Yay, 3 chaps and no reviews yet! That's okay, I'm a patient girl someone distantly laughs… Okay, so I'm lying, but I will wait and see. Thanks for any one who's reading and please review!

Disclaimer: I own what's mine and I don't own what isn't.

Chap. 4

Cloud went down silently, his vision swimming. Leon just grumbled something, blinking furiously to get the waviness out of his eyes. The Dark creatures took advantage of the moment and moved upon them in force again, the two that had tripped them winding up their legs. Leon noticed this and began to hack at the serpentine blob, making it squeal. Cloud sliced his cleanly in half, making two smaller blobs where there'd only been one before.

Another blade slid into the picture, cutting down a Dark creature that'd been prepared to drape itself over the downed fighters as it had the others. Auron cut the thing neatly into quarters as the thing wailed its anguish and slid through the darkness and into the night. The tall man cut down two more, allowing Cloud and Leon to free themselves and get up. The Dark blobs that remained, all diced into many smaller chunks, uttered nasty, high pitched noises as they slid away.

Finally the clearing quieted. The most pronounced sound was Albert's violent coughing-- some of the Dark had worked itself into his throat, choking him, and he was working feverishly to expel it. Auron, his sword resting on his right shoulder, walked over to the ailing king and thumped him once, hard, on the back. A fist-sized, squealing black blob flew from his mouth and disappeared into the shrubbery. Albert looked up at Auron, still panting.

"Thank you."

"No problem." The guardian turned, looking for his charge. "Yuna?" The mage was sitting on the ground where she'd landed, shaking. Upon hearing her name she smiled slightly and stood, leaning on her staff.

"I'm okay. Just a little... shaken." Aerith stood with her, looking around as well. She found what she was searching for-- Cloud was standing next to Leon, dusting himself off. He appeared unhurt and the girl breathed a sigh of relief. Don't know why I was worried, she mused, remembering-- he's handled much worse enemies than these things.

"Well, that was certainly the last thing we needed," Kieci announced, still sitting on the ground. Suddenly, through the silence, a twig snapped behind her. The rest of the group leapt to attention-- the mage's lips moved rapidly and she lunged to her feet, pivoting and raising her hands just as the man raised his blade to attack. Kieci shouted the last word and the man froze in the middle of his downswing. His seven-foot blade quivered to a halt about a foot above the woman's head. "Dark creation," she snarled, holding still to keep the Stop spell intact. "Who is this?" she demanded of her fellows. For a moment all of them stared.

The man was tall, about six one, and was dressed in a billowing black cape. His waist-length silver hair was crowned by high, spiked bangs that framed a handsome, though unsettling, face. His eyes were a bright, electric shade of turquoise, his lips frozen in a small, disturbing smile.

"Who is it?" Kieci asked again. Her lips were already moving again, starting the chant for yet another spell. Cloud, behind her, stepped forward, his sword drawn. His usually quiet voice was no more than a whisper as he muttered:

"Sephiroth." An instant later the quality of the air around Sephiroth changed. Reality distorted and he vanished.

"Correction to my earlier statement," Kieci said. "He was the last thing we needed. Fortunately I memorized the Teleportation spell. Now," she turned to the people behind her, "who started thinking about their enemies?" Aerith hung her head guiltily.

"I didn't mean to, it just--"

"Don't let it happen again. He will be back, make no mistake about that," Kieci sighed, "I can only transport solid matter so far and at my present state 'far' wasn't very far at all. Twenty miles at best, I think. Still, he won't come after us again tonight. Neither will the other spawn of the Dark. We trounced them well enough to scare them away. Bear in mind, though, that they quickly forget their lessons and will come back once they've regrouped." She took a long look at the six. "You did better than I think I'd anticipated. Impressive, for a first fight. The sloppiness will wear off as the limitations do." Everyone set to gathering their weapons and putting the camp back together.

Everyone except Albert. He approached Kieci, still looking pale and drawn, and said, "Aragorn hasn't returned yet." The mage sized up the honest worry in his eyes.

"I know. I don't think we should fret, though-- the Dark fled in the opposite direction that he went. I believe we'd have heard something if he'd been attacked. I think I'll give him another ten minutes. If he's not back by then we'll go searching." The king nodded and went to retrieve his javelin. Leon, standing at the edge of the clearing with his eyes closed, appeared as though he'd heard something. In a quick, fierce gesture, he cut down a tree branch in front of him and stepped back.

Alright, short chaps for easier reading. Cricket chirps incoherently in background Or not. Well, if no one's reading….but if someone is, please give me some feedback! A simple "I read this" would suffice! Many thanks!

K