Heirot

She turned her head, relishing in his warmth and comfort. Yes... heal here. "No,'' she said softly, "Almost but...I... killed him. Gods," she clutched his shirt, trying to hide from the memories with his strength. "I can still see how his skull crumbled against the stone..."

Soran wasn't sure what to say to her there. He knew what it was like to regret a kill, but in her shoes, he didn't think he would have regretted this one. "You were right to defend yourself. More than right. Whatever punishment you showed him was almost certainly kinder than mine would have been when I got there," he said, stroking the back of her head. He speculated that gesture was probably something he'd learned from her.

Rai looked at them and grinned, completely comfortable lying in the dirt and leaves. "Of course I did," she replied with a soft smile before rising to her feet and adjusting her coat.

She opened her mouth to speak when she heard the sound of hooves growing steadily closer off in the distance. "I can feel her presence."

"We all can, but where?"

"She should be right here."

Rai's eyes looked to her father, her face had gone white and slowly her gaze drifted up the steep hill. It was so steep that it would make it hard for them to see them and the bushes so high. They'd tumble down the hill before realizing where they were. However, she knew enough now to know that staying wouldn't be the best option.

"There are three of them. Do we kill them all?"

"Hell, I don't care. Maybe the reward will be better if we bring all three of their heads back?"

"I'm just bringing the girls. That's the one the Queen asked for, so that's the one I'm getting."

Rai rubbed her neck with a strange dazed expression on her face. Then her eyes glanced to the ones in the clearing. "I think we should run..." she breathed.

The only problem was that anywhere they ran they could track them. So if Rai went with them they would follow. Unless there was a way of tricking them. Rai looked at her family. She didn't want to be the reason they got hurt... They had a few minutes. They had some time. It would take the soldiers a while to realize where they were going and by the time they realized maybe they would be some distance away.

Hearing their pursuers, both Soran and Blade leapt into action, but it was Mizuki who shook her head.

"We can't fight them!" she said in a hushed tone so they wouldn't hear. What passed between Soran and Mizuki was quickly pushed aside on pure instinct. Adrenaline pushing through Mizuki's veins managed to make her forget her nausea.

"Then what do we do!?" Blade said sharply.

"Just run," Soran interjected, "No one's fit for a fight." With that, they all picked up and ran swiftly through the woods. Trying hard to stay quiet. Soran was clutching Mizuki to him tightly, she was unfit to run. Blade hovered ahead of them, keeping the path clear for them and to warn them beforehand if the men managed to get in front of them. Sid stayed beside Rai, watching and pulling her along through their flight.


OOC: hope i did Soran justice.., probably not. lol oh well. and secretly Soran and Sid managed to slip off into the darkness and have gay sex in Hepian where all the sex and porn happens ^_~

Rai ran as fast as her new long legs would take her, amazed at the fact she actually could move greater distance now that she was taller. They ran until they no longer were able to hear the voices of the men.

They ran until Rai's side started to hurt, but she didn't want to stop running. Her neck hurt at the thought of someone slicing her head off. Why her anyway? She hadn't done anything to that wreched old hag...

"Can... we rest... Is it safe?" she asked in a huff.

Mizuki's senses were full of alarm. "Unfortunately, no." she said as they stopped suddenly to get their bearings. They had managed to lose them, getting the soldiers lost in the dark forest, but they were also lost and their small patch of safety would only last for so long.

"We have to keep going..."

"To where, though?" Blade interjected. "We're running blind!"

Soran stopped short and turned toward his tired daughter and the others who where stopped. "I don't understand why, but they're after Rai," he said, a bit winded himself. He glanced back over his shoulder at the direction they'd been heading and listened hard. At first his blood was pounding too hard in his head for him to hear anything, but slowly another sound emerged, very faintly in the distance. He allowed himself a small flash of a relieved smile. It was almost too good to be true. "There's running water that way," he said, pointing Northeast. "Any streams in this area run from the mountains. If you follow it against the current, you should reach the Border," he said and looked back at them.

Not surprisingly, Sid was already glaring at them. "Not 'you'. You mean 'us'," he frowned.

Soran shook his head, convinced he was right. "No, all of you take Rai and run for the Border. I'll stay here and throw them onto the wrong trail."

Sid's eyes flashed anger. "We should all stay together," he growled. "Don't get all stupid on me."

"I know what I'm doing," Soran said firmly.

Sid flushed an angry red and directed a protesting stare at Mizuki, who he assumed was the person he'd be most likely to listen to.

"I know what I'm doing," Soran said firmly.

Mizuki gave him a sharp shove, belying her fatigued stature. She glared at him darkly. "I'll be damned if you separate yourself from me." A spark of anger flickered across her features in the dark and she grabbed his chin in between her fingers, making him face her. "You'll get yourself killed against magic users. I don't care how nimble and deadly you are." It was unlike her to act this way, she normally used her calm wisdom to get him to understand, but what she went through this night... she came right out of a personal hell and now her salvation was attempting to leave her side for a foolish act of nobility.

She refused to lose him to Arken, like she had Luc.

Blade watched his mother, noticing her change and he tensed up, unsure of what would happen between the two. And they had to get moving soon...

Soran's eyes flared wide, startled and uncomfortable as Mizuki suddenly clasped his face. His temper fought in his expression for several seconds, wanting to rise up and fight against the dark glare she was giving him, and his arms tensed as if to wrestle her off. The effort was almost tangible as he instead lowered his guard and cooled his expression back to a strained stare. "I will not lose you again," he told her in a shuddering growl.

"Then don't play hero." she growled back. With a sudden jerk, she released his chin and turned her back on him. Angry, physically hurt, nauseous, and dizzy. Mizuki was a tight coil of emotions that wanted to release itself in violence. A violence that didn't discern it's victims. She knew it too, it's why she turned away. Why she stepped away and held herself tightly, trying to fight it all off.

She couldn't fight it all off.

She fell dizzily to her knees. Her world spinning, she closed her soft brown eyes from it, trying to stop it.

Blade's body jerked towards his mother, but he hesitated. The dark blob of dark magic appeared on his shoulder again and nipped his ear to halt him. The little essence of magic understood the emotions of people. It was also trying to tell him that they were running out of time.

It squeaked incessantly.

Soran stood frozen as Mizuki walked away, sensing her anger. He didn't know how to resolve it with his own desperate urge to make sure they all made it away safely. But then she collapsed. That cleared his head quite neatly. "Mizuki," he gasped, rushing to kneel beside her. She'd been running and moving like she was so strong...now it showed that she really was feeling the effects of whatever had happened in that cave. Soran still understood barely anything about exactly what that was. He reached his hands out to touch her and paused just over her skin, wary of the fury that seemed to be rising off her. He just wanted her safe. He wanted them all safe so desperately, he could barely think. And now he'd upset her so badly she could hardly stand...

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry," he breathed, swallowing pride and anger in gulps. "I won't play hero...Will you let me carry you?"

Tears leaked from her eyes, slowly, as she tried to calm herself. She felt his slight touch, and all she wanted to do was sink into him.

"I won't play hero...Will you let me carry you?"

"Al-alright," she gulped and her body loosened itself.

Soran nodded without a word and pulled her against him, lifting her in a tight embrace as he got back to his feet. The anger he sensed in her didn't make him hesitate now; he felt like holding it to his chest even if it exploded there. "Okay, we run," he said quickly to the others as he pushed forward into a jog toward the sound of the river. Sid followed suit and swept Rai into his arms. "Pardon me, but you're riding first class, little lady," he said to the girl with a bold smirk as he took off after Soran with Blade joining close beside them.

Unfortunately, whatever lead they'd had on their pursuers was already lost.

"Stop right there," a sharp male voice called from the trees to their right.

"There's the girl."

"Watch it, they know how to fight."

"Psh. Look, half of them are injured. Just get the girl. Jonis, the spell!"

Soran had halted and finally pinpointed the source of their pursuers' voices when a crackling sound filled the atmosphere around them. It gradually grew into a deafening fizz, and then in a flash that was almost instantaneous, the air around them seemed to rip inside out and split into total darkness. Thick, dizzying fog as dark as coal surrounded them all, and if not for the weight in their arms, Soran and Sid wouldn't have been able to sense the women they carried at all.

"Stick together," Soran shouted, but his voice seemed ripped away by the odd roar of the fog. The fact that he couldn't hear the others calling for him told him that the spell exerted some kind of control over that as well. He clutched Mizuki tighter to his chest, and ran several yards toward where he'd last seen the others, then turned and ran again, finding no one. "Rai! Sid!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, stumbling on an uneven root as he tried another direction and still had no luck. The first sound he was able to clearly make out in the fog was that of an arrow whizzing by his ear.

"Soran... what's happening?" Mizuki asked like a helpless and scared child. Her senses were completely cut off. She could sense nothing of the others. She wonder though... Concentrating as hard as her mind would let her in such a state, Mizuki tried to contact Blade. "Bla---" The connection fizzled out. Not from the magic that surrounded them though, which was an interesting thought, but because she was in no condition for it.

Blade never even felt it. He glided helplessly through the darkness, calling out to anyone but getting only silence.

"Damnit all!" he yelled, attempting to cast his own magic but availing to nothing. "SID! RAI! MOTHER! SORAN!" It was like trying to see in the dark, only your vision never adjusted. Running blind.

OOC: Sorry its taken so long. Been working really hard and went home for the weekend.

Rai sat up a little more in Sid's arms, grabbing his shoulder with one hand and putting her arm around his neck. The fact she could barely even see at all scared her. What if there was someone right in front of them? What if they were about to grab her an snatch her away. She clutched a little tighter, maybe too tight, just encase. If they were going to pull her from Sid, she was going to take him with her.

"This isn't good, is it?" she muttered. She took several deep breaths, trying to listen for any crackle of leaves or breaking of twigs. Hoping, that no one would find them if they stayed very still and very quiet.