The next time Silk became aware of what was going on around him his arm was in a sling and he could feel the sand that was caked all over his skin. He raised his other hand to swipe at the sand he could feel caked in his eyes before he opened them to look around. He had to blink a few time in order to remove what felt like most of the beach from the corners of his eyes.

He sat up slowly; he was lying on a cloak that had been spread under a pine tree, in the center of its branches in the slightly hidden hollow between said branches and the truck. He still wore his hood but someone had tucked the mask inside and taken it off him, leaving it lying against his back.

As he reached around awkward to pull the comfortingly familiar fabric over his white blond hair and recovered the lower half of his face with the mask he noticed he was dry, considering he had fallen asleep, or passed out, on Kal dripping wet waking up nice and dry was a pleasant relief.

He made his quiet way out from under the branches of the tree, evidently someone had managed to gather the survivors together and they had made camp in a grove of pine trees on a slight hill, a sound choice as they were hidden in the middle and had the high ground.

He could see Flynndan, one of the first people he had met when he had came to the city for his apprentice ceremony , the dark eyed man was the guardian of the diplomat who had accompanied them. With a jolt of worry Silk glanced around, looking for the strawberry blonde girl. He sighed with relief when he saw her curled up between Talon and one of the youngest guards.

Actually as he looked around the clearing he noticed that the young boy was one of only four guards, other than Flynndan, that remained with the group. He could see Velvet fast asleep in a sitting position against a tree, a tan skinned boy with his hair in braids held together with charms who Silk recalled the captain of the ship introduced as his son and Arch, the other hunter who had accompanied them, sleeping on his feet slouched against a tree.

With a small smile he made his way across the small field to wake up Arch, the tall man had probably just come off watch and he rested against the tree to remove his boots and drifted off within moments if he had been anywhere as tired as Silk himself had been.

Reaching up he touched Arch's shoulder and winced as the man moved quickly and twisted, slamming him up the tree he had been slumped against a moment before while he still blinked sleep from his eyes. Silk put his left hand up in a joking sign of surrender, "my apologizes" he said, "next time I'll allow you to sleep against a tree."

Arch's sleep hazed eyes widened and he let go of Silk, "Sorry mate" he said, his dockside accent slipping into his words. "But you know better than to try and wake me up, you've know me long enough" he added, slapping Silk's shoulder hard enough to make him wince. Sometime his friend forgot his own strength, he was half again as tall as Silk who was by no mean short and he was entirely made of muscle without an inch of excess body weight.

Kirlia awoke slowly, she was curled on her left side with a cloak that smelled like the sea wrapped around her, for a second her sleep fuzzed brain was unable to comprehend where she was and why there where two other warm bodies lying on either side of her.

Suddenly their terrified flight from Altaria came back to mind ad she shuddered, shortly after the ship had been rammed the guard who had been assigned to get her safely to had been struck by a lucky arrow fired by the guards of the false king.

After that Flynndan, her official guardian, had taken over for his man and guided her over to the woods until they had found this small alcove. He had left her in the hidden alcove with his trainee, a boy named Jace and the son of the captain of ship that had brought them here whose name she had forgotten while he had gone to gather other survivors.

She slowly made her way to her feet, eyes round as she noticed just how diminished their group was. She mentally calculated just how small they had been when they started off and how small they were now. They had started out with a squadron of guards, not counting Flynndan, three hunters and a hunter's apprentice now they were down to five guards, counting Flynndan and his protégé while the rest of the numbers remained the same with the addition of one new boy who had just lost his father. All and all prospects had actually gotten worse than they had been.

Her clothes where full of sand that she couldn't shake out no matter how hard she tried to, she was about to start cursing when a boys low chuckle interrupted her. "What do you want?" she snapped, her voice strained by frustration not holey directed at the annoying sand.

"Silk wants me to tell you that you should get ready to go. We're leaving as soon as we can." Talon said and she rolled her eyes.

"I gathered that much, I hardly suspected that we would be staying here for very long. While it is sheltered it's hardly safe for us to remain." She retorted and he shrugged, she looked up from trying to shake out her clothing to see that he was holding the reins of the mare that she had rode on their hasty escape from the castle.

Without speaking to him again she made her way over to the horse's side only to find that she wasn't tall enough to pull herself up into the saddle, she refrained from letting out an annoyed sigh and turned back to him.

"I don't suppose you could give me a hand?" she asked and he obliged, kneeling and cupping his hands so she could step in them and he could give her the extra boost she needed to get into the saddle. She had to bite back a yelp as he nearly boosted her up and over the saddle, it was only her quick thinking in grabbing the back of it that allowed her to land on it; albeit with significantly less grace than she had hoped for.

She heard him chuckle again as she squirmed into a more comfortable position in the saddle but by the time she turned to retort he was gone. She urged the mare; she had decided to call her Silver due to her mostly white coat, over to the rest of the group and took her place behind Flynndan and in front of Jace, his apprentice.

She watched as the others in the group settled into place, none of the guards had their horses except for Flynndan and Jace. The hunters all still had their horses, a small miracle that she chalked up to their excellent training.

The group set off with Silk in the lead, Silver followed the horse in front of her without any desire to stray from the group which gave Kirlia time to look around the group and consider what was going to happen.

One of the guards was walking with the aid of what seemed to be a hastily trimmed branch and she could see the blood stained length of cloth wrapped around his leg. Silk was holding the reins of his horse in only one hand with the other arm in a sling.

The fact that all the hunters had donned the hoods and masks that were tools of their trade sent a chill down her spine. The head wear was intended to give them an air of mystery and prevent the criminals that they dealt with from learning their identities. While on the islands the only place that she ahd ever see them wearing them was when they ahd to give testimony in court as there where rules in place that forbid them from wearing on the castle grounds where she had spent most of the time.

The fact that they wore them now meant that she was well and truly out of her element, she had spent her entire life in the walls of the capital city of the Isles as she had been born there before eventually being picked to train as a diplomat in the castle.