Heirot

Mizuki had come out from behind the tree and put Blade down on his feet and he waddled around the camp. Mizuki had heard something but wasn't sure what it was and came back in time to see Rai run into the tent. Frowning, Mizuki went over to Soran. She stood next to him, her hands on her hips like a mother about to scold a child.

"What happened?" she asked him, concern in her voice even though she was frowning. Blade was inspecting the tent Rai had run into, curiously lifting the flap to peek inside.

Soran frowned and didn't take his eyes off the potato he was slicing. "Rai ran off, and a pack of zephyrs found her. She's not hurt," he said, though it was clear from his guarded facial expression that more was going on than that. Now that the adrenaline and anger were wearing off, other emotions that had been blocked aside were pushing through. That feeling that punched him in the gut when he'd first heard Rai scream may not have been anger, as he had thought, but rather fear. If he had been even a second later...

"Tch!" he hissed to himself in annoyance as he forgot what he was doing and let the knife nick into his thumb.

Mizuki watched his face carefully, annoyed she couldn't make out any expression on his face. His pained sound brought her back from studying his face and she kneeled down next to him, taking his hand gently in her hand.

"As long as she's alright..." Mizuki would dissmiss it for now. She fingered his thumb gently, inspecting it. After a moment she grinned and stood up to get the first aid supplies. She reutrned and swiftly cleaned the wound and wound a bandage around his thumb. As a joke she kissed his finger. "There now," she grinned, "all better."

Soran watched awkwardly as Mizuki made an inordinate fuss over his finger. Normally he would forcefully refuse treatment for such an insignificant thing, but her behavior was strangely calming to him. "I don't understand. She completely ignored my warning. She seems to have no appreciation of how much danger she was in," he said as he looked into the fire, his voice blatantly revealing his own appreciation of how close he'd come to letting Rai get killed.

Mizuki listened, a sudden surprised look on her face. Then understanding came in. "Children, don't always mean disrespect... they just dont' have a big understanding of right and wrong. Sometimes they'll even dare your authority..." she paused then watched Blade as he atempted to eat a bug near the tent. "Like that one over there. Blade don't eat that!" Blade looked at her for a moment, then he kept watching her as he kept on inching the bug into his mouth. "Darn-it Blade!"

She got up from her knees and marched over to Blade who still watched her. Sternly she picked him up and swatted the bug out of Blade's hand. Blade squealed in protest and Mizuki rolled her eyes. "Well then listen when I say "no'." She walked over back to Soran. "See what I mean?"

Soran watched Mizuki take charge of Blade with skillful confidence, thinking to himself that women really were a mystery. Or maybe it was just Mizuki who had this subtle strength shining from her. "Maybe I'll go talk to her," he thought out loud.

Mizuki smiled at him. "Yes." she agreed. 'She couldn't really have understood the danger...but...after the times we've been attacked I would think she would stay as close to us as possible..' she thought and the curiosity ate through her mouth. "Why did she wander off?" she asked him.

"She was chasing a moth," Soran said with a faintly amused smirk. All that trouble for a bug.

Mizuki laughed softly; Blade snuggled into her bossom, settling himself down for a nap. "The minds of children still amazes me." she remarked. "They make big deals of such small things... But such is a child, their minds young..." Mizuki trailed off and looked into the fire, a soft smile still on her lips.

Rai sniffled and wiped her eyes. She felt really, really stupid. She didn't want to make Soran mad. She sniffled again and sat there staring at the blanket on the ground under the tent. Rai heard Soran say she was chasing a moth. She looked at the ground and fiddled with her dress. "Butterfly!"

Soran got up from his seat from the fire and nodded understanding to Mizuki before heading toward the tent where Rai had hidden. "Shourai," he said, dispersing his blades. He leaned down and held back the flap of the entrance, and saw Rai sitting in the tent staring at the ground. He ducked into the tent and walked over to Rai, sitting down next to her quietly. He couldn't see her face, but there were dark spots of moisture on the canvas floor. He pulled one knee toward his chest and rested an arm over it thoughtfully. Now that he'd come here, it wasn't clear exactly what he had planned to say.

Rai glanced over through her hair at him and wondered what he was doing. Did he come to yell at her some more. She really didn't want him to yell. She remembered when her daddy yelled at her, she was always sad for a little while and then he took her out fishing or tickled her or something when she realized she had been punished.

Mizuki closed her eyes and sat down. She hummed a soft tune to lull her baby to sleep. Blade's eye lids became heavy and he finally drifted off to sleep. 'Little children are the mysteries of the universe.' she thought idily and leaned against the log Soran was using as a chair. She listened to the sounds being made by Blade's sleeping breath, the soft voices within the tent, and Siren's wings flexing and all the other sounds surrounding them.

Soran looked down at Rai, then off toward the wall of the tent. "In Hepian, there were a couple of children living in my part of town, although it wasn't really a good place for children," he said, somewhat randomly. "Once, a local woman begged me to do something about her son, who was being held ransom by some petty robbers who were looking for some cash. So, I went to the place, and as I'd expected, the thieves didn't even try fighting me; they knew me by reputation, and let the kid go." Soran grinned slightly and paused. "But I couldn't believe it - that kid, he got halfway to where I was, then turned tail and ran back to the robbers! Seems he was more afraid of me than them." Soran smirked. "Seems I have quite a 'way with children'."

Rai tried not to giggle or anything, but it was rather funny thinking that everyone was afraid of huggable Soran!

"Maybe he was scared you'd be mad at him..." Rai said, coughing to clear her throat. "Maybe thats why he ran back to them?"