Sorry about the delay! Have had a rough week and have barely been able to get to the computer :( But I've got two chapters for this one now, and another which I can add pretty soon :] Quite introspective and more just sort of setting things up, but stuff will get going with my next update :]

Hope you enjoy, please review!

Kurogane deftly reached forward to catch the girl as she toppled to one side, unconscious again. She disturbed him. The terror in her eyes when he had first seen her had troubled him, but there had been some reason for that he supposed. He had, after all, had her pinned to the ground with his hand around her throat. So when she had woken up he'd kept his distance, figuring seeing him might spark her fear again. The mage was better at the whole friendly caring thing anyway.

He gently propped her back up against the tree and his eyes met the blonde's. His concern was written all over his face – for once wiping away that constant mask. Whilst her fear before had been understandable, neither of them had expected the intensity of her reaction now. The ninja had been of the opinion that the magician was incapable of frightening anyone with that dumb smile and sing-song voice of his, but the girl had been petrified.

The simple fact of her fear was not the only thing bothering him. He had seen fear before. In the past he had been proud of his ability to strike dread into the hearts of those who faced him. He had met the eyes of the men whom he'd killed and watched as they clouded with horror at the prospect of their imminent death. He'd even enjoyed it. But the emotion in her eyes surpassed that – it was not death that she was scared of. He got the impression that if they had killed her she would have seen it as a relief.

Even fear itself seemed an inadequate description of the way she had looked at them. Fear implies a possibility, a hope that whatever frightens one might not come to pass. What her eyes held was instead an expectation. An expectation of pain so bad she might see it as a kindness if they had killed her.

The ninja did not like the sensation of being responsible for such an emotion. To cause those who wanted to hurt him to be scared of him was one thing. But it was obvious that this girl had no desire to cause them harm. She was no fighter, she had never been trained. It was clear to him that her initial attack had been borne of desperation, an attempt to escape the pain she believed they would cause her. Two men whom she had never seen before in her life.

What had been done to her to provoke such abject terror? What sort of a person would do such things to an apparently innocent girl? He felt anger build in his gut. If there was one thing he would not tolerate, it was the torture of innocents.

He was interrupted from these thoughts by the mage gingerly reaching out a hand and gently toughing the girl's sleeping face as if he hoped to give some comfort to her as she slept.

"What should we do with her now?" the blonde asked quietly, "It doesn't seem right to keep her tied up after… that. It'll hardly inspire her to trust us."

Kurogane grunted softly in agreement. "I'm not so sure that we can trust her though. If she's that scared of us she might decide to try and kill us in our sleep, just to make sure we don't hurt her."

The magician nodded sadly. "I'm sorry to have to treat you in this way," he whispered. Then he brought his hand up with a wave and the softly glowing blue ribbons around her limbs released and reformed, this time forming a tether that attached her ankle to the tree behind her.

"This way she'll be contained, but she'll be free to move around as she wishes," he said, "As long as we stay out of her reach, she won't pose a threat to us."

The ninja nodded. It was a good solution, one he had been about to suggest himself. The mage gently took the girl's slight form in his arms and arranged her on the ground in a more comfortable position, nearer the fire so she wouldn't get cold. The blue cord stretched out behind her, almost taut.

"We ought to give her some space, in case she wakes up."

Kurogane nodded as the mage moved back to the other side of the fire and moved to follow him. Almost as an afterthought he took off his cloak and spread it over her limp form. The two men sat in silence for some time, lost in contemplation of this strange girl and her unknown past. Fai kept glancing across the fire, searching for signs that the girl might wake up, but she remained still and quiet. If it were not for the slight rise and fall of her chest, the ninja might have thought her dead. Minutes became hours and they decided there was no point waiting for her to wake. Whatever the next day held for them, it would no doubt require them to be clear of mind.