Skedaddle

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis squeezed his fingers tighter around the bloody knife he was holding and lunged for the wolf that was attacking Laya. The animal saw him coming and switched its attention to him, dodging sideways to avoid his weapon. It snapped its jaws at him fiercely and then made a fresh effort at getting to Laya's throat.

Adonis tackled the wolf sideways and wrestled with it on the ground. The animal he'd just stabbed was bleeding out on the soil next to him. "Call Telanis!" he snapped to Laya as he tried and failed to use his knife against the wolf at such close range.

[Emora Deen]

Laya was in shock, unable to look away from Adonis wrestling the wolf. She shook her head, quickly scurrying to her feet. Call Telanis? She stumbled to the edge of the clearing. "Telanis," she croaked out. "Telanis!" Her voice grew louder as she called his name. She ran a little ways, calling his name, but went back to the clearing to ensure Adonis was okay.

[Soran Nightblade]

The restless jaws of the animal above him blurred in and out of focus. He managed not to lose the knife and brought his arm free to make a stab at the wolf's neck. The weapon met its target, but far too shallow to kill. The wolf reciprocated by latching its jaws onto Adonis's raised forearm. It clamped down hard until he dropped the knife, sinking teeth down to bone.

Adonis snarled and threw his knee up into the wolf's stomach, but the creature knew better than to release him. He blinked as the blood on and around him wrecked his senses. The others would smell the blood. This place would not be safe long, and in a few more seconds, he would be useless. Unless Telanis made it back, the girl would be outnumbered. He focused on the power in the stone he wore, and his eyes bled to black. There wasn't a choice.

[Emora Deen]

Laya scurried forward, and scooped up the knife when she saw the wolf bite down on Adonis. Everything blurred and suddenly she found herself sitting on her knees in front of Adonis and the wolf lay limp between them. She was holding the hilt of his knife while it was buried in the neck of the wolf. The blood saturated the fur and her hand. She was panting, nearly hyperventilating. Her storm gray eyes flickered up to him, like she was waking from a nightmare.

Laya shook her head, taking her cloak and reaching forward quickly. While the cloak was still around her she took the end of it, moved his hand out of the way, and pressed the fabric tight to the wound. “Telanis will be here soon…” If not they needed to go to a doctor. Fast. “Hold on.” She told him, her voice quivering calm.

[Soran Nightblade]

His eyes slowly returned to their natural brown as he stared in paralyzed shock at the dead animal between them. He looked up at her. She looked shaken, but it was hard to tell if she was hurt. She seemed awfully upset for someone who wasn't hurt.

"Telanis will be here soon. Hold on."

He registered the words and the fierce heat in his arm as she wrapped her cloak around his wound.

She was worried. Oh. She was worried? Maybe bloodshock was making him delusional, because he really didn't think the concept made sense.

Blood was everywhere. "More will come," he said unsteadily. He was trying to warn her, but that was about as complex a sentence as he could manage, and he couldn't make his body move at all.

[Emora Deen]

"Maybe we should go back to the city," Laya said quickly, looking around. She exhaled deeply, trying to calm her nerves so her hands wouldn't shake. She was trying to hold the wound tight so to slow the blood, but her hands were uncooperative. "Okay, we can't sit here. So we either look for Telanis or go back to the city. We'll leave his clothes and he can come looking for us if we aren't back soon. I'll leave a note or something?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis barely shook his head. "You go back," he said.

[Emora Deen]

"Me?" Laya asked quickly. "I don't want to leave you here, what if they come back? What am I going back for anyway? If I bring a doctor and Telanis comes back he'll be seen..."

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis was glad her hand was shaking, because it helped hide his own. "You're just going to get yourself killed. Get to the port."

[Emora Deen]

Laya shook her head. "I'm not going to leave you like this," Laya told him firmly. "You're bleeding and you can't fend them off with one hand. I'm staying."

[Soran Nightblade]

His eyes narrowed harshly. "I can't fend them off because I'm surrounded by your stink," he said cruelly. His eyes sank to pitch black. "Go away before I curse you into ash."

[Emora Deen]

Laya looked as if she'd been slapped, hard. Laya let his arm go quickly, falling back onto her rear in fright. She sat there staring at his black eyes before she reached out for one of her bags. She grabbed it by the straps as she slithered away from him.

She backed away, like he were the wolf about to rip out her throat. She watched him, her eyes flickering all over him as if she didn't know what to make of him. Had he planned this?

He wanted her away from Telanis. Had he planned this? Did he just want any excuse to kill her? When she was at the edge of the clearing she turned and fled back towards the city.

Laya looked down at her hands covered in Adonis's blood. She wiped her hands franticly on the bloodstained cloak. She pulled it off and left it in the brush just outside the docks, wiping her eyes and drying her cheeks before confronting people.

The docks were just as busy as they had been when they had landed at dusk. Now night had set in and the torches flickered over the wooden walkways. She weaved her way through the people. They bustled around her, fast, hurried.

Laya stumbled out of their way, feeling lost in so many people. Feeling very lost without the two who had been her companions for so long.

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis watched her run for her life. A small sense of triumph welled up in him. The feeling faded quickly into despair. He swallowed tightly and stayed at the level of his power. If more came, he could use the Darkness to defend himself. As long as he could stay conscious. Of course, that wasn't a permanent solution, but he wasn't thinking very well at the moment. He should have been concentrating on making himself move, but instead he was thinking about the shell-shocked look on the girl's face when he threatened her.

Telanis galloped full speed toward the sense of fear and shock that was resounding through the woods like a hammer's fall. He sensed only one source, and he knew it well. Had Adonis attacked her? He couldn't believe such a thing...they'd seemed to be almost civil to each other since last night. But his brother's mind was silent, meaning he was either the source of her terror or he didn't want to be found. He followed Laya's emotions like a trail as fast as his legs could carry him. Soon, he noticed he was no longer heading toward the place he'd originally left them. He pushed himself faster and called with all the force he could muster, *Laya?*

[Emora Deen]

Laya?

Laya stopped walking before she reached the palace gates. Telanis? I'm fine.... We were attacked by wolves. I am back at the city... Adonis is hurt... help him please. Laya tried not to feel upset, so if he could hear her thoughts he wouldn't feel how hurt she'd been by Adonis's sudden outburst. I'm fine... I just had to come back.

Where was she going to go though? Laya had just walked off without thinking or planning about what would happen next. Would she meet back up with them? It would be so awkward she didn't know if she'd be able to face Adonis. But, she had before, and she supposed she'd do it again.

Even if he was cruel to her she couldn't help but feel for him. She didn't understand why, and she didn't think it was fair for her heart to become attached to someone who hated her.

Laya frowned as she reached the gate. She stood in front of the guards and the people walking through and couldn't move another inch. His words hurt her heart, like he'd stabbed her right through her chest, but where was the lie? She could see why he would say that. Adonis was once a pure creature that was harmed, and she was corrupted. She probably smelled just like the thing that had hurt him, that might be why he hated her so much.

Even still she felt terrible for leaving him in the woods bleeding, even more so knowing that if she didn't go back Telanis would keep coming for the city if he hadn't heard her thoughts. That would leave Adonis in the forest without anyone to help him.

She clenched her eyes, her mind racing with what she should do.

She found herself standing at the edge of the docks again looking at the beach and the forest. The wind blew cold and it cut right through her coat and skin. She wanted to cry, and felt stupid for wanting to cry. She didn't think it was fair to have this undeniable urge to help Adonis, when he hated her so much.

She walked through the forest, her pace growing more hurried the more she thought Telanis coming to find them and the wolves attacking him. When she reached the clearing she stopped short, looking at Adonis from behind while she pressed her hands against the tree, half hiding.

She swallowed, forcing her emotions into a tiny bottle much like the way she had when dealing with Kron. She stepped into the clearing, forcing her pace to be surer than she felt it. Her knees were quivering, knowing that with one touch Adonis would kill her.

"I'm taking you with me wether you like it or not," Laya told him as she reached down for his arm. "You sitting here is going to draw the wolves and Telanis and he'll be attacked. We may not agree on anything, but we agree on one thing and that is Telanis should be protected." She didn't meet his eyes.

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis was shaking and dazed when Laya's voice came back to him like it was traveling through a pool of water. Her hand closing on his arm alerted him that he wasn't hallucinating her. He glanced up at her with blackened eyes that immediately startled back to pure brown. "You're supposed to go away," he mumbled incoherently, like he couldn't comprehend why she didn't do what he intended. He'd been fairly persuasive, after all. "They won't attack...unicorn...you need to be with Telanis. Not here. Can't come here. Go away," he lectured her incoherently.

Telanis wound his way around the city, feeling her grow further away again. He made his way through the trees in an indirect route, wishing he could cut through the port without being seen. He followed her as fast as he could until he finally grew close to the place he'd originally left them. He froze before he even came into sight of the place. Blood washed through his senses. Not just a little blood. Several had died here. He forced his legs to carry him forward.