Heirot

Soran smirked wryly. "Who knows," he said. "But when I scare someone by getting mad, I don't do it without a reason.." he hesitated awkwardly for a moment, "Sometimes the person doing the scaring is the one with the most fear."

He rotated the gold bracelet on his wrist contemplatively. "No one's perfect. Of course, including me. But I swore to myself to protect you...

"You're my daughter, so try not to put yourself in danger again. No way am I burying a six year old girl," he finished quickly, but earnestly. His disjointed speech had been somewhat gruff, but he'd opened himself up for once to Rai, his instincts protesting all the while at him for laying himself out so carelessly.

Rai looked up at Soran, her cheeks shiny and flushed. She reached out and tried to wrap her arms around his waist, but Rai didn't quite have long enough arms.

"I love you Soran, I'm sorry I made you mad!" she said, closing her eyes as she hugged him.

Soran looked down at the child protectively and squeezed one strong arm gently around Rai's shoulders. Maybe he would get the hang of this after all. He ruffled her hair fondly with his hand. "Let's go finish cooking," he said, thinking of the vegetables that would be getting overcooked about now.

Rai looked at him and smiled. "Do I hhhhhavvveee to?" she asked with an innocent look in her eyes. She giggled curled up into a ball next to him. "Can't I lay down right here?!"

Mizuki had set the sleeping baby on her bedroll an finished up the other tent, then she placed Blade inside that tent so he'd be away from any noise they made. The wind blew gently and it was getting cooler as the sun went down. Idily, with a tie, she braided her hair so it wouldn't get in her face anymore and tended to the horses again, making sure they were fine.

Soran grinned at Rai. "You won't be saying that when your dinner's been reduced to mush," he teased, lifting her up easily under one arm like a football.

Rai giggled and let him lift her up. "But, I don't know how to cook!" she said with a giggle in her childish voice. "It will turn into mush anyway!"

"Well, it's time to learn then," Soran shrugged, carrying Rai out of the tent and back out to the log by the fire. He met Mizuki's eyes briefly and gave her a quick 'all good' look. He sat down with Rai in his lap and took the pot off the fire with a piece of cloth between his hand and the handle. He turned the pot sideways and let the water drain out into the forest soil and inspected the contents.

Rai giggled and watched Soran as he drained the water. "It looks hot!" she said, and then looked and saw Blade sleeping. "Oops... I mean... it looks hot..." she said in a whipsering voice.

"What can I do?" she asked, the wind tossing strands of her curly hair into Soran's face with out her knowing.

Mizuki met Soran's eyes and when she found that all was now ok, she nodded, smiling and returned to the horses. Something caught her eye about them. She went to the mare that she had ridden and detangled a flower from it's hair. Normaly, she would shrug this off but through their travel so far they had brushed up against no bushes or tree's of flowers. And this particular flower was only native in the Ighten kingdom... why was it all the way out here?

"Hmm.." she murmmered to herself thinking. She thought it best not to alarm anyone over an unnative flower... but it still tugged at her mind. Especially since it's a Black Leaf flower... flowers that looked like roses only with blackened leaves instead of green. These were known to be used in dark magic... Her mother had shown her this once after she had predicted someone's death by this particular flower.

The wind blew again and sent a cold thouch down her spine, and she shuddered and spun around. She looked back at the flower before crushing it in her hands. 'It'd be beautiful if it wasn't so evil...' Mizuki thought, 'I should return to the others... I'm getting uncomfortable being alone... even with horses.' Mizuki walked back to Soran and Rai and Siren after she checked the horses again for anything thing else that was foreign to their supplies.

Soran pulled a small sack of spices from the bag next to the log and held it out to Rai. "All you have to do is make it taste like something," he said lightly. Inside the bag were salt, pepper, some herbs, and garlic powder that Gwendolyn had sent with them.

Rai looked straight up, only able to see his chin from where she was sitting. Then she looked back at the seasoning. "So what is it going to taste like?" She poked the bag with her finger, and looking back up at him.

"Say Soran... do you think we're going to get into lots of trouble again?" she asked him, staring up at his neck and chin.

Soran picked out salt and pepper for Rai, holding the pot in front of her. "If we do, we'll get through it," he said offhandedly, knowing he could make no certain claim either way.

Rai looked at the salt and pepper in her hands and then at the pot. She pored a little to much in, but it wasn't so much it would ruin the whole meal. She looked up at Soran and smiled.

"Promise?" she asked him

"Yes." Soran answered without a moment's hesitation, not because he didn't appreciate the sincerity of the question, but because he had already made up his mind. "That looks good. Mizuki, Siren, food," he called to the others, unloading tin cups they'd brought and having Rai hold them while he filled them with vegetables. It was a pretty simple dinner, but not bad for being on the road.