The Dead Forest (Increased Orc activity due to skirmish)

[Ryugi Kazamaru]

After a few days of walking through the forest, the scenery began to change slightly. The trees opened up more, and there was a little less undergrowth. There was a little more sunlight filering through the tops of the trees, making several beautiful views of the sky through the canopy. So far as Ryugi could tell, he and his little group were the only ones in this part of the forest. Days had been pleasant as any Ryugi could remember, and durring the night he and his group were treated to a beautiful night sky filled with stars.

Vargus followed behind Ryugi a ways. They were in the process of climbing a large hill. Are you almost there? She was about halfway up the hill following Ryugi.

Ryugi turned around at the sound of her voice. Almost! Just give me a little bit longer, I'm almost there. He walked just a bit farther, and with one final push, he was at the top of the hill, looking down on one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen.

Ryu-kun? What do you see up there? Vargus rushed up the side of the hill towards Ryugi and Eclipse.

Its absolutely amazing V-chan, you've GOT to SEE this! Ryugi stared out into a beautiful green canyon covered in vines. The sun was just low enough in the sky and it cast a lovely glow over the valley. In the sides of the cliffs lay the ruins of a beautiful evlen city. Even in their disheveled and run down state, they still retained quite alot of their former beauty. At last, they're goal was achieved.

Vargus came to rest beside Ryugi and Eclipse after a few more seconds, and she too stared in awe of the sight before her. Its beautiful... I haven't seen anything like this in years...

Ryugi smiled and turned to her. It still doesn't beat your beauty V-chan.

Vargus smiled again. You never cease to flatter me, do you...?

I guess not. Anyways, we still have quite a bit of daylight left, at least enough to take a peek at the ruins close up. So I say we get going. Ryugi smiled and began to walk down a small path in the cliffs with Vargus following close behind, and Eclipse on Ryugi's shoulder.  

[Tomorrow]

"Tdammi!" Tomorrow growled as he was suddenly dropped through a portal, landing into a run beside Amber and Mere and powering forward.

C'mon John...move it... He thought as his legs slashed beneath him, sparks of electricity flashing over his body to continue fueling the tired muscles -

Before leaping to catch the little girl in his arms, covered in scratches, leaves and twigs from her downward flight. Throwing himself forward, he twisted his shoulder to absorb her impact, rolling on the dusty ground before coming back up into a skid, his boots digging into the dirt as he forced his massive frame and weight to a grinding halt.

He clutched the tiny neko-jin to his chest gently, his chest heaving as sweat and blood dripped off his face, waiting for the other two to finally catch up to them. The Barrier the Senshi had put up would hinder the orcs, plus the other spell would eradicate the dead bodies. The Orcs wouldn't know where to go, how to track them - their scent lost, their tracks squandered. They were safe for now.

He hoped.  

[Sunstrike]

The dark form that was Henry Mere blurred through the trees, taking the two men and their passengers through a twisting, turning route through trees that almost seemed to reach out and grab them both, trying to hinder their flight through the forest.

But Henry knew the ground he tread, knew the path he'd made as if he'd walked it a thousand times over, and he safely lead the bigger warrior through it all.

It was dazzling when they finally reached a large clearing, having been stuck in the aenigma of bark and leaves, bushes and darkness. Even Mere had to blink a bit, panting, as they entered, finally stopping the mad flight. Night had caught up with them, and everything had a strange hush to it as he moved through, almost as if the place had expected his coming, and was pleased at his return.

He walked over to a soft patch of grass and gently laid Amber seated upon it, before turning around and sitting down in a huff next to her.

"Well...that was certainly more eventful then originally planned..."  

[Purely Jayney]

Amber was quite surprised at how nimbly Mere had managed to run while holding onto her, even if she couldn't quite figure out where she had stoppd running and started being carried. Part of the mystery surrounding the man she supposed.

She was breathing heavily herself as she was sat down upon the soft grass of the clearing and flopped backwards, one hand resting gently on her stomach as she gazed up at the stars the other hand up above her head.

"Well that was... Interesting..."  

[Tomorrow]

John sat down beside his fiance, his mighty frame plonking down on the soft grass heavily and placed the tiny sleeping neko-jin on the ground next to her.

Pulling open his coat he placed it down to one side before lifting his shirt from his chest. Some gashes to his chest had slipped past the heavily armoured coat, and he opened a pouch on his webbing to pull out some cotton buds and antiseptic.

These wounds were too minor to use Tribal medicine. The pain of the medicine would dwarf the pain he felt now twenty-fold - too large a price to pay for such powerful medicine being used on such minor injuries. Especially in his fatigued condition.

He was silent as he dabbed the smeared blood away and pressed one of the buds to a cut on his temple, staunching the bleeding. His eyes were distant as he sat there, looking down at the shadowy grass.  

[Hogosha No Juunikyuu]

Juuni curled up tight in a protective ball, her tail tucked in close to her and ears flattened as she shivered slightly, her ribboned jacket burnt back along with the corpses having been torn from her wings. The two cross shaped wounds on her shoulder dribbled silvered blood as a cold sweat formed on her brow.

Her skin glowed with a faint silver hue as a cloud passed over head on a soft breeze, revealing the clear, moon lit sky with the stars shining clearly down upon the group. A few of the stars seemed to flicker brighter as the hue around Juuni grew as the small child drew some of the stars energy down to her in order to speed up the replenishment of her own stores.

"Phwee..."

The childs eyes flickered before her body relaxed out of the tense ball it had formed and she rolled over onto her back with a soft wince and whine as her eyes opened and she sat up knuckling her eyes and looking around her surroundings, apparently surprised it was night time.

"Where we be?" she yawned before shivering at the cold of night.  

[Sunstrike]

Suddenly, a warm dark coloured blanket draped itself over the small neko-jin's body gently. Henry gently placed another next to Amber and the last by Tomorrow.

In the small glade there was only a kind of silence, and an unearthly sort of atmosphere. Lightning bugs were the only disturbance, flickering with green light over everything.

Henry was remarkably solid looking here. As if his shifting had been taken over by something more important that he was concentrating on. He sat down in front of Tomorrow and folded his arms, his black hair making his pale skin stand out even more.

"We'll reach the mountains in another day...we're actually doing remarkably well, considering it was blind panic that got us this far. The orc's will be distracted with debating what to do about the undead....I hope, and the undead, it seems, has plans of their own. I'm curious to know what set off THAT paticular spark...but we have no time to really investigate." He looked a little downtrodden at that. But then he perked up.

"So all we really need to prepare ourselves for is the run of the mill demon!"  

[Tomorrow]

"Fine." Was all John said, tearing a piece of black cloth from the hem of his shirt and tying it around his head, pulling his blond locks from beneath it so the piece of cotton would stay on the wound. THe bleeding would stop on it's own, and it would be healed within twenty-four hours - covering it made sure it would heal naturally.

He pushed the blanket off his shoulders and turned away from Mere, his eyes distant as he pushed himself to his feet. "We're safe, Juuni."

He walked away from them slowly, moving to the edge of the clearing. "You guys sleep. I'll keep watch until daybreak."  

[Sunstrike]

"Be careful not to leave the outerlying circle of tree's, Tomorrow. You'll see the difference when you get to the edge. You'll get lost in there....forest has a nasty habit of swallowing people." And he was completely literal when he said that. There was a reason only things as savage as orcs could live as a society within this forest.

And indeed, when Tomorrow would reach the outer perimeter of trees, there would be the edge to the haze, which kept everything a shade or two lighter within the circle they resided in. Outside of that was a darkness, not only an engulfing blackness...but a hungry looking one as well. It was as if the trees themselves were there to consume the soul of who would enter.

Henry wasn't about to tell the warrior what to do. Tomorrow wasn't some child that needed coddling after getting bashed for doing something daft, but he wasn't just going to let him go off without a small warning for informational purposes. In reality, if the bigger man ventured out of the line, Henry could probably find him...but it would be a severe delay, and a seriously dangerous one.

Shrugging, he turned back to the girls, smiling softly. "Before you rest, are you hungry? Would you like something to eat?" A few apples appeared from nowhere, and he juggled them a little before looking up again at his small audience. "There's also warmer stuff I can make as well...but I'm sorry, I don't have any sandwiches...bringing a picnic basket out here is a little risky..."  

[Tomorrow]

Tomorrow was confident that whatever the forest could throw at him he could return in spades...but he stopped just shy of the edge and turned so his side was to the edge of the forest and to the trio of humaniods within the clearing. That way he could watch the forest whilst also keeping an eye on his companions.

Which he did, looking over them from where he stood, his arms folded over his broad chest.

He was too busy beating himself up over his latest batch of idiocy to be with them at the moment. This almost took over the time he stormed Alita's skyscraper and was captured by Geo...almost.

If he'd lost his battle with the orcs, they would have chased after and most likely killed his loved ones. Even now, the possibility that they would turn on a city in retaliation is likely. As always, he acted before thinking...nothing but a wild animal.

"A wild animal..." He whispered to himself, looking over to Amber and Juuni. He thought about the kind, gentle, caring part of him that watched over them, looking after them even when they didn't want it, fussing over them like a lover or a big brother would...

...And compared it to the feeling he'd gotten when he'd torn an Orc's arm off from the socket.

The feelings, suffice to say, did not match.

There was something wrong with him. Something psycological. He was able to somehow turn off his killer instinct at will, and switch it back on at his leisure. Although he knew what was right and what was wrong, his ability to judge punishment fairly was severely diminished.

There had been so many other ways to stop the Orcs. Use a Dreamtime on them, making them see an illusion. Put them down by shocking their nervous systems, basically killing off any nerve-signals they would put to their arms and legs and letting them flop harmlessly to the floor like rag dolls.

But no. He had decided to slaughter them all. And he'd done so laughing. As if he'd been enjoying it...instead of creating the distration he'd supposed to create.

And he had come so close to taking on the rest of them as well...

He'd never gotten around to unlocking the rest of his memories. His former selves had erased and replaced so much...and after the dating performed by Tellus' doctors proclaiming him to be over half a milennia old...who knows how many 'selves' there were? What kind of places they'd been, people they'd known, foods they'd eaten, company they'd shared?

"Ndam uyo Nodi...who yman stime ddi i lfai ebefor uyo ddeeme em yworth fo eth etitl fo Rtho?" He whispered to himself again, looking over to Amber with a sad longing in his eyes. "Dan twha ehav i edon ttha swa tdifferen ni sthi elif?"  

[Hogosha No Juunikyuu]

((Being lazy again whee ))
"Phwee~?"

Food? Now there was something that the small child could relate too as she wrapped the blanket tight around her and blinked down at her rumbling stomach with a grin. Her grin widened as Mere produced the apples from out of no where and dropped the blanket as she reached out with both hands towards one, the Leviathan pendent Sunstrike had given her falling out from under her top along with the now strung medallion Mere had given her.

Amber took the blanket gratefully as the nights chill began to creep up on her and wrapped it around her shoulders, placing both her hands on her stomach as she watched John go, her ears drooping slightly before turning back to Mere at the mention of something to eat.

"I could do with something... That spell took a lot out of me... John could use something too, I can tell that just by looking at him..."  

[Sunstrike]

"Right then, something warm for the girlie...and for the big lug...though I dunno if I can make a very large meal for Tomorrow.... sweatdrop I honestly didn't carry enough for a banquet."

Leaning down in his seated position he scratched a marking in the ground, and flames suddently sprouted in a small semi circle. A very small pan came from the recesses of his jacket, along with a small vial that seemed to contain cooking oil of all things. Next came a small bag, out of which came a few slices of cheese, and some bread. First went the bread, and once that had toasted he turned it over onto the carefully placed cheese with a cooking knife.

He humed softly as he made three of these in progressive order. One slice going to Amber, one going to Juuni, and the last...

"Here, Amber. Take this to him. Even if he doesn't eat it. Talk to him, and tell him that everything will be okay, for now. I somehow feel if I tried I wouldn't have very much success if I tried that route."

With that the flames were gone and everything put away, mysteriously clean. Getting up he sat himself next to Juuni, watching the forest for a while.

"S' a really pretty little charm on your necklace, Juuni. Prettier then the one I gave you! Would you minded if I looked at it?"  

[Maximos]

Ryugi Kazamaru

Ryugi smiled and began to walk down a small path in the cliffs with Vargus following close behind, and Eclipse on Ryugi's shoulder.

::What a wonderful day, peace and harmony right after so much loss. This was truly the real strength of the human spirit. To face such horrors and yet find the strength to smile. Sadly, the test that came to Ryugi today did not come with any intent on testing his spirit, but rather his body.

One simple question had to be asked...Have you ever been stabbed in the shoulder? Have you ever felt the knife twist through blood and muscle, slice into bone and through marrow, and twist and turn in your flesh as if carving away at you in some sick sculptors manner? Or more directly...Has Ryugi?

Well wether or not he had felt that pain in the past...he did now. Right now infact. Not even 30 seconds into his small walk. A pain would shoot through his right shoulder, a pain which seemed to start at his shoulder and ricket down his spine threatening to bring him to his knees. But why!?

For some reason, Eclipse took this time to move, and move now. He hoped down Ryugi's back and using his tiny claws immediately scurried up a nearby tree like a small koala. Just high enough to be past Ryugi or Vargas's reach...but why?

That was hardly one of Ryugi's concern, right now he would be more worried about the stabbing feeling in his body, bursting not from the outside but from the inside. Like a knife trying to cut its way out of his shoulder. Right at the shoulder blade.

No one knows how flexible Ryugi is, but Ryugi himself, but if he could infact touch the effected area he would feel a lump, a lump no more than the size of a golfball was beginning to push up through his skin under his clothes, and it hurt....alot.::  

[Ryugi Kazamaru]

The pain in his shoulder ripped through Ryugi's body like an electric shock, traveling across his entire right shoulder and spreading across his back as if someone had dropped a pot of searing hot water on it. The sensation was excruciating, mind boggling even. Never before had Ryugi felt so much pain in one single area, besides his arms, but that was a different story altogether.

He dropped to the ground with a loud painful cry and wrapped his arms around his body, his forehead on the dirt, his back and shoulders to the sky. Vargus, worried moved closer to try to help him...

Ahh!! Vargus... NO!! Don't touch me!! Moving makes it hurt more, it should pass soon! Just let it be- AGH!!

The pain felt as if someone was trying to pry themself out of his back. He could feel his flesh being torn apart little by litte as the thing seemed to grow. The searing pain made him remember a battle not so long ago where he had seared off a man's wings... This must have been what he put that man through, he thought. The pain continued on as Ryugi continued to scream in pain as Vargus could do little but watch with worry in her soft eyes...  

[Maximos]

::Somewhere on Gaia right now, a cat jumped off a couch onto a curtain and used its claws to tear a path all the way down.

Somewhere else, a young boy was running home from school when he tripped catching his shirt on a fence and causing it to tear.

And somewhere else, a bully gave a boy an "atomic wedgie" causing the fabric in the band of his underwear to tear.

And yet none of these tears was as brutal or horrifying as the sound Ryugi would hear this very moment. The moment that something, which can only be described as an shaft of bone litterally ripped from Ryugi's back. Its tip was pointed letting it sear through flesh, muscle, and even cloth. Ryugi would feel the snaps in his back as bone snapped into bone connecting this "shaft" even as it ejected.

It spiked from Ryugi's back drenched in blood with bits of tissue and flesh still hanging from it. For a moment, it stood straight out of his back like a spire of blood and gore. One could tell while it was fully erected that it was actually had 3 seperate joints, because these joints slowly began to bend back towards Ryugi's rear. And "something" seemed to be drapped around the bent shaft, like a sheath, or dressing of some sort. It was a thick and dull greenish brown sort of material tightly wound around the shaft...and it was wet. At the tip of the shaft was the "drill bit" one might say. The solid "pointy tip" of the shaft opened into 3 sharp bits, something like very very small fingers.

For some reason Ryugi would be drawn to touch it, and the excruciating pain which maliciously assualted him, would slowly begin to fade as endorphines rushed to area. But to touch it would be akin to touching a fresh wound, or poking your own eye. Even still, for the next few moments his body seemed to begin to settle, and Eclipse was no where to be found.::