Heirot

Fandir looked critically from the old man, whose race was clearly Ongorethian, to the fair-skinned Telanis. "You're telling me those two are related?" he demanded suspiciously.

Tetsumaru slowly rose into the realm of the conscious. Dazed he opened his eyes to the sight of someone at the cabin door and Telanis and Laya talking to them. Wat izu goingu on heru?"

Fandir turned his attention to the old man and walked to where he was sitting. Outside the door, another hunter appeared, armed with a sword, to be sure that no one left the house.

"Sir, explain to me how these people came to be at your house?" he asked, agitated.

"I foundo zem ato a cavu whilu I wazu rosto," he replied. "Zis one," he gestured to Telanis "knew wheru my cabin wazu ando ledo me backu here. So I amu lettingu zem stay heru."

Neko, panicking, found her brother on the floor next to her bed and nudged him with her foot. "Kratos!" she whispered hoarsly. Kratos' eyes flickered open and he groaned and turned over on his side.

"10 more minutes..." he grummbled. Neko rolled her eyes and nudged him harder with her foot. "What?!"

"Shh! They village hunters are outside!" Neko said urgently pointing to the door.

"Damn." Kratos muttered and sat up. "How long?"

"Just got here. They want to search the house."

"No doubt they think we're in envolment with the 'evil' unicorn..." Kratos pondered. "Since Telanis is in his human form he should be in no danger...but us..."

Fandir listened carefully to Tetsumaru's words, barely understanding him, but he caught the gist of the message.

"All of them were in the cave?" he thought to himself.

He looked at Telanis carefully. He would have remembered bringing such a person in the hunting party...so where did he come from?

"Who is this person? How did you meet him?" he demanded to the other three houseguests, pointing at a grim-faced Telanis.

"Who is this person? How did you meet him?"

Kratos then knew the perfect thing to say to throw these men off.

"When we were following your group," he started, getting to his feet. "A group of bandits came up behinde us and managed to ambush some of your men." The lie was flawless... well, it had to be. "They got us," he pointed to himself, Neko, and Laya. "as well. When they finally left us alone after we managed to drive them away, we had lost your group. Then we found..Jason here in the cave, he was injured and we helped him... then Testumaru came and we helped him find his home."

Kratos had to change Telanis' name. For his own safety. He also figured Testumaru, being as old as he is, wouldn't see the dire situation and possibly blow their cover if Kratos tried to change his name too.

Fandir walked to Kratos and leaned in toward him. "Then tell me. Firstly, where are his injuries now? And secondly.....why is he wearing Henry's pants?" He almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it, but there was no doubt...the hunter had been discovered with half his clothes missing, and this tall man was clearly wearing them now.

Kratos faulttered. He had forgotten about that. 'Craap.' he thought as he searched his mind for explanation. "Er..."

"Well, we never said that..Jason's injuries were visible." Neko helped out her brother. She was now standing up from the bed and glaring. "We also never said it didn't take us awhile to find him. We had been wandering around for awhile, then found him in the cave nursing some broken ribs. It was I who had healed him. I know a medical herbal formula to help with broken ribs."

...And the funny thing was... that was true. Kratos stared at her in amazment.

Fandir frowned. It was all very far-fretched, but technically consistent. "All of you, outside. We have questions for you back at the village," he said strictly.

"Wat izu goingu on?" Tetsumaru asked, confused. "Ando who izu Jason?" The samurai didn't catch onto the lie very well and just looked plain confused. However, it might have helped the situation since he didn't really remember any of the names of the people there.

Laya looked up quickly. Were these the type of people to forcefully take information from you? They didn't seem like that type... but then again Kron didn't look like a rapist at first glance either. She began to panic as thoughts of what they might do to them just to find out where the unicorn was came to her mind.

"If... if I told you where the unicorn is will you let us go?" Laya asked softly.

Fandir looked at Laya with sudden interest. "Yes, after we verified that you were telling the truth," he said.

Telanis watched Laya closely.

Laya looked up with her hallow gray eyes. "I wanted to follow him... to see if he was alright... So I saw him in the river.... I went to the waterfall... but... he was too afraid of me..." She looked down and then looked back up. "He thought I was like you. That is the last place I saw him... wounded and bleeding under the waterfal."

"You're saying that after we saw you with him at the waterfall, and he took flight, you had no further contect with him?" Fandir said.