Heirot

In the distance, the voices of the confused villagers could be heard as they returned from their fruitless hunt. Some were running ahead, already suspecting what had really happened.

Telanis eyed Laya and Neko as they returned, suspicious at what his brother may have done to them, but they seemed to feel fine. As he looked back to the house where they had been, however, he saw Adonis's shadowed face in the window, casting him a dangerously confident, if somewhat disappointed grin. Telanis frowned and turned to the others. "Let's go, quickly," he said, gesturing for them to start running Southeastward. If they could reach Ighten, they could board a ship at port and sail to Ongoreth. Telanis wanted them as far from his brother as possible.

Laya yawned covering her mouth as they walked east. She kept glancing at Telanis, just getting a feeling that something was troubling him. Could it be the disease going through the village? Or something else?

She hung back beside him, leaning over to whisper, "Is something wrong?"

Telanis looked back at Laya, who had pulled him out of his thoughts. "It should be alright now," he said in response, not quite answering her question. "Do you feel alright?" His brown eyes narrowed and inspected her carefully, as if expecting something to be wrong.

Laya looked at him and then a head for a moment. "I'm fine. He didn't do anything to me, but annoy me," she told Telanis, smirking slightly. "You don't seem like your alright. You seem like something is bothering you... We're friends right Telanis?" she asked him.

"If we're friends you can always tell me whats wrong..." she assured him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Kratos and Neko unconsciously walked ahead of Laya and Telanis and Testumaru. Kratos had a protective arm around his sister.

"What'll we do when we get to ma and pa?" Neko asked. kratos shrugged.

"First I'll need to get you in a dress. You know how mom feels about girls fighting." Kratos smiled and tweaked her nose. Neko frowned, she hated dresses.

Telanis blinked at Laya, looking bewildered. He wasn't accustomed to being comforted or worried over. It was difficult to conceptualize himself as something that would receive care from others; he existed to protect, not to be protected. At the same time, he could feel that determination being knocked loose. Was he upset? Because he'd seen his brother? Because of Thomas? He wasn't sure how to tell. "I think I'm fine," he said unsteadily, looking thoughtfully at the ground as he walked.

Laya narrowed her eyes and nodded then. "Alright," she said to him and stayed beside him as they walked, but said nothing more on the subject.

"So can anyonu terru me watto happenedu?" Tetsumaru asked, completely confused. In fact, he could even remember when the men came to his house to take everyone away, so he was hoping someone would explain it. "Ze lasto thingu I rememberu izu suleepingu."

Telanis looked at Tetsumaru wistfully. Now that the old man had become so hopelessly involved, there was no choice but to explain the situation.

"Truthfully, Tetsumaru, we let you help us without fully explaining what you were getting into. The one they are after...the unicorn...is me. These three simply got involved by accident, much like you. I'm sorry." The unicorn glanced at the others, a shadow across his fair-skinned features.

Laya looked at him. "We chose to help you," she told him. "We didn't get into it by accident. At any moment we can back out, but I won't."

"If we travel now we should reach Lowight by nightfall," she figured, looking around through the thick trees.

Tetsumaru shrugged, "I can go backu tsu my cabin though rightsu?" he asked, not really understanding the situation. "Wato unicorn aru ze lookingu for and for wato?"

Telanis's features fell at Tetsumaru's question. "Tetsumaru...I'm sorry, but I don't think you can safely return there again." He looked the older man straight-on to be sure he understood. "I am the unicorn they're looking for. This human form is a false one." The unicorn stiffened at the sound of boots approaching from behind them on the path they were following.

Laya didn't here the feet, she was to busy in thought, her mind had wondered so far that she wasn't payin attention where she was going and she was a head of the group by a few feet.

Could she handly going back to Ongoreth? Could she handle getting on a boat? She was more worried about the memories that the boat, and Ongoreth would bring up. It wasn't as if she didn't have enough memories...

Kratos looked back towards the group. He could hear the soft, distant sounds of hoofbeats against the ground. "Should we get off the road and hide?" he asked.

Laya kept walking, her mind dulling the sounds around her until she didn't here anything but the voices of memories in her head. Her eyes watched the ground as she walked. Memories flashed through her head with searing pain of a voyage on a ship. Of a small one bed room. Of Yoshia... poor, poor Yoshia.

The one bright light in going on is that Kron was dead and would never again harm another soul. His bright colored eyes appeared in her vision, the look they had in them. Her eyes closed tightly to try and not see them, but they appeared again when everything went dark.

Would she ever be fully healed of her sorrow? Would she ever be able to go through a day with out her mind wondering back?