on giving up.

Then she heard a scream from behind her, and the man slipped into the mud, skidding to a stop. Rai stopped, turning towards him, not quite sure what had happened. She was heaving, clutching her sides as she stepped slowly towards the man struggling on the ground. She collapsed to the ground, her lungs burning as she breathed in the cold air. She sat on her ankles watching as her attacker withered on the ground.

[Soran Nightblade]

Sid stopped short as a male scream sounded through the forest. He turned his head in the direction of the noise and listened for a moment before bursting back into motion toward the sound.

[Mizuki]

"Back away Rai!" Blade called out as he ran forwards to protect his sister. The silver disk, which had embedded itself into a tree trunk after it's initial attack, flew back into Blade's bracelet and reformed. The blood dripping away from it. The man was alive, but in pain. Would make interrogating him... annoying. Wings out a flared in fear and aggitation, Blade stooped down to the writhing man, protectively in front of his sister. He stared at him hard.

"What do you want with her?"

[Emora Deen]

Rai stayed behind Blade, trying to catch her breath. She wasn’t as cold anymore. She peaked out from behind her brother to the man who was trying very hard to deal with his injuries. He didn’t say a word, just stared angrily at the Dark Angel.

[Soran Nightblade]

Sid suddenly broke through the underbrush opposite Blade and Rai and took in the scene of Rai, Blade, and the man lying between them. He stared at them all, almost comically breathless. "Do I get a turn to beat on him?" he inquired sadistically, making a fist and cracking his knuckles with his other hand.

[Mizuki]

Blade made a show of considering it. "I've already handicapped him..." Fear and intimidation, he learned those two things from the generals of his army. Siren didn't like him learning it, but she did have to teach him. He remembered her lessons well. "But I think at this point he has nothing left to lose..." Blade glared down at him again, "unless you would love to tell us something, I'm afriad you'll be losing your life today." The mock-sweet smile he learned from Siren was plastered to his face.

[Emora Deen]

“There are more seeking the bounty on your head little girl,” he said to Rai, smirking as he pushed himself up a little. Rai swallowed, reaching for Blade’s shirt and holding on to it tightly as if his very words would bring the people that were after her. “Some not as nice as me.”

And that was all he had to say. He chuckled as he looked at Sid, his hand shifting underneath him and grabbing for something. Then, he through his arm out, sending with it a throwing dagger, trying to take the grown man out and leave the kids to the others that would come.

[Soran Nightblade]

Sid ducked as fast as he could under the dagger, losing a few hairs as he dropped to a crouch. He used the momentum to launch himself forward onto the wounded man, drop-slamming him with his elbow into the man's chest. He could feel ribs cracking pleasantly under his weight as he ground his elbow in and sneered down at the man. "Not cool," he informed the man, who let out a scream of pain.