Heirot

Soran's eyes turned to ice as he heard Rai's telltale scream from up ahead. He burst into a sprint for the child's location, calling out his blades in a hushed voice and feeling them connect with his nerves. Just off to his right, he saw a greyish form flash between the trees and run on ahead of him, almost too fast to see. Soran recognized the creature's movement and appearance all too well as a Zephyr. And if there was one, there were sure to be more. He ran after the agile monster with all the speed he had.

Rai screamed again when they lashed out at her and she rolled over and it slamed his face into the stone. She tried to pull her tine foot from the very small crack. She pulled as hard as she could, the creatures closing in on her and watching her with their creepy eyes.

"Go away! Go away!!" Rai screamed, picking up a rock and throwing it. It missed and the heads of the creatures followed it before looking back at her.

Soran finally caught up to Rai's location and found her screaming on the ground with two Zephyrs hovering over her. The third that he had followed joined them, taking eerily relaxed steps on its two powerful hind legs as it crossed toward Rai. It stopped midway as it detected Soran's approach and turned toward him fiercely as the battle-ready rogue ran at it. The zephyr seemed to grin and pounced, while the other two seemed to lose interest in Rai for the moment.

Soran threw his blades up into the monster's gut as it landed on his shoulders and threw him to the ground with its momentum. The rogue had expected this and kicked his leg up at the monster to propel it over him, quickly climbing back to his feet. The creature limped unsteadily away from him, its back to the rogue. Soran moved in to finish the thing off, but a rush of air at his back caused him to whirl around and lash out behind him, where sure enough, the creature's hunting partner had come up while he was distracted. Soran was quite fluent with these tactics, and in three quick slashes the zephyr fell to the ground, blood gurgling in its throat. Soran spun back on the zephyr he'd injured, which, as expected, had been exaggerating its pain to bring Soran off his guard. The creature leapt at him viciously with its long, fanged snout wide open. Soran threw his fist up under the creature's jaw and jumped back, sending a circular kick to the side of its head. It ran around him and crouched readily, but made no move. Soran wasted no time in launching toward it, but it leapt suddenly out of the way to reveal Rai directly in the path of the rogue's attack. His eyes widened and he stayed his blade; using allies against him was not an option for the zephyrs during his time fighting solo in the forest, and he hadn't considered this trick. He stayed his blade before it could hit Rai, but while he was hesitating the zephyr came back in on him and went for his arm.

Soran's gaze snapped onto the zephyr and as if suddenly furious, he lit into it and cleaved its throat in an instant. The third zephyr launched toward him angrily, but died before it could feel the blade that dove through its brain. When he was sure there were none left in the bushes, the rogue turned a frozen glare on Rai. "Any injuries," he asked sternly.

Rai thought for sure Soran was about to kill her. She coward down as his blade come towards her and she closed her eyes as tight as she could. But, nothing came and before she knew it he had killed them all...

"Any inguries?"

Rai looked at her foot lodged in the rock and then back at him. "My foot.... it won't come out..."

Without a word, Soran kneeled down next to Rai's foot and inspected it. He angled one of his armblades into the crevice and under her shoe and gripped her ankle securely with the other hand. Using the dull end of the blade as a lever, he freed the child's foot and then went over the ankle with his fingers for broken bones. "You're fine," he said coldly, standing up again.

Rai looked up slowly and then back down. She could tell he was mad. She slumped her shoulders and looked down at her freed foot. "Thank you," she said to him softly and pushed to stand up to, dusting her dress off.

Soran's features were set in a cold frown. Rai's apology made him look for a moment like he wanted to say something, but the expression returned quickly to before. He turned without a word to head back to camp.

Rai walked behind him slowly, keeping in range with her head hung low and a sad look on her face. Soran was mad at her.... She didn't want Soran to be mad. Was he mad because she chased the butterfly?

There it was again and this time it didn't run from her. It landed on her arm. Rai reached over slowly as she was and grabbed, crushing it and dropping it on the ground.

"Stupid butterfly..."

"Why didn't you obey me?" Soran said in a tightly controlled tone. He had asked the question without turning back towards Rai.

Rai looked down at the ground and didn't answer. She just sighed. She thought about it, trying to figure out a good answer. She couldn't really think of one... "I don't know..." she said and continued to stare at her feet as the shuffled across the ground.

"I didn't think it was that far away?" Her tone sounded more like a suggestion or question than a statement. Rai really couldn't think of anything....

"You could have been killed!" Soran snapped angrily, suddenly halting to face Rai. "I specifically told you to come back, and you deliberately disobeyed. Do you assume nothing can happen to you, or is it that you simply have no respect for my judgment?" He looked down at her with a hardened glare.

Rai's eyes got big and round and she was leaning back slightly as if Soran had pushed her. "I...I... I didn't mean to... I just wanted to catch the pretty butterfly... I..." Rai looked down and sniffled, trying to hide her face. "I'm sorry..." Her hair hung down on all sides, sheilding her face.

"I really didn't think anything would happen... I just wanted to catch the butterfly..."

Soran blinked as though disarmed by the child's reaction, not sure how to proceed. He was truly angry, more than he actually felt he should be, and her candid explanation for her actions did little to resolve his anger. He tried to think of what Mizuki would say in this situation; dealing with children seemed to come naturally to her.

By now they were within earshot of the camp, and the rogue decided to place priority on returning there while his head cooled. He turned and went on walking.

Rai looked up at him as he turned around and walked back to the camp. Rai stood there a moment and then followed, vowing to never like butterflies again.

She was still a little bit shooken up about the creature things attacking her... and Soran was mad at her so that just made it worst. What if Mizuki and Siren got mad to... She walked into the clearing and ran to hide in one of the tents that Mizuki had built.

When Soran got back to the clearing he sat sternly at the fire, pretending not to notice Rai hide from him. He frowned to himself as he cut up the vegetables they'd brought and dropped them into a pot to boil.