Fully Aware2: Before Sunrise ((Solo))

[Ayithe Solete]

((Welcome to the Second part of Ayithe's History.))

Fully Aware 2- Before Sunrise

His body remained motionless on the floor as a pool of blood slowly began to circle his lifeless corpse. Ayithe collapsed to her knees screaming as the tears ran freely down her face as her brother failed to answer her desperate calls. The floor was getting wetter by the minute through the thatched roof that had been forcefully ripped apart, the light from the hole seemingly highlighted her brothers body, making sure Ayithe couldn’t look away into the darkness of the surrounding room. It hurt her deep as her stomach cringed and clamped up tightly trying to force her to be sick, but nothing would come. Her throat was dry and if not for the tears, her lips would be too. Suddenly a hand gripped itself painfully around her hair and yanked back forcefully; Ayithe crashed backwards onto the wet stone floor and cried out before entering a chest-thumping coughing fit. Before she could catch her breath a swift boot blasted hard into her stomach. She gasped out hard at the air trying to catch her breath before being kicked again forcing her onto her back.

The rain drops landed lightly on her face as Dreach leaned over her body, Ayithes eyes erratically dashed about the room, she had lost track of what was happening and lay still at his mercy once more. His footsteps echoed through her head as he walked slowly around her, the same feared thoughts going through her head of what he was about to do this time. Bringing his hand down slowly he made sure to grip her round the throat and choke her slightly before pulling her back up to her sore knees. She almost lay limp in his hand but for the gasping of breath. He laughed manically with a large confident grin across his face, it kept repeating to her as she stared into his eyes, his brown stained teeth opening and allowing his tongue to gruesomely lick up the side of her now tainted face. He slowly raised his sword above his head and let the rain trickle down it, the tip caught a glimpse of the light, which shone brightly into her eyes. She tried uselessly to shout out but no one could hear her, while his grip tightened around her neck she became quieter and quieter before struggling into and uncontrollable fit…

“ARCKRY!” She exclaimed jumping up to a sitting position. Now breathing violently she looked around, the small wooden room was empty and her clothes and weapons lay quietly on the floor. Peering up at the ceiling the roof was fine, she had been dreaming again, the same nightmare, the same scene, and every night for the past four years. She would never forget it; she would never rest peacefully again. Beginning to calm, she started to breathe normally again as the rain battered down on the inn window. The sound of rushing feet began to emanate from the corridor outside, Ayithe held the bed cover close as the footsteps arrived outside her door. Then a loud thud as the door swung open and a large man stood with his sword drawn, hastily he looked around the room then back at Ayithe who now sat calmly but embarrassed on the bed. Facing the man she swung her leg over the side of the small bed and slipped off. He wore a large overcoat of wolf skin and had various objects hanging from his belt. Slowly he started lowering his sword as he began to speak. “I’m s…sorry miss, I heard a s…scream...” He said stuttering, rather embarrassed on barging into a half naked ladies room. “I thought it came from this room…”
“O yes…”She replied dropping her eyes to the floor. “It was me, I…I had a nightmare. You don’t need to barge up here, I can handle myself…” Turning away from the man she began to pick her clothes off the floor and lay them on the bed.

The man carefully sheathed his sword, while unhooking a lantern and placed it on the small table in the corner next to the mirror. It lit the room up somewhat and gave out some warm heat to compensate for the dampness the rain was causing. “Well, if you need any help, let me know, just remember to drop the lantern off when you leave, I won’t charge you.”

The door shut quietly and Ayithe was alone again, just how she preferred it. Placing the cover back neatly and folded on the end of the bed, she was feeling rather uncomfortable now and quickly got dressed. Lacing up her top front and boots she stood in silence by the mirror doing her hair, staring at herself as she straightened it out. Knowing it was still dark didn’t matter to her, she just wanted to leave and take her mind off her dreams, for a little while at least. Grabbing her Disk blades; the only remaining objects on the floor but her most precious ones. She clipped them to her belt and took one last look in the mirror, taking a deep breath she picked up the lantern and exited the room. The corridor was cold and a draft blew through, sending a chill right up Ayithes back. Lanterns hung from the ceiling, lighting it up as she walked along it towards the stairs. The inn was quite large and she passed about eight rooms before heading down the stairs. The draft got worse as she got down the stairs and the creaking of the steps didn’t take her attention away from it. Reaching the bottom of the stairs the main door had been left open, the entrance looked wider than she remembered when she arrived last night. She never paid much attention normally but the door was supposed to be locked around this time. Carefully she walked towards the front door, the wind howled through with the door laying ajar. Placing the lantern on the counter she walked slowly while watching for any movements, unable to hear anything but the wind. She didn’t know what to think and held her arms up to her chest. As she stepped into the door way she heard a few footsteps to her right and carefully peered around the corner, a figure stepped forward as Ayithe instantly released a blade from her bracelet and held it to his throat. The man backed off raising his hands into the air, it was the inn man again.

“Whoa!” He shouted, “Calm down, it’s only me” Ayithe put the blade back and lowered her arm. She couldn’t help but think there was something wrong, even if it was just her being paranoid. Closing her eyes as she sighed, the sound of the rain took over the howling wind and Ayithe felt the early morning chill. The ground was still waiting for the sun to arise and slowly got water logged with the endless pouring rain. “Sure you don’t want to come back in?” The Inn keeper said walking past her. Releasing the latch he held the door for a moment and waited for her answer as she remained just standing there in the cold. The only reply he received was the howling wind as a powerful gust blew a spray of rain across the porch. The door closed behind Ayithe who failed to move as the spray of rain hit her and goose bumps shot up along her arms as the cold rain ran down them. Ayithe didn’t react she merely began to play with the drops as they dripped from her fingers. Then the door opened again and she paused as the Inn keeper appeared once more. Holding out a large fur coat in his hand. Ayithe acknowledged his friendly gesture and smiled, it was the first smile she had given anyone in a week and she savoured it as she wrapped the big fur coat around herself. It was so warm and comfortable, she couldn’t resist holding it tight and rubbing it against her cold cheeks. This feels so good…She thought to herself as she felt the temperature difference very quickly.

“Thank you” She said softly to him. He simply smiled and went back inside, closing the door quietly as to no longer wake anyone else up. Ayithe turned away from the door and looked down the road, the rain had churned up most of the path, and so sticking to the centre was the most logical choice as the stones from the original path still remained. Stepping out onto the road the rain began to crash down hard upon her, the large fur coat managed to keep her warm but in turn slowly began to get drenched from the rain. The road was long and with no lights it was hard to see anything coming from a far distance. Ayithe would have normally considered it a risk to leave in the dark of night but after being woken up so abruptly she wasn’t going to sleep again tonight.

[Ayithe Solete]

Walking down this road was so familiar, nothing much had changed in nearly a year and Ayithe didn't even realise where she was walking, nor did she really care. Passing through the cold rain she never looked up at the journey ahead of her, not that there was a lot to look at. The surrounding forest at night was pitch black, and Ayithe couldn't see further than a few meters through it, yet she didn't even try to look further, her mind too intertwined with thoughts of her dying brother and her rape. It was too hard to forget, and with no real closure she had spent the remaining part of her life wandering about, alone, hurting and worst of all fighting with everyone and everything in her way.

The fur coat didn't last too long in the pouring rain, which fell relentlessly from the night sky, each drop giving off a twinkle of light as the reflective moon kept the dark path ever so slightly alight. Ayithe felt weak and tired, but ignorantly forced herself to keep on the move. It was fear of those around her that kept her away, and she never let herself get comfortable with her surroundings. She took a long deep breath as the cold seeped through the coat and her eyes felt ever so sleepy. The sound of her feet sloshing in the watery road was drowned out by the hard rain and after a few more minutes of walking, Ayithe became uncomfortable with the now wet through coat. It was no longer keeping her dry and the rain began running down her shoulders. She shivered as the first drop ran down her spine and feeling like she was heading nowhere, she paused and looked back down the path she had taken.

She couldn't see anything, just a moonlight shine from the wet floor disappearing into the black. It had been a mistake leaving in the middle of the night without having eaten anything in a few days. Ayithes eating habits had become much less common recently, and while it had been habit to miss a day every so often she had gotten worse in recent weeks. Feeling rather weak Ayithe turned off the road, stepping over the deeper pools of rain water she carelessly slipped and fell to the wet mud. She felt awful and shouted at herself as she pulled herself up and sat against the first tree by the road. Shivering from the cold she noticed she had cut her knee, and watched as a tear of blood ran down her leg dodging in between the splashes of falling rain. She wiped it with the arm of her coat before pulling it off and throwing it out into the path.

I miss you Arckry, I’m so sorry...

While she was aware of losing track with everything, she blamed herself for her brother’s death and everything else that happened back then. She hadn't even gone back home to tell her parents what had happened and feared being rejected and blamed for ruining their lives with that information. Her tears hid behind her already soaked skin and her wet hair hung tangled over her face while she sat still up against the rough tree. She punched the ground in frustration and cried out, the sound of her crying echoed through the trees filling up the silence and shivering quite badly she rolled over onto her side. After carrying on for so long she couldn't take it anymore, why else would she had been woken up in the middle of this night she thought. It was time just to roll over and end it. She didn't deserve a warrior death, she deserved a scum’s death, to die in the mud by mother nature and go to hell. With that in her mind, she closed her eyes and took another long deep breath, a final tear ran down her cheek and she lost consciousness.

[Ayithe Solete]

Ayithes eyes opened ever so slightly, feeling very heavy she closed them again and yawned rolling her head to one side. It felt like she was laying on a large furry cushion and opening her eyes again she appeared to be in a rather dimly lit but large wooden room. Her arms felt weak as she carefully sat up and looked about the, three of the walls were made from wood, but the final wall was made from stone and held within itself a large fireplace with a roaring fire. There were no windows but a door to her right and a small stone basin opposite, full with water. Feeling groggy and very confused it took her a few moments to realise she wasn't dreaming, she felt a chill by her feet and peered down to realise she was no longer wearing her boots.

Her heart began to beat faster as she started to wonder where she was, she slid off the large cushion and felt a tug at her hair. she turned to find no one, and felt the tug again, quickly reaching round her hair, her pulse raced as she panicked. Her hair was tied up and folded through a bobble, she pulled it off and threw it to the ground then began stamping on it trying to hurt it, but only feeling the solid stone floor beneath her. Her disk blades were gone and so was her belongings, only her top remained, and some strange pants, that were different than she remembered. Still Darkling skin but, they completely covered her legs, just like her old pair used to be. Still very scared and confused Ayithe dropped her pants and searched for bruises on her legs, the thought that she had been raped again flooded her mind and she tore desperately at the pants to get them off. The Darkling skin was still very tough and Ayithe dragged herself over to the basin, scrubbing herself desperately and frantically, then she through water over herself in a bid to clean herself again. The memories piled in through her mind, the screams, the pressure, the pain and horror of it all, twisting and turning inside as she scrubbed harder while tears ran relentlessly down her face.

Then the faint noise of someone yawning caught her ear. Ayithes eyes darted up to the door, but nothing, she froze in terror before hearing it again and realising it was coming from the room. Had she been lying next to someone all this time? Her mouth dropped and she pushed back against the wall, as the furry cushion ruffled and moved. That’s when she realised, it wasn't a cushion, and it was alive.

What...the...hell...?

Ayithe wiped the tears from her eyes as the creature sat up and stretched. It was a large brown bear, and its yawn, for a bear at least, was surprisingly not very roary. Picking herself up she put her clothes back on hastily, torn or not she didn't care as she dashed for the door while the bear yawned again flashing its large white teeth. Ayithe pulled at the door, it was locked, and now the bear was turning around. O no... Ayithe kicked the door and frantically turned the door knob. She was terrified and kicked and punched the door repeatedly in an desperate attempt to get out. The bear turned to her stood up on its hind legs and remained still, it didn't move or glare but Ayithe wasn't going to turn her back on it. The door remained solid as a rock and Ayithe saw only one other option, moving slowly, with no sudden movements she made her way across to the water basin. It was going to be heavy and she didn't feel all that strong, it didn't help with her arm braces already weighing her down, and as she attempted to lift, the stone basin barely moved.

The bear watched puzzled and dropped down to its four feet, before it marched over to the door and started scratching. Ayithe took a deep breath and started to try and push the basin across to the fire, still on her mind, all she wanted to do was get away from it. But still it was too much, she couldn't shift it in her state and with a worried huff she dropped back onto her bum and leant against the wall once more. Panting as she tried to get her breath back it was her turn to be confused as the bear looked more afraid of her, and began scratching at the door like a domestic dog. Then the door clicked letting in the outside light and with a loud howl the bear pushed its way out of the room and disappeared out into what appeared to be the outside world. Ayithe sat very still, staring into the light, watching as a few trees swayed outside in the wind and listening to a voice shout out. "Heath! Heath! Come back here you wuss!"

It was a man’s voice, and Ayithe suddenly felt violated again. She stood up holding herself against the wall without taking her eyes off the door way for his entrance. Stepping into the doorway was a young handsome man, wearing a loose suede shirt and pants he entered unarmed. His hair was fairly short and black and he had bright blue eyes with an enchanting smile. Feeling less threatened for a moment Ayithe didn't try to attack, but remained motionless against the solid wooden wall.

"Please don't be alarmed." He said softly, "My names Raslin, and I found you unconscious in the woods. May I ask your name?"

"My name..." She replied a little unsure. "My name is no one..."

"Well, you can tell me your name when you want to then. I found you late last night and brought you here to recover. I'm sorry if Heath gave you a fright, but he’s harmless and I used him to help warm you up. Using his body heat that is, as he sleeps longer than any of us anyway, it was a good way to get your body temperature back up to normal."

"Ok..." Ayithe replied folding her arms and looking at the floor.

"I don't want to push too much onto you until you’re ready, so when you’re ready, your boots are by the fire, and I’ll just be outside." With that he turned around and headed for the door.

"Did you rape me?" She said abruptly.

Raslin paused by the door and turned round startled. "Excuse me?"

"You know," She said starting to raise her voice. "Did you touch me? Did you violate me while I slept?"

"NO" Raslin replied feeling rather worried by her reaction. "I swear to you, and I never meant to scare you like this."

"O I bet you didn't! Ayithe replied sarcastically.

"Look, you need to calm down, your still not well and your clearly distressed."

Ayithe then stepped forward staring at him, while he took a step backwards in the opposite direction. "Calm down this..." Then flicking her arms down towards the floor her two concealed blades shot out from her arm braces. Raslin jumped in surprise as they flew out unexpectedly, while Ayithe strode towards him and began slashing left to right and right to left attempting to cut him down where he stood. Although startled by her sudden attack Raslin dodged side to side cleverly until backing into the wall with a thud and nearly falling over. Ayithe repeated another swing as Raslin raised his hand and swiftly caught her by the wrist. Then with a quick and fluent motion he twisted her arm and stepped around her before pinning her forcefully against the wall by both wrists. She may still of been fairly quick, but she was still weak and needed some care before she could stand on her own two feet again.

"Look!" He shouted, "You need to stop this madness, I haven't touched you. I swear to you."

Ayithe struggled for a moment before realising she was out done and relaxing her attack. "Then why are my clothes changed? Why was my hair folded up?" She stressed releasing a tear.

"You needed to get dry clothes, and I didn't touch you, my friend Rehania sorted you out. I found you, I carried you and I’ve watched over you, but I swear I never touched you. Now I realise you’re scared and I want to let you go, can I let you go without being attacked again?"

Ayithe nodded with a sniff and retracted her blades, and Raslin to his word, carefully let her go. Standing up he took a sigh of relief and smiled again.

"You're no prisoner here, were only trying to help. So how about you wait here and I’ll bring you something to eat. Because you might be stubborn enough to think your alright, but you still need time to recover."

Ayithe nodded again and Raslin took to his feet, then trustingly turned away and out the door shutting it quietly behind him. He had left Ayithe with an opportunity to strike again, but this time, Ayithe decided to trust him and wiping away her tears she moved back over to the warm fire and picked up her fur boots.

[Ayithe Solete]

Although being a little more trusting Ayithe still declined the offer to stay sat in the room. Raslin had made enough of an impression so that Ayithe believed him, for now at least. She stepped into the doorway covering her eyes as the mid day sun managed to send its beams of light through the canopy of trees. Ayithe felt a little scruffy but not concerned with that she walked out into an small camp, there were no other buildings but tents and equipment racks propped up about the area. A group of large tree branches managed to stretch right over the small opening and cast a cool shadow from the warm sun's rays and the sound of birds filled the air with an assortment of whistling.

Raslin was sat at a wooden table and some plates, Ayithe could hear his chopping from the hut door and started to smell some sort of cooked meat. Her stomach growled intensely and she held her stomach as she felt so hungry, she felt sick. The sound of laughter came from across the way as Ayithe slowly made her way towards Raslin. She glanced across the open ground to see a group of people laughing and play fighting. One man looked quite enormous in height a with another more average sized man next to him and then a red haired woman. She must of been Rehania, or at least she presumed as she was the only woman here at the camp.

The snapping of damp twigs under Ayithes feet caught Raslin's attention and he looked over his shoulder at her as he placed for more food on a plate. "So not one for taking advice are you?"

"No...Not really."

"Well," he said turning round, “How about you get something to eat. Take a seat and tuck in."

Ayithe sat down, the seat was nothing more than a tree trunk that had been cut and smoothed out for sitting on. While the table had a little more detail and was pieced together but was clearly made from the same type of tree. Raslin sat next to her and smiled again, she glanced at the food and then up at him, his soft eyes and strong smile kept catching her eye and in a shy moment she quickly she turned away once more. She picked up a stick of carrot took a light bite of it, it wasn't the tastiest of foods to have after several days of not eating, but it was a start. Raslin sat there in silence and tucked in, carrots, potatoes and some thinly cut slices of meat, certainly a healthy meal and one Ayithe needed.

"Ayithe" She said taking another bite of the carrot.

"What?"

"My names Ayithe."

"Ayithe, that’s a beautiful name." He said still smiling."So what brings you to the great forest of Concordia? Not a lot of travellers head this deep in."

"Just walking."

"I'd say you’re trying to escape."

"Escape? What on earth makes you think I’m escaping...and from what?" Ayithe replied defensibly.

"Well, people don't just walk this deep into the Concordia forest, and yeah you were taking a path. But you took the path away from Underwood, away from other people, and that path didn't carry on much longer."

Ayithe was a little confused, she remembered coming out of the tavern, but she didn't remember a choice of paths. "I was just walking, it was late and...and dark, I got lost...How did you find me?"

"I heard someone crying out, sounded like they were in a lot of pain..." Raslin probed ever so slightly looking at her with the corner of his eye while taking a slice of meat. Ayithe fell silent indicating her refusal to answer and began eating some more.

Meanwhile, over the other side of camp, the three other people still laughed unconcerned about their new arrival. The woman stood at about average size to the two larger men beside her. Yet by the playful banter coming from them, she was certainly part of the group and not a pushover. Her dark blood red hair hung down as low as her hips, and tied at the bottom a small spiked band to hold it together. She wore light leather clothing with some light metal plates on her shoulders and knees, while covering just one hand a spiked knuckle buster wrapped around her fist. The taller of the two men stood about seven foot tall and towered over the other two. Wearing tight pants and no top, he had a large leather strap that hung over his chest and back holding a large broadsword within it. He had large black boots and steel toe caps on the end, while opposite to his feet he had a shaved head and a large brutish jaw and nose. The smaller of the two men was around six foot tall with blonde short hair and with much smaller features on his face. He wore a light blue top with a slightly darker shade of blue pants.

"It rained like shit last night, the grounds all damp and ruining my boots." The smaller man said.

"You call them boots Dheale? These are boots." Said Cail in a deep voice, being the larger of the two he pointed proudly and then stood with his arms on his hips, bearing a large grin.

"Your eyes betray you my friend, as my wonderful boots were made by the great Carteran of Corone, the greatest boot maker ever!"

"You really got boots from that cobbler?" Asked Rehania, "They must of cost a bit of coin."

"Yeah, way too much that we can afford really, but being as I am, friendly an all, he lowered the price." Replied Dheale.

Rehania was surprised and gave him a playful elbow to arm as she laughed at him. Cail embarrassingly placed his head in his hands wondering what on earth was happening,. then grumbled to himself miserably as they giggled with each other flirtatiously. Rolling his eyes away from the moment, he latched onto the sight of the Raslin eating alongside the woman that he had found last night. The atmosphere was so much quieter over there and Cail debated the choice to leave these two alone to save himself from the girlish fever, of worrying about their clothes.

"Cail?" Dheale called, "If you want these style of boots, I’m sure he can make them in your size."

"That’s it!" Moaned Cail, "I mean how the hell can I make a good impression to anyone with such a sissy by my side."

Cail then marched past them attempting to turn a blind eye to their behaviour. Rehania laughed again and slapped him on the back as he passed. "Yeah we better let him say hello first on his own, I mean, we can't afford to take away any of his manliness."

"Manliness? Don't you get me started women, before you came along he was a man, not a big man like me, but a man, who didn't care about getting his boots dirty..."

While it was all taken in good heed, the jokes were always the same. Cail and Dheale had known each other longer than Rehania and Cail enjoyed the feel of being big, strong and manly. As the laughs died down they made their way across the damp floor towards Ayithe and Raslin, their conversation had died somewhat and Ayithe had been slowly picking at the food, before clearing the plate quicker than she had planned to. She peered up at the three approaching her and investigated them with her eyes, it had become fairly natural to her to scout any weapons that they may be holding just in case of emergency. The only visible weapon remained to be the large protruding Broadsword that appeared over Cails shoulders. Ayithe was surprised and a bit anxious at his size, which almost erased the fact that he was walking with two others.

However, they arrived with smiles and took their time around her. Ayithe could tell they were aware she had been under some sort of distress and they waited for Raslin to introduce them as he turned around.

"Guys" Raslin greeted to them. "...and Rehania, this is our guest, Ayithe."

"This is Rehania, she helped take care of you last night." Rehania gave a friendly wave with a slight growl at Raslin, for his "..and Rehania" comment. "This here is Dheale, with a silent H and E, but he makes up with it with his chatter box of a mouth." Dheale also growled, much to the disappointment of Cail who closed his eyes and prayed for help. "...And this is Cail, you can't miss him."

"Hey." Cail replied scratching his groin inappropriately. Ayithe gave a slight grin to Raslins sarcastic comments and in a shy voice say hi back to each of them. It was a little over whelming to have them all around her at once and she felt uncomfortable folding her arms and keeping her head low. Rehania quickly noticed and understood her reaction, and so wafted the others away with her hands and telling them to go find something to do. She gave a small whack to the backside of Dheale and allowed them to wander off, Cail once again didn't look amusing but left hastily with the other two men. Ayithe Listening out for the banter that got shot between Cail and Dheale but unable to make out what they were saying merely watched them as Dheale nearly slipped on the grass.

Sitting in front of her Rehania gave her a reassuring smile and gave a huff. "Men aye? Don't understand when they are harassing a girl, well just so you know in future, I got your back love."

[Ayithe Solete]

It was clear that they were a group of nice people, and Ayithe felt trusting enough not to feel threatened by any of them. Ayithe realised she had obviously slept in, and with such a sunny day, it must of been sometime around the afternoon, or so she figured.

"Did you find Heath comfy then? I must confess to having slept against him many times..."

Ayithe almost drifted off as Rehania motored on with herself. She still felt rather tired and began day dreaming of resting on the big bear. "He’s like a big fluffy cushion" Rehania said carrying on. But it was so true, and despite the scare he gave her as she awoke, he was comfy, so comfy she failed to realise she was alive. Rehania has hazel coloured eyes, and they stood out rather well considering her red hair was so striking, something that expressed her radical but outgoing personality rather well. It didn't take long for Rehania words to disappear behind Ayithe's thoughts as her day dreaming started turning into a full on dream.

She lay against Heaths warm body, the bears long fluffy hair created the perfect cushion which wrapped around her body and hid her from the cold. She felt safe, but as it did it felt familiar, like she'd been there before, but colder, and suddenly she felt shaken, afraid and the floor felt rather cold. The cushion was now rather hard and Ayithe sat up and turned to look beneath her, Heath was gone, it was his fur, but he wasn't there he had been skinned. Ayithe called out for Heath, and pulled at the bear’s fur, but it wouldn't move, it was stuck to the floor and Ayithe crawled backwards staring frightened at the fur. Suddenly she cut herself, her leg bled just under her thigh. It trickled down her leg and the pain felt excruciating making it very difficult to move and she felt herself having the drag her leg along behind her as she attempted to stand but failed constantly. Then as it went so dark around her, a chill went through her body as a deep voice whispered in her ear, she could feel the warm lips pressing against her ear lobe as it spoke.

I told you I’d get you, why fight?

Ayithe screamed as the same mouth breathed down her neck she could smell his rancid breath, she could feel the greasy teeth digging into her neck as her tears ran down her cheeks, yet no one could hear her scream. She became rigid and was forced backwards to the floor, and once again she could felt the cold fur against her back, the dry tough hands holding her down and she closed her eyes and attempted to kick out.

"ARCKRY!" She screamed out in terror.

Rehania froze in mid sentence, then Ayithe suddenly shouted out at what seemed totally random. Ayithe flew to her feet tipping over the table and placing an powerfully, emotional kick through its wooden top. The table split in two and collapsed to the floor forcing Rehania to move or be struck by the shifting table. Rehania took another step back away from Ayithe and feeling rather startled now, she held out her hand in front of her as if to hold out some space between them. She could see Ayithes eyes had flooded up immediately and her breathing was very erratic as she began to realise where she was, and what she had done.

"O god..." Ayithe whispered to herself. She still had no control over these feelings and after almost making short work of Rehania she broke into tears again. Rehania cautiously approached as Ayithe fell back upon the tree stump seat, then kneeling in front of her took her hand softly. "Hey, it’s alright. take your time." The stamping of running feet came from behind the hut as Raslin, Cail and Dheale came charging across to see if everything was alright. Rehania turned and shooed them away a second time, and reluctantly the guys turned away and headed back. Raslin being an exception stood still for a moment and mouthed silently to ask if everything was ok. Rehania symboled ok with her hand then turned back to Ayithe.

"You know, how about you go back and rest. I get the feeling you need it."

Ayithe looked at Rehania and wiped her face, her mood was now low and Rehania put her arm round her and walked her back to the hut. Her throat now also felt sore and her leg throbbed after the thunderous kick to the table, it was enough to give her a slight limp and Raslin watched concerned as he held the door open for them. Rehania let her enter and paused by the door facing Raslin.

"You certainly picked up a lost soul Ras, I’m gonna stay with her for a while."

"Let me know what’s going on." Asked Raslin.

"Sure."

Ayithe sat down on the low, but wide bed. It was considerably less comfy than Heath the bear, but it would do. The room was still warm from the burning fire, which by now had died down dramatically from when she was inside earlier. Ayithe lay down and rested her head, not wanting to get a headache the pillow was relaxing, and surprisingly wasn't covered in as many bear hairs as she expected it to be. She closed her eyes and listening to the fire burning, the sound was calming and Ayithe started to level herself out. The door creaked to a close as Rehania entered, she picked up a smaller piece of stray wood on the floor and chucked it into the fire before kneeling by it and taking in the warmth.

"I could change the blanket you know?" asked Rehania. "Heath might be comfy but I know he leaves hairs everywhere."

"No, its fine actually." replied Ayithe in a more calm manner.

"Wanna talk about it?" She asked.

"The bed?"

"Come on, let’s not beat about the bush. You could of knocked my head off the way you kicked that table, its best talking about it than letting it rip you up inside."

"There’s nothing to talk about" Ayithe replied in a angry tone of voice, while rolling to one side and facing the wall.

"Arckry? Who’s that?" Rehania probed.

"Get off my case!" Ayithe shouted, turning towards her.

Rehania turned back and stood up. "Case? Look girl, I don't really like having people lashing out at me. Now I can see your hurting, and understand it might be personal. But I know one thing, keeping pain all inside and not resolving it will only hurt you even more. I can tell your hurting girl, why else would you be all the way out here, alone, you could of died of the cold. And nightmares?"

Ayithe sat back down, the word nightmares had touched home and another tear ran down her face as Rehania knelt back down in front of her.

"Look, I haven't had a girly friend in a while, you don't look like you have either, and if I know anything, I know every girl needs a girly friend. Fancy being mine?"

"I haven't told anyone before...And I don't know if I can say it..."

"You don't have to say anything, I’m telepathic girl, well slightly" She said smiling at Ayithe.

"Slightly? How can you be slightly?"

"I'm not naturally telepathic, when I was younger I thought being telepathic was cool, and I collected a magic stone and used magic to give me telepathic abilities. So basically, I can read your thoughts if you give me consent to do so, the only other way I receive thoughts and dreams from someone because they have no control over them, like you."

"Arckry was my brother, he died protecting me after Dreach raped me...I let him down."

"NO, no you didn't girl. You can't expect much from yourself in that situation. That guy, Dreach, he was an evil bastard and he got what he deserved, but killing him wasn't enough...no?"

"No, I was lucky to kill him, and the others just left me, left me to rot."

"By the looks of things girl, your still rotting, and if you stay all cooped up, then they gave you a worse fate than death. You’ve been wandering for over a year and a half now, I think it’s time to stop."

Ayithe had tensed her fist in anger of the thought, then lay down with one more stray tear. Their conversation ended pretty sudden but Rehania knew to end it and let her rest, and so quietly exited the room.

[Ayithe Solete]

Ayithe had managed to sleep the rest of the day and night, and up early as he always did, Raslin was up to do some early morning training. Ayithe awoke, opening her eyes to the sight of the wooden ceiling. She had almost forgotten where she was and felt strangely clear minded something that she had not experienced in a long while. It was the first night in months that she hadn't had a nightmare and Ayithe smirked to herself as she enjoyed what had to be her best morning in a long time. Putting her boots on she made her way to the door, she could see Raslin stood by a man sized log, and it was already covered in a large amount of damage and was clearly used for striking practice.

He stood side ways to the log drawing out two medium sized custom Falceon blades. They looked stunning with the sun reflecting off their surface and were shaped with very smooth curves creating a flick at the end of the blade while the reverse of the blade had a gut wrenching inner curve giving the overall effect an almost metallic flame look. Gracefully, Raslin swung them around his body, slicing downwards in a series of arching attacks into the wooden post. Its bark was almost all gone already as he continued to chop various pieces off it. Ayithe watched admiring him, the way he moved was like a mesmerising dance letting of slight reflections of the sun as his blades caught its rays. After watching for a few minutes Ayithe wanted to walk over, her Darkling skin attire looked ever so much like his dark studded leather attire and while she wore hers for pretty much any occasion Raslin's was clearly his battle gear. She looked across the room to see the clean water basin and decided to ensure she was fresh before making her morning appearance.

Soon later Ayithe made her way back outside, refreshed and ready for the day ahead of her. It was a strange feeling having someone to speak to the following morning, and the urge to move on still nagged ever so slightly at her in the back of her mind. Yet rather confidently Ayithe made her way towards Raslin who still swung at the practicing post. He paused after a final swing as Ayithe approached him and he smiled as his controlled breathing slowed and he lowered his weapons.

"Good morning." Raslin said pointing across to a weapons rack. "You welcome to join in if you like."

"Morning, I might thanks." She replied having no intention of doing anything else.

She stood across by the weapons rack as a few specialised weapons lay across it, and there top of the rack hung her favoured and unique Disk blades. It felt good to take them back in her hand as she picked them up and turned to Raslin who stood proudly placing his weapons in his holsters.

"I find your weapons interesting, and quite unique. It would be interesting to see how you use them, if you can." Raslin said trying to provoke her.

"Heh, of course I do, you think I carry these round for show?"

"Maybe..." He teased again.

"Stand back!" She said pushing him to one side. Determined to impress with her combat skills. Gripping tightly around the small grooves on the inner of the blade to ensure she had maximum grip, she shifted to her right foot and sliced down cutting through the wooden post. Then on to her left and repeating the same strike that tore through one side of the wooden post, each strike was a solid, hard blow and Ayithe raised her hand again before Raslin gripped her around the wrist stopping her. "HEY!" She shouted attempting to snatch back her hand, but Raslin held tight as he prepared to make a comment on her swing. Ayithe didn't like the feeling of being over powered and dropping her disk blade, she quickly tried to outdo him with a sudden thrust to the stomach. Unfortunately for her Raslin was quick to react and side stepped, while still holding her wrist and wrapped it around her as he shifted behind and held her still.

"You swing like you’re angry, you should try to be swift." Raslin whispered into her ear.

"What's your point?" Ayithe asked as she struggled.

"Well, your swings are strong and powerful... A wise man once told me that those swings are angry, full of anger and too much determination." He said still holding her as she struggled trying to move. "You would benefit from being swifter, instead of ending the swing, turn it into something else, such as returning your attack into a defensive position. Your heavy swing is replying completely on knocking me down so you can continue your attack."

"I see" Ayithe replied. Then stamping on his foot she loosened his grip and drove an elbow deep into his gut. Once again he caught her elbow in his hand and then swept her feet from beneath her. Yet unexpectedly Ayithe grabbed his armour and dragged him down with her. They crashed into the soft grass together and Ayithe held tightly pulling him close into an awkward moment as Raslin then lay upon her. Their lips almost touching and a heavy breathing rocking them both slowly up and down as they stared into each other’s eyes. Raslin fell silent as he looked almost passionately looked at her and then his stare turned into a admiring look as his eyes quickly danced up and down her upper body. But quickly and gently he leant back and got off her. Ayithe sat up as he held out his hand and helped her to her feet. It was strange for Ayithe, as it was the first time in a long time she hadn't felt angry or violated and it took her a moment to get herself together as she felt her body tingle slightly with and enjoyable feeling of relief. It was enjoyable to her as she started to feel happy with herself and her situation.

"I'm sorry..."Ayithe said embarrassed.

"No, I’m sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable..."

"It's ok, I don't feel uncomfortable around you, and I would like for you to show me how to swing for elegantly."

They both smiled at each other as they took their weapons back in hand, and Raslin began to show her a new method to fighting. Unaware of what was around them Rehania, Dheale and Cail were stood watching as Ayithe mimicked Raslin's attacking swing. Rehania brushed her long hair while Dheale sat beside her holding part of it for her. Cail on the other hand was munching away at some morning, self made chew, Rehania made sure to position herself as far away as possible from Cails apparent self made chew, it was full of enough crap to scare her by just looking at it, and even though Cail knew full well it disgusted her, it continued to eat them anyway. Rehania glanced over her shoulder and shivered to the sight as he ate it like a starving dog, Cail simply raised his eyebrow awaiting a comment from her disapproving expression.

"Do you have to eat those things every time were out of a village?" Rehania moaned.

"Yes..."Cail replied as he pulled his plate away from Heath who was pushing his sniffing nose towards his food. "Do you have to whine every time I eat one of these?"

"Yes I do, you should just give it to Heath, it'll do more for him than you, you’re big enough." She said looking back at the others. "Besides, shouldn't you be training like them?"

"Normally I would, but were heading off to Underwood soon, early movement in the morning and I have some money to spend. We've already delayed going there for her, I don't want to wait any longer, so as soon I’ve eaten my four tasty Cail Meaty Munches! We’re off to..."

"Two..." Dheale said interrupting.

"Argh, don't interrupt me man...Breakfast is the most important meal of th..." Cail froze as his eyes wandered over his lessoned breakfast. Then smashing the table with his fists he snarled in annoyance as he realised the bear had snuck away with his breakfast. "Blasted Bear! HEATH! HEATH YOU FUR BALL, COME HERE!"

His shouting echoed through the trees and broke through Raslin and Ayithes concentration almost forcing them to stop to see what all the commotion was about. Raslin smirked at the comical moment as he saw Heath sprinting off into the trees with a large and annoyed Cail in tow. It was amazing how soft Heath was around them, considering how powerful he was really, certainly strong enough to take down any man one on one. Heath was loyal though, brought up by Raslin who has become his family, now he protects them with his life.

[Ayithe Solete]

A little while later and the group were packed, Cail had stopped chasing Heath and had begun saddling the horses with their bags. The entire group had little in the way of belongings that they took about with them, and yet Ayithe still managed to carry the least of them all. Two small pouches hung from her hips just under her Disk blades, which the group had already trusted to give back to her. In here she kept her few necessary for washing and cleaning, no real change of clothes accept keeping what she wore clean and tidy. She stood leaning against a willow tree, its long hanging branches were a perfect cover to conceal the horses, so much so, Ayithe herself hadn't noticed them earlier.

The sun was still shining rather brightly as they came together for the horses. Ayithe slyly kept an eye on Raslin as he passed, and even more slyly, he kept an eye on her. Smiling to himself Raslin hooked his bag over his horse and gave it a pat on the thigh. They were all rather large horses with long legs, certainly horses used for speedy getaways. They were all different shades of brown and with long dark manes and tails.

"We only have one horse per person, so you can hitch a ride with me if you wish?" Raslin said confidently as he hopped up onto the horse.

The saddles were large enough to carry two people with the added blanket that hung from the back. Riding a horse bareback was something you didn't really want to do, and foiled most people’s attempts to ride, as the pain between your legs was certainly enough to remove any rider. Giving her a helping hand Raslin hauled Ayithe up onto the horse with one arm and she disconcertedly grabbed him by the hips to hold on. She hadn’t really rode horses before, and preferred her own feet on the ground, although providing she felt safe, she was happy to hold on at the back.

“No showing off now,” Ayithe said a little worried. “I’m not the best on a horse...”

Raslin could feel her holding on a little tight and took it easier then he normally would as he got the horse to back up and then turn around. Rehania quickly seemed to show some finesse on the horse as she galloped around the hut as if to warm the horse up, while Cail and Dheale made a simple trot towards a small opening between the trees. There didn’t appear to be much of a path anywhere out of the camp, yet the group evidentially knew their way around. The horses were quite smooth and constant with the pace they kept up moving through the trees, and Heath, the large bear followed them while keeping a distance from the horses on a parallel path. It felt like she had been taken into the depths of the forest as they made their way along a thin path between a few bogs and ponds. Some large plants looked fearsome enough to want to eat you, but realistically stayed still doing nothing more than attract the insects to their flashy colours and thorns.

The ground felt soft as they continued, leaving large hoof prints in the mud and occasionally breaking the top layer of moss and grime that clung to the rocks. The light barely broke through the canopy and left the area very dim, but as Ayithe would glance up, the bright sun would often make the leaves look as if they were glowing. They group stayed rather silent on the trip until finally reaching what looked like a road ahead. “Looks like where here guys!” Shouted Cail as he powered ahead of the group and charged out onto the road. The sound of the silent forest suddenly felt like drums as the horses footsteps stomped on the stone laid road. The light from the sun was almost blinding as they came into its view and Ayithe attempted to shield her eyes with one hand, while still holding tightly with the other. They had come out near a small village called Beneath, named so because it was the first village to be founded at the bottom of the Concordia forest, although its position was still out of the way and it hadn’t grown much compared to other villages in its time here.

It didn’t take long for them to arrive and their momentary dash turned quickly into a trot again. Pulling alongside them Rehania had managed to tie her hair up and keep it tidy, while Ayithe who hadn’t even thought of it began running her hand through her fluffy hair. Surprising enough though, it wasn’t too bad and Rehania laughed as Ayithe tried to keep it together. “You know what, you should ditch Rassy boy and join me in the shops.”

“Shops?” Ayithe replied confused.

“Well the big idea of coming here is to stock up, the lads will want to stock up on supplies, and we can get some stuff of our own.” She said smiling. “O and CAIL, can get some real food for once.”

The group laughed as Cail turned round with a grunting face towards Rehania. “I heard that woman! There isn’t anything wrong with my food, its man food!”

Ayithe hopped off as they swung into a horse post. It was only small, but with plenty of posts to strap up your horse, and the small shelter was packed with hay for the horses. Rehania quickly tied her up her horse and pulled Ayithe away from Raslin before he could speak. Cail gave him a pat on the back and joined in watching them walk off. Raslin watched Ayithe with admiring eyes as she walked off with her hair lightly wafting with the breeze and Cail raised his eye brows.

“Yeah, anyone would think you’re trying to spend some time with that young girl Ras?”

“Yeah, anyone would be right.” Raslin replied with a mushy tone of voice. “She’s beautiful mate, absolutely beautiful.”

“Now, now,” Cail interrupted. “No getting all soppy near me Ras. First Dheale, now you, this damn things infectious!”

“Come on guys...” called Dheale returning for strapping up his horse. “Let's get some stuff and stop staring at the ladies. Raslin might have something to stare at, but Cail, I don’t see anyone for you walking over there, so you better not be looking at my woman!”

“No, no Dheale, why would I be staring at anyone over there when my bitch is right here!” Cail said wrapping his arm around Dheale and holding him close.

Bursting into laughter Cail pushed Dheale in an amusing gesture and they all began to walk off looking for something interesting to buy. The horse keeper dressed in a old worn cloak arose from almost nowhere holding out his arm desperately looking for cash for his services. Forgetting that the keeping of your horses wasn’t free Cail almost pushed him out of the way, which certainly would of spelt the end for the horse keeper who’s arm was almost as thick as Cails middle finger. Raslin stepped forward realising who he was, and hastily dropped some coins into the palm of his hand before Cail almost planted him with his fist. Then as quickly as that, the keeper disappeared back behind his small shelter and horse posts.

“Weirdo, how was I supposed to define the difference between a horse keeper and a beggar?” Cail moaned.

[Ayithe Solete]

While being a rather small village it has plenty of occupants, and its buildings were rather large, making those few who owned a shop here, have a big space without any rivalry for sales. Naturally the boys were always going to check out the weapon store, Rehania on the other hand was taking Ayithe to have a gander at some bracelets. They were Rehania's secret passion and she already owned about fifty of them, so had plenty to wear at any given time. Holding Ayithe by the wrist she almost dragged her inside as she lacked the patience to walk inside properly. The building had a large arched entrance with a railed fence for a door, which appeared all old and rusty as there was no real cover from the rain over the entrance. But inside, its wooden struts held up an beautiful oak wooden building with many shelves full of bracelets and necklaces. The colours of the beads and stones were all so bright and were almost hallucinogenic by the way Ayithe's eyes were blurred as she tried to focus on one item.

"This is crazy, there's so much..." Ayithe said rubbing her eyes.

"There are never enough bracelets Ayithe, never enough."

"Not really something I’ve ever worried about before, and this sorta hurts my eyes."

"Heh, that's the beauty of bracelets. Wait out back for me if you like?"

"I think I might just do that." Ayithe said retreating to the outside. It was surprising how quickly her eyes cleared up when she stepped outside, it was like the stones themselves were affecting her. It was rather quiet outside this shop, only a couple of people walking by, while further up some of the shops looked real busy. The sun still beat down hard, Ayithe could feel it on her skin as well as her eyes as she took a seat on the step of the entrance to the shop. The lads were nowhere to be seen and being rather quiet, Ayithe could hear the footsteps coming from the inside of the shop on the wooden floor. Then the footsteps came her way and Rehania stepped out and hopped off the steps.

"Come come." Rehania said almost skipping with joy.

"That was quick, you just get the one?" Ayithe asked pointing at the red, blue and green painted bracelet.

"Yeah well I don't have a lot of money and this was pretty cheap."

Ayithe smiled, thinking that it looked rather tacky, but then again bracelets weren't her thing, so what would she know. They quickly turned up the next passage in between two buildings, Rehania paved the way as they moved out of sight behind the group of buildings and into what appeared to be someone's empty back garden.

"Where are we going?" Ayithe asked feeling unsafe out of the way of the pathway.

"Well this is a sort of shortcut, I can't really be bothered to walk all the way around, just jump this and the next fence and were at the other side. Not like anyone gives a damn?"

"Well, I guess not..." Ayithe replied hesitantly. The feeling wasn't really mutual about taking the shortcut, but Ayithe didn't want to end up on her own again. So quickly Rehania hopped up onto the fence and pulled herself over, landing gracefully on the other side. Ayithe looked behind her feeling rather uncertain about what she was doing, but as Rehania called back to urge her on, it gave her that little push to just do it. Jumping up she got her hands on the top of the fence and lifted herself up to Rehania on the other side waiting.

"Come on girl." Rehania said smiling. Ayithe slung herself over and landed neatly but paused as she thought she heard footsteps. The background noise of the village residents speech almost covered it, but realising she was feeling very cautious she wasn't sure if she had heard it or not.

"Shops are this way sleepy." Rehania said tugging on her arm. Ayithe smiled and turned back to what she was doing, the back path was blocked by a series of large wooden fences and tall buildings, and so the disconcerting feeling Ayithe was getting felt rather natural and not only that, it was the first time she was going to be around a large crowd in a long while. Then, just as she tried to rationalise her feelings, two neatly armoured men walked up in front of them. Ayithe immediately took a step back as she felt threatened by their presence, but Rehania stood still as the men stopped in front of them and began staring. Nothing was said as they just seemed to stare at each other in silence before one of the men began to produce a cocky smile.

"So, what are two women such as yourselves doing round a back area like this?" One of the large men said scratching his short beard.

"Minding our own business!" Rehania replied.

"Really? That's funny, because your little friend here looks like someone were looking for..."

Ayithe began shaking, this was the first time she had been back in a proper populated area in some time and she had already been noticed. Surely this cannot be true? Ayithe thought, taking a defensive step back again. The two men watched, neither of them looking familiar to Ayithe herself but appearing to have some sort of relocation of her.

"You're gonna have to come with us!" The other man said grabbing Rehania forcefully by the arm, who shouted at them with various profanities. Then a thud came from behind her as a man leapt over the fence and landed behind her. He was a bit smaller than the others but wearing similar armour, he drew his sword and held out his hand as if she was supposed to place her hand in it. Ayithes heart went into over drive as she panicked and stepped backwards until bumping into the fence as the two remaining men closed in on her slowly and carefully. Her eyes darted about from man to man watching their movement as Rehania shouted at her to run before being struck hard from the man holding her. Then one pulled out a scroll of paper and opened it up.

"By the order of Chevior, you are arrested, you are to be taken back...Alive."

The name Chevior rang through her head as she closed her eyes, and it drove fear into her heart. Chevior was Dreach's right hand man, the man who helped kill her brother, the man who helped Dreach to rape her. You think you can beat me?...I'm the greatest swords man alive...What's wrong little girl? Miss your brother?...Brother?...Brother?...Brother? All his words, his comments, his pain he inflicted on her was about to erupt.

"Just place your hand nicely into mine, and we won't have to hurt you..."

Ayithe opened her eyes, the tears didn't run, and she suddenly stopped panicking with one deep breath. The two men looked at each other as she stared at the ground between them as if frozen still against the wall. Then dropping her arms, she pushed off the wall and released her two Wrist blades and stepped into the centre of the two men. She was quick, too quick and before they could step back she arched her arm upwards into the man's bicep and tore through the armour like it was putty. The man screamed in agony as his arm nearly fell off from the attack, blood poured down his forearm and until a swift elbow to the throat he attempted a shout for help. Ayithe never ever looked at him as he choked from the blow and dropped to his knees. Then a swift kick to the other man was enough to knock him backwards off his clumsy feet. With that she turned back to the helpless man who had already dropped his sword, and with no guilt or pause she sliced across his throat with her wrist blade and kicked his body aside.

The remaining man shot back up to his feet and held out his sword towards her. Rehania had paused in shock, and so had the man holding her and he watched in disbelief as she took apart his comrades. Ayithe turned again to the man, the sun beating down on his armour sure wasn't helping him in this heat but it was Ayithe's quick speed that made him sweat the most. Taking a classy cartwheel towards him she viscously slashed at him from side to side with both arms, giving him little room to manoeuvre as he walked backwards blocking and parrying her swings. It didn't last long though as she caught his blade between hers and then knocked it out of his hands, he powerfully swung forward with his fist in an attempt to punch her but with no defence to speak of, she turned away from his fist and stabbed him by thrusting her wrist blade deep into his torso.

"STOP!" The third man shouted desperately, holding his own sword towards Rehania. Drop your weapons or I'll kill her!"

Ayithe paused as he shouted, and allowed her opponent to collapse. She didn't want to harm Rehania and immediately held out her arms. "I can't, they are stuck to me."

"I know what they are! You think we would come here without knowing who you are? Remove your arm braces and drop the disks too..."

"Fin..." Ayithe was broken in mid sentence as a scary but friendly face leapt out from nowhere roaring and crashing into Rehania and her captor. Heath quickly bit into the man by the throat and carefully trod on his weapon so he couldn't stab him, which was rather impressive for a bear Ayithe thought to herself. The man was silenced quickly and Rehania got to her feet as Ayithe walked over to them.

Looking up at Ayithe, Rehania gave her a hug and smiled. "I guess we can't stay here then..."

[Ayithe Solete]

Ayithe didn't return the same thankful hug, instead she stared at the floor as a flush of memories flooded her mind. Her blades retracted, smearing the remaining blood by her feet. Each drip reminding her of the fear that resided within her, the fear of ending up like her brother and never being able to escape the guilt that she felt, believing it was her fault that he died. Quickly she was brought back to her senses as Rehania shook her shoulder to get her attention.

"Hey, hey! Come on, we got to disappear before someone sees this..."

This time Heath stood by their side as they walked with a fast pace down the path and out into the open. How Heath had managed to get there unnoticed was certainly a mystery as the crowds didn't take long to spot the large bear prowling through their towns streets. Glaring his teeth defensively women began to scream and the crowd shifted into a mass panic and ran in any direction away from the Heath and the two women. As the crowds dispersed it revealed more thugs, their interest was clear as their eyes went past Heaths furry hide and gazed deep into the aqua blue eyes of Ayithe who was unable to hide behind her long hazelnut hair. Ayithe remained shocked and began to feel trapped as the men dressed in an array of armour, and brandishing various weapons slowly began to form a circle around them. Rehania stood close to Ayithe as they each drew a weapon to defend themselves. Heath stood up on his hind legs and roared threateningly towards the circling men, and while being weary of Heaths Strength they held their ground. The shouting from the runaway crowd silenced and now Ayithe could feel the wind blowing against her as a final man wearing a long cloak appeared from behind the largest of the group. With short dark hair and a roughly shaven beard he walked into the inner circle. He held no weapon accept a short green stick that was no longer than his fore arm but he stood fearlessly in front of Heath, just within his paws length.

"Greetings..." He spoke in a husky voice. "I'm very impressed with the fact that you've managed to stay hidden for so long. We've had everything you can think of searching for yourself, including Bounty hunters...and yet we find you wandering a village near the outskirts of the Concordian Forest."

Ayithe didn't recognise the man, he wasn't anyone she knew but acted as if he knew her, which scared Ayithe. "Who are you? And why...why are you looking for me?"

"Who I am is not important, why we are looking for you is...You don't think you can attack the Prince of Corone, his guards and get away with it do you?"

Ayithe stared back in Horror, the thought that Dreach, the man who had raped her and killed her brother was the Prince of Corone, and yet she had killed him. It was all too much to take in as she began trying to remember anyone referring to him as a member of royal authority. The fact that any of it could be true was hard to believe but it got Ayithe thinking and feeling that now she had done something else wrong. Before she could reply to him Rehania cried out, from behind her. She had been too focused on her thoughts Rehania was now on her knees at sword point, it seemed to happen so fast Ayithe didn't know what to do Heath let out another roar to ensure the men dared not step forward. The cloaked man didn't move again and instead looked towards Heath in anger.

"No more hiding behind this bear girl..." He shouted raising his over his head. Then pointing it towards Heath sparks began erupting from the tip of the stick and he let out a roar of his own as he glared at Heath with hatred. Then as the sparks began to form an arrow shot straight through the arm of the cloaked man who dropped to one knee and winced in pain bringing his arm inwards to his stomach. The arrow had gone right through and continued until disappearing past the rest of the group. A familiar loud voice cried out as the sound of running feet came from across the village. Everyone turned to look as Cail and Dheale charged down the path. "Get them!" The cloaked man snarled, and his men quickly moved forward to engage in combat. Cail led the way and swung a large Morning Star over his head to give it momentum for a strong swing. The grip was wrapped tightly around his wrist and the large spikes protruding from the head of the weapon glinted from the sun’s rays as he swung it downwards and smashed straight into the chest of one of the men. He instantly collapsed to the floor under Cails power and Dheale followed with equally impressive attacking skills leaping through the air with grace and slicing down his opponents, caring very little for being outnumbered.

The action prompted Ayithe once more to take action, un-clipping her Disk blades she turned and launched a disk blade quickly and accurately at the guard holding Rehania. The Disk cut into the shoulder making the armour seem like paper and as he stepped back Rehania stood up relieved him of his sword and cut him down to finish the job, then pulled out the Disk blade and tossed it back to Ayithe. The attack was deadly and swift, leaving only the cloaked man alive holding his arm. Cail stood over him as Heath tore into the remaining thug, Ayithe stepped forward as Raslin approached gracefully on horseback with his bow, and the other horses in tow. The man was seething with anger, and snarled at them like an wild animal.

"You've all made a big mistake...Chevior will be angry and he'll have you all killed!" Snarled the cloaked man, "I'll be back for all of you!"

Raslin gave Ayithe a warm hug, making her feel within safe hands again, while Cail and Dheale stood over him.

"Back? Ha! What makes you think you’re going anywhere?" Dheale said chuckling with Cail who found it equally amusing.

However as they laughed the man pulled up his hood and covered himself in his cloak as he tried to turn away from them. Cail equal to it reached out and grabbed the cloak pulling it tightly back towards himself only to pull back an empty cloak with no man underneath it.

"What?" Cail shouted surprised throwing the cloak to the ground. "Damn magic...for weaklings who can't hold a metal weapon...coward..."

"We better get moving." Raslin called jumping up onto his horse. "All this commotion got our attention, it’s certainly gonna get more peoples."

Quickly they got up on horseback, Ayithe jumped up to share with Raslin as they exited the village as quickly as possible, dashing into the forest out of sight and making their way back deep into the forest where they could feel safe behind the marshy forest floor.

[Ayithe Solete]

They arrived back at their private opening deep within the forest and behind the marsh, taking one of the few safe pathways through the marsh without getting stuck as there was certainly no one to help if anything went wrong. Cail jumped down off his horse in annoyance, clenching his fist to the thought of the man escaping his grasp. The group was certainly startled by what had just happened and Ayithe felt like disappearing out of sight, having brought them into her problematic life. Raslin noticed the embarrassment on Ayithe’s face as she stepped back from the group, he reached out and took her hand as he got off his horse, and gave her a comforting smile.

"Do not pull away." He said softly. He held onto her hand carefully but wilfully, stopping her from pulling away. A silence fell over the group as they each took a seat around the wooden table by the hut. The sun was still shining but a veil of gloom hung over the group with the realisation that they were now all in trouble.

"The Prince of Corone..." Rehania muttered. "You actually attacked the Prince of Corone?"

"I didn't just assault him...I killed him..." Ayithe replied feeling uncomfortable.

"KILLED HIM?" Dheale shouted. "How could you of killed the Prince of Corone?"

"He never looked like a Prince to me!"

"Why, what the hell’s a Prince supposed to look like? Does he need the word Prince tattooed to his forehead?"

"Relax Dheale." Raslin said stepping in front of him.

"Why they hell should I relax?" Dheale continued staring at Ayithe. "Granted we didn't have much choice but to defend her before, since Rehania was with her we had no choice. But now, damn man...she’s making us fugitives to the crown..."

Ayithe began getting upset as Dheale continued to persist in his angry rant, while Cail and Rehania stayed silent.

"This is crap and you know it Ras! I mean come on Ayithe, would you like to explain to me what reason you could possibly have to killing the Prince of Corone?"

"Back off Dheale!" Raslin said pushing him back with frustration.

"No I really want to know...Tell us why the hell I shouldn't hand you in myself!

"BECAUSE HE RAPED ME!" Ayithe screamed at the top of her voice having listened to his ranting for long enough. The tears streamed down her face at the words and Dheale fell silent once again. Unsure of what to say everyone stared for a moment before Ayithe dashed off to escape the torment. Rehania reached out for her only to be pushed back as she ran past her and off into the trees. Dheale scratched his head feeling foolish as he realised he had just made a big mistake. Raslin and Rehania stared at Dheale with a look of disgust and Dheale felt it knowing full well he had messed up while Cail stared at the ground.

"I'm sorry guys, I didn't know..." Dheale said failing to make eye contact.

"I think your apologising to the wrong people." Raslin replied before heading off to look for her.

Rehania sat down again and Dheale kneeled by her hoping she didn't think bad of him, while Cail took the silence as an chance to go polish his weapons. Ayithe had run off distraught by the argument and almost tripping over various fallen branches and wonky rocks around the marshy, watery ground. Then she paused and found a shadowed spot to sit, behind a large moss filled tree out of sight from the others. She was used to being alone and as the tears continued to run down her face she could hear Raslin desperately calling for her from the camp. He kept calling her name but Ayithe didn't shout back as she felt her insides breaking apart to the thoughts of that night. She could still feel the panic and the struggle to breathe, the aching of her muscles and legs, the pain which still ran unwanted through her body. It remained fresh in her mind and soul and refused to leave her be, so as she stared at her reflection in the puddle by her feet she couldn't help but began to wash herself again under the shadows of the large trees around her.

"Ayithe!" Raslin continued to call for her but with no avail. Realising she wasn't going to answer he gave up shouting, and instead began listening out for any noises, she couldn't go far before the bog would become too difficult to walk through, and she didn't know all the paths like Raslin had learned. Frogs and other creatures lit up the forest with songs and really gave across the feeling of being alone and in the middle of nowhere, but Raslin was confident with his surroundings and tried to listen out for footsteps in the bog or the breaking of twigs. He heard neither but as he ducked under some low branches he heard a splashing of water not far from him. Carefully he made his way towards the splashing and stepping up a large rock he froze as he noticed Ayithe sat beneath a tree splashing herself and crying in an distraught manner. It was depressing just watching her in that state and Raslin ducked back behind the rock for a moment unsure about approaching her at such a weak moment.

Ayithe heard Raslin call again, this time he was much closer. Covering herself up and peered over her shoulder in the direction of his voice. Refusing the answer she stayed put before he called again, then she quickly began covering up to avoid being seen as she was.

“Stop right there!” Ayithe shouted back, while still pulling her top back on to cover up. “Don’t...Don’t come any closer.”

Raslin could hear the hurt in her voice as it cracked under her distress. “Look, I cannot apologise enough for him but I’d feel real bad if I left you alone out here.”

“Please...leave me alone...” She whimpered.

“I don’t want to distress you anymore Ayithe...But you can’t face this alone...not anymore...I found you that night, I made the choice to help you, and I’m still making a choice now.” Raslin stood up and sat on the rock with his back facing her so she could see him, and Ayithe watched from behind the tree as he continued. “I feel for you Ayithe and I won’t leave you on your own, I won’t let them hurt you...”

Raslin stopped as a hand gripped his shoulder. Ayithe had approached him, she was now dressed, but her hair was messed up and the stream of tears had marked her face. Her eyes continued to stream and her lower lip stuttered as she tried to speak to him and Raslin took her hand in his and pulled her close and held her.

“I got my brother killed...” She whispered. “I wasn’t strong enough to fight by his side...He died protecting me and it was my fault...I called for him but he didn’t move...”

“It’s not your fault Ayithe...these people are evil...and they will pay for what they did to you. No royal title will stop us from giving them what they deserve, so don’t blame yourself. That’s your first task you need to reach, stop blaming yourself.”

As Ayithe took comfort in Raslin’s arms, her tears ran onto his shoulder and Raslin watched as they began to run down his arm. Then the last of the birds stopped singing and the forest fell completely silent as they stood still before Raslin suddenly realised that something was wrong. The faint sound of disturbed water could be heard at a distance and while he could not see anyone through the thickness of the wood, he knew someone was coming. Lifting her head to face his Raslin placed a silent finger on his lips and Ayithe stepped back and began looking around, seeing nothing Raslin took her hand and lead her back towards the camp with their eyes peeled.

Meanwhile, Cail had started a small back at the camp. He kept it small and trapped it in with a circle of rocks to stop it spreading. Dheale watched eager to start eating as soon as possible, but Cail took his time setting up a small device to hold the food over the fire. Dheale sat impatiently as Cail rubbed his stubble under his chin, practically squirming on his wooden seat as his stomach growled out loud as if to argue with the sound of the burning wood in the fire. He wasn’t quite sure why Cail was making such a small fire and as his stomach nagged him on he couldn’t help but feel Cail was doing this on purpose to annoy him.

“Is this a joke Cail...? You’re making the world’s smallest fire with the tiniest flames I’ve ever seen. Can you not hear my stomach? I’m dying here...” He exclaimed angrily.

Cail stood up still scratching his chin and stared back at Dheale rather annoyed with his comment. “While it’s been great to hear you’ve not gone totally soppy on me since meeting that damn woman. I’m not too happy with the tone of your voice...Just because you’ve made an ass of yourself doesn’t mean you can try and take it out on me.”

“God damn it!” Dheale muttered hanging his head. “Yeah well it’s not every day you find out crap like that. Not like Rehania ever told me, and since she didn’t seem so surprised she clearly knew.” Dheale stood up and walked around the fire attempting to walk off some of his rant.

“Well life happens, and no one deserves what she’s already had to take in life.” Cail said sympathetically.

“Yeah well now I’m hungry and you’re taking a life time to set this damn thing up.”

Cail leaned back over his fire while attaching some sort of chop to his stick which he then hung carefully over the fire. “I’m doing because we’re now hiding from the crown, and if they are smart they know, that we know not to head to another town...Its rather obvious they have people on lookout. So that leaves only so many places to go and the forest is somewhere I’d look, so I’ve decided that I’m not going to leave a big smoke cloud with the words WERE HERE imprinted in it. Worth the wait don’t you think?”

“Fair enough.” Dheale said taking a seat again. Cail had made a good point and even Dheale’s anger couldn’t compete with that, and so he remained listening to his stomach as it argued for him into Cail’s uncaring ears.

“You know we can’t stay hidden forever. Not if they are looking for us that badly.”

“Yeah that true.” Cail agreed. “We might as well head straight for the source.”

“How do you suppose we do that?”

“That pile of crap wizard guy mentioned the name Chevior.”

“Chevior?” Dheale said not understanding.

“Chevior is what we all strive to be. He was labelled the greatest swords fighter in the whole world, there’s not a tourdy he hasn’t won, not a man he hasn’t beaten in combat. Anyone who’d had a name for themselves he’s beaten, I met him once before I met you. I’ve seen him pick up any weapon and use it as naturally as we eat bread. There isn’t a village, town or city that won’t of heard of him.” Cail said so proudly.

“So, we go ask about?”

“No, of course not we’d get killed for sure. I just think he’s great. But anyway, if this is all about a royal family member then we just head to the capital.”

“And hand ourselves in...That’s suicide.”

Their attention quickly diverted as Raslin and Ayithe dashed across to them keeping their heads low. Before they said a word Cail knew to grab his weapon, which he drew revealing the large board sword that Ayithe saw the day before.
“What’s wrong?” Cail asked with his eyes scanning the edge of the opening.

“I’m heading to the horses to get my bow...We’ve been followed.” Raslin replied.

“How, I saw no one behind us?” Cail exclaimed.

“Me either, but we don’t have any time to discuss it...”

[Ayithe Solete]

A large cry came from the woods around them as they tried to arm up to defend themselves. Several men came charging out of the woods lightly armoured but aggressive as they came in swinging their weapons before they had even reached their target. Dheale stood up drew a decorated silver sword in one hand and a decorated bronze sword in the other.

“Rehania!” He shouted as he ran back towards to hut. He launched himself into the path of one of the attackers, twirling round to parry away the man’s sword and then slicing viscously across his chest leaving him to drop to the floor in agonising pain. Cail stood impressively tall against his incoming attackers, showing absolutely no fear towards them, but giving them everything to be scared of. He lashed his sword round like a whip before striking at any one man, knocking them to the ground with each single powerful swing. Raslin who had initially tried to run to his horse had been interrupted by a man carrying a large axe, swinging it wildly as he attempted to take Raslin down. However, Raslin gracefully ducked and dodged around the large clumsy swings of his attacker and as a final vertical swing came crashing down, Raslin sidestepped and placed his foot forcefully on the back of the axe as it dug into the soft ground. His attacker glanced up to watch a styled Falceon blade slice across his throat before being bashed on the head with the butt of the sword.

Ayithe had barely moved as her new friends battled for her as much as they were battling for themselves. Standing not far from Cail she could hear him shout with every swing, not a battle cry, but profanity towards the men that he now knew as rapists and murderers. Raslin had quickly got upon horseback and recovered his bow with quiver and galloped his way close to Cail as he leaned to one side of the saddle and cut down some of their attackers from behind. A cold breeze worked its way up Ayithe’s back as she stood behind the cover of Raslin and Cail and as her eyes graced the floor another shadow made its way up behind her and crossed hers. The sun has basically lit the man up as a shadow of a raised arm came over her and Ayithe released her wrist blades while dropping to one knee and blocked, as a short but firm black staff crashed into her blade. Ayithe turned quickly and drove her other blade down into his leg which tore who his armour less attire and tore deep into the muscle.

The man cried out and Ayithe got a good look at him, it was the same hooded man who had approached her before. “You...” She said staring at him as he tried to strike her again. Again she raised he arm defensively, but instead catching his wrist and surprisingly out powering him as she held him still. Then she withdrew her lodged blade from his leg and struck him hard across the face before removing his small staff from him, which she snapped in half with anger and through to the now muddy floor. Quickly the group reduced the men to a straggling few and were now no longer out numbered. It was clear that they couldn’t leave any alive to report back to their leader and so, as one retreated Raslin held his bow and fired another highly accurate shot straight into the back of his neck. Raslin knew not to hesitate as leaving them to get more help was most surely a foolish decision, one he was not going to make.

The area suddenly fell silent, Ayithe, Raslin and Cail stood close to each other, weapon’s still draw as they made one last survey of the open area.

“Think we got them all?” Cail asked. “Was just starting to get fun.”

“I think so.” Raslin replied holding his bow ready and watching for any movement.

“Bah...my fire...” Cail said with a saddened face. The fire had been flattened by someone at some point in the fighting and Cail frowned as his stomach was certainly getting itself ready to eat. Then a scratching and loud roar of sorts emanated from the inside of the hut, Heath had somehow become locked inside and was trying to get out with no success. Raslin trotted across the hut and hopped off releasing the large plank of wood that had been lodged under the door. Heath wandered out cautiously as Ayithe and Cail marched over, it was too late for Heath to join in and instead he moved around the camp sniffing at the bodies that lay about the floor.

“Dheale?” Cail shouted. “Where the hells Dheale and Rehania?” As Cail spoke the sound of someone crying came from behind the hut, and they quickly ran around the hut to see what had happened. As they charge round, the sight of Rehania leaning over Dheale came into view. Ayithe stopped immediately and watched from the side of the hut as she hugged him and cried while burying her head in his chest. A large wound had clearly bled hard from under his rib cage but it had stopped pouring as Ayithe watched and Dheale’s eyes stared up into the sky as his soul left his body.

“God damnit...” Raslin said clenching his fist as a tear ran down his cheek.

“Bastards...They are damn well gonna pay for this...” Cail said stabbing his sword into the ground. “We better bury him quick and then move on.”

“Your right,” Rehania said to Ayithe’s Surprise. “I don’t want to leave him to the animals.”

Strangely it was as if even Heath knew that it was a sad moment as he lay down quietly laying his head on the ground. Cail picked up Dheale’s silver decorated sword and placed it under his belt. Cail’s body language was a lot different, the dragging of his feet and the frowning in his eyes but not in his mouth. He picked up Dheale’s other bronze sword and looked at Ayithe.

“That magic bastard still alive? It’s his fault this happened...”

“Yes...” Ayithe replied hesitantly, and then watched Cail march past her and back across the opening. His eyes burning with hatred and anger and in his right hand he held Dheale’s bronze sword. Unable to stand the magic man was still laying on the floor, his cloak covered in mud and weighing him down as he tried to drag himself across the floor away from sight. Cail didn’t rush, he just took his time as he marched with reason towards the man he was going to kill. Ayithe just watched as the magic man sat up and pointed at Cail.

“Chevior will come for you, revenge shall be ours and your blood will flow like the rain that falls from the sky. Your life is ov...” His speech was stopped mid sentence as Cail drove Dheales sword into his stomach.

“Revenge...you want revenge? I’ll give you my revenge...” With that Ayithe turned away as Cail repeatedly drove the sword in and out of him. The screams started and stopped very quickly as the man tried to beg for his life as Cail drove the sword into his chest one last time. Then he became motionless and the sword was left protruding out of his body as Cail stood over him and spat down on him.

“Let’s get to that Prince, be it in a capital city of Corone or a damn castle, I shall kill everyone responsible for this!” Cail shouted with anger.

“You can’t...” Ayithe shouted back.

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do! I’m heading to the capital now.”

“You won’t find anyone...” Ayithe shouted again as Cail began picking up multiple weapons and attaching them to his armour and belt. “They don’t reside in the capital or a castle. There’s a Camp, it travels around Corone and its run by Chevior. I know where it’ll be, it’s in the exact spot where they attacked me...and where they killed my brother.”

[Ayithe Solete]

Cail calmed slightly as his enraged temper took a step to one side as allowed his more priority stricken side to take over. He eyes had gone red with his flared emotion and he threw down several weapons of no use other than to appease his own temper.

"Fine...where is it?" Cail asked staring with his sore eyes.

"Well from here it's west, and it would take us till night to get there if we set off now." Ayithe replied.

"Well then, I'm going to bury Dheale and then we'll go get them. Kill them all...Before sunrise..."

With that Cail marched back to where Dheale was lay. Ayithe was still feeling over whelmed by how fast everything was erupting around her and kept up by simply going with the flow. She turned to Raslin as he rubbed her shoulder softly before making his way back to Dheale, and leaving Ayithe stood alone around the opposite side of the hut. The sound of spades digging emanated over the field of corpses, corpses that belonged to men who knew nothing accept to serve someone of higher purpose. They were nothing but sheep, thoughtless and pathetic at everything accept eating, it was no surprise that they were outclassed by the fewer numbered group that Ayithe had now allied herself with.

The sound of digging fell silent for a few moments before the shovelling of dirt once again could be heard. No words or hurt could be heard coming from behind the hut so as Ayithe remained stood in the same spot, she only imagined with sorry the hurt they now felt. A chilling breeze dropped into the opening and Ayithe wrapped her arms around herself as her hairs stood on end to the cold. The clouds began to appear over head and from the dark colour they possessed it was obvious rain could follow soon. Ayithe watched as the clouds slowly covered the sun blocking out the last bit of light and blanketing the forest under a dark shadow. Before she knew it the group had finished and were standing by her again, Raslin took her by the hand bringing her out of the cloudy skies trance.

"It’s time to go." He said softly. "Maybe we can all get some peace of mind from this."

Raslin led Ayithe across to the horses and the group armoured up for the first time since meeting them, in full gear. Cail wrapped himself in fur before attaching several belts over his waist shoulders and over his chest. Then he attached various plates of armour that folded over each creating an protective armour that Ayithe had never seen before but also giving himself plenty of movement. Rehania strapped up her hair and wore a dark tight attire which covered her from shoulders to foot and then clipping two short swords to her belt. Raslin replaced his general clothes placing them in an bag attached to his horse’s saddle and took up his armour of choice. A black studded Leather top, as dark as the night sky, almost hiding the black leather and metal belt which held up his pants made from the same material. Ayithe watched as Raslin pulled up his boots and put on his gloves with shiny metal tips over each finger. It was a good protection for the fingers with use of his bow which he hung over his shoulder as he jumped up onto his horse.

"Are we really doing this?" Ayithe asked hesitantly.

"Sometimes you just can't sit back and let yourself be walked over. They came to us, they attacked us and they killed Dheale, not including what you've already been through. I think it’s time someone gave it back to them."

With that Raslin held out his hand to her. Ayithe took a deep breath and then took his hand in hers as he pulled her up onto the horse. Ayithe had little other belongings and everything she owned was already on her. Cail yanked hard on the reigns and the horse jumped up onto its back feet, with a large neigh from the horse and a shout from Cail, they charged off into the trees single file navigating like true masters of the forest. Ayithe held on tight feeling the wind blow against them as they moved at speed through the trees, knowing any slip from the horses could certainly cause a nasty collision with a tree or trees. Deliberately staying out of the way of villages and main roads, they avoided everyone making their way swiftly through the forest and its hidden paths.

The dark clouds covered the sky and the sun disappeared behind the mountains leaving a cold dark night. Even with the fast pace of the group the forest still slowed their momentum enough to hold them away from the camp until dark. The moon could barely be seen behind the clouds, and the forest canopy caught the remaining rays of light creating a black mist of darkness. It was hard to spot much of anything as the group finally came in reach of the camps fires and torches. Large poles with burning torches on the top surrounded the camp and with the large burning fire in the middle the entire camp was lit up like a beacon. Ayithe and the others dropped off the horses and tied them to the trees, they must of appreciated the rest after a long constant run throughout the day. Carefully and quietly they pushed their way through the foliage of large plants and kept their heads low as they moved from tree to tree. The sound of many voices came from the camp which suggested large numbers, and Ayithe could now feel her nerves as she recognised the camp and its structures. The torches around the camp were used as a defensive line of sight, and normally there were guards walking back and forth at night to watch for thieves or other intruders. However there were no guards to speak of and the sound of drunken laughter filled the air along with the stench of alcohol that remained a powerful reminder of her stay here.

Ayithe closed her eyes and cringed as she tried to stop the memories from flushing back, she no longer wanted to be haunted by this place. It was a demon in her mind that would not leave and she was finding it hard to not think about it. Then another hand gripped hers and Ayithe stepped back with a gasp as she was caught unaware. It was Raslin, who held her carefully as he realised that she was struggling as they approached. His courageous heart could be seen through his eyes as Ayithe looked back into them, and quickly she became calm again.

"This is not something to be afraid of anymore, let’s do this Ayithe, let’s do this together."

His words were comforting to Ayithe who managed to pull out a smile even if it was only for a second. Raslin knocked back her hair as it had fallen forward, and for a brief moment Ayithe felt totally safe, and the nervous beat of her heart turned into a rhythm she had not felt in a long time. Ayithe smiled again as Raslin's eyes caressed her, both of them forgetting where they were at that precise moment.

"I realise this will be important towards you," Raslin spoke quietly. "So when it’s over I don't want you to disappear. I have much more to show you when we are free of this torment."

"I would...I would love to." Ayithe replied with a stutter.

Ayithe wished the moment had been at a better time, as before them lay a moment in time that she was about to end and leave behind. No longer would she run and hide from her fears, now she would face them and she took a hold of her Disk Blades with determination. She again began following Raslin closely, as he and Cail visually sweeped the perimeter for signs of an easy entrance to the camp, with Rehania close behind. Several large wooden buildings blocked the view between themselves and the main camp members. The largest of the structures was the beer hall they had constructed, where the most and loudest of noises came from, seemingly making it easy for them to dash into the camp.

"I dunno what they are celebrating, but it would appear it’s got most of the camps attention...Too easy..." Cail said relishing a new challenge.

[Ayithe Solete]

Taking well timed turns they dashed into the camp, led by Cail they were quick past the burning torches and then silently got their back against a wooden hut out of sight. Ayithes still felt nervous about the situation, although slightly more comforted by the others, the familiar feel this place gave her was disconcerting. Rehania also looked very nervous and was muttering something to herself as Cail leaned around the corner to see what else was ahead of them. Ayithe kept low but didn't lean against the splintered wooden wall, she knew well that the wood was reused and the wooden wall was rough with random splinters sticking up and out about the place. Rehania pushed up against the back door of the hut, it was solid but unlocked.

"I think the tent we are looking for is over the over side of the camp. We probably should of circled round..." Cail said. "Come on follow me."

With that Cail made another dash across the small gap until he was within a group of unguarded tents, appearing much sleeping tents. Raslin winked back at Ayithe and Rehania and then dashed across the same path. Rehania then peeped around the corner before dashing and then flung herself back quickly as if to avoid being seen. Cail and Raslin desperately waved them on to come but Ayithe kept low behind Rehania, confused to why they were still waving them on.

"What's wrong?" Ayithe whispered.

"Guards, I think they are coming this way." Rehania replied.

Raslin watched confused to why they were not moving. Still he waved his hands and signalled for them to come but even after a glance towards Raslin they suddenly turned around.

"What are they doing?" Asked Cail angrily.

"I dunno...something’s wrong..."

They could only watch as Rehania led Ayithe backwards and then into the structure they were hiding behind. Raslin drew both his Falceons as the situation seemed totally out of the ordinary and Cail followed suit drawing his large board sword from the large holster on his back. Then a loud whistle echoed the camp and before Raslin and Cail could move, they were surrounded as a horde of men came dashing out from the tents. They formed a large circle around them weapons drawn and pointing towards Raslin and Cail who stood back to back with weapons held out stretched defensively.

"Well...what now Ras?" Cail groaned.

"Why are you asking me? You led us this way."

While the group stared down at the two of them no one approached and being so heavily outnumbered made it very difficult for Raslin and Cail to make the first move. As they stood for a moment a gap emerged from the circle and two men walked forward with large grins on their face. The larger one was armed with a large sword, which he rested on his shoulder, and wore dark clothing. His head and chin were shaven down and his dark eyes remained black even against the light from the fires. While the smaller man stood in front topless and unarmed, he looked similar, with a shaven head and chin but with a much more arrogant look on his face as he walked within swords length of Raslins blade. Tattoo's covered his muscular chest and arms and he spat to the floor towards them in disgust.

"What do we have here lads?" The smaller one spoke with a cocky voice. "You didn't think you could walk in here uninvited did you?"

The group laughed along with the man’s cocky arrogance but no one dropped their guard, as they listened to his every word. Raslin glanced up at the large one to see his devilish stare down at him, his eyes locked in a trance on Raslin with no fear, but Raslin kept his attention on the small cocky one who seemed to be enjoying his speech.

"Where’s the girl? I didn't spend all this time waiting for her just so she could send her new friends instead...You have no idea how important she is to me and how much I am willing to do to get her back."

"You sound obsessed." Raslin replied.

"You could say that when you come across something as important as this. Don't let her beauty fool you my friend, there’s a lot more to her than you'll ever realise. Well there’s a lot more to me than you'll ever realise."

Again the group laughed, with Raslin and Cail none the wiser to his jokes. Cail slowly began to lose his temper to the man’s disrespectful tone of voice and moved to stand alongside Raslin.

"I don't care for your damn jokes..." Cail shouted back. "I want the man in charge here, I want Chevior! The man who sent his magic girlfriend to kill my friend!"

"Watch your tone boy!" The small man shouted back staring at Cail. "Chevior isn't in charge here, I am."

"And who the hell are you?" Cail replied.

"Dreach..."

Ayithe entered the building as Rehania gave her a push as they rushed in. The room was large with chairs and table stacked up against the walls along with various other boxes and items. It appeared to be a store room and while no one was inside candles were lit about the room giving it plenty of light. The door bolt then slid shut as Rehania closed the rusty lock with a thud, and Ayithe looked around the room. There was nothing useful and it quickly became apparent that there were no other doors into the room. Ayithe turned to Rehania about the speak when she watched Rehania pull out a padlock from her pocket and then lock the bolt tight. Unexpectedly she turned to Ayithe and drew her sword as she stared at her with red angry face. Ayithe's heart began to race, it was hurt in Rehania's eyes and as a tear ran down her cheek she ripped off her beads from her arm and threw them to the floor.

"Rehania, I think you need to calm down. I didn't kill Dheale, they did." Ayithe said trying to calm down Rehania who in turn kicked over a chair in anger.

"HA!" Rehania shouted, as she dropped the key to the lock on the floor by her feet. "You don't get it...You don't understand anything. I don't care about Dheale...Twice! Twice I let myself get caught and instead you go all psycho on them and still escape...I HATE YOU. Why do you get all the attention? Why does everyone think so much about you?"

Ayithe stood still in shock and was deeply confused about what was going on, as Rehania stared at her with real hatred and shouted without concern of attracting attention to the building.

"I don't understand..."

"Yeah I see that! You never did! I'm part psychic" She said in a sarcastic voice. "HA! How can you be part psychic? Did that never cross your mind? I was a sleeper, I agreed to it, to be part of the group and wait to see if I could find you. We were placed all over Corone in every village, in every camp, in every group, street and family if we could pull it off."

"Your part of this camp?" Ayithe said shocked. "Then why did you not try and capture me and hand me in like everyone else?"

"Because...I never wanted you back here, I wanted you dead...You ruined my life...you stole everything!" Rehania continued getting upset as Ayithe listened trying to understand. "I loved him, I tried for three years to get close to him, and your here for not even twelve months and he picks you!"

"What are you talking about? I've never met you, and I've never been chosen by anyone..."

"Really...Is that what you think? You met me, but clearly I'm too insignificant for you to remember. Dreach was mine! You stole him from me and he’s never noticed me since...Not like he was going to. I was going to be the queen of the camp by Dreach’s side and instead he chose you...I wanted him so badly but as soon as you turned up his eyes wouldn't leave you. Then he came to you...And you resisted. What's wrong with you? You stupid bitch! I wish I had what you had..."

"You delusional bitch...I never took him from you...You never had him, and he forced himself on me..." Ayithe said feeling more insulted than sorry for her.

"HE CHOSE TO MAKE LOVE TO YOU RATHER THAN ME!" Rehania screamed.

"LOVE?!?" Ayithe shouted back with a tear." That wasn't love...He raped me and beat me unconscious. He ruined my life! You've gone insane!"

"You selfish bitch! I could only dream to have what you did!" Rehania's words were striking deep into Ayithes heart. But she had clearly gone mentally insane and while Ayithe felt sorry for her state of mind, she wasn't going to accept the words of such a mentally obsessed person. "Dheale was a tool for me, and now I have you where I want you..."

Ayithe's wiped away her last tear and then released her wrist blades. The mental friction as they released echoed around the room over Rehania's sobbing and Ayithe took a defensive pose. Rehania screamed out as she ran forward, her movement was that of a crazed person, almost tripping over her own feet as she approached Ayithe with a attacking strike. Ayithe blocked her swing and sidestepped out of the way allowing Rehania to fall clumsily after her swing. The floor boards creaked as they moved about the room and Rehania quickly got back to her feet, she grabbed her sword again and charged at Ayithe again. Her slow and angry swing was caught quickly between Ayithes blades and swiftly Ayithe disarmed her, forcing the blade from her hand and knocking it to the floor. Ayithe then thoughtlessly sliced at Rehania's leg, cutting through the light material and opening up a wound below the knee. Rehania fell over again, her state seeming to deteriorate at she continued, only to be made worse by Ayithe's attack.

"I won't let you have him...And when I kill you, I'll be the only one he wants." Rehania said picking up her sword a second time.

"That won't be happening anytime soon Rehania...I killed him...In the church."

"Hahahaha, Your wrong girl..." Rehania said getting back to her feet. "He can't be killed, that's why we call him the prince...were all gonna take over Corone! Hahahahaha!"

Then she limped towards Ayithe once more but Ayithe paid no attention to the words of the delusional Rehania. their blades clashed once more but this time, Ayithe drove her other blade right through the chest of Rehania. Another tear ran down Ayithes face as she held onto Rehania's attacking hand, which she squeezed hard as she tried to tolerate the pain. She dropped her sword which rattled as it struck the ground and her coughed as she tried to take a breath. The blow was fatal and had broken through the ribcage and through her lung. Blood ran from her chest and then began dripping from her mouth as she tried to breath.

"It..t’s..true...He’s n..ot..t...dead...The others...they are al...ready dea..." Rehania forced out her last words as Ayithe withdrew her blades and lay her down on the floor. Her eyes closed quickly and Ayithe knelt by her for a moment trying to decide if she could believe the words from a mad women. She didn't want to believe them, and it seemed totally unbelievable after she killed Dreach herself and watched him die. She thought about it for a moment as she picked up a small bottle of water and washed the blood off her hands onto the floor.

I refuse to believe it...It's impossible... Ayithe thought to herself. Now...where's that key...

[Ayithe Solete]

"Dreach?" Cail exclaimed.

"Yes, and this here is my right hand man...Chevior." He said pointing to the other larger man. "You have a chance to join us now gentlemen...Say no and you'll die here regardless of you telling us where she is. I make no lie about it."

"Go to hell!" Raslin said staring at him. It was an offer they would refuse regardless of punishment. Dreach smiled and walked back to Chevior, and began whispering something to him. Raslin and Cail couldn't do anything but wait and keep their wits about them.

"I'm not gonna stand here till I die, want to go out fighting?" whispered Cail.

"It’s been nice knowing you Cail." Raslin whispered back.

Then as Dreach still spoke to Chevior, Cail charged out into the circle of men swinging his large board sword round in big semi circles to catch his over numbered enemies out. Raslin jumped forward staying close to Cail as they deliberately went in the opposite direction to Chevior and Dreach who stood in surprise.

"KILL THEM!" Dreach shouted. It had quickly become chaos in the black of night and confusion set in to the group giving Raslin and Cail time to abuse their skills. The large board sword of Cail swung from side to side, tearing through the armour of the confused men who started to panic as they got pushed into one another. The fine tuned sharp blades of Raslin's Falceons where too much for the casual and over confident fighters armour and he dodged, blocking and slicing across at the legs of the men. The short but swift actions of Raslin and Cail took effect as the legs wounds were a much faster way of disabling their opponents then trying to kill them all.

"Idiots!" Chevior shouted like a clap thunder. Those that were still standing stopped as Chevior pushed his way to the front to engage them in battle. It was almost a laughable scene as an entire group of men lay rolling about on the floor in pain from cut legs while two lone fighters stood strong and almost unharmed. Cail held his thigh as some blood trickled from a shallow wound, and then he wiped it off with his hand without a word. His sword now covered in blood and his hand still steady for more battle as Chevior stepped towards him, this was a challenge for Cail, to fight a man he knew as a legend and unbeatable in battle.

"I see you have skills, then please show them to me. Everyone else back off, if they can beat me then they are something to be worried about." Chevior commanded, as another man stood behind him.

Cail stood forward first, for the first time he felt he had someone to worry about. Chevior's legendry skills were learnt through many years of hard fighting, and he was champion of all fighting tournaments’ before he disappeared. Raslin stood up alongside with Cail as they began to circle each other, the remaining men stood to one side and watched. Chevior was the best fighter in the camp and they trusted in their leader as they began to knock their weapons together in a beat to the battle. Cail shifted to the left slowly as Raslin shifted to the right to surround Chevior, who stood strong and fearless on front of them both. Taking a step to one side Chevior engaged Cail and slashed down meeting Cails sword with a loud crash, Cail stepped back with the power of the blow and had to block quickly again as Chevior struck another strong blow down onto Cails sword with shook furiously vibrating down to his wrist. Raslin moved quickly to strike from behind only to be caught with outstanding speed from Chevior as he twisted and parried away the attack and knocking Raslin back almost to his backside. Raslin was surprised by the power of his blows without sacrifice for speed, it was impressive and frightening at the same time as Chevior displayed both.

Cail again stepped forward this time attempting to make a strike of his own and swinging across the chest of Chevior, who danced backwards before spinning and delivering another incredible blow, Cail managed to retrieve his sword back in front of him, but the astonishing power broke through Cails sword, shattering it like glass and leaving him without his favourite weapon. As Raslin attempted to move in on him the second man jumped in and dived onto Raslin's back holding him up. Cail quickly pulled out his steel mace only for it to be struck out of his hand immediately. Then he stepped forward before Chevior could swing and punched him hard in the face, Chevior stepped back from the blow and then swiftly elbowed him in the stomach causing him to tense up and lean forward. Then he kneed him in the face before slicing across his chest, the crash was loud and Cails armour held together as he fell back to the floor. Feeling winded, Cail cringed up on the floor unaware of Chevior who stepped forward again and stood over him.

Raslin reacting as quick as he could held his Falceon swords over his back and dragged the curved tips along the back of the man, tearing up his clothes and ripping up his skin. He shouted out in agony before dropped off and receiving a powerful kick to the face from Raslin. Then without hesitation he called over to Chevior to grab his attention from killing Cail who tried climbing back to his feet, but Chevior kicked him down again and laughed.

"I can't be defeated!" Chevior shouted as he turned to Raslin. He held his sword up in the air and cheered himself on as the men around him continued to cheer and bang their weapons together. His eyes locked on to Raslin and he stared down at him as his veins all pulsated and he threw his sword into the ground and tore off his top. "YEAH!" He shouted again, and the men began to chant.

"As agile as bird, as strong as an ox! As agile as a bird, as strong as on ox!"

The crowd continued to chant, repeating the same fraises again and again, as Chevior pulled his sword out from the ground and marched towards Raslin. Raslin leapt in using his speed as best he could, Cheviors powerful swings were fast, but Raslin's feet were quicker. Taking a step to one side Chevior raised his sword above his head and brought it down with a thunderous swing, the clash shook the camp as his sword met Raslin's crisscrossed Falceon blades. Raslin felt his feet dig into the ground with the pressure, and as Chevior pushed down Raslin pushed back until he stood up, and forcefully kicked Chevior in the thigh knocking him back a step. This angered Chevior as he brought his sword round again with a high swing forcing Raslin to duck under the blow. As another swing came across, Raslin expertly parried away the low swing, before cleverly stepping past Chevior and slicing across his thigh.

Chevior quickly lashed out as he dropped down to one knee, in the biggest surprise in his life. Raslin had moved gracefully out of reach from the angry attack and in the brief moment of silence he noticed Dreach had gone. His attention was not diverted for long though as Chevior was back up on his feet quickly. His teeth gritted with anger and his muscles tensed as he took another large swing at Raslin, gracefully Raslin parried the attack and shifted in close with a forceful kick to the stomach. The blow was hard, but Chevior barely moved with the slightest of steps backwards as he took the blow. However, before Chevior could react he used the kick to lift himself from the ground and deliver another strong kick to the face. As his boot connected with Cheviors face, it slapped loudly sending a surge of spit flying from his mouth. This time Chevior staggered backwards much to the disbelief of the surrounding men. Chevior spat out some blood from his cut mouth, unsure how to react to such a moment, the fact that he actually took not one but two blows.

“Go on Ras!” Cail Shouted with a grin. “Quick and cunning, like a fox!”

Chevior seemed to pause as the moral of everyone around broke and they began backing off. Refusing to be beaten Chevior rubbed his eyes and held his sword out again, Raslin held his position holding his twin Falceon blades in both hands. Again their blades clashed, screaming under the pressure from the powerful swings form Chevior. However Raslin tactically held out, blocking and parrying until catching the blade of Chevior in his Falceons and then kicking it from his hand to the floor. Then slicing downwards across his chest Raslin cut him right from his shoulder to his hip, and Chevior reluctantly dropped to his knees before falling to one side and becoming motionless. The surrounding men quickly dispersed leaving Raslin to help Cail back to his feet.

“You alright big guy?” Raslin asked with a smile.

“Well my prides beat a bit, and my favourite sword is broken, but I’m alive.” Cail said smirking.

“Well we need to find Ayithe and Rehania, so let’s hurry.”

[Ayithe Solete]

Dreach was marching back through the camp angry at the fact that they had only cornered the friends of Ayithe and not herself. Unaware that Chevior had taken a turn for the worst he was heading back to his own personal tent as the shouting from the fight behind him became more erratic. At the same time Ayithe had avoided the commotion and made a stealthy trip into a tent she had wished to forget. The tent was still marked with the same red painted symbols and was larger than that of the average mans tent in the camp. Although being poorly guarded at this time, Ayithe still found herself having to make her own entrance by slipping in under the side of the tent. She felt her stomach clench with discomfort and she felt sick as she peered at the belongings of her living nightmare. She could feel herself shaking as her memory tried to surface and remind her of all her fears, but she refused. Refused to think about what had happened and began to wonder why his clothes and bed were still here.

The bedding was the same, clean, but she knew it was tainted, the neatly carved wooden box that sat beside the bed was engraved with his name and had gold markings scratched into the sides. It was just how she remembered it, along with the large steel tub basin he used to bathe in. The tent was already very dark but lit lightly with several small candles, enough to let her see, but too little to cast her silhouette back on the tents walls. Ayithe couldn't understand how he could be alive any more, she clearly remembered driving both her wrist blades deep into his chest. He then collapsed and Ayithe sat still staring at his dead body for over an hour before she managed to pull herself away from the most memorable scene in her life. He had raped her, killed her brother and took her to the point of wanting to die, but she lived, she stood back up and she killed him. He was dead, she knew it and yet, the camp was still here, Rehania claimed he was alive and his tent with belongings still remained before her. So the doubt that surfaced was greatened by what she could see.

Voices came closer to the tent, Ayithe could hear the annoyed tone growling out from a male voice box. Ayithe moved quickly but quietly towards the water basin, the large basin cast a large shadow over its corner apart from the glare created by the waters reflection of the candle light. Ayithe picked up the candle and turned it upside down before pushing it into the ground, the candle went out, with the soft mud trapping the smoke released from its departure. Ayithe now knelt by the basin, she was completely hidden in the dark while the other side of the tent remained lit from the other candles. Ayithe held her breath as she kept quiet, a man entered, his face shrouded by the darkness as he passed her. The sounds from outside seemed to dissipate as Ayithe concentrated on trying to make out his face. He knocked over a small pile of books as he searched his tent for something, muttering something as he crawling into the light of the bed side candle.

It was at that moment that Ayithe recognised him, as the light shone off his eyes she almost gasped. She had hoped to never see him again and yet there he was flicking in the candle light before her. The seer sight of him struck her deep into her heart and a tear escaped and began running down her cheek. Dreach sat there unaware he was being watched until Ayithes tear dripped into the basin, rippling the water and making her presence known. Ayithe finally gasped as he turned to look at her in the darkness, he paused unsure of who was there.

"Who dares be in my tent?" He declared unafraid.

Ayithe got her weight behind the basin and lifted with all her might. The basin tipped over pouring the water all around the tent floor and ruining his bed and valuables. Dreach shouted out in annoyance as his bed was immediately soaked as the water rushed past his feet. Distracted by the running water the candles quickly went out and Ayithe charged out of the corner and delivered an forceful scissor kick to Dreach's chest sending him flying backwards and involuntary tearing though the side of his own tent before crashing backwards into the sodden grass. He rolled over backwards, covering his back and head in mud and then quickly stood up to his feet as Ayithe stepped out of the tent. Several men stood about to draw their swords to stop her, but Dreach held out his arms in resistance. “Leave her, she’s mine, and I don’t want her dead...Give me a sword!”

[Ayithe Solete]

Quickly one of the men tossed a sword by the hilt into Dreach’s hand. A quick as he received a sword, he began twisting it about to loosen up his wrist for battle. Ayithe paid little attention, following her heart rather than her head, and released her wrist blades ready to kill him, again. Taking a step forward she immediately unleashed herself on him, slashing across his path with both her wrist blades using all her strength. She was determined to hurt him like he had hurt her, but she wanted more, she hated him and wanted to make him suffer. So, with each swing that she failed to cut him down she got angrier, swinging harder and then creating the sparks as their weapons deflected each other’s attacks.

Dreach was not shaken, skilfully and with a cocky smile he twisted away from her attacks and before long he was almost laughing as he began side stepping her attacks. Ayithe didn't like being laughed at by anyone, especially him, and it only got her angrier. Again she swung in hard from the right, bringing her left arm across her body to slice over his chest. Dreach leaned back and tipped her blade over his head as he deflected it with his own sword, then deciding the battle was no longer amusing him, he stepped forward into her dropping his sword and gripping her by the arms. Being physically stronger than Ayithe, and her weapons attached by the wrists he held her arms apart and swept her feet with a swift kick to her ankles.

They collapsed onto the floor, Ayithe taking the brunt as Dreach held on tight to her arms. Dreach bashed Ayithes hands against the floor until he managed to knock the latch and retract the wrist blades. Ayithe pushed and kicked as she tried to knock him off her, but Dreach held tight, pushing himself down on to her and digging his knees into her thighs so she couldn't kick back.

"Just quit! You couldn't beat me then, and you can't now...Your mine." Dreach whispered into her ear as she tried facing away from him. His breath was almost as disgusting as his looks to Ayithe and she cringed as she felt him breath down her neck.

"Get off me!" Ayithe screamed and she turned and stared back up at him. "I HATE YOU!"

Dreach smirked devilishly as he stared back, with a totally obsessed look in his eyes. "Give up Ayithe, your friends will already be dead by now, I left Chevior to have fun with them..."

"I won't..." Ayithe repeated distressed. "I won't...I won't..."

"You will!" Dreach shouted still holding her down by the wrists. Ayithe's attempts to get up began to lesson, once again he just overpowered her, demoralised her. She wasn't used to being controlled or man handled, and after the first time he got his hands on her this time the fear and the memories were being beginning to freeze her still. A tear finally pushed its way to the surface as she began to panic losing control of her emotions and confidence. Ayithe started to look around her, still being face up she looked at the night sky, all she could see was the circle of flames, held up by the surrounding men at Dreach’s disposal as he lay over her.

"I see the fear in your eyes..."Dreach whispered to her. "Don't be afraid...Give in to me and then there’s nothing to fear..."

Then the sound of a swift, quick moving blade flew right past Ayithes ears, but she saw nothing, voices began calling out around her and the sound of clashing swords filled the air again. Dreach’s eyes dilated and his jaw dropped as his stare turned into a uncertain one. Ayithe felt something dripping onto her chest as Dreach's gripped lessoned, she glanced down to the sight of fresh blood pouring slowly onto her. Then, a hand gripped around the shoulders of Dreach and dragged him backwards to the floor. There was no resistance, he just collapsed backwards before his head rolled off like a wonky wheel. Ayithes eyes looked up as the same warm hand reached out to her. She reached back and held tightly as she was pulled up to her feet and into the arms of Raslin, who held her tight with a quick hug. Ayithe closed her eyes as she enjoyed the relief that ran through her body and the comfort that Raslin gave her by just being there.

"He’s dead now." Raslin smiled.

"Thank you." Ayithe replied as she leant back to look into his soft eyes. She no longer felt the fear, as if it had been drained from her body when Raslin came into view. His smile lit her up with happiness and she wiped away the tear that hung from her cheek. Cail had little to do as the supposed loyal fighters finally showed their true colours, many of the men picked up their weapons and disappeared, leaving few attempting to stand by their leader. They had all believed he was unkillable but he had never had his head removed before, and desperately several men knelt by him getting covered in blood as they attempted to place his head back on his body.

Cail smirked as he watched, and while he was still hurt, he stood tall showing no sign of weakness. "I do believe we should get Rehania and get out of here...Don't you think?"

With that, they turned away from the frantic panicking troops who remained by Dreach’s body and began walking to exit the camp. Being cautious, they still held their weapons ready in case someone else would make an attempt to get them. Although as demoralised as they were it didn't seem too likely, as word of Dreach’s demise filled the camp like a virus, eating away at the moral of any man or woman who could hold a sword.

[Ayithe Solete]

"Where is Rehania anyway?" Asked Cail, who still limped slightly with his wound.

Ayithe frowned in regret, she had been obsessed about revenge and was so angry at who Rehania really was that she originally showed no remorse after killing her. Not only that, but she had been totally distracted by all the memories around her and had already forgotten about Rehania until now. Her eyes sank low as she remembered cutting her down, it was going a difficult situation to explain. She wondered how she could explain that Rehania was a secretly obsessed follower of Dreach, and not only that, she had killed Dheale when their backs were turned. Raslin could see Ayithes frown on her face and the worry in her eyes as she contemplated giving them an answer.

"She's dead..." Ayithe said looking up at them. "A group of them tried to round us up and we stood our ground but...but they got her, killed her and then dragged her off somewhere."

"O..." Cail said with a frown. "Well...at least she went out fighting, what’s what Dheale would have wanted."

Cail grabbed a burning torch as Raslin gave Ayithe a comforting hug while they continued walking and exited the camp. Ayithe couldn't look them in the eye as she had lied, but she knew the lie here would of dented their trust within their past few months together, and their trust in her would be dented even more, this way they were all still close. The shouting of voices became less and Ayithe looked up to the clouds in the night sky as Raslin still held an arm around her. She was finally free of her torment, Dreach was gone, Chevior was gone, and their hopes and plans were in ruin, Ayithe could now relax in the comfort of Raslin's arm as he wiped the worries off her shoulders with his warm safe hands. Quickly they pushed their way back through the bushes and trees of the surrounding forest as they headed towards their horses. The forest itself was silent and it was easy to forget about what they were leaving behind them, Raslin paused for a moment allowing Cail to get to the horses first and allowing them to be masked by the shadows. He held onto Ayithes hand and pulled her up close to him, face to face they both smiled at each other only visible by the shining moonlight which penetrated deep into the forest.

"You can forget about this place now, move forward with me." Raslin said looking into her eyes. "Evil has a heart, everything else revolves around it, and without him the rest just crumbles. He and everything with him is but a memory, and all of it will disappear into nothing. I swear it."

"Thank you, I won't ever forget what you've done for me." Ayithe said wiping away a tear drop. "I won't shed another tear, not anymore."

Resting her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes as she truly felt saved from her hell as she held herself as close to Raslin as possible. Then a silent footstep broke the silence around them and Ayithe opened her eyes to look into the darkness of the shadowy forest. Raslin turned his head to the same noise but the dark forest masked their eyes and hid whatever had made the noise. They held position for a moment before a loud snap from a branch echoed around them, and Raslin quickly pulled Ayithe down to the ground as he dropped to his knees. A large object ripped through the air over their head and stabbed itself into the tree nearest them. Ayithe could see the Silhouette of the blade protruding out of the tree trunk beside them. Had it not been for Raslin swift movement it would have definitely struck them where they were stood.

"Are you alright?" Raslin asked releasing her from his grip.

"Yes." Ayithe replied sitting up. "You?"

Before he could answer another blade was pulled quickly from its holster, the metal ringing slightly as it was dragged out quickly without care. Raslin stood back up and drew his weapon, watching around him the shadowy figure stepped forward allowing the ray of moonlight to show his face.

"Remember me?"

Raslin and Ayithe froze in shock as Dreach once again stood before them. "That’s not possible..." Raslin said stunned by what was happening. "Even the greatest of magic resurrection is not as easy task to perform."

"You can't kill me!" Dreach shouted alerting Cail her stood with the horses a bit further ahead. "You come to my camp, and ruin everything...and have the cheek to attack me from behind and chop off my head."

Dreach didn't babble for long, he was angry, angry at having his head removed and angry at the fact that all his men were running like cowards when they easily outnumbered them. He stepped forward again and took a long strong swing at Raslin who raised his blade to block. It was frightening to Ayithe who remained sat on the ground frozen in fear as the same man returned for her again. Quickly Cail returned after hearing the commotion and held his torch up high to see Dreach and Raslin displaying exceptional sword skills. Dreach had no problem with the darkness and kept Raslin on the defensive as he struggled to see until Cails approach with the torch. "Good god" Cail muttered, "No wonder they all panicked when we killed him." Ayithe watched as Dreach pushed Raslin to give it his all, repeatedly hitting hard with an assortment of sword attacks, each more powerful than the last. Then Raslin cleverly parried Dreach’s sword into the ground and then powerfully bringing his sword back across Dreach’s chest and slicing through the rib cage. Dreach called out in pain and dropped to one knee, again Raslin brought down his sword to finish him off. Shockingly, Dreach caught the blade in his bare hands. Raslin paused again in disbelief, unsure how to respond to such as show of strength and power. Then Dreach pushed back and punched Raslin hard in the chest knocking him back several steps before tearing off his shirt in anger revealing the chest wound which healed up unnaturally fast. She could feel herself breaking inside, watching as Raslin couldn't even end Dreach’s life. She couldn't understand how he could be like this, and what was he, some sort of indestructible evil that couldn't be stopped?

“How can you expect to control anything when your few followers falter at each little hiccup?” Raslin said standing firm.

“Those fools that disbelieved in me will be punished, but believe me when I say I have a better grasp of things that you realise...And she will not escape her destiny!” Replied Dreach who pointed towards Ayithe.

“The only destiny anyone has with you is to rid this earth of you and all the scum that comes with you.”

It was only at that moment, that they realised they were surrounded. Cail held the torch high over his head allowing the fire to highlight a circle of white eyes, which appeared to glow as they reflected the light from the burning torch. The rest of the men appeared only as dark shadowy figures, staring down angrily towards Ayithe, Raslin and Cail who remained lit up under Cails torch.

“Surrender and I’ll let you join me, stand your ground and I’ll kill you and take her.” Proposed an untrustworthy Dreach, while staring down at Ayithe who still remained sat up on the floor. It didn’t seem to matter what anyone did, no one could stop him. He was pure selfish evil, and Ayithe could just feel his thoughts pouring out from his eyes and gripping her body in a tight unrelenting trap of selfish, tormented lust. Each and every time she saw him she couldn’t help but fear him and fear what he would do to her if he could his hands on her again. Ayithe couldn’t look back at him, not when he stared at her, not when he looked away from her, not ever. She hated the sight of him, and quickly she turned to look at the dirt, which was a much more pleasing sight to her sore eyes, which came so close to releasing that tear she had just promised to never release.

Ask me...go on...ask me... Spoke a deep voice silently into Ayithes ear.

Quickly she covered her eyes, paranoid that she was beginning to hear Dreach’s voice in her head. Closing her eyes she begged herself not to think about that night he captured her and took her to his tent.

Look up! What’s wrong with you? Can you not understand me?

Ayithe tipped her head up and opened her eyes. Everything had paused apart from the burning torch, which still flickered while held by Cail’s frozen hand. Ayithe looked around her, everyone had stopped still as if time itself had stopped. A flush of warm air brushed up against Ayithe, knocking her light hair behind her and leading Ayithes eyes up towards a large glowing blue dragon. Strangely Ayithe didn’t feel afraid, something inside her remained calm and relaxed as the large beast stood tall in front of her. Each scale on its body pulsated with life and glowed a deep sea blue. Right from head to tail, the dragon’s skin was covered in light icy blue scales, unmarked and clean. The large wings wrapped around its body like a cocoon trapping in the warmth and protecting it like an icy shield. The large head of the dragon dropped in low to investigate Ayithe as she sat in the dirt, its face was very unique, with large markings over its eyes and nose, wrapping around its face like vines on a tree. Its eye closed and opened again, opening not just the eyelid but a secondary protective lens; that was slightly see through, but thick and tough to protect its dark blue eye with black centre.

“Yes I understand you...but I don’t understand what’s going on? Everyone has stopped expect for me and you...and you’re a..a...”

“Dragon?” The beast said finishing off her sentence in the same deep voice. “Yes, but not just any dragon...I am a Soul Dragon. You may call me Tieced. You’re wondering why everything has stopped? I stopped it, everything for ten miles around this location has stopped until I release it.”

“Why?” Ayithe asked still confused.

“Because, I’m giving you a choice my dear.”

“A choice? Why me, I’ve no idea who you are...or what trick this could be to my eyes.”

“This is no trick!” Tieced shouted. “I am in your Soul my dear. I have remained hidden within your Soul since you were born, I have watched your every step through your eyes. I have felt your every pain, and you’re every heart beat. I’ve tasted everything you’ve eaten and I’ve never missed a feeling of happiness or sorrow that you’ve been through in your life.”

“Without meaning to sound rude...that’s hard to believe....” Ayithe exclaimed.

“No, you are right my dear. It is something you’re going to take time to comprehend. Yet, I don’t agree with dancing around a situation. So, I’ll give you one question, and I’ll prove to you with my answer that I know everything.”

“Alright then, what’s my favourite food and why?”

“Strawberries!” Tieced replied immediately. “You’ve loved them since you were ten, after finding a basket of them on the road side and you ate nearly the entire basket before the actual miffed owner returned and chased you off, only to realise he’d already lost over half his basket of home grown strawberries. You made yourself avoid that road for years through fear of him remembering your face and making you pay for the fruit you took.”

“Why now?” Ayithe replied more reassured to who the dragon was. “If you have watched me for all this time, why come now?”

“This answer I cannot give you my dear. I have remained what you would call dormant for your entire lifetime until I awoke to find I could see, not through your eyes, but my own, I was watching you from above, feeling your pain, your anger, and as you lay here on the soil beneath the shadows of this forest I was released from the magical chains and decided to confront you. I was unsure if you would be aware of my presence, at least now you are.”

Ayithe sat quietly and listened to Tieceds explanation, but began to feel tired. Her muscles felt weak and her eye lids began to drop.

“Wait, Ayithe!” Tieced called out.

“What...What’s happening to me?” Ayithe said with a tired voice. “I feel weak.”

“This is your first time communicating to me, its effecting your body physically.”

“Help me!” Ayithe cried out as her arms finally gave way dropping her onto her back. “Raslin!” She called as her eyes closed and unwillingly she collapsed into a deep sleep.

Everything reverted back to normal, no one aware of what had happenned as Ayithe fell back with a thud, attracting Raslin’s attention. Quickly he dashed across dropping to his knees and picking her up. “Ayithe?!” He shouted. “What happened?” Pulling her up onto his thigh she lay unconscious being held up only by Raslin’s own strength. Raslin could see she was breathing and with no real marks around her he shifted her hair back and forth attempting to find a blow to the head to explain her sudden collapse. Yet, nothing was there, not a scratch or a drop of blood and Raslin’s temper flared as his heart beat faster with anger.

“What the hell did you do?” Raslin shouted turning to Dreach, who stood only a meter away looking down at them.

“Heh, I’m over here you idiot. I’m not here to kill her...” Replied Dreach as he stroked his hand through his hair, before spitting on the ground with impatience. “Take them boys, I’ve had enough of waiting...”

Then as Dreach's men stood forward, a deep blue glow formed around Ayithe as Raslin held her. Raslin could feel her temperature rise against his cooler hands as the glowing got brighter. Everyone paused in surprise Ayithe forcefully raised out of Raslin’s hands before floating about half a meter of the ground in an unconscious state.

“The Soul...” Muttered Dreach as a light blue fire began rising from the ground and twisting around Ayithe like a tornado, and yet mysteriously nothing else burned, not even Ayithe as she floated between the twirling flames. Everyone stood memorised by the strange occurrence that was appearing before them. Raslin could feel the heat against his face as he looked over to Dreach who again muttered “The Soul” repeatedly in a surprised tone of voice. Not understanding what Dreach was referring to he turned to Cail who looked equally surprised by what was happening. Then without warning Raslin felt the wind pull towards Ayithe dragging loose soil, sticks and stones into the twirling mass of fire. There was no avoiding the debris which struck everyone else around her as it passed them, covering them in scratches and bruises. Raslin covered his eyes from the flying debris but continued to feel everything hit him as he crouched below her. Then a loud explosion, like thunder erupted from right beside him, and before he could raise his head Raslin felt himself lift from the ground. Moving his arms frantically, blue streaks surrounded him as he cleared the ground for several meters before crashing sideways into a tree and landing on the ground, before being surrounded by nothing but silence.

[Ayithe Solete]

Raslin pulled himself up, his ribs aching from the collision, and glanced up at the tree, which took the blow between them much better than he did. A little winded Raslin looked around, not a sound came from anywhere, weapons and clothes lay stridden about the forest floor but no bodies appeared to be with them. Only the sparse remains of blood was visible staining the items they men once owned, and the strong smell of burnt flesh filled the air. Raslin was shocked and confused at what had just happened, and for a moment thought he may be the only one left.

“Ayithe? Cail?” Raslin called out into the once again darkness.

There was no reply as Raslin turned to the flickering torch that Cail had previously held. Slowly he moved across to the torch and picked it up by the metal handle, by now the handle was quite warm and as he raised it above his head he could feel how cold the night air had made his hands. A deep cough came from Raslin’s right, and quickly he held the torch towards the cough to light up the area. Cail was slowly sitting back up, and was covered in bits of debris, which he tried batting off with his hands in a frustrated manner. As the light revealed him Cail looked up to Raslin with a disgruntled look on his face, which was enough to give Raslin a slight smirk at his situation.

“Magic...See what it does Ras?” Cail moaned. “I thought she wasn’t a witch...”

“I don’t claim to know anything about Magic Cail...But she wasn’t conscious for that...She just hung there...” Raslin replied holding out his arm for Cail.

Pulling himself up with a little help from Raslin, Cail paused as he got to his feet. Raslin watched as he began feeling his stomach and smiling. The pleased expression shone like a light through the dirt on his face as he realised he was no longer wounded.

“Check this Ras!” Cail said excitedly. “My wound, it’s healed...that’s amazing.”

“Heh, you realise that it’s magic that’s done that right.” Replied Raslin with a smug grin.

“O yeah...I see.” Cail said frowning. “Well clearly it was a fluke of nature and magic had nothing to do with it.”

“Haha, yeah that’s it.”

Turning around Raslin looked for Ayithe, she was no longer laying in the same place as before and as it felt less likely that she would be there Raslin’s eyes searched even more frantically. Cail walked over to the items and clothes that were left ownerless on the floor, and kicked them about with a grin on his face. Hoping there was something of value Cail searched through the items, but little remained in good condition, burn marks and rust covered the metal items and weapons and the clothes remained as burnt piles of cloth. “Ugh...It stinks.” Muttered Cail.

It felt futile for a few moments, but as Raslin moved the torch around the trees, a slight reflection flashed up in the corner of his eye. Turning to it Raslin moved quickly towards it, and as the light came over a small mound of dirt Ayithe lay unconscious but unscathed on the ground. “HERE!” Raslin cried out as he dropped the torch and grabbed her. She lay motionless but breathing as Raslin picked her up into his arms and stood up. Her long light brown and blonde hair hung over Raslin’s arm as he held her carefully and her clothes felt brand new, not a spot of dirt or a scratch marked her skin and Raslin smiled with relief that she was alright. Taking a deep breath he turned away from the area and began heading back to the horses.

“Wait Ras...” Called Cail who was knelt down looking at something, “Were not the only ones still here.”

“What?” Raslin exclaimed. “Tell me it’s not him.”

“If I tell you that, I’d be lying, and I hate lying almost as much as Magic...” Cail said unsure of what to do. “We could take him back and feed him to Heath.”

“And give Heath a bad stomach? I don’t see that happening. We need to find a way to get rid of this bastard.”

“Actually Ras...I have an Idea...Let’s head down to the docks...”

Raslin lay Ayithe down resting her head carefully on the ground. The horses still stood quietly as if nothing had happened, waiting patiently for their return. Reaching onto the back of the horse, Raslin pulled out a rope and some metal clamps from a carrier bag. He tossed them to Cail and stared across at the body that lay by Cails feet, his face was obscured by the darkness but that didn’t Raslin from showing his disgust with a stern look of hate and disapproval.

“Yeah, let’s head to the docks and make sure this guy doesn’t bother us again.

It took until daybreak to reach the nearest docks, Raslin had carried Ayithe the entire journey, while Cail had tied Dreach up and flung him over the back of the horse for safe keeping. This wasn’t by any means something that they would normally do, but these weren’t normal circumstances and Dreach was going to be nothing but a problem for the rest of his life to them, and many other people.

The hooves of the horses tapped along the wooden pier as they moved up towards a small boat, and the cold light breeze ran along Ayithes face as she sat in Raslin’s arms. Her eyes finally opened to see the ocean before her and an assortment of sounds filled her ears as she came to. She could feel the warmth of Raslin’s body as he held her, attempting to keep her warm as the cold sea breeze blew against them. Raslin held her unaware she was coming to, but for the moment Ayithe made no attempt make him aware.

Ayithe could hear the dreaded voice coming from behind her. “What the hell are you doing?” Dreach shouted. “You’re going to drown me? Deport me to another island?”

“Christ! I can’t wait to get rid of you...” Cail shouted.

“Well were here now.” Raslin replied. “Let’s get this over with.”

“You’ll be back, you’ll need me...” Dreach shouted again only to be smacked over the back of the head by an annoyed Cail.

Ayithe finally moved, and Raslin helped her sit up a more straight as they came to a stop by a small wooden boat

“Ayithe, you’re finally awake.” Raslin said with a proud and happy tone of voice.

“Where are we? What happened?” Ayithe asked all confused. She couldn’t remember the events that had happened and still felt weak.

Raslin hopped down off the horse first before letting Ayithe drop down. Ayithes legs wobbled as she landed and Raslin caught her with a smile, Ayithe dug her hands into him as she held on to get her balance.

“Not so graceful at the moment.” Raslin joked. “Were at a small dock, and we paid for a trip out on this boat. There’s too much to explain at the moment, but we think we have a way to get rid of this bastard forever.”

Ayithe steadied herself as Cail pushed Dreach along the pier, forcing him to hop quickly as his restrained legs couldn’t shuffle quickly enough for Cails liking. With one large boot, Cail carelessly kicked Dreach hard in the back, and let him crash clumsily into the boat. He landed sideways, smashing his face and ribs on the boat deck and tumbling over the wooden seat.

“Get up you pussy!” Cail shouted as he jumped down beside him and placed a large rock carefully into the centre of the boat.

“You’ll regret this!” Dreach shouted. “When I’m free! Believe me, I’ll get my way! It’ll be you who has to bring me back out of the water, HAHA!”

Ayithe didn’t feel comfortable around him but she still felt safe in Raslin’s arms as he led her into the boat. As soon as they took a seat opposite him, Cail pulled the rope free from the pier and pushed them out into the water. The water was rather calm, but the small boat still rocked as the waves ran under the boat. Cail grabbed the ores and pulled heavily and forcefully as he moved them out and away from the shore. The water splashed up onto the boat with each row, but they all sat there in silence as the moved further and further away from the pier and the shore. The surrounding area wasn’t populated, so apart from a few locals at the dock, it was quite, even the sea birds seemed to of hid away as the group headed out to drown Dreach.

Dreach, who still lay on the deck under Cails foot still smiled. “You don’t really think this’ll get rid of me?”

No one answered him, no one looked at him, which in turn made him more nervous.

“Don’t you wanna know what happened?” He shouted desperately. “I know! I know everything, that’s why I want her so much, that’s why I know what it was that killed my men!”

Finally he had gathered some attention, and Cail stopped rowing as he pulled the ores back onto the boat.

“Yes! The Soul it was! I can tell you what it is.”

“YOU’RE GOING OVERBOARD YOU SICK BASTARD!” Ayithe yelled. “I’m never going to look at your face again!”

“You will,” Dreach shouted back. “You’ll come back for me! I promise!”

Ayithe picked up one of the ores and hit Dreach as hard as she could across the face. She hated him and finally he wasn’t going to come back, no matter how much he really wanted it. Ayithe could feel the relief of everything pouring out of her as Cail strapped the large rock to Dreach’s feet. Though as a tear of happiness ran down her cheek, she still feared the look in his eyes as he failed to show any sign of fear and didn’t try to fight back. Then Cail raised up the large rock and placed it over the edge of the boat, the splash poured back up onto the boat which wobbled from the release of weight and quickly Dreach got dragged over the side and into the water. Raslin and Cail just sat there as Dreach grabbed the side of the boat and hung on in a last ditch effort to not go under. The boat tilted considerably but there wasn’t quite enough weight to tip it as he slowly lost grip.

“Burn in hell!” Ayithe shouted as she delivered one final kick to his face. It wasn’t as strong as she’d liked it to be, but in her state it had all the heart and passion she could give it. Quickly he let go slipped silently into the water, they weren’t that far out, but they were far enough out that he couldn’t reach the surface, and no one would ever see him down in the darkness of the deep water. Ayithe cried as he disappeared, each tear full of relief and happiness and quickly she jumped into Raslin’s arms who comforted her quietly.

“I think I can explain what happened out there.” Ayithe whispered to Raslin as she began to remember.

“Well, let’s get back to shore and you can tell us all about it. Now, we have a whole lot of relaxing to do. Besides which, Heaths probably wondering where we are...”

With that, Cail took the ore’s and began to row back to the pier. Ayithe no longer had to think about or cope alone with what had happened and began thinking about what lay ahead for her as she sat in Raslin’s arms. Dreach might have had some information about what was really happening to Ayithe and the Soul dragon inside of her, but Ayithe would rather find out on her own than ever trust someone like him.

THE END...(To be continued)

[Taskmienster]

Fully Aware 2: Before Sunrise


I’ll be looking over this today and judging it for you. You asked for an indepth judgment, which is why this took so long, however I’m hoping that it is pretty deep and exact enough for you. I made the comments as I read, instead of reading and then going back and making comments. That just means that some of the comments are short, and to the point, though some of the categories have a small paragraph to help. I wrote this, so that I could help as much as possible, though I may have come off as a bit blunt. However, don’t take them as a means of me being mean, but instead take them to heart, learn from them, and don’t get discouraged. The thread itself had an interesting story, but I believe that it could have been written better and I hope that my commentary helps!

If you have any questions or concerns feel free to PM me about them and I will get back to you with further commentary as soon as possible! I’m going to be putting comments about the thread into the categories they fit in, as well as a number inside brackets after the passage. The number corresponds with the post that the quote came from.

STORY (14/30)

~ Continuity ~ 5
You don’t seem to give a lot of background information, enough to make the reader know where you are, why you’re there, as well as the reason behind what is going on for the rest of the thread. Remember, without all that information the reader is left questioning what exactly is going on, as well as where certain things come from. Continuity and background lend quite a bit to other things like persona, dialogue, pacing, and setting.

“her Darkling skin attire looked ever so much like his dark studded leather attire” [6] ~ What is Darkling skin attire? If you don’t explain things like that it just makes the reader confused and wonder if they missed something, or if you just didn’t explain it.

“"Who I am is not important, why we are looking for you is...You don't think you can attack the Prince of Corone, his guards and get away with it do you?"

Ayithe stared back in Horror, the thought that Dreach, the man who had raped her and killed her brother was the Prince of Corone, and yet she had killed him.” [9] ~ How did you go from not knowing who he was, to him introducing himself as the ‘prince of Corone’ – which there isn’t one – to suddenly knowing that it was him? This is just a matter of following through with the story. If you don’t know who he is, then just continue on that path. If you recognize him, then you should put in that you recognize him and how, and then continue on. And the rest of your post tended to switch back to ‘the cloaked man’ instead of using his name.

~ Setting ~ 4
The setting you gave me wasn’t bad, but it was ‘static’. What I mean by that is that it was flat, and without anything especially outstanding or impressive, so I couldn’t feel like I was really part of the story, or picture myself where you were. Everywhere seemed to be written the same, trees here, trees there, a town with some people. Setting is a good way to incorporate in more advanced techniques, make the setting and world around you dynamic and engaging. Also, don’t forget to write it either, since at times it felt that since you said they lived in tents, that meant that the reader should automatically know what it would look like and what is around for the next few posts.

~ Pacing ~ 5
The pacing and flow of the story is set, most dominantly, by the way you write. When you write JUST the actions and reactions, in an almost mechanical style, it tends to make the pacing a lot slower.

When you wrote in the 6th post about the training devolving into a love scene it was quick, sudden, unexpected, and somewhat cheesy. If it was meant to be sudden, there was not even the slightest of hints beforehand that it was going to happen. Also, you should try and stay away from writing something that you can find in a paperback romance novel, as it tends to just be somewhat boring. Give it a little flair, feel free to use more adjectives and advanced techniques to make the mood set through your writing, instead of forcing it there.


CHARACTER (18/30)

~ Dialogue ~ 7
It’s best to put the dialogue at the beginning or end of a paragraph, or even separate from any other writing. Placing it in the middle of a paragraph makes it harder to see or really feel the way it was intended.

““Christ! I can’t wait to get rid of you...” Cail shouted.” [18] ~ ‘Christ’ doesn’t fit in Althanas unless your character is from Earth, since the word is associated with historical information related to our, as writer’s, known history.

~ Action~ 5
“Taking a classy cartwheel towards him she viscously slashed at him from side to side with both arms, giving him little room to manoeuvre as he walked backwards blocking and parrying her swings.” [8] ~ A classy cartwheel? I’m not trying to pick on you, but a cartwheel is hardly something that you would expect to see in a serious battle between people.

“which she snapped in half with anger and through to the now muddy floor.” [11] ~ You snapped a staff, wielded as a weapon, in half? I would assume that if it wasn’t cut, or otherwise cracked already, a person without significant strength, especially after having been engaged in a fight, would not logically be able to split that in half. And did you kill him? Or did you knock him out? It says you hit him in the face, but nothing about what happened after that…

~ Persona ~ 6
I’m giving a 6 for this because I could gather a lot through the dialogue you wrote. Though, as a reader, I would enjoy it more if you had written out the personalities through action, tone of voice, as well as a more dynamic and round sense of writing. The rule of thumb, as far as I’m concerned, is that you should show instead of tell what is going on in a thread. That means show us what the people are like and why they are like that, instead of just writing that they are like that.

“Cail embarrassingly placed his head in his hands wondering what on earth was happening,. then grumbled to himself miserably as they giggled with each other flirtatiously.” [4] ~ you need to take out the period. However, this was quoted more for personality’s sake than anything. Why was Cail ‘wondering what on earth was happening’? So far he had just been told his boots weren’t as good as the other guy, that’s nothing to consider earth-shattering. Just explain why they feel the way they do, make us understand the feeling, instead of just writing it.


WRITING STYLE (13/30)

~ Technique ~ 4
You tend to write well, but you don’t have enough pronouns for ‘she’ and it tends to repeat itself far too much at times. You also tend to write the same name, such as ‘magic man’ over and over again without using a synonym for the assumed name, it makes it appear far too much in the same paragraph much less same post. Also, use of advanced techniques not only helps fuel the pacing, but it also helps the setting become more alive and rich, and finally makes the thread much more enjoyable. I’m not trying to be an ass when I say this, but the way this thread was written makes it seem almost like a technical manual on what your character went through and what happened around it instead of feeling like a story.

“The light barely broke through the canopy and left the area very dim, but as Ayithe would glance up, the bright sun would often make the leaves look as if they were glowing.” [7] ~ This would have been one of the many good chances to use some more advanced techniques. Such as “the bright sun would often make the emerald canopy dance like a turning shadow lamp.”

“The action prompted Ayithe once more to take action” [9] ~ try not to use the same word so close to the last time you used it, it makes the flow a little strange, but not necessarily bad. Just need to make sure that you try and use other synonyms, and not use things like action twice in the same sentence, normally not more than once in three or four sentences since it tends to make it stand out more.

“The sun has basically lit the man up as a shadow of a raised arm came over her and Ayithe released her wrist blades while dropping to one knee and blocked,” [11] ~ Instead of taking the opportunity to make this into something that could potentially have been a great. ‘has basically’ is a present tense use, but even if it was ‘had’ it would have been unnecessary, and somewhat lower diction use of writing. It was also a bit unclear, since going straight from ‘lit the man up’ to him attacking could have been clarified by saying he was casting a shadow on your back, without something simple like that it’s hard to know where he was in relation to you.

“Ayithe blocked her swing and sidestepped out of the way allowing Rehania to fall clumsily after her swing.” [13] ~ this is an example of having the same word used twice, too many times, ‘swing’ being the word.

~ Mechanics ~ 4
“Walking down this road was so familiar…” [2] ~ ‘this’ is a present tense use of the word, which could have been changed to ‘the’ to continue the past tense.

“Ayithe became uncomfortable with the now wet through coat.” [2] ~ ‘through’ is out of place, you probably meant something else, but that word itself was out of place.

“Her arms felt weak as she carefully sat up and looked about the, three of the walls were made from wood” [3] ~ ‘looked about the’ and you forgot a word or something…

“she turned to find no one, “ [3] ~ She should be capitalized.

“Raslin was sat at a wooden table and some plates,” [4] ~ either ‘was’ or ‘sat’ shouldn’t be there.

“One man looked quite enormous in height a with another more average sized man next to him and then a red haired woman.” ~ [4] ~ First, you can do without the ‘a’ before ‘with’. Second thing about this is that it’s a very long sentence that could easily be broken up to flow better with a couple commas. I.E.: “One man looked [] enormous in height, another [of a] more average size[] next to him, and [] a red haired woman.” That’s just a suggestion though.

“While the table had a little more detail and was pieced together but was clearly made from the same type of tree.” [4] ~ You can remove ‘while’ at the beginning and start with ‘The’, also you need a comma after ‘together’.

“She picked up a stick of carrot took a light bite of it, it wasn't the tastiest of foods to have after several days of not eating, but it was a start.” ~ [4] This would look much better with a comma and a period thrown in, just to make it less like a run-on sentence. Example: "She picked up a stick of carrot[, and] took a light bite of it[. I]t was[ not] the tastiest of foods to have after several days of not eating, but it was a start."

“She wore light leather clothing with some light metal plates on her shoulders and knees, while covering just one hand a spiked knuckle buster wrapped around her fist.” [4] ~ This is a run-on that could be split easily. A period after knees, and then the next sentence would start with ‘Covering’ with a comma after hand.

“Don't you get me started women,” [4] ~ women should be woman.

“Ayithe flew to her feet tipping over the table and placing an powerfully, emotional kick through its wooden top.” [5] ~ You should have had ‘a’ instead of ‘an’ and the comma wasn’t necessary.

“Ayithe replied in a angry tone of voice” [5] ~ ‘an angry’ not ‘a angry’

“Ayithe had managed to sleep the rest of the day and night, and up early as he always did, Raslin was up to do some early morning training.” [6] ~ should have a period after night, then the next sentence should be “Up early as he always [was],” because ‘did’ doesn’t fit.

“He stood side ways to the log drawing out two medium sized custom Falceon blades.” [6] ~ sideways is one word, also you need a comma after ‘log’.

“They looked stunning with the sun reflecting off their surface and were shaped with very smooth curves creating a flick at the end of the blade while the reverse of the blade had a gut wrenching inner curve giving the overall effect an almost metallic flame look.” [6] ~ This is a run-on sentence, try and get each thought out in a slightly more condensed manner, and if you need more than one sentence to do so that’s fine.

“Ayithe watched admiring him, the way he moved was like a mesmerising dance letting of slight reflections of the sun as his blades caught its rays.” [6] ~ mesmerizing was spelt incorrectly. Also, after dance you can put a period instead of continuing on, and the ‘of’ after ‘letting’ should be ‘off’.

“Soon later Ayithe made her way back outside” [6] ~ “Soon later” should be one or the other.

“She said pushing him to one side. Determined to impress with her combat skills.” [6] ~ The sentence starting with ‘determined’ is a fragment, you can put a comma after ‘side’ and continue it as one sentence.

“Raslin fell silent as he looked almost passionately looked at her and then his stare turned into a admiring look as his eyes quickly danced” [6] ~ You have looked twice, which there should only be one. And you have ‘a’ instead of ‘an’ in front of ‘admiring’.

“Unaware of what was around them Rehania, Dheale and Cail were stood watching as Ayithe mimicked Raslin's attacking swing” [6] ~ the were throws off the sentence, you can replace it with something else, or remove it entirely to make it flow better.

“Cail on the other hand was munching away at some morning, self made chew, Rehania made sure to position herself as far away as possible from Cails apparent self made chew, it was full of enough crap to scare her by just looking at it, and even though Cail knew full well it disgusted her, it continued to eat them anyway.” [6] ~ This is a very long run-on sentence.

“brought up by Raslin who has become his family, now he protects them with his life.” [6] ~ ‘now he protects them with his life’ is a present tense mistake in the writing. You can rephrase it so that it doesn’t come out present tense, how you’d want to do that is up to you.

“A little while later and the group were packed,” [7] ~ ‘was packed’, were is an incorrect use of the word.

“In here she kept her few necessary for washing and cleaning” [7] ~ ‘her few necessary’… what ‘for washing and cleaning’. You seem to have missed one or more words there.

“Some large plants looked fearsome enough to want to eat you” [7] ~ ‘you’ is a second person word that isn’t normally used in any writing, it could have been replaced with ‘her’ or your name.

“They group stayed rather silent” [7] ~ “[The] group” instead of ‘they’.

“wooden struts held up an beautiful oak wooden building” [8] ~ ‘an’ should be ‘a’

“"STOP!" The third man shouted desperately, holding his own sword towards Rehania. Drop your weapons or I'll kill her!" [8] ~ You forgot to add the parenthesis before ‘Drop’

“She had been too focused on her thoughts Rehania was now on her knees at sword point, it seemed to happen so fast Ayithe didn't know what to do Heath let out another roar to ensure the men dared not step forward.” [9] ~ This is another run on sentence. It would have been much better worded had you put a comma after ‘thoughts’ and before ‘Rehania’. Also, it could not be a run-on if you put a period between ‘do Heath’.

“The Disk cut into the shoulder making the armour seem like paper and as he stepped back Rehania stood up relieved him of his sword and cut him down to finish the job, then pulled out the Disk blade and tossed it back to Ayithe.” [9] ~ This sentence needs a couple commas so that it works better, and doesn’t seem like a run-on. ‘stood up[,] relieved him of his sword[,] and cut him down to finish the job…’ That works better because it splits up the sentence so that it doesn’t all flow in a bad way.

“while Cail took the silence as an chance to” [10] ~ ‘an’ should be ‘a’

“Realising” [10] ~ Realizing is spelt wrong. You also spelt realized wrong later on too.

“Carefully he made his way towards the splashing and stepping up a large rock he froze as he noticed Ayithe sat beneath a tree splashing herself and crying in an distraught manner.” [10] ~ This is another run-on. It would work better if there was a comma between ‘splashing and’; ‘rock he’; ‘tree splashing’.

“Lifting her head to face his Raslin placed a silent finger on his lips and Ayithe stepped back and began looking around, seeing nothing Raslin took her hand and lead her back towards the camp with their eyes peeled.” [10] ~ This is a run-on sentence. You can put a comma between ‘his Raslin’. You can also change the comma between ‘around seeing’ to a period and start the next sentence with ‘Raslin took her hand…’ That would make the first sentence flow correctly, as well as stop the entire thing from being a run-on.

“Meanwhile, Cail had started a small back at the camp.” [10] ~ You forgot the word fire between small and back…

“He wasn’t quite sure why Cail was making such a small fire and as his stomach nagged him on he couldn’t help but feel Cail was doing this on purpose to annoy him.” [10] ~ This could use a comma between ‘fire and’.

“there’s not a tourdy he hasn’t won, not a man he hasn’t beaten in combat.” [10] ~ ‘tourney’ instead of ‘tourdy’

“into his leg which tore who his armour less attire and tore deep into the muscle.” [11] ~ ‘who’ should probably be switched with something like ‘through’ and ‘armour less’ should be ‘armor-less’ instead of splitting into two separate words. It makes it much clearer.

“Cail calmed slightly as his enraged temper took a step to one side as allowed his more priority stricken side to take over.” [12] ~ the second ‘as’ after ‘one side’ is out of place, there should also be a comma after ‘one side’ and you can just delete the ‘as’ and change ‘allowed’ to ‘allowing’.

“He eyes had gone red with his flared emotion and he threw down several weapons of no use other than to appease his own temper.” [12] ~ Though Word may say this is correct, it is written in a format that is difficult to read. After ‘of no use’ you need something to help clarify that the ‘no use’ is either defining the weapons, or his temper. Something like: “…threw down several weapons of no use[, for no] other [reason] than to appease…”

“With that Cail marched back to where Dheale was lay.” [12] ~ ‘lay’ should be ‘laying’.

“and leaving Ayithe stood alone around the opposite side of the hut.” [12] ~ ‘leaving Ayithe [standing]…’, take out the ‘and’ and change ‘stood since it is out of context and place anyway, and the sentence makes more sense.

“rom behind the hut so as Ayithe remained stood in the same spot, she only imagined with sorry the hurt they now felt.” [12] ~ same error with the use of ‘stood’. Also, after the comma the words ‘she only imagined with sorry the hurt…’ Emphasis mine. With sorry doesn’t make sense, maybe ‘in sorrow’ or even ‘with sorrow’, though the with still makes it awkward.

“Cail wrapped himself in fur before attaching several belts over his waist shoulders and over his chest.” [12] ~ you need commas after ‘waist’ and ‘shoulders’

“covered her from shoulders to foot and then clipping two short swords to her belt.” [12] ~ ‘clipping’ should be ‘clipped’ or ‘clipped on’

“placing them in an bag attached to” [12] ~ ‘a bag’ not ‘an bag’

“As they stood for a moment a gap emerged from the circle and two men walked forward with large grins on their face.” [13] ~ ‘stood for a moment’ [comma] ‘a gap emerged.

“as she approached Ayithe with a attacking strike.” [13] ~ ‘an attacking’ not ‘a attacking’

“winging his large board sword round in big semi circles” [14] ~ ‘broad’ not ‘board’, you have it misspelled a couple times.

~ Clarity ~ 5
All the mistakes, as well as how confusing and strange things were worded made the clarity somewhat hard to follow. Don’t be discouraged by anything I’ve said in this, I’m not trying to belittle your writing,


WILD CARD!!! 6



[b] TOTAL
(51/100)


GAINS/REWARDS!
668 exp and 175 gold

[Taskmienster]

Exp and GP added.

You advance to level 1!